212 - Innovation

Developer diaries about creating Neverending Nightmares.
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matt
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212 - Innovation

Post by matt »

While being innovative is often lauded, is it possible to be TOO innovative? For Neverending Nightmares, I think we may have tried to experiment on too many different aspects of the game.

-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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evilkinggumby
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Re: 212 - Innovation

Post by evilkinggumby »

It is a bold and ballsy move to test a number of factors all at the same time, especially in gaming. Personally I'd limit the risks and experimentation/innovation so that it is easier to discover exaclty what worked and what didn't in a more controlled environment. Otherwise, with say 4-5 different experiemnts going on at the same time, is it so easy to tell if experiment "a" didn't work because it was a bad idea.. or because of some offset issue with experiment "b". Or possibly experiment "c" was a flop because when grouped with A and B it fell short?

Incremental and controlled experimentation is far slower, unfortunately, in the process. I can see why you tried to innovate by leaps and bounds with NeN as you were expecting it to be a final hurrah/swansong for your gaming career.

I am curious though, with the explanation you gave about development, budging and success, if you didn't make money hand over fist with NeN and you will likely have to plot a KS for the next project.. why is there such a gap in development between each? It sounds like we won't see anything new on KS for a good 5-6 months. I know you have cited kicking around ideas and testing some stuff for the next game but.. I guess it seems like you are not on full time development yet for anything. Or are you being very hush hush and there's some major work goin on in the kitchen? :)

If not.. I'm curious what reasons might call for a rest period or lull and not keeping the fires hot by going into your next project now? Not doubting you, just genuine curiosity.
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matt
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Re: 212 - Innovation

Post by matt »

There are a lot of reasons why we won't show anything for a while. Firstly, we are still working on kickstarter rewards, which takes a significant amount of time. Joe spent weeks putting together the art book. Adam still has a bunch of paintings to do. We definitely don't have a full team working on the next project.

Secondly, we want to show something good, so we want to put significant development time into it before we "announce" it. I could show what I've been working on right now (which seems promising), but it is hacked together using assets from Neverending Nightmares and has all sorts of other issues because I hacked it together.

Finally, we are evaluating our options with other platforms for Neverending Nightmares. We don't want to be promoting two projects at once.
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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evilkinggumby
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Re: 212 - Innovation

Post by evilkinggumby »

Well that all makes good sense, thanks for enlightening me. I figured ya'll were just too busy swimming in your Scrooge McDuck pool of money. :)

Which also sounds like a legit reason to take a few months off, come to think of it. :twisted:

I wouldn't expect you to show off a proof of concept prototype using hacked together assets, that's so pre-alpha it could open a wormhole. I do agree having a somewhat solid demo for the next KS will be a great idea though.
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matt
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Re: 212 - Innovation

Post by matt »

I wish we were swimming in McDuck piles of money. hahaha Maybe if our next kickstarter goes does Double Fine Adventure numbers... :-P
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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