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Left 4 Dead's writer on why he joined Bossa and the new co-op game he's making

Couple of days old, but didn't see it get picked up anywhere: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...red-tactical-shooter-thats-not-about-shooting

In perhaps the most surprising hire of the year, Chet Faliszek - the man who penned Portal and Left 4 Dead - joined UK developer Bossa Studios.

It's a major coup for Bossa, to be sure, but it's a seemingly odd move for the writer to leave the hallowed Valve in favour of a studio best known for quirky titles about woefully poor surgeons and playable bread.

But Faliszek tells GamesIndustry.biz his shift was the culmination of a long-running friendship between himself and the Bossa team, and a much needed return to game development. For the final three years of his 12-year stint at Valve, Faliszek worked on the firm's virtual reality efforts but he also filled his time playing around with artificial intelligence and its potential applications in video games.

Often meeting with the Bossa team at conferences and other events, he soon discovered that they had been doing the same thing, with the two parties “approaching the same kind of problem but from two very different angles.”

“We'd both come to the conclusion that this solves a bunch of the core problems that stops you from really giving a player agency,” Faliszek tells us.

“There's also something about the size [of Bossa] I like. The team wants to take risks and do something different. One of the things I would talk about with Imre [Jele, co-founder] and Henrique [Olifiers, CEO] is I wanted to try something we could fail at. Only a studio our size could take the risk on something like this and be agile enough [to build it].”

Faliszek has a little difficulty describing his first project at Bossa. He initially positions it as a co-operative tactical shooter, but that's already an oversimplification.

“It's a really broad range of things,” he says. “If you're just shooting, we've failed. It should have a broader set of verbs than that, you should be able to do different things.”

“Shadow of Mordor's a great example of how [AI] affects that game, makes you feel about that game, how you interact with characters and how it can make things personal,” Faliszek agrees. “We wanted to bring that across with all aspects of the game so you could understand where, if you get into trouble or face problems, you understand how you got there. You understand the path - either your defeats or victories - that got you there."

He continues: “That's what we mean by story, too. When we say story, it's often people thinking big monologues and that kind of story. But story is also activities and actions and different elements. When we talk about story and the narrative, that's what we're exploring. That gives you a broader range of interactions you can have with NPCs.”

Faliszek recently gave a talk to developers about his new project, which Bossa later posted to YouTube, in which he said “the best stories are the ones players can tell about themselves”. It's a phrase that instantly brings to mind online multiplayer shooters like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, where tales of narrow escapes, incredible triumphs and hilarious failures are common - although in such cases this is entirely dependent on the other players in the match.

The notion of betrayal also alludes to another reason why Bossa's game won't be a traditional shooter. The entire genre is built on titles where the conflict has already begun, but Faliszek says players will be “starting in peace”, then given motivation to explore the world and “either be helpful or negative to other people”. The adventure stems from them, with different NPCs reacting differently to players depending on their previous actions.

“Those kind of interactions, the kind of stories that derive from there make some level of sense but they're not as structured as classic stories,” he says. “The AI will be looking and going 'oh wait, you're about to meet this character but you don't know if they're mad at you or not, you've only met nice people lately and lived a very peaceful existence, let's put an antagonistic guy there'.

Faliszek is unable to comment on the exact structure of the game, but it does sound like it will be less dependent on strict missions and funnelling players from event to event. We've all experienced that frustration when you cross an invisible boundary that triggers the warning “You are leaving the mission area”, forcing you to turn back, but Faliszek is keen to ensure his game is more open.

More at the link.
 
Valve must be truly lost

Whatever they accomplished as a video game developer of single player titles pales in comparison to the importance of the role they have now. Steam has changed the world, and it's the best online store- Not just in gaming, but period, in terms of value, sales and accessibility.

It's multiplayer focused titles like CSGO and DOTA2 are some of the most important popculture franchises of all time.



