Intellivision Amico - Tommy Tallarico introduction + Q&A

6 hours ago, LePionnier said:

Sure ... but earlier this month Tommy said that it will be in August, because he want to make it as perfect as possible.

But each day we are nearer and nearer !

not long now !!!!! that's for sure ...

It's been really quiet on this thread.  I know we are getting close to an update.  I just wish we knew exactly when it is going to happen!  Hopefully it's no later than the first week of August.  I've been telling a lot of family members about the Amico and the younger ones that are hard core gamers are interested about playing a more simplistic system that allows multi player game play from the same room.  I keep hearing comparisons to the Wii, but I think the Amico will be even better.  Game on!

On 7/24/2019 at 11:48 AM, m-crew said:

not long now !!!!! that's for sure ...

 

The biggest video game convention in the world is Gamescom in Germany.  We have decided to release the new trailer right before Gamescom to get more press and have it available there.   New teaser trailer to come on either August 16th or 19th.  Going to be a short teaser with epic music.  Will explain our family-friendly couch co-op mission, show short clips of gameplay footage from 10 - 15 games and will show the machine & controllers (i.e. no more drawings or renders).

 

These articles were recently sent to me by one of our employees. 

Kotaku (which I am personally not a huge fan of) is definitely a hardcore gamers site.  The fact that they are starting to understand the type of stuff I've been talking about publicly for over a year ad a half is a nice sign that even the hardcores are starting to "get it". 

For those folks who may be unconvinced that we have no idea what we're doing and there is no one except hardcore old school retro Intellivision fans who will buy Amico...  have a read.

I enjoyed reading the articles but more news and the unit itself can’t come soon enough! 

I agree with what the one article says about the harassment and discrimination of the MMP and online world.  I dropped out of all online gaming because of it.  Hated being called a noob, or trying to learn games that were complex in single player mode, let alone multiple.

I'm looking forward to playing against people I know and have fun with regularly and in person. 

7 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

The biggest video game convention in the world is Gamescom in Germany.  We have decided to release the new trailer right before Gamescom to get more press and have it available there.   New teaser trailer to come on either August 16th or 19th.  Going to be a short teaser with epic music.  Will explain our family-friendly couch co-op mission, show short clips of gameplay footage from 10 - 15 games and will show the machine & controllers (i.e. no more drawings or renders).

 

8 hours ago, wongojack said:

one of my favorite movies ever 

On 7/29/2019 at 9:07 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

https://kotaku.com/i-brought-my-switch-to-a-house-full-of-kids-and-all-hel-1836632229

 

https://kotaku.com/the-video-game-industry-cant-go-on-like-this-1836606033

 

https://kotaku.com/74-of-adults-have-been-harassed-while-gaming-online-s-1836678162

https://kotaku.com/having-someone-to-pass-the-controller-to-makes-single-p-1836698069

Wow four different authors each describing four different issues with the current video game industry. Worse it is taking a toll on players and developers alike with only the companies benefiting through more & more aggressive money extraction tactics. Even there the threat of regulation is creeping in due to the abuse of younger player and people with addictive personalities. No wonder I generally get more excited over the upcoming indie lineup than over the next wave of AAAs.

On 7/29/2019 at 7:49 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

The biggest video game convention in the world is Gamescom in Germany.  We have decided to release the new trailer right before Gamescom to get more press and have it available there.   New teaser trailer to come on either August 16th or 19th.  Going to be a short teaser with epic music.  Will explain our family-friendly couch co-op mission, show short clips of gameplay footage from 10 - 15 games and will show the machine & controllers (i.e. no more drawings or renders).

 

NO.....Not....Soon...Enough!

Looking forward to it.

6 hours ago, GrudgeQ said:

it is taking a toll on players and developers alike with only the companies benefiting through more & more aggressive money extraction tactics. Even there the threat of regulation is creeping in due to the abuse of younger player and people with addictive personalities.

When some companies in the video game industry started welcoming the input of these predatory gambling psychologists, I felt things were taking a very dark and disturbing turn. You have to be a real sociopath to make a living thinking of ways to exploit vulnerable people, especially in the guise of a game.

2 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Honored to be a featured speaker in the Center Ballroom at GameDaily Connect at Disneyland this year talking about the importance of bringing people together through video games and Intellivision!  GameDaily Connect is a great conference & networking opportunity for developers... especially if you're Indie and have a great team and product.  I look forward to speaking with some talented folks there.

