It’s good that they’re making the games they want to see. I only hope that these students realize that games are an interactive medium: you should allow the player to tell their own story, within the framework and with the tools that you provide them.
A big problem some indie games are encountering is exactly this, that they’re so linear that they’re on rails. As fun as that can be, a big part of the magic games have can sometimes be from how each play through and each story told and each action taken differs.
I worry when people focus very hard on the details (e.g. how does the main character look?) where player expression and game mechanics that engender it (e.g. you can choose to be strong or fast or some of both!) should be at the core of a game.
Perhaps it’s just the article that focuses on the details, assuming we know the rest of the picture. I’m not particularly worried about this group as they seem to be in good hands.
Hopefully that didn’t come off as dismissive, because making games is tough and it’s great that this group is doing so.