Valve isn't lost, they've changed, and they are many many many many times more succesful at what they do, than had they stayed committed to making Half-Life games. And fuck Half-Life.
Someone else could make first person shooters that are actually worth two pots of piss. I don't get the insistence on that it's Valve who has to carry this burden, when it's been the faults of other developers for not making a genre defining FPS since Half-Life 2. If you want to blame anyone- Blame the rest of the industry for failing to carry the torch forward.

There are many companies who make engines, who make FPS and who have all the opportunities and resources to make better games than Valve ever could.

But other companies cannot do what Valve is doing with Steam. Steam is infinitely more important than Valves IPs.
It's counter productive to make the case that Valve is lost just because they changed.
 

Blam

Member
I don't get why people think Valve is lost. Just because they aren't doing the bidding of every single person ever.
 
Whatever they accomplished as a video game developer of single player titles pales in comparison to the importance of the role they have now. Steam has changed the world, and it's the best online store- Not just in gaming, but period, in terms of value, sales and accessibility.

It's multiplayer focused titles like CSGO and DOTA2 are some of the most important popculture franchises of all time.



Valve isn't lost, they've changed, and they are many many many many times more succesful at what they do, than had they stayed committed to making Half-Life games. And fuck Half-Life.
Someone else could make first person shooters that are actually worth two pots of piss. I don't get the insistence on that it's Valve who has to carry this burden, when it's been the faults of other developers for not making a genre defining FPS since Half-Life 2. If you want to blame anyone- Blame the rest of the industry for failing to carry the torch forward.

There are many companies who make engines, who make FPS and who have all the opportunities and resources to make better games than Valve ever could.

But other companies cannot do what Valve is doing with Steam. Steam is infinitely more important than Valves IPs.
It's counter productive to make the case that Valve is lost just because they changed.

I hear that Amazon thing is doing pretty well. Let's not go crazy here.
 

FireFly

Member
Valve isn't lost, they've changed, and they are many many many many times more succesful at what they do, than had they stayed committed to making Half-Life games. And fuck Half-Life.
Someone else could make first person shooters that are actually worth two pots of piss. I don't get the insistence on that it's Valve who has to carry this burden, when it's been the faults of other developers for not making a genre defining FPS since Half-Life 2. If you want to blame anyone- Blame the rest of the industry for failing to carry the torch forward.
There are many companies who make engines, who make FPS and who have all the opportunities and resources to make better games than Valve ever could.
But other companies cannot do what Valve is doing with Steam. Steam is infinitely more important than Valves IPs. It's counter productive to make the case that Valve is lost just because they changed.
Right, and how many independent FPS developers still exist? Valve's financial position is what gives them the ability not to compromise on quality and iterate again and again, until they create something truly special.

That's why they *should* be the industry leaders, and not merely the administrator of an online storefront. Even if they don't have the development resources to spare (which seems unlikely to me), they could still be partnering with other studios.
 
Steam has changed the world, and it's the best online store- Not just in gaming, but period, in terms of value, sales and accessibility.

Steam is overflowing with absolute dreck. Shovelware, meme games, "beta" games that are barely games at all, reskinned versions of existing games sold again at the same price, and more. The few truly good independent games have a hard time standing out because they get lost amongst all the garbage.

Steam's customer support is damn-near non-existent.

Their sales are a shadow of what they used to be ever since they got rid of daily deals.

Steam is successful and profitable for Valve because they're willing to allow people to pay to upload their games with zero effort on their end to actually regulate anything. Why bother to screen games for quality/inappropriate content, or provide decent customer service when they can just sit back and let the cash roll in?

Valve may be the most successful they've ever been, but don't conflate success with respectability.

That's why I find the following statement from this article ridiculous:

"but it's a seemingly odd move for the writer to leave the hallowed Valve in favour of a studio best known for quirky titles about woefully poor surgeons and playable bread."

Why is it odd that a writer would actually want to fucking write something? Valve sure as shit aren't giving him anything to sink his teeth into.

And "hallowed"? It's been years since Valve could be considered "hallowed".
 
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