Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'
Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'
Wow that's terrible business advice. Glad it worked out anyways.
Before Half-Life released in 1998, you can find tons of examples of successful game companies who cut their teeth on projects with smaller scopes while they ramled up to greatness. Naughty Dog had Math Jam, Keef the Thief, Rings of Power, and other before they made Crash Bandicoot. Gamefreak had Smart Ball, Puleseman, and other before they made Pokemon.
Even later on- Bastion was a solid first title from Supergiant, but they slowly got bigger and better until they won awards with Hades.
Bastion certainly won awards itself..
I don't mean to detract from Bastion because I like Supergiant Games, but I don't find the awards comparable.
Bastion released in 2011 which may have been around the peak for awards in general. Printed magazines were still in their death throws. Nintendo Power still existed back then. But you also had online outlets, including both large companies and tons of tiny little communities and a full spectrum in-between. Heck, G4 existed as a TV channel dedicated to videogames at that time, but you also had YouTube and Twitch. SuperGiant Games themselves posted that by the end of 2011, half a year after the game released, they had won "100+" awards. So many even they can't keep track. A lot of those were for very niche and specific things, and a TON of those awards were specifically for the soundtrack by Darren Korb or for being the best India game. But if you look at the major publications doing Game of the Year Awards those were all cleaned up by Skyrim and, funnily enough, Portal 2.
And I agree with those awards. I like Bastion, but it really can't compete with Skyrim or Portal 2. I like Transistor and Pyre even more, but I don't think those two compare to Portal 2 or Skyrim either. I think it was important for Supergiant to start out with games with a much smaller scope to really hone their craft and establish a reputation before going for a more ambitious project like Hades, which DID win some of the big GOTT awards and I think can be I the same conversations as those games.
Half-life release in 1998, when magazines existed but everything else was in its infancy. It won some big awards at the time, but has probably won a lot more "retrospective" awards. Stuff like "best PC game of the last 20 years" or "most influential FPS". But it was also a larger-scope project and a bigger risk. Valve got away with it, in part because game development was different at the time and in part because Valve was just good.