Interview Matt Chat 182: Chris Taylor on the Fall of Gas Powered Games

[Metro]

 

[Infinitron]

I know where it's from, bro. Maybe I should have outsourced digging through VD's history to you, Infinitron? You seem to like doing the grunt work. Useful little robot, you.

You're not making any friends here today, are you?

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

Taylor seems pretty sincere but it does look like he needs a break from all of this. I'm just glad I never got into games development as it seems next to impossible to stay independent.

I always wonder if jobs that seem pretty awesome on the surface end up being kind of a grind unless you enjoy spending every minute of every day competing with the hordes of people itching take your place because of how awesome the job seems on the surface.

 

[Moribund]

 

[Marsal]

I know where it's from, bro. Maybe I should have outsourced digging through VD's history to you, Infinitron? You seem to like doing the grunt work. Useful little robot, you.

You're not making any friends here today, are you?

You're jew, bro. Why would I want you for a friend? I don't want to have to hide you when they come for you again. Too much work.

I'm just kidding, of course. You do act like a chat bot sometimes, bro. It's often helpful, sometimes annoying. Very fitting nick, though.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Holy shit! And we wonder why it takes so long to finish AoD? Don't you have better things to do than to go through my posting history? Oh, right. No job. Fair enough. Why not do a thorough job of it, though? This is very shoddy work, VD.

Go through your posts? I clicked on Search, typed VD, author Marsal. Took 3 seconds.

Did you conveniently skip the posts where I gave constructive criticism of AoD, defended you against baseless criticism (IMO, of course) and even encouraged you to finish the game/demo despite the critics? Why didn't you list those? Oh, that would be too much like the whole truth. Why don't you pull up quotes about some other games I spoke less than fondly about? Or some games I praised? Quoting out of context is your specialty, as always.

Marsal, if you think that I read every post of yours, you're nuts. But yes, I do remember you giving constructive criticism and defending and encouraging. I'm very grateful. Hugs?

Bro, you have been working on that stupid game since forever. You're soon going to be more famous than Cleve. I use you as the butt of my jokes, because you have become a joke. And a cautionary tale to other developers. You still don't get it, as evidenced by 18k post mark you just eclipsed. Congratulations, btw, Kingcomrade is just around the corner. Another year and who knows? Long time till Thursday.

The time to "help" and "encourage" you by being constructive is over. The demo is out, we know what the full game will look like. I find your game to be banal, shit, boring, as a wise man once said. Now is the time for me to make fun of you and your game. Just like you're fond of doing to other developers who don't meet your "high" standards of game development. You can laugh at them, now learn to laugh at yourself and stop being butthurt. You got on Steam, you'll cover the production costs and even make some money. Maybe you'll make a new career out of game development. Maybe you'll even make a good game some day. For now, welcome to the club of shitty developers whose games earn money. Enjoy it, you've earned it!

This is one of the craziest fucking rants ever. It's ... beautiful in its insanity.

I'm not crazy motivated enough to go through your 18k posts and dig up stupid shit you say every once in a while. Let me just mention some of your more notorious endeavorsof the top of my head. The endless bitching about Oblivion and the shit you talked about Todd and Pete. Constant whining and bitching. Fallout 3? Same thing. You practically drove all the developers away by your "witty" news and forum posts, bro. They couldn't take the heat, so fuck those losers, right? What about Mass Effect and the "body bags"? Remember that? It was funny. Biodrones got butthurt. I laughed. With you. Now you're butthurt and I'm laughing at you and your shitty game.

Butthurt because someone on the internet doesn't like my game and keeps posting 'don't be like VD, guys!' Seriously?

 

[Irenaeus]

I know where it's from, bro. Maybe I should have outsourced digging through VD's history to you, Infinitron? You seem to like doing the grunt work. Useful little robot, you.

Melnormes are robots?

 

[Marsal]

Marsal, if you think that I read every post of yours, you're nuts. But yes, I do remember you giving constructive criticism and defending and encouraging. I'm very grateful. Hugs?

You really should. I highly recommend it. Good stuff. Awesome. Funny, insightful. Just draws you in. Maybe you'd even learn something about making games. You sure need all the help you can get.

