Gamasutra 20 'Breakthrough' Honoree:
2D Boy
http://2dboy.com/
Studio overview
2D Boy was started in 2006 by two former EA employees, whose
goal was to build games that had accessible and unique gameplay. The
development team currently has three members and is based in San
Francisco.
Key staff
Kyle Gabler is one of the cofounders of 2D Boy, and the
company's creative director; he is also one of the four founding members of CMU's
Experimental Gameplay Project.
Cofounder Ron Carmel helms the business end of
2D Boy and is responsible for programming.
Resume highlights
2D Boy's first title, World
of Goo, is based on Tower of Goo,
which was a prototype that Gabler developed under the rules of the Experimental
Gameplay Project. The title was nominated for a number of awards at the 2008
Independent Game Festival, including the Seumas McNally grand prize, and won out for Design Innovation and Technical Excellence.
Nintendo
CEO Satoru Iwata also highlighted World
of Goo at the company's quarterly conference in April 2008, calling out the
game as an example of the type of products the company envisions its WiiWare
service showcasing.
What's next
World of Goo is
slated to come out for PC and Wii/WiiWare later this year, with Mac and Linux versions
to follow.
Our take
"There's no doubt that being singled out by Satoru Iwata for praise in terms of WiiWare titles is high, high praise indeed. That the game he picked was a Western title put together by a tiny cadre of indie game developers is even more amazing - and shows 2D Boy's talent in crafting innovation.
What particularly charms in World Of Goo, at least from what I've seen of it, is that it both has unique art direction and a cunning gameplay mechanism which jibes wholly with the visual look of the game.
It's rare that you get such synergy, and from a first commercial title, to boot. Judging by some of the ways Kyle Gabler and his colleagues are expanding on his Experimental Gameplay Project beginnings, 2D Boy is going to go a long way."
- Simon Carless
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1.) Kyle Gabler
2.) Joseph M. Tringali, Jeremiah Slaczka
3.) Frank Lantz
4.) Katsura Hashino, Shigenori Soejima
5.) Tom Fulp, John Baez, Dan Paladin
6.) Max Hoberman
7.) Tim Schafer
8.) Goichi Suda
9.) Randy Pitchford
10.) Vlad Ceraldi, Joel DeYoung, Ron Gilbert
11.) Steve Fawkner
12.) Akihiro Hino
13.) Mark Healey, Alex Evans
14.) Mare Sheppard, Raigan Burns
15.) Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba
16.) Dylan Cuthbert, Kenkichi Shimooka
17.) Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago
18.) Masato Maegawa
19.) Michael Booth
20.) Dave Gilbert
Also, a football team is made up of a lot of people - however, that doesn't stop us from learning and talking about star players like Bret Favre, Joe Montana, etc.
Also, a film is made by many people - however, that doesn't stop us learning about key creators like William Golding, Steven Spielberg, Francois Truffaut, Roman Polanski, etc.
Also, many people are needed to construct a building - however that doesn't stop us giving recognition to key designers like Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Libskind, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, etc.
(Shall I continue...?)
There is no excuse for the game industry to obstinately refuse to acknowledge and celebrate the talent of those individuals who have exceptional talent.
I'm...not sure what you want!
I sure am making a post on the internet. Hi mom!
Besides, I didn't know posts could be edited. Where's the button?
We can't go in to these studios and evaluate their skills and find that hidden gem. Nobody will pay us to do that. It's the responsibility of two parties, the companies themselves, and the persons themselves.
-end quote-
There IS a completely logical and near-effortless alternative: contacting the developers before these articles are written and polling them directly for key personnel on their staff. For instance, some noteworthy people who work/have worked with Dave Gilbert are Peter Gresser (Lead Musician), Ian Schlaepfer (Lead Artist for Blackwell Legacy/ Portrait Artist for Blackwell Convergence), Erin Robinson (Lead Artist for Blackwell Unbound), and myself (sprites/animations for The Shivah and Lead Artist for Blackwell Convergence).
I'm sure a quick email could've gotten you all this and more, though! :)
"with Activision apparently opting not to publish the title after acquiring Vivendi Games. "
Err... Sorry????
It's Vivendi who aquired Activision & merged it with Vivendi Games. Yes it's true that the Activision board now lead the game branch of Vivendi but still.. Vivendi IS THE BOSS.
Vivendi holds 54% of Activision Blizzard, so I'm not sure you can tell that Activision aquired anything..
Citing other industries and media is no excuse. I find it just as bad in the film industry that the talent of a whole team and the culture of the company that team resides in (which contributes hugely to how a game is produced) is neglected in favor of single-person worship/stardom.
So, I think that naming the companies AND some of the names of the leads there is appropiate.
Just naming the few leads - like you suggest - is just not enough.
No, Vivendi Games is indeed now a subsidiary of Activision. Also, Vivendi (the parent company, not Games) owns a controlling interest in Activision.
Excuse for what? For standing up for the contributions of key creators?
Like it or not, experience and hundreds of years of history show that key talented people - leaders, shapers - make a difference far out of proportion to their singular number. You can argue against this, but you do so in the face of a vast amount of evidence.
If you have a team of 100, you can pull someone at random and the creative output probably won't change - but if you pull a leader, a shaper, then suddenly the quality and quantity of that output falls a full magnitude.
But what's more - recognition of the effort AND talent of individuals is fundamental to progress out of the dark ages of collectivist tribalism into the enlightenment of self-awareness and humanistic accomplishment.
When faced with real talent, humans generally skew along three trends. They actively suppress it (the old "barrel of monkeys pulling down anyone who rises"); they tolerate it, and let it be "part of the team"; or they openly celebrate it and actively search for and fund it (and that means rewarding it).
I am arguing for the latter.
This, however, already happens. Maybe not enough though.
someone started http://www.internetgamedatabase.com/ but it has no content yet...
What is wrong to actually SHOW some people, see the people who make consumers and gamers enjoy and have good time for HOURS. Show the people we want to cherish, copy and celebrate.
Claiming it's unfair for the ones who are not on the picture is pure BS and so lame. If they work on a project they love next time they will, and next time they will demand to appear on the "collective shot for Gamasutra, the gamedev industry bible".
It's all about making change! We're not made in the stone.
I love to see the face of Introversion guys, or have a big picture of Ken Levine or Will Wright or Jon Blow speaking on a video stream... Watching Raph Koster playing guitar and all,
Of course you can be a big fat nerdy gamedev and so what, making efforts like Gabe Newell (he did lose weight and it was not to use Outlook) isn't bad for you.
And it's certainly good for us, gamedev people. Step up and exist!