Your game industry in your words, week of August 24

Gamasutra highlights choice quotes from game industry figures from the past week, including Unity's David Helgason, Republique's Ryan Payton, and many others. In our original and exclusive interviews, analysis, and feature pieces over the past week, a wide variety of developers, publishers, and indies shared their thoughts on making a Kickstarter project that seems too polished, writing funny game dialogue, and more. This Week's Noteworthy Game Industry Quotes "Politics could mismanage [Vancouver's game industry] into the Stone Age... We have to stop these guys, and really try to turn things around." - Zeros 2 Heroes Media president Matt Toner warns that Vancouver's game industry could get worse if the city's government doesn't meet the needs of local developers "They're naturally worried, as they should be. Because if we went and screwed up, or acted like idiots, that would hurt a lot of people, hurt a lot of companies." - Unity CEO David Helgason "There is something really fun and challenging about taking a game, and building a custom controller bespoke to that game." - Interaction designer Andrew Spitz explains why he helped build a physical slingshot controller for Angry Birds "I don't necessarily agree with the commonly used analogy that running a Kickstarter is a digital form of panhandling, if that were true, I was standing on a street corner in a freshly pressed suit holding an iPad with a typed out message 'Need money. Anything helps." - Republique creative director Ryan Payton discusses the danger of Kickstarter campaigns that seem too polished "Chinese gamers not only buy virtual upgrades -- they brag about buying them." - Henry Fong, CEO of Chinese publisher Yodo1 "Nothing makes a world feel artificial and false like a character who won't stop punning." - Z2Live content designer Ian Adams shares tips on writing video game dialogue that's actually funny "If we can create a culture fully focused on developing and fleshing out original ideas, as well as encourage an open exchange of knowledge and techniques between developers, then maybe it'll be easier for folks to go indie and make better games sustainably." - Professional Polymath producer Epona Schweer on building a healthy indie community in your city "For me as a publisher, we can either whine about lack of sales, or we can go out and publish unique and compelling games for the Vita that drive sales." - Phil Gaskell, creative director at PS Vita game publisher Ripstone "The customer is always right' is a phrase everyone knows for a reason: it's true. They are funding and making the game, and likely have a vision for the end product including how it's going to sound." - Audio designer Harry Mack on working as a freelance game developer The complete versions of these in-depth articles, as well as other insightful pieces, are all available in Gamasutra's pages for Exclusive items and Features.