GDC: Devs ‘must be willing to make radical changes’

Developers must be willing to make radical changes to their games if it is not reaching the level of success they are after, says Spy Fox Games CEO.

Speaking at GDC, as reported by Gamasutra, David Edery said that Iterating games with an existing audience and making changes against customers’ wishes is not always a bad thing.

He added that numerous iterations to its MMO Realm of the Mad God tripled the number of daily user retention to 37.6 per cent.

He revealed that tweaks to the way the game plays and how enemies interacted could be designed and added to the game in under a month to help keep players satisfied and challenged.

"Everyone’s afraid of being the next Star Wars Galaxies, it’s not always a bad thing to iterate games with an existing audience,” he said.

He added: "As a company, I feel like we’ve gotten really good at saying ‘screw it, let’s change it and see what happens,’” he said.

“That’s kind of the takeaway – remember to tell yourself, it’s okay if it doesn’t work, we’ll just change it back.”

“When you have a game with an existing population, and you’re not reaching the level of success you want, you need to be willing to make radical changes."

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