Hermitworks Entertainment Blogs

Wednesday has come, and with it more work on the latest Space Trader challenge. In addition, Matthew has been in the office working on LOD levels for our character models to make people on older machines happy. We’re a caring bunch, y’know.

Today a friend of mine pointed out the Sony GDC Keynote Presentation, and more importantly a game coming to the PS3 entitled Little Big Planet. You can see a really awesome trailer for the game here on GameTrailers. Not only is Little Big Planet a visual masterpiece and looks like a co-operative dream, it’s also going to have a strong community presence. High score lists, friends, comments, and more. All of the features you would expect to find on a social networking website. It’s not just this game, either - Sony has announced its commitment to adding these features to every online game that they can via the Playstation Home network.

HermitWorks has been planning on doing the same thing with Space Trader for a long time, and it’s starting to come together right now. High score lists, friends, comments, badges, profiles. It’s all designed to make the player feel like they’re part of a community - because they are.

Another interesting thing about the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is that they offer online downloadable demos for games. For example, Little Big Planet will be available in demo form this year, and will hit the retail space in 2008. Sony has previously announced that they are very interested in online distribution of full retail titles, not just demo versions. This is a pretty strong endorsement for how well online distribution works. Even the casual observer can tell you: Online distribution makes sense and works. Valve’s STEAM has been proving this for quite some time now. Physical copies of software still have a place, but their days are numbered.

So what am I trying to get across? Since we know what the coming game industry will be like, I can tell you with certainty that Space Trader is going to be a great example of the future of gaming. Seamless online distribution with rich community support to share your accomplishments with others and challenge friends, along with a stream of new game content (See my previous post.).

One of the best parts about this changing games industry is that it’s easier than ever for Indie Developers to put together an awesome little title and get it into the hands of gamers. The Great Games Experiment acts like a pre-packaged community site for your game, and you can find an audience instantly with it. Online distribution means you can skip the publisher and make money directly off of your game. It also means that consoles, which have previously been a difficult target to hit for small developers become realistic and lucrative markets.

It’s pretty awesome, I think.

Regards, Daigle