SO MANY PEOPLE WORK ON GAMES – IS INDIVIDUAL ACCREDITATION THE SOLUTION TO UNWIELDY CREDITS?
We need better spotlighting of just who is responsible for our favourite gaming moments
One frequent argument at OPM Towers revolves around the closing credits for the missions in Metal Gear Solid V. Whether you consider them tedious or “very cool, like television”, you’ve got to admit it’s neat to have credits per mission as opposed to them being dumped in one sometimeslengthy clump at the end of the game. Though I wish they were more expansive.
I’d like to see more of the MGS V approach, taken to a finer detail (and with the option for it to not get in the way if it’s not your thing). There are so many tiny things I love in so many games, but more often than not it’s hard to have an idea of who actually worked on them. Your favourite games might all have staff in common yet you could never know. Who’s really responsible for your fondest gaming moments?
POINTING FINGERS
Granted, developing a game is often a messy process. It’s hard to nail down specifics in such an iterative activity, but that doesn’t mean games can’t try to be better about it, especially the Triple-A projects in which it’s easy to get lost. There’s more visibility there used to be – at the Borderlands 3 announcement event, Gearbox crammed all the staff in attendance onto the stage, which was lovely. And projects like Raising Kratos, the feature-length documentary on the making of God Of War, spotlight parts of the process you wouldn’t know otherwise. But it would be great to see these things having a stronger presence in the games themselves.
It’d be great to have more insight into who worked on certain parts of each game, and what experience they drew on. We love to highlight stories about the creators behind the games in the mag, so you’ll find out more from us – who knew, for instance, that Marthe Jonkers, senior concept artist on Cyberpunk 2077 (interviewed last issue), started off working in Japan on games like Dragon’s Dogma and Monster Hunter: World? Knowing that, you can see how some of that time in Japan might influence the designs of the Night City. Seeing more of those throughlines colouring the games we love can only be a good thing in the future.