[TRENCHES] Thursday, December 27, 2012 - Isaac Style Guide

Geth

Isaac Style Guide
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/isaac-style-guide

The check is in the mail!

Anonymous

All was good until I met the “beast.”

The beast tricks you with the promise of great things and lures you with false promises into a binding agreement.

This beast does not die, it does not sleep, it feeds! Feeds from the blood of innocent developers only to return scraps. (That is if you are lucky enough to get the scraps)

This hell spawn profit sucking beast of a publisher refuses to die even when they don’t have any real assets other than the name of the beast.

You might think I am talking about big publishers like EA or Activision but no, this one lurks, when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned only to once again feed on developers, this time
not even indie developers escape.

Run you fools! Do not sign with beast! You would be better off giving your game away for free.

Dark Raven X

Hah, someone on PATV once described Mike's cartoons as having "gross banana hands"

That publisher beast. They talking about Steam?

BinaryPhalanx

no, I don't think so - Steam is part of Valve, and Valve has real assets. Steam isn't really a publisher, though, just a content delivery platform (I have yet to see any games listed on there that specify "Steam" as the publisher, for instance). My first thought was Interplay, but they still have some assets.... hmmmm.

EDIT: I can't think of any other ideas, anyone else have any thoughts? I feel like this is important information :P

zepherin

This is an interesting intellectual exercise, normally I don't care, or it is a pretty easy guess, however this time I'm not sure at all. I don't think it is steam because from what I've heard steam is generally fair and easy to work with. Apple and google take their percentage and again from anecdotal evidence are tolerable to work with.

I've heard some horror stories about microsoft, but they are one of the largest publishers. Maybe they signed a bad deal with a small publisher, or a venture capital firm, or got screwed by gamestop.

Stormwatcher

"You might think I am talking about big publishers like EA or Activision but no, this one lurks, when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned only to once again feed on developers, this time not even indie developers escape."

That excludes steam.
But steam is cool and nice and awesome to devs most of the time anyway.

leonatos

Perhaps it's about FASA, who has recently (re-)started. At the end FASA wasn't much of anything anymore, their IP has either been sold or licensed, but it seems licenses expired or reverted.

It's been a very puzzling remark for quite a few hours already.

BentSea

Square Enix, maybe?

Beaun

My sad attempt while sitting at work.

Warning: I NEVER draw, this is why.

Gaslight

So am I the only one who thinks it's odd that it says his pupils should be unfilled outlines, never solid black, and then in the full-body "paper doll" drawing they're solid black?

wormspeaker

Gaslight wrote: »

So am I the only one who thinks it's odd that it says his pupils should be unfilled outlines, never solid black, and then in the full-body "paper doll" drawing they're solid black?

Sometimes you gotta' know when the break the rules.

Gaslight

Actually...

In every previous comic I looked at, they're solid.

Delzhand

wormspeaker wrote: »

Gaslight wrote: »

So am I the only one who thinks it's odd that it says his pupils should be unfilled outlines, never solid black, and then in the full-body "paper doll" drawing they're solid black?

Sometimes you gotta' know when the break the rules.

Naw, Gaslight's just black-red colorblind

Neuroskeptic

My money's on Steam being the 'beast'. "This time not even indie developers escape" seems like a big clue (Greenlight) and then there's "when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned...refuses to die even when they don’t have any real assets other than the name of the beast." Is that a reference to how Valve hasn't finished Half Life 3 yet?

The fact that Steam are nice doesn't mean it's not them, this tale could have been written by the one dev who had a bad experience with them. Maybe someone on the War Z team

Cambiata

I don't think it could be steam because of the line "everyone thought it was gone for good."

When did everyone think Steam was gone for good?

Stormwatcher

Neuroskeptic wrote: »

My money's on Steam being the 'beast'. "This time not even indie developers escape" seems like a big clue (Greenlight) and then there's "when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned...refuses to die even when they don’t have any real assets other than the name of the beast." Is that a reference to how Valve hasn't finished Half Life 3 yet?

The fact that Steam are nice doesn't mean it's not them, this tale could have been written by the one dev who had a bad experience with them. Maybe someone on the War Z team

You're right up until "My money is on steam" everything after that is 100% wrong. And I mean that your money is literally on steam because SALES!

Namrok

Interplay maybe? Zyngia also comes to mind sorta of maybe. I honestly can't think of anything that fits the description to a T.

Maybe it's all a metaphor. It's the industry itself. We are ALL the beast.

OH WAIT MAYBE ITS ATARI!

