Hmmm. This is actually a valid business practice, out of control. I've been contacted for a few odd jobs involving "re-imagination of a beloved old IP for the modern audience" and all of them, repeat ALL OF THEM were some kind of easy money cashgrab with AI.
The pattern is simple: some guy gets hand of the old IP. Then they create some pre-sales buzz via social media. If this generates enough traction, they start a fund raiser campaign: to show "development progress", they release a steady stream of "work in progress" AI generated crap on social media. If the fundraiser is successful, then, AND ONLY THEN they start actually developing the thing. On the cheap of course, so only a 1-3 person skeleton crew is assembled, hoping that the majority of work will be done GenAI and CodeAI. Again, this is to release some "pre-alpha" builds for whale backers.
Now the punch line: none of these projects were meant to be finished. Way ahead of the inevitable messy legal battles, the originator simply folds up the company, vanishes for a while and STARTS AGAIN with a new IP.
This is an excellent series - not an easy read, mind you (a capable editor is sorely missed, especially for the 1st book), but as a memento, this is absolutely top tier stuff.
This is not just about nostalgia and nerd fanboyism though.
The interviews give us a vivid picture on the game dev culture of the pioneers, in that weird time period when games started to become a viable business, yet creating them was still something of an auteur thing using neolithic tools. Imagine this attitude in today's committee designed, cutthroat business-driven, efficiency-monitored game development industry!
I urge to BUY these books, Mr Szczepaniak deserves our money for this gargantuan effort - and those unsung heroes interviewed deserve our collective remembrance.
Comments 2
Re: "I Hope They Choke On An AI-Generated Fishbone" - James Pond Creator On System 3's "Soulless" Legacy Collection
Hmmm. This is actually a valid business practice, out of control.
I've been contacted for a few odd jobs involving "re-imagination of a beloved old IP for the modern audience" and all of them, repeat ALL OF THEM were some kind of easy money cashgrab with AI.
The pattern is simple: some guy gets hand of the old IP. Then they create some pre-sales buzz via social media. If this generates enough traction, they start a fund raiser campaign: to show "development progress", they release a steady stream of "work in progress" AI generated crap on social media. If the fundraiser is successful, then, AND ONLY THEN they start actually developing the thing. On the cheap of course, so only a 1-3 person skeleton crew is assembled, hoping that the majority of work will be done GenAI and CodeAI. Again, this is to release some "pre-alpha" builds for whale backers.
Now the punch line: none of these projects were meant to be finished. Way ahead of the inevitable messy legal battles, the originator simply folds up the company, vanishes for a while and STARTS AGAIN with a new IP.
Re: I Spent $75,000 Documenting Japan's Gaming History, And It Was Quite The Ride
This is an excellent series - not an easy read, mind you (a capable editor is sorely missed, especially for the 1st book), but as a memento, this is absolutely top tier stuff.
This is not just about nostalgia and nerd fanboyism though.
The interviews give us a vivid picture on the game dev culture of the pioneers, in that weird time period when games started to become a viable business, yet creating them was still something of an auteur thing using neolithic tools. Imagine this attitude in today's committee designed, cutthroat business-driven, efficiency-monitored game development industry!
I urge to BUY these books, Mr Szczepaniak deserves our money for this gargantuan effort - and those unsung heroes interviewed deserve our collective remembrance.