Quote: "Commercial quality is the piece de resistance. The best of the best"
Not nessasarliy, though I would really enjoy to hear a hard text-book definition of 'commerical quality' from
someone, because the phrase seems to come up frequently on these boards; and from what I've seen, it is often misinterpreted
. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, for example; are "commercial quality" games but the textures are washed, and very bland in comparision to some games that came years before (it's understandable because the game is fast-paced and built more around moving forward than exploring environments, but that doesn't change the fact). Gameplay is pretty simplistic as well, when it's broken down.
Even looking at Modern Wareware 2 in comparison to Resident Evil 5, there is a noticable quality difference in graphic detail. Now that's not to say that aformentioned games aren't the best of the best in comparison to most indie budget games (duh), but it should help explain that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak.
Crysis and MW2 shouldn't jump into an indie developer's head when he hears the word 'commercial'. IMO, marketing has
much more to do with what determines 'commercial quality', than normal maps and motion blur. Some 'commercial quality' games that I've played in the past were horrid. Anyway, I do think that everyone's had about enough of me rambling about yet another commercial quality debate, so I won't take this any further. Just sharing my two cents.
Quote: "nothing DBP could conjure will ever compare to it..."
Nothing a small one or two man indie team could pull off with the Unreal Engine could, either. But that shouldn't discourage indie developers from making their game anyway. Who cares if it won't be on par with a game that has a multi-million dollar budget and 300 developers? It shouldn't be expected to anyway. Nor does it have to be to sell. Sometimes, It's not
just about the engine. The driver has an equally big expectation to live up to when you're referencing big-budget games. And if a developer just happens to have 10 million dollars to blow on marketing, then his game's only going to make it even further.
Kravenwolf
