Jan 2, 2019 · 29m · a16z
a16z Podcast | Tech Trends Changing Gaming
Tim Schafer · 12m spoken Herman Narula · 9m spoken Justin Bailey · 5m spoken Sonal Chokshi · 1m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of the a16z Podcast, industry experts Tim Schafer, Justin Bailey, and Herman Narula explore how crowdfunding, emergent tech, and community feedback are reshaping video game development. They analyze the rise of independent 'Triple-I' studios, creator autonomy, and the balance between handcrafted narrative storytelling and systemic sandbox design.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The host holds 5.2% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The host as informed peer 1.3 Guest teaching 0.9 Guest disagreement 1.8 The host pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 22:33 Justin's critique of system-based design expectations
Justin directly challenges the panel's praise of system-based design, arguing that infinite system replayability devalues hand-crafted content games and distorts consumer price expectations.
Hardest push from the host ▶ 2:56 Sonal challenges indie crowdfunding assumptionsSonal explicitly challenges the optimistic crowdfunding narrative by introducing the music industry parallel and questioning if an established audience is an absolute precondition for indie success.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 3:10 Tim reframes audience requirements for indiesTim corrects Sonal's premise that indies must have pre-existing followings by citing breakout games like Hyper Light Drifter that captured attention purely on visual concept.
The host holds their own ▶ 2:56 Sonal brings up music industry business parallelsSonal demonstrates industry knowledge by drawing a direct comparison to music industry monetization traps and asking if indie game creators face identical audience requirements.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The host as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The host pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crowdfunding, Creative Independence, and Historical Precedents | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Sonal prompts the panel on the funding landscape, after which Tim, Herman, and Justin collaboratively discuss how crowdfunding and independent development mirror historical shifts in film financing without any friction or host pushback. | |
| Community Discovery and Evolving Publisher Models | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | Sonal introduces a music industry comparison and asks if having a pre-existing audience is a prerequisite for indie success. Tim gently corrects this assumption by pointing to breakout hits like Hyper Light Drifter, leading to a discussion on discovery. | |
| The 'Sundance Effect' and Creative Diversity in Games | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Sonal asks why creator autonomy matters to mainstream audiences. Tim uses the Sundance Film Festival as an analogy to show how indie innovation enriches the entire gaming ecosystem without destroying AAA studios. | |
| Narrative Resurgence, Emergent Worlds, and Virtual Reality | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Sonal prompts the panel on non-mobile trends, triggering an in-depth conversation on narrative resurgence, immersion, and VR where guests collaboratively build on each other's ideas. | |
| Modding Culture, Emergent Gameplay, and the DayZ Phenomenon | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | This segment is an uninterrupted discussion among the guests about DayZ, modding ecosystems, and unexpected player behavior, with zero host participation. | |
| Moral Choice, Role-Playing, and Emotional Practice | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | Sonal prompts the guests to elaborate on moral and ethical design choices. Tim humorously critiques superficial morality systems before explaining how games serve as emotional practice for moral experimentation. | |
| System-Based Design vs. Content-Crafted Experiences | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Justin pushes back against the industry enthusiasm for purely system-based games, arguing that infinite replayability creates unrealistic cost-per-hour expectations that hurt crafted content games; the host is silent throughout. | |
| The Rise of 'Triple-I' Studios and Direct Fan Relationships | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Herman jokingly compares Tim to Taylor Swift, leading Justin and Tim to define Triple-I studios and dissect how direct fan backing alters the financial risk dynamic compared to traditional record-label style publisher models. | |
| Real-Time Social Feedback and the Future of Game Development | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Sonal asks Tim how tech evolution has affected his creative process over his career. Tim emphasizes that real-time social feedback and direct fan interaction represent the single biggest dynamic shift in game development. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Schafer: Double Fine Set Kickstarter Record For Fastest $2 Million Raised
“We had like the most, most backers. Most backers. It was like fastest two million bucks.”
Schafer: Crowdfunding Gave Double Fine Direct Player Access And Creative Autonomy
“What happened with us in crowdfunding has allowed us to have just so much more creative control, and a more natural relationship with people who we make games for, because they're funding our games, and we're directly in contact with them.”
