Comments on: RPS Interview: Introversion’s Chris & Mark

By: Diogo Ribeiro

Diogo Ribeiro — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:06:06 +0000

I know I’m late for the comment party, but when I look at Subversion’s pictures, I can’t help but feel it’s an espionage game. The detailed maps, office environs… For some reason, corporate or industrial espionage comes to mind. Or even something in the lines of Floor 13 and Shadow President.

Am I alone in that?

By: TickledBlue

TickledBlue — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:19:10 +0000

Great interview!

I’ve been reading the introversion blog off and on following Chris’ posts on the development of Subversion, they always seem conversational and informative – but every now and then you get this sense of resentment or aggression towards others in the team (could just be me).

The mention of:

“Chris: We had riotous arguments at the start about who owned Introversion”

Along with comments from Mark about needing the business angle to be successful, and moving Chris to a more creative role (rather than doing that plus codemonkey) goes someway to explaining that – of course I could just be reading too much into it.

By: ironclad

ironclad — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:30:09 +0000

@Ging: You should totally go for it…. if anything because The Hidden rocks so much.

All the talk about Valve makes me wish that Valve can swoop in angel style and take Intro under its wing. Seems to be a way to relax their anxieties about funding while giving them the creative freedom that gave us great games. I really loved Defcon.

By: Freelancepolice

Freelancepolice — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:08:40 +0000

Nice interview, I really like the introversion guys

By: Crispy

Crispy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 03:01:04 +0000

Incidentally, on the topic of the floundering (but ready for a comeback, let’s be optimistic) UK development scene, I remember Splash Damage stating they had taken full advantage of some of the funding available for the electronics entertainment industry (I think from the Arts Council, or maybe the Department for Trade and Industry, I forget).

Have Introversion done or looked into doing anything similar?

By: Ging

Ging — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:23:56 +0000

I’m still sorely tempted to go for that coding position – worse that can happen is that I make a fool of myself by being nowhere near skilled enough!

*hides the bugs under the carpet*

By: RobotLiberationArmy

RobotLiberationArmy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:22:15 +0000

“games aren’t always the big inspiration for me. I get much more inspired by movies. Inspiration isn’t much like saying, “I saw this, and I’d like to do that,” it’s more of the sense of something that you get a bit of creative energy from.”

This is why Introversion are really the last of bedroom programmers. Unlike their peers in the professional or indie realms, Introversion, I think, will be one of the last to do “foundation” level design. That is, making games without a traditional form. Warren Spector’s “I could do that gameplay better” concept of inspiration seems to sum up the zeitgeist of the industry at this point–people building of what’s gone before, not a bad ting, but very counter to Introversion’s “improvisational” design.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:34:12 +0000

Introversion introduced us to Eskil, actually.

By: phuzz

phuzz — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:10:48 +0000

Mark: If you’ve already got a risky games you’re not going to be able to hire a watercolour genius to learn Maya and make some games stuff.

It looks like someone did just that with Love. Which is nice.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:36:06 +0000

RPS: Ha.

C’mon, that deserved more than a single ‘ha’. I like the fact you brought Republic up, as I think that’s a good comparison to Subversion and I’ve not seen them talk about it before. I have faith they’ll do well with their toybox, though.

EDIT – Also, the word ‘there’ as an adjective? CRAZY.

By: nabeel

nabeel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:07:11 +0000

Looking forward to more info on Subversion. If they want to have something to do, they should think about improving the AI in Defcon. I’d love some really interesting AI to play against when I’m offline. I still fire up a multiplayer game every now and then, but I like to try out weird strategies against the CPU and the only hint of challenge they can muster is if there’s more than one against me.
It’d be excellent if Introversion take up publishing of indie games. Theirs is a business model that has proven to work, and they have the smarts to help others bring their projects to fruition.
nabeel

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:51:19 +0000

Theory: That’s a Matter/Antimatter thing, surely?

Jim: Really liked this one. Good work.