Submitted by s8anicslayer 248d ago | interview

Ubisoft Montreal: Convincing a AAA studio to try "indie" games

Patrick Plourde explains how he got his indie-styled Child of Light off the ground at the outfit behind Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Child of Light, Dev, Patrick Plourde, PC, PS3, PS4, Ubisoft Montreal, Watch Dogs, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

DigitalRaptor  +   248d ago
I find it refreshing that we've got experienced AAA devs making games independantly. Tiny Brains, Dreamfall Chapters, Project Phoenix, Outlast, Child of Light, Gone Home, Outland, Mark of the Ninja, Shank etc, etc.

Here's another article that shows the skewed perception a lot of gamers have in regards to indie development/games. To many, a lesser budget will always mean it's a worse game for it, and a bloated AAA budget will surpass independent creativity, which is just wrong. http://www.gamesradar.com/a...

I swear, some of those downplaying indies would also be downplaying games like Rayman Origins, Super Mario Bros if it didn't have Ubisoft, Nintendo or the Rayman, Mario brand name behind it, based on their looks alone and if they weren't so adjusted to those franchises.
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Baka-akaB  +   248d ago
I feel it dangerous to immediately equates AAA and big budgeted gaming to something bad , or indie to only their positive aspects .

There is a place for both imo , and neither should replace the other as the only economically viable solution like too often heard .

I'm not much into indie , bare a few (deemed) gems . i'm shallow that way , i outgrew the 80's "fun arcade" craze and style gamed very quickly . If anything what truly got me into gaming are the very blockbuster of their eras . The first games that tried to blew our mind with graphics , plots , high fantasy and sci fi concept and stories , on top of course of gameplay .

Also there has been an alarming trend (imho) , for people to judge indies and mobile gaming on a different scale .

I strongly dislike sentences like "Not bad FOR an indie" or "It's ok for bite sized fun" "it's pretty good FOR a mobile game" , commonly see in the press . Either it's good on its own merit , and even compared to regular titles , or its not . It's not our problem if the guy behind it had a big team , big funds or not .

Especially when many successful indies turns out to be truly worth the label anyway . Plenty are funded by a rich company that could definitively step it up for future projects .
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_QQ_  +   248d ago
Its not really and "indie game" if a big publisher is behind it lol. that being said i'm stoked for child of light.
DigitalRaptor  +   248d ago
You can still remain an indie studio whilst being supported by a big publisher. And I guess support comes in different tiers. Your ideas are your own and although IPs generally belong to the company publishing your game, you are not tied into that publisher unless you cut a deal for a set number of games - like Thatgamecompany did with Sony, who are now off doing multiplatform ventures.

Respawn and Remedy Entertainment are independent developers, but their games are published by Microsoft Game Studios. They still hold independent status.
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