Sorry, it’s me talking about Vlambeer again – specifically a new video the team has posted on its website that details the short-lived “SQUAD MODE” in Luftrausers. You know, 100 player-controlled planes, huge explosions, total chaos. Looks excellent – and it’s not going to be in the game.
Here’s the video!
And here’s what it made me think.
1. Cor, making games looks like a lot of fun. You have your idea, you build your prototype, and then you start screwing around with the variables! Screwing around with the variables looks amazing. What if you accidentally find something incredible? Squad Mode? Who doesn’t want that?
2. Making games looks hard. I remember the exact moment I realised I didn’t want to have anything to do with the film industry. I was watching Ghostbusters – I’m always watching Ghostbusters – and I was listening to the audio commentary. The team were explaining how Louis Tully was originally going to be played by John Candy, but Candy wanted to make the character a German fellow who had a lot of alsatians. I remember thinking: God, somebody’s got to choose between Rick Moranis as a nerd and John Candy as a weird German guy with dogs. Who could work out which of those is going to be better? I’m not cut out for this lark.
I feel the same thing with this video. As if it’s not hard enough to be sufficiently brilliant to create Squad Mode, you’ve got to then be sufficiently brilliant to know it should probably come out again. And you’ve got to make these kind of decisions hundreds of times a week, most likely. Fun? Probably. Terrifying? Definitely. If it’s alright with everyone, I’ll leave making the games to better minds, and I’ll just write some nonsense about them every so often.
