Comments on: Introversion On All Things

By: Rei Onryou

Rei Onryou — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:02:26 +0000

I’m always interested in what Introversion does. I absolutely love Uplink and Darwinia, and Defcon is a brilliant game (could it almost be considered an art game due to its message and tone?). Multiwinia didn’t really work for me. The Circular selection and random luck due to the crates (oh, they got a turret and I got a spider, yay) put me off a bit.

I do look forward to Subversion as its already looking splendid just from interviews and screenshots. Delay has a real passion for what he’s doing, and he’s doing what he wants, not what others would want him to do.

By: Tarn

Tarn — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 11:01:24 +0000

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Chris a couple of times for really quite small websites. Despite the low profile of the sites, he always took the time to provide really in-depth, fascinating answers. Clearly a guy that enjoys talking about and examining what they do, rather than simply hyping things up.

Here’s one of the interviews, for anybody that’s interested, dating back to 2006 just after Darwinia hit the big time but before DEFCON: http://potentialgamer.com/2008/07/28/interview-with-chris-delay-of-introversion/

Great interview, Jim. Another site for my bookmarks. :)

By: Mo

Mo — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:39:24 +0000

Oh, and great interview as always Jim. :)

By: Mo

Mo — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:39:01 +0000

@MrDeVil_909:
Absolutely, I think the industry over-estimates the importance of the multiplayer component. To write a MP component for a game is a *huge* undertaking, and needs to be planned for from the base engine up. With my games I’ve always shied away from MP, because it would effectively double production times.

I wish more publishers/developers had the balls to ship without a multiplayer component. Too many solid single player games ship with tacked on MP … that benefits nobody, not the developer and not the player. It only stops the vocal minority of hardcore players from whining about how “game x sucks because it has no multiplayer”.

By: Bret

Bret — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:04:09 +0000

I keep meaning to buy Darwinia, but finances don’t even let me get Deus Ex, so…

Did get DEFCON at a discount store. It is awesome looking, fun to play, etc, but I haven’t found a game really, so that’s lame.

By: Pantsman

Pantsman — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:47:17 +0000

I seem to be something of an anomaly in that I didn’t love Darwinia. I liked it alright, and it was certainly very pretty, but its gameplay seemed rather basic. Uplink I liked in concept, but for some reason I didn’t get into it when I tried to play it. The learning curve was a little too steep. DEFCON looks good, and I’ve been meaning to get it, but haven’t yet.

By: enterman

enterman — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:22:32 +0000

I absolutely love Multiwinia. I can’t believe it wasn’t much of a success. If I hadn’t liked Darwinia so much I probably wouldnt of even played it. Oh little stick people, fighting each other for control of such a beautiful landscape. The wee little screams are just hilarious.

By: Warduke

Warduke — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:14:18 +0000

So I bought Defcon today after reading this article. I’m having some fun with it but damn it’s a bit depressing. Between the thought of global annihilation and the incredibly well done sound in the game it really sets a dire mood.

By: Rich_P

Rich_P — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:39:22 +0000

Defcon. They were day 1 purchases for me out of respect but could i get into them? Nope.

Same here. I love the premise behind DEFCON and Darwinia (the former is a brilliant piece of art and social commentary), but I don’t really enjoy playing them as games. Weird.

Darwinia came with a cute Darwinian keychain, which I’m using right now :D

By: Rudolfo

Rudolfo — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:57:25 +0000

I really love the interview. Great running commentary between questions, but: isn’t it supposed to be valve’s staff? not stuff?

Or, I could be missing a joke here. Tell me.

By: alphaxion

alphaxion — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:26:52 +0000

I, too, have all their games purchased and sitting on my shelf – including the special box set of Darwinia and Multiwinia. Love my little foam darwinians! :D

I’ve been following Subversion for a bit now, it’s certainly amazing stuff.

I just hope they say yes to me going down to their office for a little project I have in mind and I get to have a sneak peek at it running.

Tho, that’s asking just a bit too much… simply going down to meet them is exciting enough!

By: Meat Circus

Meat Circus — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:24:47 +0000

So, Multiwinia was a flop?

They mentioned this at the Thinkosium too. I do hope having a game flop isn’t going to be fatal to them, because we know they’re only little, but it’s interesting that it never occured to them this would happen.

Selling what appears to be a multiplayer component for an existing game as a full-price new game? Did they really not expect that not to be well-received?

Still, from what little we know about Subversion, it looks *amazing*. So I hope this odd little company sticks around.