Game Development Elite : Wolverine Soft - Video Games at the University of Michigan

As many people involved with Wolverine Soft know, producing a great game is no simple or easy task. Whether one starts with a basic compiler and some free libraries, or a top-notch team and the most sophisticated tools available today, it is difficult to make a truly great game. (For the purpose of this article, take 'great' to mean both critically acclaimed and, in the case of a commercial games, a big seller.) But what is it that makes some games great and other duds or merely decent?

One could begin by listing various qualities of games that one believes to be important, such as graphics, sound, controls, game mechanics, level of immersion, and theme. While such qualities might be necessary for a great game, it seems that they are not sufficient. I'm sure many of us are quite capable of imagining a game that doesn't seem to fail obviously in any of these areas and yet fails to wow somehow or another.

Certain game development studios seem more up to the task than others when it comes to producing hit after hit. Quite a few studios have produced some truly great games, but few have been able to bring the same level of success back to the table with literally every title produced. Thusly, I will try to look at the few studios that come to mind when I try to think of which studios have never failed to produce a hit with any release.

Note that several high profile game development studios that few of us would seriously criticize did not make this cut for bizarre reasons. Maxis [2] is an unbelievably successful studio, but one would be hard-pressed to say that Sim Ant [9] was a masterpiece. Sure it is old, but what were they thinking? What about Square Enix [3]? They have produced countless very successful games... and the Bouncer [10]. I will not be discussing several of my favorite companies, so don't take this to be an exhaustive list of the best game development studios around. That is not what it is intended to be.

If you are interested in checking out additional game studios, please check out the list from gameboomers.com [1]. Many great studios, past and present are listed. It is an interesting read, all by itself. Now, onto the elite who have never failed to produce a great game according to our definition.

BioWare [4] (expansions and modifications omitted for space and sanity reasons)

Baldur's Gate I and II
Jade Empire
MDK 2 and Armageddon
Neverwinter Nights
Star Wars: KotOR

Blizzard [5] (...)

Diablo I and II
Starcraft
Warcraft I, II, III, and World of Warcraft

Epic Games [6] (...)

Gears of War
Unreal 1, 2, and Tournaments

id Software [7] (...)

Doom I, II, and III
Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Quake I, II, III, and IV

Valve [8] (...)

Half-Life 1 and 2

One interesting trend regarding these studios is that for the most part, they don't have too many product lines. BioWare is the only studio on the list with more than three overarching names for their games.

Also, for the most part, these studios know what kind of games they want to make and have very few genres they span. id Software, Epic Games, and Valve have all produced nothing but first person shooters. In Valve's case, one might claim that it is more story driven than for the other three companies, but when it comes down to it, their product is still just a first person shooter. In Blizzard's case, they have two genres: real time strategy, and hack and slash roleplaying game. Interestingly, World of Warcraft combined a product line focusing on real time strategy with their classic hack and slash gameplay. Since the MDK games, BioWare has created nothing but roleplaying games.

In summary, it seems that a company is likely to have the highest success rate when it sticks to what it does best and does not branch out too much. Even the companies mentioned earlier as being highly successful but not quite making the cut focused entirely on Sim(ulation) titles and role playing games, respectively.

Perhaps it is not such a mystery as to why game play innovation is at least somewhat stifled in the industry. The companies that are the most successful, at least in a certain sense, are the companies that branch out the least. What might the reasons for this be? Is it that consumers forever associate a company with a genre or franchise? Is it that a company, once mastering one genre, fails to fully move on when trying out a new one? It seems like a bit of a mystery, really. One thing that is clear, however, is that when a company nearly masters a genre (or maybe two) and then decides not to move on, it is likely to be a good business decision.

Links:

Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.

Written by jehuty@umich.edu about 4 years ago

Edited by Mitchell Bloch about 4 years ago

I also think an important factor is that a lot of the succese of these companies lies with the fact that they created extremely strong IPs. Once created, people looked forward to their titles and that gave the companies a strong amount of leeway. Though that fact of having a strong IP alone isn't what I'm getting at. A lot of the games I see up there were delayed numerous times or not simple sequels that were crapped out under a strict schedule. The companies set a bar with their games, and did not release a product until they thought it was good. They figured out initially how to make a good game to commercial success, built a name that people would wait for, and made sure the next game would meet their bar. It's sad when other IPs fail for such lack of planning. Then again, the same process is something Nintendo is infamous for. And I admire that, but it still makes me ask that why in this generation were their games just good and not incredibly good like they had been during the 64 days. Nontheless, I recommend, as long as your not polishing a turd of a project, delay it, and make sure we play a good game in the end. And I liked The Bouncer. : P

Written by Mitchell Bloch about 4 years ago

I agree with you entirely that these companies do not make the mistake of rushing games out the door and that this builds trust with their consumers. I even thought of including this at one point, but it seems to have slipped my mind. Thanks for adding that.

Also, that you enjoyed the Bouncer is beside the point. What matters is that the critical acclaim and really strong sales weren't there. I'm not saying anything about the quality of the game in that case. I do think, however, that Sim Ant was a very silly concept for a commercial game.

Still liked the bouncer

Written by Christopher Shell about 4 years ago

Well I agree that it is these companies sticking with what they know the best and doing what they do the best that largely contributes to their consisent product quality. As as consumer, I don't mind this at all. You plenty of games across a range of genres at your disposal, but its those well-known companies like Blizzard, Maxis, and Square Enix that you can really depend on when you wanna be pretty much assured to play a quality RTS, Simulation, RPG respectively. As for The Bouncer, I remember renting that game the day it came out. I played the crap outta it for those five days, beating it over and over and over again and experiencing/unlocking just about everything the game had to offer. It was a good fun cinematic beat-em-up. It kinda reminded me of Square's past experiments with cinematic games with the Parasite Eve series. I don't know if the gameplay has not really aged well, or if it was just that I played the game out during the rental. But I remember I decided to wait until the game got real cheap to actually buy it since I'd already played through it multiple times. But when I did buy and play it again, I couldn't stand it enough to finish it once. I still think it was good though because I surely haven't forgotten how much of a blast I had with it the first time.

Written by Taylor Pinson about 4 years ago

SimAnt was a damn good game. It certainly doesn't deserve to be lumped in with The Bouncer.

Video Game Development at the University of Michigan

Game Development Elite