Hi,
Would SD consider allowing the team to work on their own projects or a side project similar to how Google has Google Labs? Then taking the successful ones to fully published/self published products.
And/or
Would SD consider funding game development via a pay up front scheme similar to Minecraft?
No love from the gamers on this idea? I don’t mean this should totally replace the traditional development path but instead it would allow SD to branch off on some more independent and perhaps niche projects.
80/20 is more applicable for mundane projects, not insanely fun things like Brink.
wasn’t sure how anyone but SD could answer that question, but I know some Splashies write apps as well as work on in house games
@Tok 80/20 isn’t supposed to produce a Brink, it’s meant to allow freedom to explore concepts. Some may go nowhere, some may see completion and other may form the seeds from which larger development can bring them to fruition. I just see a lot of talented people at SD who get wrapped up for years on a single game and I wonder if allowing them some time to focus on smaller, personal, interests could bring about some original and fun ideas.
@Nail Yeah, I could have worded it a bit better, a reply from Locki would be awesome but I really just intended to bring up the concept for a theoretical discussion, maybe explore what we’d like to see etc. I [strike]stalk[/strike] follow a few SD people on twitter and they do this sort of thing in their spare time. I just wonder what a little bit of support from SD, the company, could bring to the table.
I kinda doubt they would discuss their business stratagem in here, would leave them far too open to mindless comments from 16 year old “experts on gaming”
as long as it not trouble/bother/harm anyone[including SD or ZM] else[interests], why not ?
This is sort of what I was thinking of. Using the creative juices of the development team to leverage some smaller projects, the profits of which could then allow more freedom for the larger projects.
Remedy is known for Alan Wake and Max Payne, but the studio also recently helped produce Death Rally for iOS, a game that has been very successful for the studio. Remedy Managing Director Matias Myllyrinne told us during E3 that the game recouped its development costs in three days on the App Store and took a mere eight months to develop.
We asked if the success of Death Rally has shifted the studio’s priorities. “I think in terms of priorities, Remedy will continue to do what we do best. We love our big movie-like story driven action games - but it is also about applying these strengths in new ways too. There are awesome things happening with digital stuff like XBLA, Steam, iPhones etc. Where you can build a killer value and fun at a low price point and still make money.”
Besides we still want out class based objective top down shooter! 
Thread respawn rather that creating a new one. This post over on Joystiq caught my eye.
Need for Speed: Shift developer Slightly Mad Studios is breaking out the big guns with a crowdsourced funding scheme titled World of Mass Development, or WMD (see what we did there?)
Slightly Mad expects C.A.R.S. to take two years and $5 million to produce. With shares priced from $5-$100,000 for individuals, groups or companies, Slightly Mad expects a $10 share will return $35, $250 to return $875 and $100,000 will return $350,000 – if the game makes $25 million in profit.
“Traditional development puts developers at the mercy of publishers,” Slightly Mad said. “The development process offered by WMD shifts the focus back to creating great games that your target audience wants to play, whilst still offering the chance to get proper funding for development and testing.”
Granted this is probably asking a lot of individual gamers, $5mil at $25 a pop is 200,000 contributions, but perhaps it’s a way to field in some smaller investors who are looking to get into the gaming market.
Anyway, as always, my point is whether SD would entertain such a method to produce their next game or a side project? Android top down ET game?