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the whole thing with Kojima, IGA, some of the Rare guys, and Inafune jumping ship around about the same time to make spiritual successors, and seeing how much each of them did or didn't succeed, and why, was a very fascinating time — still is, really — in games
hindsight is 20:20, but it feels like every one of those projects went exactly the way someone very perceptive would have thought they would: Kojima remaining a rockstar once independent is the least surprising thing in the world; IGA isn't a rockstar but is humble and can grind
maybe the Rare thing was kinda doomed because Rare was never just one or two guys, it was a whole little vibe, and even with two of them you can't recreate it? something like that? at least they had the humility and perspective to make a partial success of it, right?
and then like. dude i really don't know what's up with Inafune. i can guess, sure, but i think that would be unwise? but it definitely makes you ask questions and the plausible answers to those questions are incredibly unflattering
the great men theory of history is wrong, but occasionally the great men practically beg you to look at the history they are currently writing through that lens, and in that case it feels vaguely fair to maybe consider whether someone's personality is in fact an important factor
god it's so fucking cool that Bloodstained is getting a super-high-budget, traditionally-funded sequel man. it makes you feel like sometimes the world works the way it should.
that game will probably be great, rather than… “better than nothing” :)
a thought that strikes me watching the original Bloodstained kickstarter trailer from ten years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWrD0QMZc_s) is that it's an incredibly good pitch, very similar to one of Sakurai Masahiro's pitch decks, and he's also someone with that fundamental seriousness
oh my god i knew i wasn't losing it
you really should compare to the Mighty No. 9 kickstarter trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX1o0so4anc
it's twice as long, it's rambly, and instead of being purely a good pitch on making Exactly One Game, it's focussed on Inafune's delusion of grandeur
i'm half-way through the Mighty No. 9 kickstarter trailer and he still hasn't shown me a single full piece of concept art for the game he's supposedly pitching me on? only — and this feels extremely on-the-nose — a faint, unfinished pencil sketch of something resembling Mega Man
the conclusion i draw from this is that, good-hearted or not, the Mighty No. 9 pitch is one that would have been rejected by a discerning person who's seen lots of overly optimistic game pitches, the Bloodstained one would not, and this says something about their auteurs
is your intuition never wrong? absolutely not, it will be wrong sometimes. but it does mean something, and in the creative business the kind of credibility that comes from sending the right signals is, like, actually an extremely important currency
i think there's also some sort of lesson in humility here. the way Inafune presents himself there has all the hallmarks of a performance of humility from someone who isn't actually humble (ask me how i know). IGA may seem full of himself, but he has the humility to know he is not
and it's not lost on me that this thread is, you know, not a humble thing to post, especially given the circumstances, but it's not a fully hubristic thing to post either
why would someone living in a glass house choose to throw stones?
perhaps because she thinks that the pattern of smashed glass will reveal something