Rich's Thoughts from E3

Hi friends!

In case you aren’t in the video game world, or if you are in the gaming world but are living under a rock, E3 happened last week! This will be a two-part blog post: first, Rich will kick off with a few of his key highlights and some reflections about them; then Geneviève will give us a more in-depth recap of the most exciting things that she saw from the conference.

Rich's E3 Thoughts

The first piece of news that stood out to me about E3 this year was Microsoft buying Compulsion Games along with three other studios, and opening a studio of their own called The Initiative. The reason that stands out is because we’re close friends with the folks over at Compulsion, and they helped us get off the ground as a studio and figure out how to exist in the games world from the very start. We’re super happy for them, and super proud of the Montreal community that helped spawn them (or that they helped spawn, really). Beyond our happiness for Compulsion, I think this marks a pretty big shift in focus for Microsoft. The days of larger companies (Microsoft, Sony, Ubisoft) buying small studios was rumored to be over, and I think this proves otherwise. To me, this is just another step Microsoft is taking to show its dedication to the indie or mid-level (some would call it AA or iii games) studios. Either way, check out Compulsion's new trailer for We Happy Few:

Nintendo showed some amazing stuff in their E3 video, as usual. Most notably among them was a long segment about the new new Super Smash Bros game, which includes all characters that have ever been in any Smash game! You can tell by the amount of time and focus they spent on it that they aim for this game to be the next Smash Bros Melee, and aren’t going to be discounting it for future competitive tournament play. They also showed a new Mario Party game, and announced a million things that will be coming to Switch, including Fortnite. I think the inclusion of Fortnite along with these other games will be huge for the continued success of the Switch.

Also, Overcooked 2 was announced with online multiplayer! If you liked the first one, this one is similar but has more features such as throwing food items, more dynamic levels, and of course online play. This is an interesting move for a couple of reasons; first, the choice to make a sequel instead of provide free updates to the existing game is one that many indie studios are not making. The aversion to sequels has been described by some people in the industry as being very silly, seeing as sequels almost always sell better than their original counterparts if the first game was a success. Why we tend to avoid sequels is a huge question that could probably justify a whole other article, but we’ll leave it at that for now. Second, the addition of online multiplayer to a game that performed well despite having only local play is an important one that emphasizes the idea that a local multiplayer game simply doesn’t have the potential to do well in the current game landscape. Additionally, it might show that it was easier for them to rewrite significant portions of the game and make a new second game rather than make adjustments to their current one, a strategy that many indie studios have avoided (much to the chagrin of some busy programmers).

Apart from those things that were most important to me in terms of announcements, I was excited to see a Cuphead DLC which I will surely buy, and I might be interested in getting back into the Tomb Raider series if I can get over the fact that the games tend to be more like movies than games, and just enjoy the ride.

There were some other huge announcements which I didn't talk too much about because they simply involve games that I can't see myself playing, but in Geneviève's article she'll discuss a lot more of a variety of things. Check back soon for her post!

Lots o love,
Rich from Clever Endeavour Games :)

Thoughts from PAX 2018

A few weekends ago, Rich went to PAX, the massive gaming expo that happens in Boston every spring. There, he played a bunch of cool games. A large bunch of cool games. In fact, by his account, he saw and played around 40 games, and took notes on each and every one. He tells his story below:

The reason I went to PAX was to see what the current market is like, meet other developers, have some meetings, and try to get some inspiration for whatever it is we're doing next. Below are my three favourite games, but it should be noted that I didn't spend much time looking at games from Montreal teams because I already know them, so those will be omitted from the list. Sorry Montreal friends!

Lonely Mountains: Downhill by Megagon Industries was probably my favourite game I played at PAX. The game is a downhill biking game with a beautiful low poly art style, where your goal is to make it to the bottom of the mountain. The coolest thing I found about this game was that you can play in two ways: you can either try to get the fastest time, find the best shortcuts, and race down while making precise turns, or you can take your time and explore the scenery and enjoy the ride. I'm the kind of person that would explore and see if I could find all the secrets, and maybe come back for more competitive play as well. Really excited for this game!

The next favourite game, which I've seen before but just had to mention because it's outstanding, was The Messenger, by Sabotage Studio. It looks like a classic NES platformer executed absolutely perfectly.

With echoes of Ninja Gaiden, this game does a great job of giving that retro, nostalgic feel while keeping some of the elements of new games that we know and love, that the NES simply didn't have the capacity to do. I see this game a bit like Shovel Knight, in the sense that it stands out from the indie retro platformer crowd by very clearly showing that it's a professional throwback executed with great care.

Last but not least, was a game called Synthrally by Roseball Games. The below gif is a bit confusing, so I'll explain.

You play as a red or blue shape / character, and a disc is passed back and forth. Your goal, depending on the game mode, can be to not get hit by the disc, to knock the disc into another players target, etc. When it comes close to you, you can press a button to hit it back, shoot it with an arrow, or use other abilities to move the disc. There was actually a lot of depth to the game, and when playing as teams of two there was even more depth; players had to choose their class and abilities and try to compliment each others' play style. While I think the game is really great, I wonder if its minimal art style won't hurt it down the line, similar to how Videoball was a fantastic game but might not have had enough flair to attract the average gamer. Time will tell, but I hope it does well.

All in all, the PAX trip was really great. I learned a lot, practiced my analysis of design, talked to some cool devs, and got a good snapshot of what's happening in the indie scene. I'll admit I didn't see much of the AAA world, but I did see another billion class-based shooters and battle royale games. 

See you next time!

The Clever Endeavour Story Started at MRGS

Written by Richard, co-founder / designer / business guy at Clever Endeavour

As you may have seen, the Mount-Royal Game Society (MRGS) will be closing its doors for good in the following months. They talked about it on a post on their website, which I've linked here. While the news is sad, we understand why they're closing and we hugely appreciate the work they've done over the last 7-8 years. They're having a going away party (can you call it that?), if you're interested as well!

Clever Endeavour, like many other studios I'm sure, has a special relationship with MRGS as it's the place we got started.

First of all, their monthly meetups are the first meetups I went to in the games industry, and the first step of my adventure into this wacky world. I showed up confused, lost, and feeling out of place, and finally mustered up the confidence (desperation?) to talk to people. Luckily enough, I met Osama Dorias, who is an amazing person (as well as an amazing game developer) and he introduced me to some others at the event.

Second, I met Kyler (one of the other co-founders of the company) at an MRGS meetup right when I began looking into starting a game development studio. We met at my second or third event, and it was love at first sight. Well, not really. Actually, I pitched him a game, and he kinda liked what he was doing in his freelance work, and didn't want to jump into a company with someone he didn't know. After speaking with him the next months at the same meetups, I think he was slowly convinced to give it a shot and try to work with Alex (the other co-founder) and I.

Next, we decided to do a game jam with the three of us and another friend named Hamish, who didn't end up staying on the team, and that game jam was using the themes provided by the DATGAM Game Jam which was organized by the MRGS. While we didn't "compete", we showed our prototype off at the next MRGS meetup and Ultimate Chicken Horse was born, under the temporary name "Horseblock". 

The organization has been an important part of the indie developer ecosystem in Montreal, and was extremely important in the creation and development of our team and our game, which eventually led to a larger company with employees, etc. We wanted to write this post to thank the organizers for the work they've put in, and thank the organization for creating a friendly, warm environment in which anyone can share their games and thoughts without judgment. Thanks again, and best of luck to the organizers in all of their future endeavours.

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