Ken Levine and Self Publishing

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:55 pm

[Company -> Editorial] - More info on <a href="http://wikipocalypse.duckandcover.cx/in ... ?title=Ken Levine">Person: Ken Levine</a> | More info on <a href="http://wikipocalypse.duckandcover.cx/in ... Irrational Games">Company: Irrational Games</a>

It's not directly related to anything post-apocalyptic, but I felt that <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/586/586914p1.html">this article</a> where Ken Levine of <a href="http://www.irrationalgames.com/">Irrational Games</a> discusses self-publishing was relevant. Given how <a href="http://www.troikagames.com">Troika</a>
appear to be in trouble, and a lot of that is probably down to
publishers, and how turn-based combat is increasingly ignored,
self-publishing may be an answer.

<blockquote>One thing you often find with publisher funded sequels is the desire to
grow the market share of the game. This usually takes the form of a
marketing-driven attempt to make the game more "broadly appealing" or
more "mass-market".

Given the size and dedication of our fanbase, we knew that the last thing we wanted to do was a make a follow up to 
Freedom Force
that tried to expand the market to casual gamers. To do so would have
meant alienating our core fan base, something we refused to do. Freedom Force
is always going to be a PC game for people who love strategy, RPG and
heroes. It's not going to be for everybody. You know the old saw..."Try
to please everybody, you end up only pleasing the marketing department."

...

It means more hardcore strategy and RPG
games that publishers might view as too specialized or niche-y, or may
simply not get. We've been thinking about various mostly abandoned
genres like turn-based strategy, party-based RPGs, you name it. The audience for great PC games hasn't disappeared; they've just become harder for some publishers to see.

</blockquote>
The article is very informative so I suggest you <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/586/586914p1.html">read it</a>. It's interesting to note that <a href="http://www.bethesda.com">Bethesda</a>
are sort of self published anyway, being a developer and a publishing
company. Levine says what I've been saying for a long time: games like Fallout
will sell, and you don't need to 'dumb them down' by making them
cross-platform, messing up the combat, or turning them into an FPS, to
ensure sales.

Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com">RPG Codex</a>

Taintspore · Post by **Taintspore** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:05 am

Going by what he said in the article, I'm confused as to whether they butchered Tribes because they wanted to or if Sierra made them do it. I wish they'd listened to the Tribes community as opposed to the morons that decided they liked tribes when they found out who was making it. Good article otherwise.