{"id":602,"date":"2015-11-03T10:11:16","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T14:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/?p=602"},"modified":"2015-11-03T10:11:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T14:11:16","slug":"on-copying-games-re-battle-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/?p=602","title":{"rendered":"On copying games (re: Battle Party)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Why did you copy that other game?\u00a0Don’t you want to make something new and original?”<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course<\/em>\u00a0(nearly) all game developers\u00a0want to make something new and original but there are a great many factors that inform a team’s decision on what game to make. I want to give my perspective on the decisions that may go into making an “in-genre” game. I hope I can\u00a0change a few\u00a0minds that think when a game is influenced by another game, that the developers are not just creatively bankrupt or making a “cash grab”.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

We are fans<\/h2>\n

This might be a surprise, but most game developers are game players too. We are fans of all the same games\u00a0every one else is playing. You know when you sit around with your friends playing a game and say, “I like Game XYZ<\/em>, but I would LOVE this game if it had\u00a0this<\/em> and that<\/em>“? Well, game developers have those same conversations and\u00a0we (sometimes)\u00a0get to\u00a0do something about it! We can make the game we would love to play.<\/p>\n

For Battle Party, the team liked\u00a0LoL, DOTA, and other MOBAs. However, we are filthy casuals and find the standard\u00a0MOBA formula\u00a0too complicated, too toxic, and find the games take way too\u00a0long to play. We wanted to make a MOBA for people like us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Existing Team & Tech<\/h2>\n

OK, so maybe you want to make a FPS\u00a0with a grappling hook or, in our case, a super streamlined “Arcade MOBA”. What existing game engines or code base do you have already? What does the current team have\u00a0experience or expertise making?\u00a0Do all of these things line up?<\/p>\n

Our team had a lot of experience with 1) multiplayer competitive games and 2) Diablo-style isometric games \u2013 a perfect fit for making a MOBA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business\u00a0Goals<\/h2>\n

Now you have the game you want to make and the team to make it, but does it align with your parent company’s goals? Is anyone going to give you time and funds to make it?<\/p>\n

In our case, CN needed a\u00a0competitive online game with global appeal. A game where we could roll out new character-specific content over a long period of time.<\/p>\n

We had been wanting to make our take on MOBAs for a long time\u00a0and the opportunity finally presented itself.\u00a0We had\u00a0the right design for the business goals, we had\u00a0the team and tech, it was a perfect fit!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deadlines<\/h2>\n

Game deadlines almost always slip. However when making games for a television company, there is a lot on the line. There are episodes of shows\u00a0being produced, commercials being made, worldwide marketing plans being created \u2013 the game has<\/em> to go out on time. The is no wiggle room, not a single day.<\/p>\n

Here is where the risk of something new is a huge gamble. We have to ask ourselves, “Can we\u00a0make a game that’s new & innovative, in a year, with this team, that’s good, on time and in budget? Can you 100% guarantee that?” There is absolutely no way you can guarantee that.<\/p>\n

I have worked directly on 50+ games and consulted on 100+ more and I have seen how many times something truly unique, something that sounds<\/em> really exciting on paper, ends up either a) taking way longer to “find the fun” than you imagined or b) turned out being bad in development, no matter how much work you put into it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

The next time you see a “copy” of game, consider\u00a0that it might be the game the team\u00a0was really excited about making. Maybe they had the right skills and tech already in place so they could worry about the fun part of development \u2013 making the\u00a0game fun and not having to worry about making it just\u00a0work. Maybe their parent company’s needs aligned perfectly with something they were passionate about. And maybe they had 6 months to make it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Why did you copy that other game?\u00a0Don’t you want to make something new and original?” Of course\u00a0(nearly) all game developers\u00a0want to make something new and original but there are a great many factors that inform a team’s decision on what game to make. I want to give my perspective on the decisions that may go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-party","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":624,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.bulletpattern.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}