Hey everyone, Haris here, the creator and editor of this website. It has been years since our last post, and perhaps even longer since the website has been fully active. Let us talk about where we went, and why we’ve decided to come back.
Where did we go?
As people might know, running a videogame website is a lot of work. With hundreds of games releasing each week, both big and small, it requires no little effort to stay up to date with all that’s happening with various publishers and developers.
We had come to a point where we couldn’t commit to maintaining the amount of work we were doing to keep this website afloat. Not to mention, several of us had amazing life changes, both personal and professional, which occupied us. Filling the website with lots of interesting articles and up-to-date news is already a lot of work, but when you also have to feed the social monster to keep your site relevant in order to attract visitors, you quickly realise just how bottomless its hunger is.
For this reason, and to not compromise our quality by just writing the bare minimum, we decided to take a break, and that break ended up becoming a final decision to leave As We Play behind, to focus on our personal and professional lives. We couldn’t have been happier with the website, but it was time to let go.
Since then, I have been working hard on making videogames as a combat designer, with Dead Island 2 being one of them. I have also been testing and consulting on various products, helping teams small and large realise their vision.
Why did we come back?
This is all to say that I was mostly content being on the other side of a media site, as a gamer and developer. However, over the last few years, I have felt a growing unease, stemming from the state of videogames and the general press industry surrounding them.
We have seen parts of the conversation around games become increasingly hostile, with leaks, outrage and negativity often being rewarded more than thoughtful discussion or genuine appreciation for the work itself.
Even some larger parts of games media can feel increasingly shaped by cynicism, where the pressure to chase traffic trumps fair criticism and respect for the people behind the work. What has been even worse, however, is just how shaky the industry has been recently with countless layoffs affecting talented developers.
As a developer myself, I know first-hand just how hard and thankless game development can be, and how much of themselves devs sacrifice just to get something out the gate. Every game release is a miracle that results from the hard-work of countless designers, writers, programmers, artists, QA testers, and more.
Just this last week I saw people speculating about who might survive Microsoft’s upcoming layoffs as if it was something to bet on, rather than a terrifying moment for real people who may be wondering whether they will still have a job by the end of the week.
Then on the other hand, we have indie developers solo and in small teams, giving it their all, oftentimes making tough decisions to bring their vision to life, like how Cuphead’s Studio Mondo developers had to remortgage their house. Thankfully, Cuphead did extremely well and has put Studio Mondo on the map. Unfortunately, however, not all development journeys have a happy ending. Despite this, despite all the risks, these developers persevere through doubt and hardship not only because they believe in what they are making, but because of the love they have for this medium.
Criticism will always matter. Games should be discussed honestly, and not every release will work for every player, but there is a difference between meaningful criticism that can help developers grow and throwaway commentary that reduces years of hard work into easy outrage and mockery for clicks.
Our Promise
That is why it feels more important than ever to have outlets like As We Play that are led by people who have a more visible stake in the industry and can sympathise with what a dev is going through. I initially started this website thinking that it would be a great perspective to have different articles, ranging from news to reviews from the point of view of game developers, giving useful insight that others might miss. We have realised it is now needed more than ever, so we have decided to bring As We Play back.
We can’t promise that we will be posting as much as we did before, where you get multiple news pieces a day, since we are still busy with a lot of other things. However, what we can promise is that whatever we post will be meaningful, and will help champion games and their developers, whether big or small, whilst providing useful insights that might help budding game developers.
We are excited to be back, and can’t wait to share great content with both gamers and developers alike by celebrating this amazing hobby of ours and the people who make or enjoy them.
If you are someone who handles the press for a publisher or developer, or you are an indie developer that wants to showcase your game, please get in touch via our socials, we look forward to sharing the great game you are making!
