'You won't have fun with games if you work at a big studio,' indie developer opens up

PC Gamer interviewed the indie collective/developer New Blood (authors of the boomer shooter Dusk which recently returned in the Dusk HD version) who had their say on the current situation of the videogame marketwithout mincing words.

Dave Oshryhead of New Blood, said: “We're not beholden to shareholders or investors or anything like that. We can do whatever we want – that's our motto: 'we hate money'. We don't actually hate money, money they're great, but if we wanted money we'd make a crafting survival horror game Dusk. An open world survival horror roguelike crafting deck builder Dusk. The games we make, we make for ourselves. It just so happens that other people want these kinds of games too. games”.

Oshry claims to be completely contrary to the mentality that dominates large companies: growth at any cost. According to him, the desire to want to grow more and more prevents us from creating good games and having fun doing it. New Blood has 30 people, and Oshry says he's happy with the size of this team, which works completely remotely.

“I care personally about our developers and everyone who works at New Blood, making sure everyone is happy and having fun, and making sure everyone's voice is heard.”

Growth is an aspect to take into consideration and contain for New Blood, which counters a “more people, more games, more stuff, more features, more loot boxes, more transactions, more money, more lines going up” attitude, in the words of Oshry, who argues that the People who love games should avoid getting sucked into this trap.

Oshry says, “People often ask me, 'Dave, if I want to get into gaming, how do I get started?' And I say don't do it. Stop. You should have started five or 10 years ago. Go study business, find a real job. Become a plumber. People need it.”

“You don't want to be employee number 356772 who reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to someone who makes the decisions. That sucks. The magic is gone. You won't enjoy video games anymore if you work at a big game studio.”

Creating indies is not easy and fun

THE structural problems described by the head of New Blood are not widely present among indie developers, but this does not mean that everything is easy and fun.

Oshry notes that It's “tough out there” and he's the first to admit that the success of New Blood doesn't allow for a one-size-fits-all guideline: “I can't give a speech at GDC about how to build a good video game company because we're barely a company. But one thing all I can say is work with your friends and treat them like they are your friends.”

Oshry added: “Since everyone seems to be wondering how we do so well in an industry that seems to be falling apart, in reality there are many companies that do wellyou just don't hear about it on the news amidst all the misfortune.”