Bill Roper's Wonder Years
Bill Roper's Wonder Years
Interview - posted by baby arm on Sat 16 May 2009, 19:57:36
Tags: Bill Roper; Flagship StudiosOver at Gamasutra, Bill Roper answered questions covering the highs and lows of his career.
So, what are a few of the biggest things that you think you learned in that process?
BR: I think a lot of it is just looking at business models that work and don't work, ways to interact with publishers that worked and didn't work, gameplay decisions that we made. Things like just doing far too much in our design, trying to do way too many things, trying to appease too many people and players.
But I think the biggest one that I learned, and it's very cliché, is that it's just a business. I was very personally, more emotionally invested in the company. And everyday when we were struggling to keep it open, the thought of "I'm going to let down a hundred people and let all these guys go," like, "I'm going to ruin their lives. I can't make this happen."
And so that was really hard. Being on the other side of it, I can look at that and say, "I learned a lot from this failure." Every week easily at Cryptic, if not every day, someone says, "Hey, we should do this." I'm like, "No, that won't work, and here's why it doesn't work."
So, what are a few of the biggest things that you think you learned in that process?
BR: I think a lot of it is just looking at business models that work and don't work, ways to interact with publishers that worked and didn't work, gameplay decisions that we made. Things like just doing far too much in our design, trying to do way too many things, trying to appease too many people and players.
But I think the biggest one that I learned, and it's very cliché, is that it's just a business. I was very personally, more emotionally invested in the company. And everyday when we were struggling to keep it open, the thought of "I'm going to let down a hundred people and let all these guys go," like, "I'm going to ruin their lives. I can't make this happen."
And so that was really hard. Being on the other side of it, I can look at that and say, "I learned a lot from this failure." Every week easily at Cryptic, if not every day, someone says, "Hey, we should do this." I'm like, "No, that won't work, and here's why it doesn't work."
