‘Core gamers aren’t being served,’ say InstantAction chiefs

In an interview with Develop, the heads of GarageGames’ new InstantAction browser-based gaming portal have spoken out on how they feel the casual gaming revolution has left core gamers behind.

When asked if they felt that ‘core’ gamers were being left in the cold, GG Networks general manager Andy Yang said: "Oh yeah, they’ve not been served."

"If you look at web games," continued GarageGames CEO Josh Williams, "they’re pretty much all casual games with a wide audience – which is good – but this kind of middle-aged woman demographic. There are a bunch of teenage virtual worlds too, like RuneScape and Habbo Hotel, but nobody is really going after core gamers on the web yet."

Their solution, InstantAction, allows high performance full 3D games to run within a browser, appealing to the core demographic that wants to play more action-orientated titles. It’s attractive to developers, they say, because it’s targeting the widest install base (PCs through a browser, and soon Macs too) but, also, the lower risk nature of releasing a game online means that smaller teams can create the games they’ve always dreamed of.

"Some of the teams we’re working with are just three or four devs from the triple AAA industry who are sick of being one of a hundred people grinding it out on a big project for two or three years," continues Williams.

"We’ve got a few teams like this that can still make really core stuff, things they dreamed about making when they were kids, but with smaller teams and less time. If a game’s good enough, we can just get it out there without having to go through the usual route – we can start getting player feedback straight away, rather than work on something for three years and then ship it to a box and cross your fingers."

Part one of our interview, which covers more about InstantAction’s targeting of core gamers, can be read here. Part two, which talks about how developing for an online network can bring a more iterative web development methodology to the production process, will be published tomorrow.