Comments on: Braid’s Johnathan Blow on Developer Regulations and Certification

by: Segitz

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:58:38 +0000

I have serious doubts that a simple lib routine like Achievements/Trophies puts much pressure on devs… really… I mean, most of it is handled by the OS anyways (the game just needs to tell the system that the requirements for said trophy are reached)

But there’s other things (mandatory VSync in PS1/PS2 games for example) in the TRCs that should be adhered to. Not only because it makes the games easier on the eyes to some (no tearing if done right), but emulation on next gen systems (PS4 BC) will also be easier in the end.

Small devs will always have problems with those rules, as they simply don’t have the monetairy backup needed to solve all of those. Blow said, that he took a huge credit to make this game, and if it his game isn’t successful, he will be broke (and essentielly out of a job) in the end. Those rules surely didn’t help him either.

by: Darrin

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:30:18 +0000

Developers like to add features that their fans want and they also like to add features that they want as gamers themselves.

With trophies and custom soundtracks, lots of devs are starting to voluntarily add those into new games and we will see those features in far more games. I suspect the slow adoption of those particular features was due to immature PS3 SDKs rather than developer compliance.

This is only an issue when devs don’t want a particular feature that users want. And in that case, I’d side with the devs. For example, if a particular developer doesn’t like trophies and doesn’t think it would be a good fit for his/her title, I’d rather see that developer build the best game that they can rather than be distracted by being bitterly forced into adding half-assed trophy support.

And I think trying to raise game quality through specific mandates is a bad idea: Racing games need to support custom sound tracks, but RPGs don’t. Retail games need to add trophy support, but small downloadable titles don’t. I think most devs would find those micro-managing rules oppressive and they wouldn’t justify the game quality improvements.

Mandating certain things like retail packaging, on the other hand, is a fairly safe and good idea.

I think we may just have to disagree on this one

by: Henning

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:58:31 +0000

I see your point about developing in directions that are a waste of time, especially for a small game. But I still feel there’s a place for collective rules on how things should work in all games. I’m all for developer freedom, but there has to be some consistency in presentation and features where it makes sense. I guess those last words are the stickler. Obviously in a case like this, where it’s just one developer (at least it seems to be) working on a title, guidelines should be different than a case where a AAA studio is working on a bigname title.

Some examples:

I expect all racing games to support custom soundtracks. RPGs and other games, through, don’t benefit from them.

I expect all big budget BD games to include trophies.

I expect games where it makes sense to be able to have multiple save files using the PS3’s savegame mechanism. Many of this generation’s games only support one savegame, which is retarded.

etc.