 

Six Degrees of Gaming: How Couch Co-op Connects All!

Aug 27, 2019 - 10AM, CENTER BALLROOM

That is awesome - love the title! Any hope we could get a public release of the video/slides from the presentation after the event? Unfortunately no way I can be in Anaheim in late August.

On 7/29/2019 at 11:07 AM, Tommy Tallarico said:

These articles were recently sent to me by one of our employees. 

 

Kotaku (which I am personally not a huge fan of) is definitely a hardcore gamers site.  The fact that they are starting to understand the type of stuff I've been talking about publicly for over a year ad a half is a nice sign that even the hardcores are starting to "get it". 

For those folks who may be unconvinced that we have no idea what we're doing and there is no one except hardcore old school retro Intellivision fans who will buy Amico...  have a read.

 

 

https://kotaku.com/i-brought-my-switch-to-a-house-full-of-kids-and-all-hel-1836632229

 

https://kotaku.com/the-video-game-industry-cant-go-on-like-this-1836606033

 

https://kotaku.com/74-of-adults-have-been-harassed-while-gaming-online-s-1836678162

https://kotaku.com/having-someone-to-pass-the-controller-to-makes-single-p-1836698069

Really interesting articles. But I don't see how this proves that the Amico has a guaranteed market. 

Take the first story, for example. To begin with, the author says that the Xbox was the console children used to play. And it was fine. That contradicts the notion that Xbox and PS consoles are too complicated for kids. It literally says "everything was going great, until the Xbox broke". 

Then he mentions that the nephews continued to play Roblox and Minecraft on their iPads. This shows that, in households above a certain income threshold, the Amico would have competition. Xbox, Apple and Nintendo games (if the mom ends up buying a Switch). We know that the Amico will not have any 3D or online games (for now). What value can it have for someone who plays Roblox (free) and Minecraft ($6.99) on their iPad?  Are the kids in that family considered hardcore players? Is Tommy after them, or will he let the big three fight over that market while he looks for the next billion players?

The highlight of the story is this: 

Quote

 

At this point, I feel bad about having brought my Switch with me. My dreams of being piled up with the kids on the couch, laughing and cheering to Mario Kart, have been replaced by harsh reality: screaming, crying, resentment, and hurt feelings. I even apologized to my sister for bringing the Switch. She said she doesn’t mind and, somehow, she is still glad I brought it.

The whole situation has given me a lot more compassion for what it means to be a parent. The age differences between all her kids makes it hard to find activities they can do together, and while the older ones are mature enough to know the younger ones act the way they do because of their age, they’re also not quite old enough to keep from totally losing their cool and making any disagreement worse. The Switch has highlighted some of the stresses that come with having a family.

 

The author literally destroys the romantic image of "couch co-op" (at least with kids). He believed Nintendo's advertising, and reality woke him up in the harshest way (screaming, crying, resentment, and hurt feelings). Sometimes you can't entertain everyone. It doesn't matter how good your game is, how talented your team is. That's part of why mobile games are so popular. They allow that personal space, that freedom to decide what to play and how to play.

In the article "The Video Game Industry Can't Go On Like This" there are several statements that undermine Intellivision's pitch. Of course Tommy didn't bring them up, because what matters is "Big Corporations bad".

Games are cheaper than ever. That contradicts the notion that games are more expensive than ever. What is it then?

Games are becoming more and more expensive to make. That calls into question Intellivision's ability to make good games. There's a link (that Tommy didn't mention) to a story about budgets in game development. 
It all boils down to one figure: $10,000 per person per month (*not* salaries, see comments in the story)

Quote

Say you’re an indie studio that just raised some money on Kickstarter. You think you can make your Earthbound-inspired, 16-bit-style RPG in a year and a half (18 months) and you think it’ll take five people: a designer, a programmer, a musician, and two artists. 5 * 18 * 10,000 = $900,000. Hope you didn’t have any stretch goals!

Say you’re a mid-sized team like Obsidian or Double Fine. You’re making a new console game that needs to look good, but nobody expects you to have the most polygons or the highest-end graphics. You’re putting a team of 40 on your psychedelic rhythm game, and you’re planning a schedule of around two years (24 months). 40 * 24 * 10,000 = $9,600,000. Don’t worry—at least people on the internet will accuse you of stealing money!

