SpyParty's Hecker: Some Indies Still Too Risk-Averse

Author: by Staff

In a feature-length interview with Gamasutra, SpyParty developer Chris Hecker expresses frustration with indies who stick to by-the-numbers game designs. Hecker expressed dismay that indies sometimes act as risk-averse as major publishers with huge overheads, creating games in established genres rather than experimenting. Said Hecker, this "makes it actually even more of a crime against nature that so many indies are content to do just another platformer or another shmup because it's like, 'Dude, you could do anything! You could push in any direction, you have no constraints -- and you chose to do another shmup!? Like, really?'" Hecker said, "I don't actually differentiate. I don't cut indies more slack. Like, a shitty game is a shitty game and a great game is a great game. I don't care whether you did it in Flash in your bedroom or whether 400 people did it in Shanghai." However, it's not all about pushing out in new directions just to do so, Hecker admitted. "I should be careful with the word 'innovation' because there's innovation for innovation's sake and then there's pushing in the directions that I think are important." The full interview, in which Hecker discusses the design of his upcoming game in detail, is live now on Gamasutra.