Parvati wrote:I am seriously concidering to go to the only game publisher in my country and pitch them the idea to make a Spore like game.

They made Beyond devinity so they can handle a big project.

It doesn't actually work that way. Game companys make games that publishers pay them to make, it is extremely rare for them to make games any other way if at all. They need the cash to pay their workers from the get-go.

Something else that most people also don't realise either is that it isn't the company who *programs* the games who call the shots either. It is the publishers who paid them to program the game.

The game company makes a build of the game, sends it off to the publishers, the publishers come back and say ok we want this, this and this changed. So then the programmers change it to those specifications, send it back again for the publishers to say ok we also want this this and this changed.. rinse repeat. They can have as many ideas as they want for improving a game, but it has to be approved by the publishers who are paying them to make it.

Nykara wrote:...

They are independant.
They made beyond devinity.

They are developers not publishers, I probably used the wrong words

The way said compagny works is, they made Beyond Devinity.
Then they looked for a publisher.

Now they are making the next one and they are still looking for a publisher
Thats how they do it.
And thats why I am sure I can go and pitch them the idea.

Nykara wrote:
Something else that most people also don't realise either is that it isn't the company who *programs* the games who call the shots either. It is the publishers who paid them to program the game.

While this is mostly true, some companies are actually pretty hands-off when it comes to their production teams. I was part of a project a looooooooong time ago--I think it was 2002--where we were making a game for a bargain line, an el cheapo product intended to sell for $9.99 from the very beginning, and I think the only feedback we ever got from our publisher was regarding the title.

And I seem to recall a quote from Will Wright about how EA had told them just to "get it right" with regards to Spore. Somehow, tho...I think maybe more oversight might have been a Good Thing™ given how the game turned out.

RocketGirl wrote:

And I seem to recall a quote from Will Wright about how EA had told them just to "get it right" with regards to Spore. Somehow, tho...I think maybe more oversight might have been a Good Thing™ given how the game turned out.

Aha, I wouldn't be the big Spore nut if I didn't know this Buuuuut.
The year he told us that EA said to him to get it right.
Was the same year they pushed it back and started to rework it to the cute version.


To get it righ't, was Will saying that EA did not like what was made and they had to rework the game to get the platform EA saw viable as an expanding brand.

Naturally thats what seems to make most sense concidering all the facts now

RocketGirl wrote:

Nykara wrote:
Something else that most people also don't realise either is that it isn't the company who *programs* the games who call the shots either. It is the publishers who paid them to program the game.

While this is mostly true, some companies are actually pretty hands-off when it comes to their production teams. I was part of a project a looooooooong time ago--I think it was 2002--where we were making a game for a bargain line, an el cheapo product intended to sell for $9.99 from the very beginning, and I think the only feedback we ever got from our publisher was regarding the title.

And I seem to recall a quote from Will Wright about how EA had told them just to "get it right" with regards to Spore. Somehow, tho...I think maybe more oversight might have been a Good Thing™ given how the game turned out.

It entirely depends on who you are programming the game for, but still there are usually deadlines for the publishers where they want to see the stage that the game is at and make sure it is what they asked for - and get it changed if its not. My partner works for a gaming company in aust (kromestudios) big publishers are usually pretty hands on (for example they did a couple of titles for Lucas Arts who was very hands on)

Nykara wrote:
It entirely depends on who you are programming the game for, but still there are usually deadlines for the publishers where they want to see the stage that the game is at and make sure it is what they asked for - and get it changed if its not. My partner works for a gaming company in aust (kromestudios) big publishers are usually pretty hands on (for example they did a couple of titles for Lucas Arts who was very hands on)

No argument there; I've been on both ends of the spectrum, from having a more-or-less hands-off publisher, to a publisher sending two reps to our offices to oversee our production personally. It all depends.

RocketGirl wrote:

Nykara wrote:
It entirely depends on who you are programming the game for, but still there are usually deadlines for the publishers where they want to see the stage that the game is at and make sure it is what they asked for - and get it changed if its not. My partner works for a gaming company in aust (kromestudios) big publishers are usually pretty hands on (for example they did a couple of titles for Lucas Arts who was very hands on)

No argument there; I've been on both ends of the spectrum, from having a more-or-less hands-off publisher, to a publisher sending two reps to our offices to oversee our production personally. It all depends.

It would totally drive me nuts actually. Having like cool ideas for games to make them better and having the publishers saying No you can't do that cool thing that you want to do! hehe

Nykara wrote:

RocketGirl wrote:

Nykara wrote:
It entirely depends on who you are programming the game for, but still there are usually deadlines for the publishers where they want to see the stage that the game is at and make sure it is what they asked for - and get it changed if its not. My partner works for a gaming company in aust (kromestudios) big publishers are usually pretty hands on (for example they did a couple of titles for Lucas Arts who was very hands on)

No argument there; I've been on both ends of the spectrum, from having a more-or-less hands-off publisher, to a publisher sending two reps to our offices to oversee our production personally. It all depends.

It would totally drive me nuts actually. Having like cool ideas for games to make them better and having the publishers saying No you can't do that cool thing that you want to do! hehe

Well, one of the games I worked on was for Disney, and they were pretty specific about what they wanted; it was our job to fulfill their wishes on that front. But for some reason, despite having signed NDAs, we weren't allowed to watch the actual movie; we could only look at out-of-date concept art.

That's a pretty extreme example of the publishers telling us, "No, you can't," but believe me...been there. Heh.

Just a small pollite bump.
This is an older thread asking to get real official answers from Maxis.

So it deserves a small bump.

About now you should have had time to review the qeustions. By now some PR fool should have agreed to what qeustions can be answered and wich qeustions can not.

So....where are our answers?
Where is our feedback?

Parvati wrote:

So....where are our answers?
Where is our feedback?

Bumped because we are still waiting.

they have LOCKED THE Q AND A PAGE''''''':''

piePIEpie wrote:they have BLOCKED THE Q AND A PAGE

PIEPIEPIE, PLEASE READ MY OTHER RESPONSE. I AM TALKING IN CAPS SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND. THE QUESTION PERIOD ENDED QUITE SOME TIME AGO.

OneBlackbird wrote:

piePIEpie wrote:they have BLOCKED THE Q AND A PAGE

PIEPIEPIE, PLEASE READ MY OTHER RESPONSE. I AM TALKING IN CAPS SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND. THE QUESTION PERIOD ENDED QUITE SOME TIME AGO.

sorry i forgot where i posted that''''