Game Developers Bill of Rights

Teki187

Teki187

Teki187

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Quick game.

You can only make 3 points, no explanations. Written in the style of the gamers bill of rights.

What do you want from a game developer?

Example:

1. Developers must produce a game that is finished rather then unfinished.
 
1. Anti-piracy measures should never affect the consumer

2. The system requirements must always be accurate (big hint at the original Crysis there :p)

3. Technical support must ALWAYS be given to the best of the companies ability, if they are unable to solve the problem and it is 'game breaking' the consumer should have the right to return the product for a full refund. (a refund from the publisher obviously - a retailer shouldn't have to suffer due to a poor product)
 
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1. Developers must NOT publish with Electronic Arts/EA Games/EA Sports etc.

From there, you can't go much wrong.
 
1. Actually finish making the game properly.
2. Think up of a better alternative to DRM that doesn't affect the consumer.
3. Free jar of mustard with every game.
 
The Three Commandments: -

1.) Thou shalt not suffer thy paying customer that which the pirate may simply crack, and thou art forbidden from installing any sort of permanent rootkit, registry entries, service or anything on the kernel level.

2.) Thou shalt keep patching thy game until such a time that the game is aged beyond popularity or, if possible, until such a time that all discovered bugs and issues have been righteously smited.

3.) Thou shalt make thy game as near 100% compatible as possible. Thy game must be fully compatible with Vista and XP, thy game options must allow scaling back to any hardware not in excess of three years old, thy game must support all 4:3, 5:4, 16:9 and 16:10 resolutions along with all AA/AF modes, and thy game shalt not require administrative rights in any way, shape or form.
 
1) Games should allow use of all resolutions defined in the display driver
2) Patches should always be released to include a cumulative update and be made available as direct links from fast ftp/http mirrors clearly linked from the developers website
3) Abritary limits should never be imposed on variables such as maxfps, fov, key remapping etc
 
1. Finish the game, get it tested properly before release. Do a closed, or even open beta first if needed.
2. Don't let anti piracy effect the legit users
3. Stick to the standards - e.g. store game saves in the correct place (My Documents or AppData, preferably My Documents\My Games like a lot of other games)

I know we're not supposed to have 4, but I have to put this one:

4. Make it fully compatible with current operating systems, don't make the user use workarounds such as running the game in administrative mode/compatibility mode.
 
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1. Release the game with as few bugs as possible.
2. Never sacrifice Gameplay over Graphics.
3. Always have a fantastic storyline and soundtrack to really give the best atmosphere possible.
 
1. Multiplayer that just works and doesn't involve scouring the internet for the million different ports that must be forwarded.
2. Automatic updating (that works)
3. Ditch all anti-piracy measures, you can't win! Make a good game and people will buy it.
 
jimmy29 said:
1. Multiplayer that just works and doesn't involve scouring the internet for the million different ports that must be forwarded.
2. Automatic updating (that works)
3. Ditch all anti-piracy measures, you can't win! Make a good game and people will buy it.
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Steam :D
 
One more thing, which I'm not going to include as it is unrealistic in this day and age, is that I'd love to see a return to the days when games were self-contained within their own install folder; i.e. use .ini files rather than the registry, and store savegames in a subfolder. Makes things so much easier if you want to play the game on a different windows installation for example.
 
HangTime said:
One more thing, which I'm not going to include as it is unrealistic in this day and age, is that I'd love to see a return to the days when games were self-contained within their own install folder; i.e. use .ini files rather than the registry, and store savegames in a subfolder. Makes things so much easier if you want to play the game on a different windows installation for example.
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This is a fantastic point. I loved being able to just burn my Half Life install directory to a DVD and whenever i reformatted i would just copy it back across, all of my custom configs and binds would work straight off the bat. Half Life 1 mods were truly the golden age of PC gaming for me and this was one of the main reasons why - utter simplicity.
 
HangTime said:
One more thing, which I'm not going to include as it is unrealistic in this day and age, is that I'd love to see a return to the days when games were self-contained within their own install folder; i.e. use .ini files rather than the registry, and store savegames in a subfolder. Makes things so much easier if you want to play the game on a different windows installation for example.
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I ported over my Empire at War install just fine...not all recent games have that issue.
 
Sure, some games you can get away with it to some extent at least.
A good test is to try and patch the game, often due to the lack of registry entries it will fail (a recent example would be STALKER, I can play the game fine, but to patch it to v1.0006 I'd need to install the full game first).
 
HangTime said:
Sure, some games you can get away with it to some extent at least.
A good test is to try and patch the game, often due to the lack of registry entries it will fail (a recent example would be STALKER, I can play the game fine, but to patch it to v1.0006 I'd need to install the full game first).
Click to expand...

I already had it fully patched :) I had to use a direct .exe shortcut and bypass the launcher though.
 
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