Monday Night Live: Stay on Target

Shawn Bower is the Lead Developer at Starwraith 3D Games, a company dedicated to the indie development of distinctive space-combat sims. In his own words, it is “primarily the effort of one person who enjoys the space combat genre and wants to help keep the game theme alive by creating unique and enjoyable first person perspective 3D space games.”

I’m often asked about what independent development means and why I make my games with the design philosophy I do. My games don’t really fall into the casual category common to independent developers. They also don’t really fall into the mainstream category given the market I design for and features I include. By most accounts, my games generally fall somewhere in the middle where both casual players and more mainstream gamers can find some common ground if they share an interest in space games. This result is largely due to the design approach I use, which provides elements both types of gamers can appreciate and enjoy, while avoiding the drawbacks that risk alienating one or the other. In this article, I’ll cover some of the basics of my approach to game design to elaborate on why I use such a system and how it’s implemented.

First, I only release games that I intend to continue working on for a long time. The design and features of my games are dynamic, constantly adapting and changing to accommodate the requests I receive from players. Most games in the mainstream are released, then at best receive a few patches to fix problems. My games generally receive major updates for years after their release, which add new features, graphics, and gameplay. This is a quality not a lot of mainstream gamers are accustomed to and many seem surprised to discover that a game of mine might receive a complete graphics overall just a year after it’s released (with the update being free to players who bought the original version). Because of such updates, my games are set apart from the mainstream, yet provide a benefit mainstream gamers can appreciate. And they can enjoy this benefit without having to pay a monthly subscription fee or running a persistent background update application. It’s one of the advantages an independent developer can provide that the benefits of digital delivery can help facilitate.

I also provide a user-friendly delivery and copy protection system that gives the customer control over how the game they paid for is backed up. It also lets them enjoy the game without having to perform constant disc/key checks. If they lose their copy of the game, they can simply download it again (free) from a number of locations. Using extensive compression methods, the download size is kept to a minimum, providing some of the fastest delivery times available. No download insurance charges, no time-limited download links, no dependence on discs that can be lost or damaged, no monthly fees to maintain a membership for re-downloading. My games can also be backed up to CD or DVD for additional backup protection. Getting the best of both options is what I prefer and it lets the player control how their copy is backed up. I believe independent developers can further distinguish themselves from the mainstream by providing better content management options for gamers. When gamers are in control of how their software is backed up, stored, and played, they receive a unique quality that’s not available from either the mainstream download or ‘paper box and disc’ markets.

One of my design objectives is to provide broad compatibility balanced with graphics and effects. As a developer, you have to ask yourself, how many people do you NOT want to sell your game to? That is, how much of your market do you want to cut out? High system requirements will reduce your market potential and the effects will vary depending on which market you are going for. On the other hand, you also have to ask yourself just how many more sales are high end graphics/effects going to get you. Are they worth it in relation to the sales you’ll lose over the high system requirements necessary to include them. If you are trying to encourage players to buy your game before they pay (using a free demo), then you will need your game to run on the largest group of systems possible. And keep in mind, you are not your customer. Just because you would install system updates to play a game doesn’t mean your customers will. It’s usually best to try to avoid a situation where most people downloading your game just uninstall it because it didn’t work the first time they tried it (research suggests this is a very common occurrence). Every time that happens, that’s a potential lost sale. So if you plan to have fairly high requirements, make sure they don’t hurt potential sales for your market and the effects offset the reduction in your target market to justify their use. Otherwise, don’t be surprised at your results. I continually monitor the average system configuration used to play my games, then improve graphics and special effects based on the results. A large portion of my user base is ignored by big budget retail companies. Many have a system that might be 2 or 3 years old that doesn’t have a cutting edge $400+ video card and high speed CPU. Many are also laptop users with little or no upgrade path, and they don’t want to buy an entirely new laptop just to play a game.

With a combination of flexible content control, fast and easy digital delivery, direct developer support, broad compatibility, and continuous game development, independent developers can provide a unique set of benefits not often found with other gaming markets. You could even say that providing such benefits might be one way gaming can grow and thrive on the one platform that provides freely open development.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 1:44 am and is filed under Monday Night Live. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Monday Night Live: Stay on Target”

1. dr_pineapple:

   § January 25th, 2007 at 8:12 am

   woot, a space game.

2. dr_pineapple:

   § January 25th, 2007 at 8:13 am

   why can’t I see a

3. dr_pineapple:

   § January 25th, 2007 at 8:14 am

   ok, this thing doesn’t like ascii hearts. Well, bigger than three.

4. dr_pineapple:

   § January 25th, 2007 at 2:59 pm

   *smaller. Oh, forget it.

5. malakian:

   § January 25th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

   Muchos dig the organic game ideology. Fleshy prod-able design is the way forward.

6. Paul:

   § January 26th, 2007 at 4:28 am

   Every time I read Shawn’s post through to reply to it I get stuck at the part where he says, “My games generally receive major updates for years after their release, which add new features, graphics, and gameplay.” That’s commitment on an awesome scale. Shawn, you’re a hero.

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