tinyBuild’s Succinct E3 2018 Conference

<p>tinyBuild&comma; the indie game publisher behind titles like <em>Hello Neighbor<&sol;em> and <em>Clustertruck<&sol;em>&comma; took a page out of Devolver Digital&&num;8217&semi;s book&period; Rather than putting on a traditional show&comma; tinyBuild released a nine-minute pre-recorded skit&period; As an appetizer to Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s conference&comma; it filled the niche it needed to&period; You could tell the studio was having a blast poking fun at industry trends&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Good Stuff<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The skit opens with what is presumably tinyBuild&&num;8217&semi;s head honcho receiving a call from a villainous caricature&period; The ominous figure warns Alex Nichiporchik that he has twenty-four hours to craft an E3 press conference&period; &&num;8220&semi;Is the new game finished&quest;&&num;8221&semi;&comma; he asks Alex&comma; referencing the conference&&num;8217&semi;s only tangible announcement&colon; <em>Secret Neighbor<&sol;em>&period; Teased earlier this month&comma; <em>Secret Neighbor<&sol;em> closed off the studio&&num;8217&semi;s conference with a small chunk of gameplay&period; Featuring a group of children entering a seemingly abandoned house&comma; <em>Secret Neighbor<&sol;em> is all about that co-op&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a singular announcement&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s fine&comma; but the musicals are what really cemented tinyBuild&&num;8217&semi;s place as a publisher to watch out for&period; The first musical number&comma; &&num;8220&semi;The Greatest Game in the World&&num;8221&semi;&comma;  light-heartedly condemns the current Battle Royale fad&period; With such eloquent lyrics as&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>&&num;8220&semi;You&&num;8217&semi;ll start off nude&comma; go and snag that loot&excl; Those items basic as can be&excl;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&&num;8220&semi;Step One to make a game&period; We have a unique idea&period; How about Battle Royale&quest; That&&num;8217&semi;s great&excl; It&&num;8217&semi;s never been done before&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&&num;8220&semi;With those default skins&comma; you will never win&period; Better buy your way to victory&excl;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>tinyBuild knows exactly what they&&num;8217&semi;re doing&period; With such on the nose lyrics&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s an unabashed condemnation of publishers chasing greed and abusing uninformed consumers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4>Even Better Stuff<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>The second musical number&comma; &&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re Gonna Fix It&&num;8221&semi;&comma; equally pokes at developers rushing out unfinished games&period; tinyBuild&&num;8217&semi;s CEO plays with a fidget spinner as an assistant lists bullet point after bullet point of game breaking bugs after their recent beta test&period; Alex nonchalantly utters &&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;ll fix it&&num;8221&semi;&period; The final bullet point reads &&num;8220&semi;The PC version is running smoothly&comma; but the console ports are running at ten frames per second&&num;8221&semi;&period; Alex casually says &&num;8220&semi;we&&num;8217&semi;ll fix it&&num;8221&semi; one last time just before the musical number bursts onto the scene&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the song&&num;8217&semi;s end&comma; Alex is given the choice between saying &&num;8220&semi;yes&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;no&&num;8221&semi; to releasing the unfinished game&period; The camera cuts to his assistant&&num;8217&semi;s shocked disapproval&comma; shaking her head at the prospect that such a decision would even require any deliberation&period; What does Alex do&quest; He checks &&num;8220&semi;yes&&num;8221&semi; like a boss&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In an ironic twist of events&comma; tinyBuild even shoots themselves in the foot with this second song&period; With lyrics pointing to early access consumers as the replacement for the studio paying actual beta testers&comma; it rings a little too true in <em>Hello Neighbor<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s case&comma; one of tinyBuild&&num;8217&semi;s own published games&period; With a 38 Metascore and 4&period;6 user average on PC&comma; <em>Hello Neighbor<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s complaints revolve around it feeling unfinished&period; According to the user&comma; BlueRazor274&comma; &&num;8220&semi;<em>Alpha 1 was the best and most stable version of the game&comma; every update since felt like a downgrade and just added more problems to the game&period; Even after the game is apparently fully developed&comma; I still feel like I&&num;8217&semi;m playing the beta version just slightly more extended<&sol;em>&&num;8220&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Conclusion<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>I applaud tinyBuild&&num;8217&semi;s conference for its self-aware nature&period; Confining itself to an under nine minute recorded middle finger to the industry is brilliant&period; Cutting the fluff is exactly what these conferences need&period; Unfortunately&comma; it also needs to realize its own games aren&&num;8217&semi;t the most revered&comma; unique&comma; or complete experiences&period; In its attempt to throw shots at the industry&comma; I hope it learns with <em>Secret Neighbor<&sol;em>&period; Revealing that game would be all for naught if it just ends up being another &&num;8220&semi;we&&num;8217&semi;re gonna fix it&excl;&&num;8221&semi; game&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ve just barely won me over&comma; tinyBuild&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t push your luck&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;