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Supermassive Looking To Expand Beyond Horror Story Games

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

This interview shared a lot of relevant information for those curious about the studio’s future post-acquisition, but one of the most noteworthy sections was when Samuels goes into the company’s plans for future games. He first states the studio’s commitment to continuing its current prolific trajectory where they have multiple annual releases. Samuels relays that the studio is currently 300-strong, and is looking to expand that number to 400 in a year. Not only that, they already have a roadmap where they know what their releases will be for the next “five or six years.”

“Those releases,” Samuels continues, “are largely geared around growing our audience, which means they require an amount of innovation.” Though they are committing to staying within their known style of story-heavy horror, they are looking for diversification in the types of games they make, their plan being to grow across platforms, genres and media.

They still want to concentrate on creating great stories and great characters, with choices and consequences being integral components of their games. They will also still focus on darker premises, with “death and fear” being common themes for their games, however, Samuels affirms that they could make this work outside of the horror genre, sharing that “there’s certainly conversations we have on a regular basis about what we might do [next].” He speaks of future games possibly having different mechanics, but that even if the industry would classify it as a different game genre, “it has to obviously be a Supermassive game.”

Samuels also explains how they feel they aren’t hindered by their acquisition, but strengthened by it. He says they still consider themselves independent, as Nordisk Games is not a publisher, so they can work with any publisher they want and release titles on any platform they want. Samuels goes on that they never felt pressure to sell but decided on a deal so they could further invest in the previously mentioned expansions.
 

EDMIX

Member
they REALLY need to work on having the choices have more of an impact across the entire story.

would rather they focus on the narrative component much more than the graphical one.

True, but I don't think thats an either or for them.

The team working on the graphics, art, character design etc will always give it their all and shouldn't be blamed for doing what they do well, on a narrative lacking as if them being punished or cut or having less artist or something would make a better narrative as I don't think its being made by one person that is a writer and artist and they are spending more time making the graphics as oppose to writing a story.

tbh, you are just asking for them to make a better narrative, that should have nothing to do with the efforts made by the artist as they are a different department.

keep in mind I don't disagree with the point you are making on those choices having more impact in the story. They can be the new telltale games in this regard, I simply worry about them going to a different genre.

I feel horror works well for what they were doing.
 
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pqueue

Member
True, but I don't think thats an either or for them.

The team working on the graphics, art, character design etc will always give it their all and shouldn't be blamed for doing what they do well, on a narrative lacking as if them being punished or cut or having less artist or something would make a better narrative as I don't think its being made by one person that is a writer and artist and they are spending more time making the graphics as oppose to writing a story.

tbh, you are just asking for them to make a better narrative, that should have nothing to do with the efforts made by the artist as they are a different department.

keep in mind I don't disagree with the point you are making on those choices having more impact in the story. They can be the new telltale games in this regard, I simply worry about them going to a different genre.

I feel horror works well for what they were doing.
well, since the narrative drives the graphics, in a way, it does.

i would prefer a more narrative rich story, where choices have more complex (even if subtle at times) impacts on the story, and have lesser graphics.

these are not twitch and shoots, you do not need the latest and greatest in gfx.

you can still create a great horror atmosphere with less FX, even more so when you have a compelling/dynamic story.

so if that means gfx suffer to serve the story, then I am all for it.
 

EDMIX

Member
well, since the narrative drives the graphics, in a way, it does.

In this respect, that is to even support that they'd need the most compelling graphics to help sell that narrative in the first place. Facial expressions, subtle animations etc.

i would prefer a more narrative rich story, where choices have more complex (even if subtle at times) impacts on the story, and have lesser graphics.

You can have both though...so I think they should stick with what they are doing with the graphics as more suggest that can be used to reinforce some narrative.

So think they should work on making a better narrative sure and more choices to have complex twist and turns, but I don't see how nerfing the graphic would be needed for them to do that.

The more the writer fucks up, the more the artist gets beat up on the streets lol

b9bf3bc946a83a9028a5caf200b4cb6e.gif


Be like "this game look TOO GOOD, DAS why the story was shit!"

yooooo Mickey was really putting in that work on this dude lol
 
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