https://youtu.be/HIdqZIDYu1I

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(Baldy on the left / Podcast host on the right)

Host: You know Tim Cain, who worked on the original Fallout...

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(Tim Cain)

JB: Oh, I've never met him in person, but I know who he is.

Host: Yeah, well, he started a YouTube channel recently. He posted a video warning about the state of the industry, saying it's changed way too much in the last 20 years. He mentioned that programmers' attitudes and game design have become much more focused on 'caution.' What are your thoughts on that?

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JB: Well, I haven't seen the video myself, so it's hard to give a specific answer. But I do think what he's saying is true. The ironic thing is, even back when I first entered the industry (when I only had 2 or 3 years of experience), us indie devs used to gather at GDC and complain about how AAA studios refused to take risks and lacked creativity.

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I thought it was a problem back then, but it's way worse now. The situation just keeps deteriorating. I don't really have a solution either. I thought I had one back in 2002 when I wrote a manifesto about this. It went something like: "Game budgets are so massive that it's natural for devs to avoid risk. If you lose that much money, you'll never get funded again. So it's not surprising people are conservative." "Therefore, if you want to be creative with game design, you have to try it where the budgets are small."

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The idea was for indie devs to take risks on low budgets to try new things, and if those mechanics got popular, it would create a pipeline to high-budget games.

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And that's exactly what kept happening since then. The 'Experimental Gameplay Workshop' I used to run at GDC was founded with that intent—though it's changed and isn't as cool as it used to be. Anyway, the whole industry started working like this. Many of the mechanics you see in AAA games today actually started in small indie projects.

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For example, look at hero shooters. Characters having unique skills and charging up ultimates for big moments—that all came from DotA, which was originally just a Warcraft custom map made by an individual.

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I think Tower Defense came first and DotA was a variation of it, I don't recall the exact lineage, but essentially that project was a tiny, non-commercial indie project. But now, it's become a foundation so basic that big studios can't even make a game without those ideas.

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This happens over and over. Same with the Battle Royale craze. PUBG was a massive success, but the creator started with small projects like Arma mods. More recently, Auto-battlers went through their entire hype cycle in a very short time. It started with 'Auto Chess,' a DotA 2 mod. Valve made an offer to the devs, it fell through, so they made their own version, and then every other company rushed to make their own to the point it was called 'The Year of the Auto-battler.' Because it was easy to make.

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But people got tired of it quickly, and the hype died down in a year or two. Like this, innovation now only comes from small indie games. But what makes me bitter is that most indie games aren't even that creative themselves. Most are just reskins of characters or systems. Yet, there are still those trying to do things differently, and that's the only 'design vitality' left in the game industry. That kind of innovation never comes from the big corporations anymore.

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Interviewer: Why do you think people start indie dev but don't try new things? JB: I think it's because everyone has different reasons for wanting to make games. And you can't necessarily say those reasons are bad. For some, just making a game with their own characters and art style, the kind of game they personally want, is meaningful enough. Even if it's not entirely new, it's about realizing 'their style.'

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If you look at an old art form like literature, most books don't try to be experimental or break the format, right? They just tell the story the author wants to tell. What's happening in gaming is similar. People are just making the games they always wanted to make, not trying to innovate the medium itself.

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I've always focused on pushing the boundaries of the medium. I believe there's still so much we don't know about what games can be. So I try to push new boundaries with every project. But there can be many reasons to make a game. If you made a game that gave someone great joy, it might not matter if it's innovative or not. Giving someone a good experience is a wonderful thing in itself. We shouldn't forget that. However, I believe if new creativity stops flowing in from the outside, we're going to lose something truly important. ------------------

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Wow, he's aged so much since back then. Source: Indie Game Gallery [View Original]