Say you’re a massive publisher that’s trying to compete with the Red Dead Redemptions and Destinys of the world. You’re making a military shooter, of course. In order to hit the graphical fidelity that your fans expect, you need a staff of at least 400, and you need to give them three years (36 months). 400 * 36 * 10,000 = $144,000,000. And that’s before the inevitable delay, not to mention the marketing. Those CGI commercials aren’t gonna pay for themselves.

Amico's "funding" initiative gives an estimated $225k per game (for a development time of 6 to 12 months). That's half of what's needed, according to the author. How can Tommy quote an article about gamedevs working conditions , while being proud that his games are made for half the money that the industry standard? Not to mention what kind of games can be devised, created and tested in 9 months. I imagine the quality will suffer, or the health of the developers will.
The only reason to cite the article is that big studios are leaving the single-player market. That's what Tommy cares about. Even when the same story says there's an overcrowded market in the indie space. 

To be clear: the Amico is going to have a lot of successful games, made in record time, for half the money... yeah, I have my doubts.

22 minutes ago, styluskramer said:

The author literally destroys the romantic image of "couch co-op" (at least with kids). He believed Nintendo's advertising, and reality woke him up in the harshest way (screaming, crying, resentment, and hurt feelings). Sometimes you can't entertain everyone. It doesn't matter how good your game is, how talented your team is. That's part of why mobile games are so popular. They allow that personal space, that freedom to decide what to play and how to play.

The problem that the author said he had was that he did not have enough controllers for all the kids to play simultaneously, which is why there was screaming and crying, etc.

Intellivision Burger Time was programmed and tuned in three months by ONE programmer. Now I know that is the original Intellivision and the graphics are pretty rudimentary, but it was also programmed in assembly language with 1982-3 tools.  I personally had two games in stores within eight months of my start date (though both of those games had additional programmers and had been already started when I worked on them).

2 hours ago, styluskramer said:

Really interesting articles. But I don't see how this proves that the Amico has a guaranteed market. 

Take the first story, for example. To begin with, the author says that the Xbox was the console children used to play. And it was fine. That contradicts the notion that Xbox and PS consoles are too complicated for kids. It literally says "everything was going great, until the Xbox broke". 

Then he mentions that the nephews continued to play Roblox and Minecraft on their iPads. This shows that, in households above a certain income threshold, the Amico would have competition. Xbox, Apple and Nintendo games (if the mom ends up buying a Switch). We know that the Amico will not have any 3D or online games (for now). What value can it have for someone who plays Roblox (free) and Minecraft ($6.99) on their iPad?  Are the kids in that family considered hardcore players? Is Tommy after them, or will he let the big three fight over that market while he looks for the next billion players?

The highlight of the story is this: 

The author literally destroys the romantic image of "couch co-op" (at least with kids). He believed Nintendo's advertising, and reality woke him up in the harshest way (screaming, crying, resentment, and hurt feelings). Sometimes you can't entertain everyone. It doesn't matter how good your game is, how talented your team is. That's part of why mobile games are so popular. They allow that personal space, that freedom to decide what to play and how to play.

 

In the article "The Video Game Industry Can't Go On Like This" there are several statements that undermine Intellivision's pitch. Of course Tommy didn't bring them up, because what matters is "Big Corporations bad".

Games are cheaper than ever. That contradicts the notion that games are more expensive than ever. What is it then?

Games are becoming more and more expensive to make. That calls into question Intellivision's ability to make good games. There's a link (that Tommy didn't mention) to a story about budgets in game development. 
It all boils down to one figure: $10,000 per person per month (*not* salaries, see comments in the story)

Amico's "funding" initiative gives an estimated $225k per game (for a development time of 6 to 12 months). That's half of what's needed, according to the author. How can Tommy quote an article about gamedevs working conditions , while being proud that his games are made for half the money that the industry standard? Not to mention what kind of games can be devised, created and tested in 9 months. I imagine the quality will suffer, or the health of the developers will.
The only reason to cite the article is that big studios are leaving the single-player market. That's what Tommy cares about. Even when the same story says there's an overcrowded market in the indie space. 

To be clear: the Amico is going to have a lot of successful games, made in record time, for half the money... yeah, I have my doubts. 

