Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers

An interview on Eurogamer talks with Gas Powered Games boss Chris Taylor about Wildman, layoffs at GPG, and what the future holds, further clarifying what lead the company to the precipice. He describes the kind of financing the game will ultimately require and why the Kickstarter is for less than that, how they have brought back some key people, and more. He also has some choice words for game publishers, saying one of the company's burdens has been 11th hour game cancellations by publishers, saying one of these came a month ahead of beta testing.
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers
Jan 23, 2013, 04:43
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers Jan 23, 2013, 04:43
Jan 23, 2013, 04:43
 
MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jan 23, 2013, 01:20:
The games industry sounds more and more like a HORRIBLE place to work, unless you are somehow independently wealthy and can make any project you want without fear.
It always was. In fact, it was way more terrible in the Good Ole Days.

I know someone, who was hired with some other guys to program a game for Atari ST and Commodore 64 at the height of the homecomputer boom. They met at an adress in the country side which turned out to be an old farm. In the living room were three computers, a printer, three sleeping bags and enough food for a week. The client LOCKED the door behind them and left. Well, they themselves left soon after through a smashed window.

There is a reason why EA was so popular amongst developers for a long time. EA was one of the first companies to treat their contractors and studios professionally and fair. They paid good money and they paid on time AND not missing a single dime.
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers
Jan 23, 2013, 01:20
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers Jan 23, 2013, 01:20
Jan 23, 2013, 01:20
 
The games industry sounds more and more like a HORRIBLE place to work, unless you are somehow independently wealthy and can make any project you want without fear.

This is more of an example of the humanity-wide problem of clueless managers in charge of technical projects that they have no real understanding of, most importantly the time required to actually put something together that isn't complete garbage.

Chris Taylor seems like a nice guy who is just going to continually get chewed up by soulless managers/publishers. Unfortunately I don't like the very little shown about Wildman so far, it seems like exactly the wrong time to do any sort of ARPG no matter what other genres it includes. I don't plan on contributing to the Kickstarter at this point.
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers
Jan 23, 2013, 00:52
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers Jan 23, 2013, 00:52
Jan 23, 2013, 00:52
 
Stimpack wrote on Jan 22, 2013, 21:13:
That was an.... interesting interview.

Simply put its publisher’s that are screwing over smaller developers like GPG. It’s not like Chris is trying to mismanage the company. This all falls back to how publishers screw the little guy. He had similar isues with Sega years ago, on Space siege. They said here’s some money, you got one year to make it. After he released it in the condition it was, and believe me, he didn’t like putting out a half assed game. It was either release it as was, or you don’t get paid. And they even tried screwing him over on money after it was released.
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers
Jan 22, 2013, 22:02
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers Jan 22, 2013, 22:02
Jan 22, 2013, 22:02
 
Yeah, some of the analogies are hard to follow, but it sounds like he's under multiple NDAs and doesn't want to burn his bridges, so he's being oblique.

And Chris, don't think of it as people "feeling sorry for you." It's loyalty for all the good shit you've brought us over the years. Don't lose heart man. And don't think your KS won't make it. I've seen many kickstarters fund like 100-300K in the last 24 hours to push them over the top.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers
Jan 22, 2013, 21:13
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Re: Chris Taylor on GPG, Wildman, and Publishers Jan 22, 2013, 21:13
Jan 22, 2013, 21:13
 
That was an.... interesting interview.
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