Mary Rose Cook

Below is a conversation about game design. I posted it on X and it got basically no likes. Which is insane because it’s magical.

It comes from a documentary about Housemarque, an indie game studio, making their game, Nex Machina. The game director and head of marketing at Housemarque are discussing feedback they’ve received from Sony, their financial backers.

Harry Krueger, game director, quoting Sony — “Overall, I have to say I’m disappointed by this milestone. I would have expected the gameplay to be much more balanced and layered at this stage. The smaller details still remain unclear. And the gameplay is lacking the depth present in things like Resogun and Alienation, and which I know the team is capable of. The other impact I’m concerned about here is that we’re still looking to reach the quality needed to make this a big announcement in one of our upcoming events.”

Haveri, head of marketing — I hate to call it bullshit, but it is bullshit. When you play a game that’s clearly in the stage that the game is in right now, it’s like, pointing out those obvious flaws. They don’t know how we do shit. We make shit games until they become good games.

Krueger — I actually agree with everything the guy says. It’s good to get an outsider’s perspective, and Sony does give us that fresh perspective in this context. And no one is more disappointed in the lack of our progress than I am.

I’m not worried about any of these individual things. If you ask me about art, yeah, we’re gonna get the art. If you ask me about gameplay? That too. The editor? Roger. The question is, can we do all of the above in the next six months? That’s where I start getting seriously nervous and start freaking out.

Haveri — Drink.

Krueger — Well, fuck it, yeah. I’ll have a sip.

Haveri — The company is not going to collapse.

Kreuger — I’m gonna collapse before Housemarque does.

You know, Eugene [Jarvis, creator of Robotron and Defender] actually had some pretty valuable insight, unsurprisingly. He was talking about Robotron yesterday. And I was just kinda trying to tap into what the creative process was for that game. Because it has been my suspicion that it was an accident to a large extent, you know. It’s a bit rough around the edges, and I think that’s part of its charm.

And Eugene also basically said this thing that I’ve never considered before, you know. That basically you just, you try some shit out, and if you reach a point where it actually works, then don’t touch it. Just fucking leave it and move on.

I can’t do that. As a person, I’m obsessive, and with Resogun, it was, like, two years fine-tuning the controls. And not a single review comments on the controls. You know why? Because they’re invisible. And you know why they are invisible? Because I worked my ass off to make them invisible.

Maybe I’m more of a creative or artistic person than I am a managerial or a leadership type. I don’t know. But doing both at the same time is killing me.

Haveri — Maybe you shouldn’t be the lead then.

Kreuger — Maybe I shouldn’t be.

Haveri — Do you have any other worries in your life?

Kreuger — I probably haven’t mentioned this, actually, but it looks like I’m going to become a father soon.

Haveri — All right. Hug it out.

Look at all these moments -

They get negative feedback which is difficult to cope with. The reaction is both to reject it, which is partly right, and to embrace it, which is also partly right.

The game director gets overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done. And the marketing person gives him a pep talk.

The director talks about the creative approach of trying a bunch of stuff until you find something that works. But that you can mess it up by trying to refine it too much.

The director talks about how he’s not really that guy. That he refined the controls of their previous game for two years, and that’s why they’re so good. And that this approach is in tension with the try a bunch of stuff approach.

And, then, amidst all this stuff about work and art, the game director says he’s going to become a dad.