No one said that XBox/PS games were too complicated to play for all kids (at least at a certain age). The pitch for the Amico is that it is simple enough for non-gamers to *also* play - big difference.

What value is a Amico game over Roblox and Minecraft? First even if most of the games are basically mobile games but with mobile prices with no loot boxing, no adult themes and no ads - they are already better. From a parent's standpoint that means you can buy the system and the games without worry. That isn't something you can say for any gaming platform out there - mobile, Switch, XBox, PS, etc. Also you can't play those games with your kids or other family members because they are too hard for non gamers. Gaming technology has isolated people - which as much as I like 'personal space' - shouldn't be 100% of the time you spend gaming (which is way too many hours for a lot of folks).

As pointed out by Chopper Commander the main issue was the lack of controllers. Also pointed out was fact that the little ones didn't understand the games so this caused conflict with the older ones having to help (again difficulty). Plus there was the conflict you overlooked with the mom not wanting the children exposed to violent games. She trusted her game reviewer brother to handle that because she didn't have the knowledge to do that herself without research - which is an issue that doesn't just exist with that family. Why do you think people subscribe to the Disney channel? They just like spending money - or they think it is one channel generally safe for children?

The "Video Game Industry Can't Go On Like This" article didn't contradict itself - games are more expensive to product but the price hasn't risen in relation to that fact so companies overwork their employees and rely on monetary tactics like DLC, loot boxes and the like. Gamers get fabulous detailed games (if it is 'good' is another matter) but there is a price that isn't reflected on the box. This gap has to be filled somehow and the way that it is isn't beneficial for gamers or the industry long term.

Games can be very expensive to produce but just because it is expensive doesn't make it a good game, nor if it is done on the cheap, a bad game. Just some examples - the successful (and great fun to play) indie game Forager was literally made by a guy living with his mom because he was broke and hiring some part time artists as he could. The also highly rated game "Desert Skies" is made solely by a husband and wife team. Slay the Spire - also a top ranked indie game with 2 primary developers. Stardew Valley (over 3.5 million sales) took 4 person years of a single developer - at $75,000 a year that is $300,000. Undertail took aboutr 3 person years of a single developer and $50,000 in Kickstarter money - again at $75,000 a year plus the Kickstarter money that is $275,000. The Bavarian government just awarded 4 teams in Germany (not the home of low cost labor and sweatshops as far as I can tell) $450,000 Euros to re-imagine four Intellivision classics for Intellivsion. That works out to a little over $124,000 (US) per team with Intellivision chipping in some more on top. I doubt the granting body gave that for a project that couldn't be done for the money provided (government grantors hate failure). Development costs for a game like Candy Crush? Probably about $100,000 with good talent doing the art, music and coding. Finally you are totally overlooking the ports plus extra content/levels games that are coming to the Amico. They could go to You Don't Know Jack and get a lot of new bonus content and porting costs covered for a quarter of a million PLUS royalties after that money is recoup through sales. This basically places these companies in a 'no lose' position to port their games and customize it for the Amico.

Can Intellivison reach it's market of people who want a family friendly gaming console? Will it's games be great or suck? I don't know, however i firmly believe there is a need for a simple, family friendly gaming. Also great games can be developed for hundreds of thousands (or even way less), not millions - so this isn't an obstacle for Intellivision inherently. They do have to execute on both of these and we will see in about a year if they have done so or not.

3 hours ago, BSRSteve said:

The problem that the author said he had was that he did not have enough controllers for all the kids to play simultaneously, which is why there was screaming and crying, etc.

Hmmm. I don't think they had 4 controllers for the Xbox, and there were no tears. In any case, it doesn't matter much after they buy the console. It's not Nintendo's (or Intellivision's) problem that a group of kids behave like that and not like they do in ads.

3 hours ago, BSRSteve said:

Intellivision Burger Time was programmed and tuned in three months by ONE programmer. Now I know that is the original Intellivision and the graphics are pretty rudimentary, but it was also programmed in assembly language with 1982-3 tools.  I personally had two games in stores within eight months of my start date (though both of those games had additional programmers and had been already started when I worked on them).

True. Some games for Ludum Dare jams (3 days) are really impressive. But to do that steadily, getting 7/10 (or more) game after 7/10 (or more) game is difficult. I think my point is that Tommy cherry-picks facts, and in a way he has his own "reality distortion field". 

