It seems that August is the month to reflect on the success of immersive sims! Earlier this month, one of the original designers behind Thief: The Dark Project shared his feelings on developing triple-A scale imsims, coming to the conclusion that it doesn’t really work. Just yesterday, Arkane veteran and Dishonored director Harvey Smith unveiled his new studio entirely dedicated to the genre. And now Smith, alongside his new studio colleagues Ben Horne and Ricardo Bare, answers the recurring question: are imsims dead?
Talk to The gaming businessSmith responds with a question of his own, asking, “At some point you’re worried…do questions like that create a self-fulfilling prophecy?” He continues: “If you look at these games, there are a lot of titles that people are still talking about 10 or 20 years later. They have a lot of cultural cachet. And there are a few, if you look at BioShock or Deus Ex or Dishonored, that are making a lot of money.”
Horne also touched on the subject, noting how there are so many people with broad tastes across genres, making it difficult to always figure out which one to turn to. “We don’t really know what direction the industry might take, and we probably won’t be very good at keeping up with trends. And so our best chance is to rally around a creative vision that excites us as developers,” he said. “It excites the audience who we know wants to play this kind of game. It’s the best chance to make something great.”
I find one line from Smith particularly disconcerting, not because of what he says, but because of what he’s been told: “Highly paid people tell me things a long time ago like, ‘First-person games don’t sell,’ or ‘RPGs are a niche market,’ or ‘If you don’t work on a free game now, in five years you’ll be out of a job,’ or ‘MMOs are the future,’ or ‘In the future.’ In the future, games will feature live video sections with Hollywood actors. I’ve heard smart, good people, friends of mine in leadership positions, say these things over the years, and sometimes they’re right. But what Ben said, going back to what you love with a strong vision, that comes back to us a lot, so that’s what we need to do. »
The point I’m focusing on is “first person games don’t sell”, as if the first person shooter doesn’t exist and often sells buckets in many contexts. However, to be honest, we see a lot more Hollywood actors, so they got this role right. I’m especially encouraged to learn that Smith and his colleagues are focusing on what interests them most and hoping they can find an audience for it. There is clearly still a thirst for immersive simulations, those who play Gloomwood seem to be very passionate about them. This is just another one of those situations where you need to design with the right scale in mind. And for immersive simulation, maybe it’s just a little.
