Every Monday (and occasionally Wednesday) the LeftStickRight team will take on a different topic surrounding news or interesting topics about games or the gaming industry and open it up for discussion. Our three editors will give their perspective and you are welcome to give your own. Agree? Disagree?

The topic this week is: Does the developer make the difference for you? Will you often side behind a developer based on their history or pedigree?

Ian H’s Take

The developer does often carry a lot of weight as to whether or not I’ll pay attention to a game. Almost organically I seem to hone in on a developer I like and latch on to whatever title they are promising next and pick that as my “next anticipated title” even when it isn’t in the foreseeable future. Take Alan Wake for example – it’s a game I haven’t really shut up for too long about for almost five years. This is based solely on some teaser trailers and the pedigree of Remedy, the developer, and their work with the Max Payne series of games. This was also the case two years ago with Too Human, and it is a trend that will likely continue for me.

Now, this doesn’t often sway my enjoyment of a product. I played a lot of Too Human, but it had major flaws that were impossible for me to ignore. Even a game like Noby Noby Boy, which I purchased because of my enjoyment of the Katamari series and while it was an intriguing title I will be more selective with his work in the future.

I do tend to pay very close attention to the people and teams involved in projects because of this. I try not to let previous poor experiences sway me, but it often does detract from my interest if the history of the developer has been less than ideal in my experience. That said, I did pick up Geist back in the day and considering they only made Duke Nukem and Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen games up to that point it was a big stretch.

I DO NOT REGRET IT!

Tim’s Take

Developers don’t sway me so much as simply what kinds of brands and genres interest me. If a certain developer has a proven track record of tingling my Gamey Sense (mental note: name needs work), I may be slightly more likely to try a new title from them, but it’s by no means assurance that I’m willing to suck up new IPs from the developer’s name alone if they’re not my cup of tea.

Case in point: Sucker Punch is a fine developer and I love the Sly Cooper series. I know from three prior experiences that if Sucker Punch made a new title in that brand, I would definitely want to try it. I’ve even pondered whether I would purchase a PS3 if Sly 4 was ever announced and I knew it maintained what I enjoy about the series. But InFamous? Likely a very good game, but it just doesn’t interest me a great deal, personally. I’m not drooling all over myself to try it just because it’s a Sucker Punch game.

By the same token, I will have few qualms purchasing a game I would enjoy from companies who have tarnished reputations. Activision, according to certain gamers, is nothing more than an evil, soulless monkey at a magic, game-spewing copy machine, but that doesn’t mean I’d potentially boycott anything good from them and I doubt a majority of those who are complaining about them would either, if they had their name on something that particularly piqued that gamer’s interests and tastes. In the end, it’s also just an act of kindness to believe the name doesn’t matter as much as the actual team of people who actually put their imaginations and coding sweat into a certain game.

Honestly, if there were two names that have been significantly influencing me lately, they’d be XSeed and Ignition. Certainly neither possesses the clout of an EA or Capcom, but the choices these producers make in what games to pursue for North American release intrigues me to the point that I’m willing to try them just to see what the big deal is. There’s a certain nature to their actions that seems to transcend and encompass the games themselves, which can ultimately lead to relatively small-yet-loyal cult followings. Or maybe I’m just sounding like some indie nerd at a record store.

Ian Y’s Take

Play games long enough and you’ll eventually develop some favourite developers. While in the vast minority, some have earned a reputation for things like quality, creativeness or consistency. Of late, some development houses have even slowly become stand alone brands (Telltale Games, Blizzard or Bethesda come to mind). And just like brands they maintain their own sets of core followers so it’s natural that their mere association with a game may elicit strong reactions. I myself have know to swoon over a game merely because its from a developer I respect.

I’m stopping now, head cloudy from too much antihistamines…*oof*