Tommy, explaining that the games are going to be 2D, says "think of Ori and the blind forest" or "think of Cuphead". I know the Amico won't have games like that. I know Tommy is explaining that you don't need 3D graphics to have a freaking beautiful game.
Couldn't he choose a more humble example? I don't know, Angry Birds? 
By dropping names like these (games with developments that span several years and million-dollar budgets) he takes advantage of a halo effect. He makes us think something, when reality is something else.

Doesn't matter what anyone says, we're waiting to see the games.  The upcoming preview might not reveal much but we are still over a year away.

Even a game with a million dollar development budget only has to sell 67k copies at $15 before turning a profit.

Is anyone missing a sock?   

I'm not quite sure what a preemptive heavy deconstruction of the Amico before it launches, based on generalities and speculation no less, is intended to accomplish. Even if it turned out to be a "waste", they'd have been wasting their own money. It's their gamble. No harm to the rest of us, just more choice. We can only win. 

Are you expecting Tommy to go, "you know, you're right. What was I thinking? Never mind. We're shutting it all down"?

Is it a warning to discourage interest? I'd wait for the product (not even its creators, but the product) to speak for itself. Big seller or not, I would judge it on its own merits. I've liked enough niche TV shows that only got one season. Every time I hear preemptive negative talk based on limited info before a product launches, I'm reminded of how much hate Michael Keaton got for being cast as Batman. Then it debuted, and everyone generally thought he was great.

It also reminds me of pollsters and pundits. Often it's less exhausting to just wait for the outcome than speculate on it. 

BTW I don't starve my team but our budgets aren't huge. As others have pointed out, the staffing levels are being overestimated. My experience of indie games that take several years is that the groups are smaller and not full time, so you have to prorate those numbers.

1 hour ago, JeffVav said:

I'm not quite sure what a preemptive heavy deconstruction of the Amico before it launches, based on generalities and speculation no less, is intended to accomplish. Even if it turned out to be a "waste", they'd have been wasting their own money. It's their gamble. No harm to the rest of us, just more choice. We can only win. 

 

Are you expecting Tommy to go, "you know, you're right. What was I thinking? Never mind. We're shutting it all down"?

 

Is it a warning to discourage interest? I'd wait for the product (not even its creators, but the product) to speak for itself. Big seller or not, I would judge it on its own merits. I've liked enough niche TV shows that only got one season. Every time I hear preemptive negative talk based on limited info before a product launches, I'm reminded of how much hate Michael Keaton got for being cast as Batman. Then it debuted, and everyone generally thought he was great. 

 

It also reminds me of pollsters and pundits. Often it's less exhausting to just wait for the outcome than speculate on it.  

 

BTW I don't starve my team but our budgets aren't huge. As others have pointed out, the staffing levels are being overestimated. My experience of indie games that take several years is that the groups are smaller and not full time, so you have to prorate those numbers. 

Unfortunately people usually project only themselves and their experiences on everything they come in contact with. Don't play causal indie games and measure a game's value by the number of head shots per minute? Well the Amico is just the dumbest thing ever. Coleco Chameleon was a scam and the Ouya was a flop so small launched game consoles are all doomed to failure.

I don't own a low rider with a pimped out paint job and hydraulic lifts but I do own a pimped out custom water cooled PCs with enough synchronized LED lights and fans to blind the neighbors. Who is the idiot and wasting their money? Well for most people its the person with the thing they don't personally like. Don't like either of those things? Well then all of those people are idiots but not me when I spend a month worth of time and quite a bit of money at flea markets scrounging old video game carts for my OG console.

When looking at new products I try to put on different 'hats' and see if what they are trying to do matches up with reality. First can they even build the Amico as described? So far the answer looks like yes, although of course it has to be reliable and have responsive controls which is unknown.

Next can they make a reasonable software library for a 2D game console? For the $10 million ish they have, yes BUT they need to base the library on re-imagined classics probably converted for around $150,000 each and then bring in some 'ported but with exclusive content' games for $200K to $300K and then seed in a few brand new titles for $500K or more. You just need to have a library with enough compelling content to get the user base through a year as you continue production from console and game sales revenue and continue to roll that forward. Not easy but doable if the console sells well.

