Events

[GAMING] In the congested world of gaming, it is easy to lose sight of the hard work and effort it takes to create a unique product based on an original concept. Mainstream developers such as EA and Warner Bros. leave fans waiting for the next reiterated prototype, as gamers spend countless hours with the current version they already own and big companies delve into their big budgets, rehashing concepts. Gamers think they’ve seen all there is to see in the gaming world. Buffalo Game Space is a humbling reminder that new ideas are coming out on a local level. This platform for independent gamers and developers allows newcomers to learn the ins and outs of the indie gaming scene, and to watch an idea evolve into a video game. This Saturday, October 24 BGS is hosting a “Halloween Spooktacular” at the Tri-Main Center.” The event will feature a cash bar, spooky video games, a prize raffle, and live music from Danimal Cannon, a local musician who writes music using his guitar and his game boy. This week we sat down with BGS founders John Futscher and Chris Langford and board member Anthony Swinnich to talk about this nonprofit organization and indie gaming in Buffalo. To read our full interview, go to dailypublic.com.

How did Buffalo Game Space come to fruition?
John Futscher: A forum post from three years ago. I hit a wall. I needed to meet artists and know other people around here were facing the same issues I was facing. Turns out there were, but we didn’t know each other existed. I met Chris, we met other people and turned this into a lightning rod for other people in the community.

Chris Langford: [John] and I were doing the same thing at the same time. We both worked independently from home in our spare time. I thought, “Why aren’t there more people doing this?” There is a very popular indie gaming development forum that I hopped on. I was going to [post] to see if there are any developers in Buffalo only to find that someone already posted it.

Is there a pretty big market for indie games in Buffalo?
JF: There are two markets: markets for games, and markets for game jobs. Games are the largest entertainment art force on the planet. All the major blockbusters of the year are nothing compared to blockbuster games. The game jobs aren’t necessarily in Buffalo, yet. That is part of why we started this group, to change that. There is no reason you have to be in a specific area anymore with digital distribution and the free tools available online. You can make games here and a part of it is needing support from a community, like what we’ve started around here. 

How does the concept for a video game start?
Anthony Swinnich: The ideas can come from anywhere. We built [Shutshimi] for a game jam where the theme was “10-second games.” It was an art mistake that a spaceship ended up looking like a fish, so we took it from there.  

CL: It is like a massive brainstorming session where people start shouting out ideas. People come up with a fresh idea or riff off of an idea someone else said and refine it or add a twist to it to make it more interesting.

What does BGS have to offer?
CL: We’re running workshops every Tuesday night. We’ve got general game development meet ups every other Thursday. We’ve got specialized meetings, we’re open every day throughout the week until 7pm.

Before your involvement in the indie gaming industry, were you already supporting indie games and developers?
CL: I’d say I already was. I’ve been making my own game and developing graphics and software here and there for years prior, sort of off and on as a hobby. As I started getting more seriously into it, I started looking online around the time when the indie gaming scene was starting to boom. I started getting on the forums to see if there was anyone in the area that was doing the same thing.

JF: I’ve always wanted to make games ever since I was a little kid. I got sidetracked, life has a tendency to get in the way with having to pay bills and keep yourself stable. I’ve always been making games on the side with whatever I could get my hands on, and I’ve always played games. At a certain point, you feel like you’ve played all the games you can, you’ve done everything they have to offer.  The indie game scene was the only place to find new and exciting ideas. These interesting concepts were coming out of these small groups or individual developers making their own things happen that were unique and special because it was based on a small group instead of a giant marketing conglomerate putting together the next big blockbuster type situation. Seeing what they were doing and putting that with some of the skills I picked up, it just made sense, so I started doing it.

Do you consider mainstream developers like EA and Warner Bros. competition? Do you think they consider the indie gaming industry competition?
JF: On one aspect, they’re all games, right? In a certain sense, you are competing there. In another scenario, with a certain audience you’re’ competing on your ideas and your concept as opposed to your budget. A lot of these big blockbuster games, like the Call of Duty’s that get rehashed every year, or the Assassins Creeds, or whatever target of the month that has a $500 million budget behind it are basically rehashing old ideas and putting really slick, high level production values on top of it. That cost a ton of money and it produces a completely different product than what a lot of the people in the small studios are trying to create. They’re trying to create something unique and special. It doesn’t cost a ton of money to make it, so they compete on ideas as opposed to cash.

Part of the reason you see these giant budgets rehashing the same ideas is because they’ve got a proof of concept of something that works, it’s completely risk averse. They’re doing everything in their power to put out something that is guaranteed to sell. That is why you see the same things come out time and time again, versus competing on these unique concepts. With indie games, a lot of them may fall flat. You’re going to find a niche audience. When they are successful in a tiny audience, it is not going to be a mainstream $100 million game because of virtue of what it is. It is not built for mass market appeal. 

Are developers putting more money into creating a product versus what they actually make from it?
CL: That is entirely project dependent. There are a lot of variables that can go into that in terms of strictly budget. I think a lot of independent developers work from home, out of pocket or they save up a lot of money and take time off to work on the project themselves before they get an investor, if that even happens. In terms of money and financial issues, if you have a good idea and a team to execute it, the amount of crowd funding potential that is out there now makes it simpler. You can go online, put together a pitch and get financial support from people who also pick up on your idea and appreciate your skill set and want to see your project.

I was at a seminar discussing difficulties being an independent developer. One guy was frutsrated about people pirating him games, and about pricing the games: people don’t way to pay for his game, but he wants people to know about the game. Give it out your game for free just for exposure, or try to make money off your product?
JF: It is an unfortunate situation where there is this race to the bottom on pricing for games. People become accustomed to the Steam sale mechanics where the game comes out for $20 and two months down the road, you can buy it for $2. People don’t buy the game at full price anymore, they wait for sales, and they wait for the game to be out there for five cents instead of paying what the developers feel it is actually worth. When you look at the cost versus the actually amount of content and entertainment you get out of a game versus going to a movie for $15 or $20 for two hours, people will pay for that but not $10 for a game they can get 30 hours of entertainment out of. There is some fundamental disconnect where people have been conditioned to devalue the art that comes out of this production pipeline.

AS: Our game is $10 and everyone thinks that is too much. People just think it should be cheaper. No matter what, the price is wrong. Like John said, people become too accustomed to sales.  There is also a way larger percentage of people who don’t make games who are buying games, compared to people who do. We’re outweighed.

That falls back to the demand for BGS?
JF: The more people that understand how games are made, the better off everybody will be. It is hard to say to a developer ‘I won’t pay $5 for your game,’ when you’ve watched them sweat over it for three years. That aside, just a general knowledge base for the public of understanding what games are, what they can be, and what interactive art actually is, because this is a new art form and a new way of expressing yourself that people haven’t really figured out yet. Especially with the advent of virtual reality, there is a lot going on, people don’t understand what to make of it yet. People are still trying to figure it out, they are still trying to figure out what this medium is going to be, and the more people that understand what goes into making things in this medium, the better off our entire culture and local community will be.