Saracin

I'm also of the opinion its Interplay. First, just look at the many developers who as soon as they were big enough got as far away from them as possible, all except Black Isle and you saw what happened to them. Second, he makes it sound like it was a publisher who appeared to be dead. This obviously leaves out Valve/Steam or Zynga, although Zynga is probably a current "Beast" of a sort. Despite having properties, Interplay hasn't made an actual game in eons and has just road the back of classics to earn whatever cash they can get. And now they've returned, hiring indie devs and using Kickstarter to get money from people too stupid to see past the glory days and realize that no one who worked on their old projects would come near them to work on new ones.

SwashbucklerXX

Unlike most of them, this "tale" is pretty pointless without the name of the offending company. If your goal is to warn other developers off this offending company, then have the cojones to name it.

My guess is Atari.

forty

It turns out it's man.

kaytikat

Neuroskeptic wrote: »

Neuroskeptic wrote: »

My money's on Steam being the 'beast'. "This time not even indie developers escape" seems like a big clue (Greenlight) and then there's "when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned...refuses to die even when they don’t have any real assets other than the name of the beast." Is that a reference to how Valve hasn't finished Half Life 3 yet?

The fact that Steam are nice doesn't mean it's not them, this tale could have been written by the one dev who had a bad experience with them. Maybe someone on the War Z team

Really? Seems more like Atari to me.

Once a big name, pretty much died out before a number of buyouts brought it back as a publisher (although it has produced nothing of note in years and is trading almost entirely on the goodwill generated back in the 70s and 80s) and it has recently started publishing indie iOS games.

Perfect fit, no?

kaytikat

Neuroskeptic wrote: »

Neuroskeptic wrote: »

My money's on Steam being the 'beast'. "This time not even indie developers escape" seems like a big clue (Greenlight) and then there's "when everyone thought it was gone for good it returned...refuses to die even when they don’t have any real assets other than the name of the beast." Is that a reference to how Valve hasn't finished Half Life 3 yet?

The fact that Steam are nice doesn't mean it's not them, this tale could have been written by the one dev who had a bad experience with them. Maybe someone on the War Z team

Really? Seems more like Atari to me.

Once a big name, pretty much died out before a number of buyouts brought it back as a publisher (although it has produced nothing of note in years and is trading almost entirely on the goodwill generated back in the 70s and 80s) and it has recently started publishing indie iOS games.

Perfect fit, no?

sweave

how's vivendi doing these days?

Tarranon

Cambiata wrote: »

I don't think it could be steam because of the line "everyone thought it was gone for good."

When did everyone think Steam was gone for good?

After you guys figure this out, could you help me with some of these Michel de "Man" Nostradame mind benders?

Cambiata

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

Saracin

sweave wrote: »

how's vivendi doing these days?

Ask Activision-Blizzard. Vivendi merged with Activision some time back and essentially doesn't exist anymore.

kaytikat wrote: »

Really? Seems more like Atari to me.
Once a big name, pretty much died out before a number of buyouts brought it back as a publisher (although it has produced nothing of note in years and is trading almost entirely on the goodwill generated back in the 70s and 80s) and it has recently started publishing indie iOS games.
Perfect fit, no?

Nope, since that Atari doesn't really exist. the Atari that exists now was formally known as Infogrames, who was formerly known as GT Interactive, and changed their name back in 2009 to Atari. Since the description given makes it sound like its a recent return, and while Interplay never died, they've just been releasing old games on Steam and WiiWare for the past few years and just recently reopened Black Isle Studios, with none of the original staff, to make Project V12 using Kickstarter money.

Stormwatcher

It's Apple (not really)

fadamor

Meh. Warnings without details are useless. I think the author just wanted to post something so he made up a company and called it "the beast". It's like saying, "There's a street with thugs hiding, don't go there." A useless warning because you don't know WHAT street is being talked about, so you CAN'T avoid it.

THESPOOKY

I also subscribe to The Interplay Theory.

milski

I agree with what some other people are saying here; this tale from the trenches really doesn't hold up without details. I can understand why most of them don't have details, but this one is so vague it may as well be saying "watch out! Some people in the industry you can't identify may take advantage of you and others! Avoid it!"

It may as well be warning everybody to guard against Bigfoot.

Showsni

Cambiata wrote: »

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

Is this a reference to the original poem by John Donne, or to Howl's Moving Castle?

Warlock82

My guess was Zynga, but yeah, this is kind of a dumb tale. Even if you knew what company it was, there isn't even really a story here. It's just a vague warning about some unspecified company being evil for some unspecified reason. (also I really hate Trenches stories that try to "get in character" or something... just tell a story, don't try to be all dramatic about it)