Finally can you market the thing? The typical AtariAge reader probably isn't their target market except for the appeal of the classics. This is the category I fall into frankly - but it isn't about the AtariAge buyer. I suspect their key market is families with children from 6 to 8 because of the family friendly guarantee. I know Tommy would say they want to sell to grandmas and others too - but I am just narrowing this down to a clear marketing focus. Just looking at the US (Amico is targeting Europe and the Middle East too) there are about 16.5 million households with kids from 6 to 11 so maybe cut that down to 10 million to get to that 6 to 8 range. 10% market penetration in the US alone gets you to a million units. Is that possible? With Intellivision's lean into big box retailers that is going to help a lot reaching that market. If they can get eye level, just off main aisle or end cap placement then they could attract a lot of holiday shoppers who know little to nothing about games but know they want something safe for their kids which is reasonably priced for a console. I can also see Tommy making appearances on "The View" and QVC (who's long, 'explainer' sales format is really well suited to the Amico) and moving tens of thousands of units in a hour. Finally it also looks like they are mixing old (celebrity endorsements, mall kiosks, media appearances) and new (Facebook ads and such) which is a reasonable reasonable way to stretch a smallish national launch budget (probably just over $10 million).

So bottom line I don't see any 'stoppers' for the Amico. Can they screw it up? Sure a thousand different ways - the console could not work, the controllers suck so hard nobody wants to use them, the games are so lame not even a 6 year old won't play them, marketing so bad it embarrasses even Facebook to run them. However with a clear path to accomplishing what they are saying, no signs of scams, money grabs or outright lies (marketing hype, sure - I expect that from any company) I am generally positive on the Amico and want to see what they produce.

18 hours ago, styluskramer said:

I imagine the quality will suffer, or the health of the developers will.

You got quite the pessimistic imagination.  I personally can't wait to see this thing come to fruition.  And I imagine the health of the developers would be addressed appropriately if a problem arises along the way.  😉

Long prosper, the Blue Sky Rangers!

On 7/31/2019 at 9:13 AM, GrudgeQ said:

That is awesome - love the title! Any hope we could get a public release of the video/slides from the presentation after the event? Unfortunately no way I can be in Anaheim in late August.

I'm not really a powerpoint/slides type of guy... might show the new trailer... but generally try to avoid slides.  But hopefully the talk will be recorded and put out to the public.  If so... I'll make sure to post a link to it here (and on our Facebook page and/or mailing list as well).

Thanks!

I bought a Wii U when people were ragging on it the most and had a blast with it.  The Wii was also a lot of fun for people who gave it a chance.  I didn't when it came out and now I regret it.  It's now one of my favorite consoles.  I think the Amico also has the potential to bring a lot of fun and interesting stuff to the table and I can't wait to try it out. 

18 hours ago, styluskramer said:

Hmmm. I don't think they had 4 controllers for the Xbox, and there were no tears. In any case, it doesn't matter much after they buy the console. It's not Nintendo's (or Intellivision's) problem that a group of kids behave like that and not like they do in ads.

 

True. Some games for Ludum Dare jams (3 days) are really impressive. But to do that steadily, getting 7/10 (or more) game after 7/10 (or more) game is difficult. I think my point is that Tommy cherry-picks facts, and in a way he has his own "reality distortion field". 

Tommy, explaining that the games are going to be 2D, says "think of Ori and the blind forest" or "think of Cuphead". I know the Amico won't have games like that. I know Tommy is explaining that you don't need 3D graphics to have a freaking beautiful game.
Couldn't he choose a more humble example? I don't know, Angry Birds? 
By dropping names like these (games with developments that span several years and million-dollar budgets) he takes advantage of a halo effect. He makes us think something, when reality is something else.

Hi styluskramer,

With all due respect... the only one who seems to be "cherry picking" is you my friend.

It's quite obvious to the average person what the general overall theme was to each one of those articles so no reason to "debate" you on what the true meaning of each article was. 

For the sake of this discussion I'm going to go ahead and assume some things about you if you don't mind.  You are a middle to upper class white male between 20 - 35 years old living in the United States and you don't have children.  You have either an XBOX or PS4 (I'm guessing XBOX) or play on PC.

Impressed?  I'm pretty good right??  Scary huh?  If you would like to provide me with your Facebook page that says differently... please PM me your link and I'll PM you there to further our discussion. 

I'm not stating that assumption to be mean or belittling in any way (I'm almost that SAME demographic as well)... but I would like to point out that in order to quickly understand Amico and the obvious gaping hole that is occurring in the video game industry... one sometimes needs to step out of their own bubble and bias in order to see the full picture.

