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The Incredible Adventures of Mr. Fish

Earlier this month the 2012 Game Developers Conference (GDC) took place and game devs from around the world came to give and hear speeches on game design. One such panel included indie developers featured in Indie Game: The Movie. It was there that a Japanese developer from the audience asked the panel what they thought of modern Japanese video games. According to Develop, the reply he received from Phil Fish was a short and rather unsweet, “your games just suck” followed by a barrage of criticisms aimed squarely at the developer’s home country. It’s what some people would consider rude and makes Mr. Fish look like a complete ass. Yet there seems to be a large group of people that regret the way in which he replied to the question, and yet do not necessarily disagree with what he was trying to say.
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Another article by Jools Watsham, co-founder and game designer at Renegade Kid, looking at the wonderful world of publisher excuses, followed by a handy checklist on how to make your game successful.

Tim Schafer speaks to the new Hookshot Inc. (and they spelled his name right!):

Well, I'm not trying to vilify them. Publishers do their business in a way that works for them. They're risking millions of dollars so they've got to mitigate that risk - and sometimes that means removing risky ideas from games. The thing is, Double Fine is all about coming up with new, unproven and really creative ideas. It's a constant battle for us to get those ideas to go through the system, that long spanking machine of people who have to sign off on your idea. They're not evil, they're just trying to protect themselves.

He neglected to mention that developers too need to protect themselves, even if that involves side-stepping publishers entirely.