Interview with Halo creator Alex Seropian

Original IGC Post by: Emmanuel Deloget at October 11, 2007 7:44:02 PM


Alex Seropian, better known for his contributions to the original Halo game and for being a Bungie veteran (he helped to found the studio and left it to create Wideload Games), spoke about being an independent game developer in his IndieGameCon keynote.

Interview

Halo Creator Speaks on Independent Development, Prostitution Business Model
by Chris Faylor Oct 11, 2007 9:19am CST

Speaking on the current climate of independent game development during his IndieGamesCon keynote address this year, accomplished industry veteran Alex Seropian (pictured left), who helped found Bungie and created Halo before leaving the studio to form Wideload Games, expressed his belief that now is the best time to be involved in the field and that the best business model for indie devs is akin to prostitution.
"I've been making games for about 16 years now...I would say that right now is absolutely the greatest time, ever, for being a game developer and making a game because of all the opportunities out there," he revealed. "There's this crazy upside right now. Everybody wants games, everybody wants new games. Our market is growing."

Digital distribution services such as GarageGames' web-based InstantAction platform, which Wideload just announced its first game for, and Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade play a key role in Seropian's optimistic stance. "You can sell games to a customer without a retail store," he noted. "That is a huge shift in the market. Ten years ago this was an idea...but I think Xbox Live Arcade has done such a great service to developers...just the fact that they've proven you can make money without retail in the games business is such a huge change.

"The potential for how successful a video game property can be is enormous," Seropian continued. Using the continuing success of The Sims as an example, he explained that technical and graphical prowess aren't nearly as important as having a good concept behind the game.

While Seropian and his company do not have an aversion to working with publishers--"We don't mind sucking at the teat of the publisher," he jested, "but we just want to have other food sources too. We don't want to starve when it dries up."--he lamented the heavy publisher resistance the studio encountered during attempts to bring Stubbs the Zombie (PC, Xbox) to the market. Though the subject of zombies proved successful, publishers failed to see the appeal in actually playing as a zombie. "What if instead of you being a zombie," Wideload was told, "you were a big giant dude with guns who killed the zombies.

"The moral of the story is indie game developers are guys who let you be a zombie," Seropian concluded from the experience. "So if you want to kill the zombies, you're probably a publisher. If you want to be a zombie, you're one of us. That's what I think an independent developer is."

The creator of Halo also stressed the long-term importance of creating as many original ideas as possible and retaining the intellectual property rights to those games. "If you can own your intellectual property, that's awesome," he said. "The only other business I can think of where you can sell something and still own it is prostitution. So we're in good company."

Not as nice as the interview with Wolfgang Engel but quite interesting qua information from the point of view of the creator
Thanks again for the effort

Cheers

Frazzle

I only wish indie developers started making their OWN intellectual property instead of riding off commercial successes. I know you can't reinvent the wheel but you can at least try. What I really dont want to see anymore is:

space marines with football shoulderpads.

Horror FPS's.

next gen rolling ball physics games.

uninspired, unoriginal anime .

MMO's with fire, ice, earth magic! so unique!

japenese voice acting.

anything that uses the word "forerunner" in its story.

Next gen graphics for a shooter where staying still to actually see the graphics gets you killed.

Anything with normal mapped, specular mapped, super mapped CRATES. Crates and boxes are unoriginal, find something else to detail that hallway with.

Gigantic minataur monsters or demons that have normal mapped effects and specular maps.

physics games for the sake of it being a physics game.

theres alot more I just cant remember them now

Yeah, I agree with most of your points but my game is liberlly sprinkled with the word forerunners as the translation from Maori to English in its real form (Literal translation: Tangata [People] Whenua [Land]) is Forerunner!
They were a people who were here in NZ before the Maori and actually taught Maori the foundations of civilisation.
Their artifacts (Trig Stations, Rock wall constructions etc..) are still in evidence as are their ways.
So I guess no sales there...

I would agree to some of that.. only.. space marines are timeless. I would like to see some new variations of them, though. I'm sure there's a commonly share dlogic as to why their "suits" weigh twice as much as the marine himself.. but yea, I guess it is overdone. and I would say.. no more zombie/reanimation virus related horror games. Time to mix things up a little there.

Anime is also timeless. Although again..time to mix things up a little with the stories in games of that type. Anime is just a genre.. and as the great Miyazaki taught us.. you can be brilliant.. while still being anime.. just no more teen squad saving the world (where oddly the military has failed) stuff. No more mech stuff.. or magic spell stuff.. (actually the mechs can stay.. everyone likes heavy metal..in games). For the love of God no more pokemon/trading card spoofed stuff. If one more knockoff comes out, I will personally exterminate eveyrone responsible .

Japanese voice acting is funny (it still wont save you any money on car insurance.. but its funny).

TOTALLY agree about MMORPGs.. THEY SHOULD ALL DIE.. or at least learn science . I like the advent of MMORTS's though.

I havent seen "forerunner" more than once.. though I would still avoid using it seeing as how it IS so closely associated with that one franchise.

About the crates.. what.. what do you want..bodies?..artwork?.. crates are usually for items.. that or for cover areas..

I would like to see some more abstract monsters..

You know what I think? WRITING.. the game's concept and story have become a lost art.. or at least an underinvested one. People try coming up with the game as its being made, and that just doesnt work when you dont have prodigious creative talent if you do, like me, then thats another story alltogether.. but 9/10 teams dont have that at their disposal.. and thats why some of their stuff looks alike in the end.