A Lesson To Be Learned: Stalker Initial Impressions

To me, independent developers are literally the heart and soul of gaming. The machinations are already in place to keep the large developers afloat. They have their franchises. Half Life is well established. Doom is a cornerstone franchise. Every EA sports title have their yearly update to keep the money flowing in to the coffers of the largest developer and publisher in the world. It is the smaller developers who look to take risks in order to make their mark on the industry. However, the smaller developers have to find their way in an aggressive world where presale marketing can make or break a title release.

What we then see is developers having a long and sometimes incestuous relationship with gamers in order to promote and sell their games. When I mean incestuous you just need to go to any forum and see some of the discussion which goes on. Having said that, if I had known nothing of the release of Stalker prior to the being placed on the shelves yesterday I would have thought this was a pretty good little game. However, me like many thousands of other gamers were told a lot more prior to the games' release over the last four or so years. In fact, this game had turned in to one of the games which I was most looking forward to, only to be disappointed on several occasions that it was either not going to be released, was going to be changed, or was in some state of flux. During this time the developers were seeking to secure a publisher for their game. So, they were not only looking to secure preordered sales but a company to take on the risk of delivering the product to the customer.

Stalker was one of the games which had a glut of high quality ingame movies released for it during its development period. Along with this there was a large community which was involved with the game on the developers web site. There was a large community focussed story competition to help the developers create some of the back story in game (this too had some issues). Many of the movies for the game were focused on the accuracy of their recreation of the area surrounding Chernobyl (including the abandoned city of Pripyat), the ballistics used in game and the revolutionary dynamic lighting (where movies showed large vistas moving from day to night - one of the big things about the game was that the sun was meant to be an actual light source in the game throwing dynamic shadows as it moved across the artificial sky). All of these things looked extremely impressive and well implemented in the movies released for the game. At the time Stalker was going to be a DirectX 9 app which pushed the boundaries of the hardware and the software.

I do not envy being an independent developer. The costs of keeping a company afloat with no income while you develop a title must be the hardest juggling act for any modern business. Plus, the added benefit of working with highly motivated creative people and keeping them focuses and on track over a five year development cycle (without burning them out) must be extremely tough. Then you have the fickle nature of the gaming industry itself to contend with as well. People, such as me, who get excited at the prospect of a game and build their expectations with the information which is provided to them prior to a games' release is another important consideration in the equation.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, things went out of control for GSC. The game they were developing and telling the gaming public about was not the game they were going to release. This is where other independent game developers should learn from GSC's mistakes. There needs to be things which you tell potential distributors about your product and then there are the things you tell the public. You tell the distributors your grand dreams for your product and then have them tell you what the reality is based on a delivery schedule. Then you tell the gaming public what you have got after you have got it and not before.

It seems to me that GSC have become too excited with what they thought they could develop before actually creating it in a workable format. They didn't protect their product before releasing to the public. This is the lesson to be learned. You have to learn how to tread the fine line of protecting your intellectual property while also creating the necessary excitement to generate presale orders in a hostile marketplace.

I will play Stalker through to its completion. I really do like some of the touches they have placed in the game. The ingame ballistics and the difficult combat is a good change to the standard run and gun shooters we are predominantly made to play. The oppressive environment is excellent and well maintained. The radiant AI is excellent the area has a feeling as though it is living, breathing and struggling to survive just as you are. However, the game runs perfectly for me in DirectX 8 and crashes with DirectX 9 mode. The game is not a sandbox game, but more three large levels out of Far Cry with no vehicles.

Like I said before, if I had not known any of the information about this game prior to its release then I would have thought this was an excellent game. Unfortunately, expectation is also a harsh mistress.