All of the folks who have responded to most of your points are pretty much correct in everything they stated... so no need to continue those topics.

But here's some good info for you to know for future debates about the video game industry, Intellivision Amico and developers.  You state $10K per month per person.  Yes... there are established developers in the U.S., Japan & parts of the UK that are making that... but for the most part Indie developers are not.  In fact most Indie developers bootstrap everything and work for free.  And then Intellivision comes around and offers them more money than they've ever made.  You think Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo are doing that on the smaller levels that we are?  How about EA, Activision & UbiSoft?  Nope.  There are a LOT of talented people in that pool so to somehow suggest (in a round about way) that we don't know what we're doing, or don't treat or pay our our developers enough... or that the games are going to be lame and bad... is absolute ridiculous nonsense.  So by your calculations (and the one article you read) you are saying that every Indie person working at an Indie developer is making $120,000 per year.  $10K x 12 months.  If you really believe that... it telegraphs how very little you know about the video game industry and Indie developers.  So probably not the best idea to be telling me after 30 years of development how "wrong" I am. 

That being said... we have developers of ALL sorts working on our projects.  Some HUGE names (who know how big Amico is going to be and are willing to split development with us for a higher backend percentage) and others who have never been paid by a publisher or hardware manufacturer (i.e. your Kickstarter/Indie crowds).

There are a LOT of great developers outside the U.S. and around the world who have a $3,500 - $5,000 per person per month burn ratio.  Now do your math. 

Cost of living is MUCH cheaper outside the U.S. and even outside of the "coastlines" of the U.S.  Very well known fact that developers in San Francisco cost 2 or 3 times the amount of a developer in let's say Colorado, or Pennsylvania.  Ask me how I know?  Because we have 2 great devs in San Fran as well as folks in Colorado & Penn. but are able to set up each deal differently based on percentages, guarantees, etc.  The other huge missing link in your portrayal of how we develop games is that WE provide certain major things in development such as music, sound design, art direction, art assets, game testing, optimization guidance/programming... etc., etc., etc...  So even if a game has a $500K budget... we may be providing $200K - $300K of it internally.  I've talked about this in almost all of my interviews in regards to development for Amico.... so whose "cherry picking" now? 

And finally...

You say... "Tommy, explaining that the games are going to be 2D, says "think of Ori and the blind forest" or "think of Cuphead". I know the Amico won't have games like that.  Couldn't he choose a more humble example? I don't know, Angry Birds?  By dropping names like these (games with developments that span several years and million-dollar budgets) he takes advantage of a halo effect. He makes us think something, when reality is something else."

So many things wrong with these sentences.  First... when I say we will have games like Ori & Cuphead you automatically assume that I'm talking about the length or design??  I'm referring to the ART STYLE and the fact that they are 2.5D.  And quite frankly... you say "I know the Amico won't have games like that."  Really??  You do?  Would you like to explain how you know this?  Just that statement there shows the type of person you are on the internet.  You have ZERO knowledge of what we are working on, ZERO knowledge of what our games look or play like and ZERO knowledge about how they are being made.  How's that for a "halo effect"? 

You say I should compare our games to Angry Birds?  Why?  So that folks like yourself would jump all over me crying that I'm somehow deceiving the public into thinking our games are going to make BILLIONS of dollars, will have in-app purchasing, heavy in-game ads, a major motion-picture and incredible licensing.  You see... what you did is use Angry Birds as a style description... but when I did the SAME THING with Ori & Cuphead... you cried foul. 

(gotcha!)

By the way... I'll say it again... our games are NOT all 2D (that is you just cherry-picking my comments).  And although a bulk of our games may take place on 2D planes.... only a few handful of games are truly 2D.  For the most part everything is 2.5D.  You'll find that out in a few weeks when we drop our next trailer.

Bottom line...

If you are looking to engage and have questions/concerns... you could certainly come at it in a much different and respectful way than you are currently doing.  You are trying to paint me as a "big corporation" shitting on the little people and not being honest with the public.  So to that I say... you are wrong and you do not come across as knowledgeable in the game industry the way you "cherry-pick" comments to tell your narrative as opposed to just asking.  I'm willing to continue answering your questions if you're willing to proceed in a nicer manner.

And because I just can't resist (because it's so perfect)...