During a 2008 interview with Andy Siefert of Newcity, Eugene Jarvis was very candid in his opinion on the state of creativity in the gaming industry. Having been part of the game industry from nearly the beginning, the Defender creator stated that nothing is more detrimental to creativity than focusing on menial features in games.
Eugene states, “As you get all this money out there, there’s a tendency for more conservatism and sequelization. So we’re doing ‘Madden 38,’ but now the shoelaces have shadows! And when you step on the turf, the grass is just pressed a little bit, and springs back in just a couple of seconds. Unfortunately, it’s kind of the death of creativity when you make a big deal about really trivial features.”
This is more true today than it was even as recently as back then. Let’s hope that games that are pushing the boundaries of creativity become popular with the mainstream again.
