David Cage is french, so you are off the hook.
It has been my belief that the UK developers bring a guild sensibility to their games, that is that they work on them as a craft rather than a business, or that the means is just as important as the end.
In the US/Canada/Australia I think it is more driven by what will impress people - like "What can we do to blow people's minds?" More of a action-movie director's glee in creating something that will impress, and get in front of the most eyeballs.
The Japanese creators... they are in flux right now, with the artists and creators tired of being treated and paid like salaryman. I see their industry as havnig too segments, the breakaway talent (which is breaking away more everyday) and the salaryman companies that follow an "effort in = quality out" mentality.
JOKE ALERT! Just kidding.
Japan is crazy this gen, they seem to be bleeding talent. I think Nintendo is the only company who keeps people working there for 20 + years. I don't see why companies in Japan don't treat talent with more reverance and respect. There is this sense that the creatives feel like they can't be creative in the company infrastructure.
Canada make games like the US, but that is understandable. I'm not too familiar with aussie devs, was Pandemic Austrailian BTW? De Blob was great though, very fun and bouncy. Otherwise I think all I know is Krome which have gone bust now?
This is what I think about Japanese devs, but now more so in the independents more than the big publishers.
^To amplify my point I see the Japanese devs as two distinct philosophical blocks that are intensifying their philosophies (and not neccesarily to the benefit of either camp). I see the business oriented segment (like CAPCOM) become more restrained by business pressures than before and the breakaways becoming more creative (and risky) like Platinum.
Two companies that seems to be striking a balance is Level 5, and of course Nintendo.
gamingeek said:... I'm not too familiar with aussie devs, was Pandemic Austrailian BTW? De Blob was great though, very fun and bouncy. Otherwise I think all I know is Krome which have gone bust now?
Team Bondi is making LA Noire, and I think worked on Bioshock 2. Krome operated as Melbourne House for many years, you may have seen that label around. THQ has a very good presense here, I think they are the largest developer in AU. Almost all (if not all) development here is under the auspices of a US label, so that's the influence you will see.
Oh yeah, forgot about Team Bondi. What have they done before though, I'm unfamiliar with their work.
Besides their work on Bioshock 2 they have not developed a project. I'm sure they must have done some small amount of work on oter games for 2K to keep them busy. I recall reading an interview/ feature on their boss Brendan McNamara -- he's apaprently a pretty impressive atuer-like game director with very strong ideas about the creative process. He directed The Getaway (shudder).
LA Noire will make them or break them, I'm sure.
Intersting feature linked at the bottom of this post.
“Even the [games] I look at now that are great, there’s something about [the characters] that makes me think of a goldfish,” McNamara comments. “You have a million years of evolution that tells you how to read faces, so you just have to see one thing and it throws you off. With this game, it’s a line in the sand – before and after. That’s what it feels like to me. We used to do that; now we do this. In the end, we want you to interact with this and you don’t even ask the question ‘Is this real or not?’”
http://gameinformer.com/games/la_noire/b/xbox360/archive/2010/11/11/l-a-noire-preview.aspx
"Well firstly I would say that we root for the underdog. We would clap as hard for the loser of a race, as we would for the winner, if not more so. If someone is down, we would like to bring them back up."
Like the English national team?
I think everyone roots for the underdog. Except Yankee fans, my mortal enemies.
gamingeek said:Yeah Foolz, we root for them. And then a couple of decades they are still shit, so we give up on them
So you root for the underdog until they don't win anything, then you give up and hate them instead?
The football team failed that test.
gamingeek said:It's not about winning, it's about not totally sucking.
The football team failed that test.
So it's not actually about rooting for the underdog then, but after establishing that they actually are an underdog, viciously attacking the underdog with vitriol and hatred.
Why is always the Brits? Or the Japanese?
After playing Goldeneye I suddenly realised that three of the best and my favourite Wii titles have something in common.
All these games were made by passionate UK developers. But where they were made is only part of the story. I track games I am interested in and I read most, if not all of the interviews and previews concerning said games. When reading the interviews they all shared the desire to make a great game, regardless of platform. They all dismissed the mainstream notion that you can't make a great game on lesser hardware. They all said that if you put the work in you could make something that looks and plays great.
Being British studios and being a British someone - who feels the Wii is treated terribly in general, by the development community at large; I think that I might understand why these UK devs have pushed the boat out. Each of the games I mentioned above are without doubt the best game these developers have ever made.
So what British traits or ways of thinking, have defined the way they have approached making games of excellence on the Wii in particular?
Well firstly I would say that we root for the underdog. We would clap as hard for the loser of a race, as we would for the winner, if not more so. If someone is down, we would like to bring them back up.
There is a no nonsense, even cynical attitude towards things in general, so we remain skeptical at most times and are non-plussed by things an overseas audience might like. But also we might be pleasantly surprised, by things that we thought we might not enjoy.
We also have a sense of justice, or injustice. So when for instance a "lesser" console is unfairly branded as a lesser experience or incapable of doing something, we like to prove people wrong.
I'm very happy that UK developers have stepped up and made mature, proper and excellent games on a system so often ignored.
But then, David Cage is a Brit and said wii is like a boardgame. So what do I know?
And then onto the Japanese. They have never really struck me as having a developer culture based on visuals. Some studios buck that trend, like Capcom. On the whole though, they seem to be able to make great games within the limitations of any particular hardware, even for something so lowly as the DS.
Their games are about gameplay and are often unique. Games like Little Kings Story or No More Heroes are the result from some individual thinking by original auteurs.
And what about U.S culture? From the outside looking in, it can often appear like U.S culture is a boastful, bigger is better ideal. Where nothing but the most powerful have success in a battle for survival. There is also a sense that everything has to be instantly gratifying. Something that is a slow burn will likely be less successful or appreciated that something which grabs you within the first few seconds.
Films have to be blockbusters, with the biggest action and best special effects. Burgers have to be stacked several times over, cars have to be massive Jeeps.
And games, made by US developers, often have this bigger is better, action focused notion about them. They don't want to work within a system's requirements, they want to make the biggest popcorn tower they can possibly make and anything less is an insult to gaming.
This is all talking in generalisations though, so please don't be offended, there are obvious examples to the contrary of these general notions.
So back to the blog title, do you think that culture plays a part in Wii development?