Butthurt because someone on the internet doesn't like my game and keeps posting 'don't be like VD, guys!' Seriously?

Apparently so. I'm just as surprised, as you are. And I'm not the one digging through your posting history and selectively quoting, am I?
You should have it checked, VD. Seriously, you might have internal bleeding. I get carried away sometimes.

Anyway, I can see you're not even trying anymore. In fact I find it insulting not to be quoted sentence by sentence. Nice chatting with you Vince, but some of us have to work. You can add this post to the list of evil quotes. I had no idea they caused such butthurt. Tell me, was it an intense dose of butthurt or more of an accumulation of butthurt that made you snap now?

There'll be more to come. Get lube.

 

[MaskedMan]

make a Cyclopean kickstarter plz

 

[selkin]

Good video. Sad they didn't think this project through along with it's kickstarter video.

Marsal... please don't post.

 

[Vault Dweller]

 

[CreamyBlood]

Taylor seems pretty sincere but it does look like he needs a break from all of this. I'm just glad I never got into games development as it seems next to impossible to stay independent.

I always wonder if jobs that seem pretty awesome on the surface end up being kind of a grind unless you enjoy spending every minute of every day competing with the hordes of people itching take your place because of how awesome the job seems on the surface.

Well, I was lucky and got into device driver and interface programming for rich companies. Coding can be fun but I discovered early on that I don't want to do it eight hours a day, every day (I only code as a hobby now, on my own schedule). Good money when you have it but it always sounded like you would have to go 16 hours a day in the games industry. Life is too short for that and even though Taylor isn't a programmer (as far as I know) you can see from the video that he might be just a tad burnt out on it all.

The games industry does need passion and commitment but it seems to be the most raped sector of the computer industry.

 

[Davaris]

I am very skeptical about Kickstarter's suitability for funding studios. Studios are just too big to be funded this way. They are competing with people that work remotely, only hire staff when needed and sell their games online.

Seriously, this game will reach its target and these guys say, they can't make a game for 1 million dollars? 1 million dollars is a dream budget for any indie.

If they can't make it for that much using the old methods, they need to become more efficient. There are some very nice games made by indies and they are making money from them. Small teams are back, even Brian Fargo recognizes this. If they don't become more efficient, others will take their place.

 

[Metro]

Well said.

 

[Mastermind]

- a guy launch a simple idea that will cost him 10k but hipsters pledge like mad and the guy ends up with 100k he has naught to spend on (except booze and whores of course)

Why is this a problem? Why does every cent he makes have to be spent on the game? If he only needs 10k then good on him for making a product lots of people like. Let the fucker enjoy his well earned cash.

 

[Mastermind]

Taylor didn't plan very well. He argues AoE Online was taken away suddenly but I would think it's a good idea to have multiple projects in development sufficient enough to cover your own payroll. And, hey, if you need Kickstarter to help out... well... the time to have launched this thing was when you are a viable studio not when the rug was pulled out from under you and you're lying on the ground flat on your ass in a daze.

He did have multiple projects, publishers crapped out on those too.

 

[almondblight]

make a Cyclopean kickstarter plz

 

[EG]

Seriously, this game will reach its target and these guys say, they can't make a game for 1 million dollars?

It's
a) this game won't make its target of 1.1 million (I really doubt we're going to see the extra 300-400 thousand it'll need in the final week -- most games that pull that trick out seem to be already funded partway through the campaign), and
b) Taylor can't make the game he wants to make (without firing half his staff) for less than three million.

It's more of a loyalty to employees grind. Can't give good pay, can't give good working hours, can't give a severance, can't let them cash in their stock options, can't . . .

 

[Infinitron]

"The Gas Powered Games Severance Pay Kickstarter"

 

[HobGoblin42]

Marsal seems to focus his trolling on game developer. Maybe he got rejected by one in the past.

 

[Davaris]

It's
a) this game won't make its target of 1.1 million (I really doubt we're going to see the extra 300-400 thousand it'll need in the final week -- most games that pull that trick out seem to be already funded partway through the campaign), and

If you get one third, you generally get the rest, however this Matt Chat video has ruined its chances IMO. The poor guy looks like he is having a nervous breakdown on camera and I'm betting it began well before the Kickstarter launch. He looks like he needs a couple of years R&R.

b) Taylor can't make the game he wants to make (without firing half his staff) for less than three million.

