Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson and Batman Arkham executive producer Reid Schneider just launched their new studio, Raccoon Logic. On the heels of the announcement, TheGamer spoke with the duo about the new studio and their experiences as former triple-A developers, and Hutchison shared how he felt about some of the feedback creatives receive from the people looking at "charts and spreadsheets."
Our very own Stacey Henley sat down with the ex-Typhoon devs to explore their ethos and how their outlook on feedback. While Hutchison listens to genuine feedback from players, he shared his thoughts on how movies and novels don't take the same approach when listening to some of the loudest online crowds. Hutchison noted that the games industry became the first to "embrace customer feedback in the entertainment space."
As for the business people, they're "cowards", according to Hutchison. When detailing the process of some of the games we see pieced together based on board room decisions, Hutchison explained, "I think it's okay for people not to like everything all the time. I think it's sort of sad if you're desperately searching for 100 percent validation, because I can't even imagine a novel that would get that, or a movie. So I think [listening to the loudest corners] is bad. It's because the business people, who are not creative in the big companies, look at charts and spreadsheets and want justification for decisions, because they're cowards. They don't want to back something and lose, because then they get fired. And that's very bad, so they want to be like, ‘Show me the data’. And everyone asked me for this thing so that I can feel validated in agreeing with you without having to understand it.”
In our full interview, both Schneider and Hutchison had plenty to share about their experiences and observations from some of the industry's biggest players, like EA. With plenty learned from their previous roles, Raccoon Studio's founders are keeping things smaller and more manageable at their new studio. Our second piece with Hutchison and Schneider also notes that Raccoon Studio is thrilled to hold the IP for their Stadia release - Journey to the Savage Planet - but that may not mean it's the first game they'll make under their new company.
Seeing former Stadia studio developers make their return is a welcomed sight. Earlier this year, Google closed down several studios and cancel their projects, while still promising it will release "over 100 games" in 2021. Typhoon Studios was one of those teams hit by Google closures, which ultimately led to frustrating scenarios for fans of the developers their work.