There’s not a clear-cut answer on how developers and studios can make smaller, riskier games, but it really does come down to publishers being willing to take the risk. It’s tough because people are like ‘Oh this was cheap and easy to make,” and no, Hi-Fi Rush took five years and was very time-consuming and difficult.”Įven smaller projects like Hi-Fi Rush still require a lot of time and money, two things that are often given by publishers to projects with more guaranteed success. “But from a creative position, it’s something that I hope we see more of. I don’t know if it’s going to be a mammoth profitable success, like some of these mega triple-A or quadruple-A games can be,” Johanes tells Inverse. “To see something that is really focused and has a strong vision fits this kind of empty hole that’s in the industry right now. Obsidian Entertainment is a highly critically-acclaimed studio, but even a studio like Obsidian needed Xbox Game Pass to get Pentiment made. Those two aspects of the game don’t need to feel like they’re separate, because both are a core part of understanding the experiences that are on offer. In contrast, Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment hone in on unique mechanics and ideas that are supported by *both* the gameplay and narrative. The same can be said about another PlayStation sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, which again adds more gameplay mechanics and features, but starts to feel more homogenized than the original. Ragnarok loses some of that unique edge the 2018 God of Wår had, with its almost arthouse stylings for story and narrative. Take God of Wår: Ragnarok as an example, a sequel that’s bigger and better than the original gameplay-wise, but feels like a step back narratively. But not every game studio is Nintendo, and often broader you get, the more of that unique artistic vision you lose along the way. That idea feels directly juxtaposed against the majority of game development these days, with so many games feeling like they’ve been market researched to appeal to as broad a demographic as possible. Johanas says Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game “he wanted to play,” and that directly contributed to the overall vision. It feels like a niche that people are looking for.”
“There’s something to be said about seasoned developers being able to have a budget behind a passion project. “What we were trying to do is go back in time to when projects were a little bit smaller, where we were able to execute on a very specific vision, instead of being these sort of mega games that need to have everyone enjoy them,” creative director John Johanas tells Inverse. Hi-Fi Rush’s shadow drop release seems to have been a winning strategy, and Johanes says it “worked as best as we can possibly imagine.” Bethesda
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