It's more of a loyalty to employees grind. Can't give good pay, can't give good working hours, can't give a severance, can't let them cash in their stock options, can't . . .

He has the choice to save his company, by retrenching those he can't afford, or send the whole thing to the bottom. The second choice is not rational. The rational choice is to make necessary adjustments to his staff and the game. Something he can do with a clear conscience, is choose a smaller group to work on the Kickstarter game and try to find work for the remainder. What staff can he cut? What features can he cut? Sometimes cutting features, makes a better game.

 

[ironyuri]

I know where it's from, bro. Maybe I should have outsourced digging through VD's history to you, Infinitron? You seem to like doing the grunt work. Useful little robot, you.

You're not making any friends here today, are you?

You're jew, bro. Why would I want you for a friend? I don't want to have to hide you when they come for you again. Too much work.

I'm just kidding, of course. You do act like a chat bot sometimes, bro. It's often helpful, sometimes annoying. Very fitting nick, though.

I consider Marsal to be a true bro.

The mere fact Trash thinks I've never posted anything worthwhile, and Bee called me a shitposter once were sweet reward.

 

[Kz3r0]

The mere fact Trash thinks I've never posted anything worthwhile, and Bee called me a shitposter once were sweet reward.

Here a better one, go in ignore, this time forever.

 

[Marsal]

If you're going to be predictable and post worn out rage comics, at least fix your link. Linking directly from Google image search... Noob mistake, bro. I told you that you can learn a lot from my posts.

I know where it's from, bro. Maybe I should have outsourced digging through VD's history to you, Infinitron? You seem to like doing the grunt work. Useful little robot, you.

Melnormes are robots?

I was referring to Infinitron sounding like the name of one of the robots in Fallout universe. I really don't remember Star Control all that well. I played it a long time ago. I guess they are just space jews traders, not robots. Did you have that avatar from the beginning of your Codex existence, Infinitron?

Marsal seems to focus his trolling on game developer. Maybe he got rejected by one in the past.

I thought I focused exclusively on VD? I'm equal opportunity critic. I enjoy making fun of incompetent developers and hacks that call themselves "game designers". That you would think I focus on all the developers just shows how clueless you are.

You should STFU until you make a decent game. So far only thing of note you have done in your illustrious career is rape Jagged Alliance. You did do a proper job with that, I'll give you that. People like you disgust me. You're not a developer. You are a spineless mercenary drone. Go find a new sugar daddy, whore.

The mere fact Trash thinks I've never posted anything worthwhile, and Bee called me a shitposter once were sweet reward.

Bee called you a shitposter? High praise indeed, bro. You've set an example for all of us to follow

Your Brofist was number 666. Coincidence? I think not!

We should do another gif spammathon soon. Everyone enjoys those. I've been busy lately, need to find some new material first.

 

[Moribund]

Game companies lay people off all the time. There's also really no need to have every bit of your art done in house, paying people 50-100k a year when you can get people from slavic countries to do it for half the cost and cheap shit koreans to do it for 1/10th the cost, plus you don't have to worry about employing them 24/7. Just keep on one or two top artists and that's it.

There's also no need for dedicated game designer if all you make are starcraft/diablo/halo clones. You need business guy in charge who watches money like a hawk, or a guy who's also a serious programmer. And these idiots need to wise up and stop selling their entire code base and IP to publishers for a little advance money to pay their bloated art staff of 50+ artists. You also don't need 18 scripting retards to make a game either. What do they do? Add idiocy to the game for the most part. Nobody wants lots of little "details" like events and cutscenes firing every 20 seconds, they want to play a game, something developers seem to have forgotten at some point.

You don't need to sell your game to walmart any more if it doesn't completely suck, get with the program or you won't be existing.

Hobgoblin42 - depends how you define game developer. Also, intent counts for a lot even with the most rabid codexer. I think VD's intent is pure but he has a somewhat bizarro outlook on RPGs that leads to some annoying herp derp in the midst of the parts that are good.