“In our experience, something like the Netflix deal is really exciting. “One of the challenges in the indie space is that we don’t always know what other studios are going through or what other offerings look like, so there’s a lack of visibility into the broader subscription space”, Parkes said. While Parkes’ opinion on the broader impact of subscriptions on the indie scene is limited, being on a service allows before your eyes effectively reduce noise in the wild mobile game market.
GoodbyeWorld currently has a positive view of game subscription services, which contributed to its decision to work with Netflix. “My intuition tells me that subscriptions are good for indie games.” Indie developers potentially have a lot to gain from the additional visibility brought by subscription services, but could also lose money if people decide not to choose the games. Xbox Game Pass is the top dog right now, while other holders on platforms like Google, Amazon, and even PlayStation is getting on the trend. Netflix is just one of many companies trying to pave the way for the video game subscription service scene.
“I think games are a natural extension of that.” “Netflix is a platform known for its stories and things like Bandersnatch showed he’s already done a few games in the interactive space,” Parkes says. before your eyes would be a good choice for the public and the philosophy of Netflix. GoodbyeWorld almost immediately agreed to the partnership when Skybound Games piqued Netflix’s interest in a Skype call, as the team believed. Credits Parkes before your eyes publisher Skybound Games with the conclusion of the agreement. Parkes admits that short, linear, story-driven games don’t have a great chance of becoming popular on the App Store or Google Play Store. GoodbyeWorld knew the mobile version of before your eyes needed to be part of the right service or game collection. While the development of the port presented unique challenges, before your eyes‘The biggest barrier to success on mobile is visibility.
It’s the same narrative adventure gamers had on PC but adapted to work best on a gaming device that almost everyone has. “Netflix is a platform known for its stories.”īefore your eyes is a game that takes advantage of the technology at its disposal, and that philosophy clearly applies to the mobile port as well. The PC version has a traditional landscape ratio, and well while we liked the comfort of playing it vertically in your hand, it felt too zoomed in and claustrophobic, we had to find ways to move the camera back a bit when going vertical, so it would retain that cinematic quality and realistic in look. “Another challenge was the camera framing and its cinematic fluidity. exchange smoothly, so it doesn’t look confusing,” Lewin said. “The way the text appears on screen actually takes a ton of programming and design work, and to be able to completely change it from vertical to horizontal, we need a pretty robust solution for how that text goes. This feature, however, presents challenges with location and camera framing. Still, GoodbyeWorld and port developers BKOM Studios had to consider things like arm positioning and phone rotation.īefore your eyes on mobile can seamlessly switch between a horizontal and vertical perspective if someone turns their phone so people can play in the most comfortable position for themselves. Modern phones all have high quality cameras, so that wasn’t really an issue. Of course, bringing the game to phones presented a unique set of challenges.
We think mobile is a perfect home because you can get those casual gamers who might check something on their phone but don’t have a Steam or console account. “Everyone has eyes and everyone blinks, so we’ve always wanted to design the game to be played by gamers and non-gamers alike. “We always knew mobile was a great fit and we wanted the game to come to mobile because we’re using a control mode that everyone is familiar with by nature,” Parkes explained.