Bailey: Game Crowdfunding Mirrors 1970s Film Financing Creative Explosion
“If you actually look at what happened about 40 years ago in films, you'll actually see film financing came about then, and the creators were freed from a studio framework, and it's really interesting to see what's actually happening right now with crowdfunding…”
Bailey: Crowdfunding Platforms Organize Existing Communities Rather Than Drive Organic Discovery
“And yet I do think that it is a little bit of a myth that like with crowdfunding, a lot of people think that if you go there you know, with, The, you know, the current platforms that are in place, that organic discovery is fairly large, and we've actually foun…”
Bailey: EA Founder Trip Hawkins Copied Music Industry Contracts For Gaming
“Like if you go back to that 40 years ago, that actually was right around the time when EA was being formed. You had Trip Hawkins, and he went out and he found, and this actually ties in the music industry, like, he got the contract from the music industry and …”
Schafer: AAA Game Studios Would Never Have Created Minecraft
“I don't think a AAA studio would have created Minecraft, for example, you know, and I don't think that followed any sort of rules that existed before it, you know, but I think when people have the ability to kind of make these smaller, personal, more risky pro…”
Narula: High-Budget AAA Games Suffer From Sameness And Lack Risk
“The one thing as a gamer, as a big fan of some of your games as well, that I've really you know, hated in the last few years has been the sameness and lack of risk around so many of the higher budget productions that are out there.”
Schafer: Mainstream Video Games Lack Genre Diversity Compared To Film
“In mainstream games, you still have, for the majority sense, like, summer action blockbusters. They're mostly all in that genre, if you know, and I think indie games kind of, you know, have stretched out of that, for sure, but just the idea that, that That peo…”
Narula: PC Platforms Like Steam Present Steep UX Barriers For Mobile Gamers
“A lot of people had previously played mobile games. And one of the requirements was to download the game from Steam in order to interact with it. These weren't like hardcore gamers. Just the click process in Steam was utterly alien to them. I mean, these are p…”
Narula: High-End Graphics Are Not The Primary Driver Of Game Engagement
“I think that graphics are not the be all and end all of gaming experience. I think there's more fundamental components to engagement I wish people would explore more, which aren't as flashy as just increasing pixel density.”
Bailey: Hollywood Film And Blockbuster Game Techniques Fail In VR
“A lot of the same things that actually worked and the same techniques and with Hollywood films and these big blockbuster games, like, they just don't translate over to the VR experience, which you know, I think potentially you'll see a spotlight on things like…”
Bailey: DayZ Held Steam's Top Holiday Sale Spot Without Discounting
“There's something that's never happened in the history of the Steam sale, which is, it was the holiday side. It was like the Christmas sale. And for the wholesale, they stayed the number one spot.”
Schafer: YouTube Streaming Has Replaced Traditional Game Promotion
“Which I think is how things get promoted these days. It's just everyone talking about it. Kind of, it used to be called water coolers, but I think it's obviously just YouTube streams.”
Schafer: Video Games Offer Emotional Practice By Enabling Moral Experimentation
“You know, but she's interested in the range of, you know, what happens if you try these things, and I think, ah, when kids play with dolls, they figure out through role playing what it feels like, and they get this kind of emotional practice, and I think all s…”
Schafer: Narrative Games Require Three Months Work Per Ten Minutes Gameplay
“You'll work for three months on something, it'll take the player 10 minutes to experience.”
Bailey: Systemic Games Distort Pricing Expectations For Narrative Games
“And so it almost makes these experiences, content-based game experiences it sets them up to fail, because people are like, oh, well, that should be free, when it takes, like, a crafting of years to get it right.”
Narula: System-Based Game Design Can Be Lazy
“Completely, and there's another worst problem, which is that I think some systems case, games-based design can be very lazy, right?”
Schafer: Traditional Publisher Cross-Collateralization Hurts Individual Creators
“If you're in a studio and you have a bunch of, say you have a bunch of bands, your music studio, You know not all of them are going to be the Rolling Stones, and the Rolling Stones are going to pay for all the other bands, but you cross-prolateralize so that, …”
Schafer: Direct Customer Responses Convert Angry Users Into Supporters
“Sometimes you'll have the angriest person in the world write your meanest letter, and then you'll just say, oh, oh, I'm sorry you had that issue. Let me try and get that in our bug tracking system. They're like, I can't believe you answered. They're so happy. …”