Interview with Mark Currie of Trash

[Mr. Teatime]

<strong>[ -> Interview]</strong>

<a href="http://diygames.com/">DIY Games</a> have posted their <a href="http://diygames.com/index.php?p=824&more=1">third annual interview</a> with the creator of <a href="http://inhumangames.com/index.htm">Trash</a>, his post-apocalyptic RTS. You can read the interview they did with him in 2004 <a href="http://diygames.com/index.php?p=434&more=1">here</a>, and 2003 <a href="http://www.diygames.com/index.php?p=94& ... ote><i>DIY : It almost sounds like you're saying non-indie games a better because of higher production values. Are you trying to cause riots in the streets?
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<br>MC : (laughs) No, no. Let me put it this way; I think that the more resources you have to put into a project, the higher the potential for the project is. I think indie game developers have some advantages over mainstream game development, the process for commercially developed games is sometimes overly systematic. An executive tells a designer, "design this type of game," the designer then describes how to make the game to a programmer who then codes it. Finally a tester tests the result. There's often a disconnection between these steps. Many times commercial games fail to reach their potential for a variety of reasons, but that's a long discussion. For indie development, you typically have a really small teams, sometimes just one person, doing everything. When you have the person coding the game also doing the design, it can be a real advantage. Many times in commerical game development designers ask for things that are really hard to do, or don't think of things that are really easy. Also, a programmer that is doing his own design is going to work harder and be more motivated.
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<br>Indie game development is really a lot more rewarding. When you see people enjoy your game, that is really rewarding. For a commercial game, the product doesn't "feel like your baby," and it just doesn't produce the same feeling when watching someone play the game. This motivation factor is the advantage indie games have over commercial games, indie games have heart.</i></blockquote>It's an interesting interview, especially if you're interested in commercial vs. independent game development.