Develop a Following

There are many people who play a game from a certain developer/publisher, like it a lot, and go find out what else that developer has done to play their other games. There are the obvious developers that a lot of people follow like Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. People are always going to play and probably get the most enjoyment out of the first party titles for each system, thats what I usually do. I've always followed those bigger studios, but recently I have been playing some games by lesser known developers and it's made me look more carefully at who is developing or publishing the games I'm playing.

I've always done this to an extent with companies like Rockstar (GTA, Max Payne, Manhunt, Red Dead Revolver) and Capcom (Street Fighter, Mega Man, Zack and Wiki, Resident Evil), but every once in a while I'll play a game that I enjoy so much only to come to the realization that I have no idea who made it. The first instance of this came with the EA game Black. EA is the publisher of Black and it was developed by an in-house studio called Criterion. Criterion is responsible for the Burnout games. I've always loved those games, they have fantastic production value and are completely polished, and that's the same way I felt about Black. Once I found out it was developed by Criterion it just made sense, and I thought hmm I'll pretty much play any game they put out if they are all this good. You can tell the games a developer has worked on, they all have the same feel.

Another company I just discovered is Level-5. They are the developers of a game I'm playing right now on the PSP called Jeanne d'Arc. It is a Strategy RPG, the first one I've every played, and I'm completely loving it. It seems like a breath of fresh air after only playing shooters and platformers (which I will always love). This made me look at Level 5's track record and realize that they are the developers for another game I'm pretty interested in for the Nintendo DS: Professor Layton, a word puzzle type game. That is a game I probably would have picked up anyway because it just looked fun. I also noticed that they are working on a PS3 project called White Knight Chronicles, a game I probably would have bypassed, but now that I know it's Level-5 I might check it out.

I've been playing a lot of PSP lately which is how I found Level-5, and this next developer: Ready at Dawn. I bought the PSP slim pack that came with a copy of the game Daxter. It is a really fun platformer with some great graphics for the PSP. Being more interested in developers I decided to again look up what else they have worked on. Sure enough they are the developers behind another great game I have been waiting for on the PSP: God of War. This is a game I probably would have bought no matter what, it will be a system seller for a lot of people. Seeing now that it was developed by Ready at Dawn, who have already proven themselves with Daxter, made it a no brainer. But wait, there's more, not only are they behind God of War for PSP, but they are also behind another game for my other favorite system: Okami for Wii. Okami is a game I missed on the PS2 and have been looking forward to on the Wii, specifically using the Wii remote as the brush. Once more, seeing that a really great developer is behind it only heightened my excitement.

If I hadn't looked up who developed certain games I would have missed some other really good ones. It's also good to know that if you really liked a game, you have another one by the same team that you can get excited about. It's the same way with music. You always look forward to a new album by your favorite band. Even with movies, you look forward to a new film by your favorite director or actor. Now I can look forward to a new game by my favorite developer, I can follow them and support them, and hopefully it will lead to more great games in the future.

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony