Edge
Microsoft’s support of indie developers has been questioned in recent months, but by revealing new projects from Press Play and Twisted Pixel on stage during its E3 conference, the platform holder showed that it hasn’t abandoned smaller projects entirely.
On the contrary, in partnering with Capy it has snared a true independent development darling; the studio blazed onto the scene with the beautiful Sword & Sworcery, and then captured Mirosoft’s attention in a more official capacity with Super Time Force – the platform holder is publishing the title on Xbox Live Arcade.
What XBLA has done for indies shouldn’t be underestimated, says Capy co-founder Nathan Vella. He goes on to describe his contacts at Microsoft as “people who are as excited about your stuff as you are.”
“It sounds super-lame to say, but like you need people to believe in you, you need those champions, people who are going to fight for your vision for you, or else,” he tell us. “And we got that.”
Indeed, Vella says that the fact a game like Below was even shown on stage at E3 reflects how the industry is evolving, and that Microsoft is wary of that. “I really am super-appreciative of having people like our producers all the way to Phil [Spencer] fighting to announce our game that way, when it’s not the easiest sell. They showed our game on-stage, and our game is very… I mean it’s a fuckin’ sword-and-shield videogame, it’s gamey, it’s coming at it from a very different perspective and trying to speak to a subset of Xbox gamers. We’re not trying to make this crazy mass market game.”
So what’s it like, we ask, for a small studio to be thrust into the limelight like this? “Fuck, yeah… I mean that’s what we want,” says Vella. “It’s very exciting obviously. We believe in our studio and our ability to make stuff that is rad. I mean it sounds silly, but that’s what we want, that’s what we shoot for. I’m very appreciative and a lot of people we work with at Microsoft did a lot of work to make that happen, but at the same time I think that it deserved to be there.”
This wasn’t a last-minute decision on Microsoft’s part, either. Vella says his studio was among the first to develop for Xbox One. “There was a point in time where I was like: how many actual developers are making Xbox One titles? That’s how early on I felt like we were ushered into it. It’s not an easy thing to do, to like get in early on a new console.”
Sony beat Microsoft in terms of the sheer number of indies on stage at its E3 conference, but with Capy, Microsoft has backed the indie with – arguably – the finest pedigree. As we write this, easy, simplistic conclusions are being made about Xbox One across the games playing community; that Capy’s Below exists, and was announced in the way it was, is a reminder that the debate around indies on next gen consoles isn’t as binary as many believe it to be.
http://www.edge-online.com/features/e3-2013-why-capy-teamed-up-with-microsoft-and-what-it-says-about-xbox-one/
