Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Johnfalcon99977]

I used Ctrl before, but now I use C. Don't know why it quit before.

[Servant Corps]

I'm just curious what does AAA mean? Like, is it a marketing tool like XXX, or can a game can really be certified to be AAA? What if I just want to make an AA game, or an A game? What about a BBB game? I really want to make a BBB game; enough demand to cover the expenses of the game, but still low-cost enough for me to make the game in the first place.

[freeformschooler]

I'm just curious what does AAA mean? Like, is it a marketing tool like XXX, or can a game can really be certified to be AAA? What if I just want to make an AA game, or an A game? What about a BBB game? I really want to make a BBB game; enough demand to cover the expenses of the game, but still low-cost enough for me to make the game in the first place.

I believe laymen to the industry (including myself) use "AAA" cynically when talking about what a project lead wants their project to get. In these terms, it means you/I believe that they're either implying or saying "THIS GAME IS GONNA GET TEN OUT OF TEN, FIVE OUT OF STARS OR YOU'RE ALL FIRED". Not quite that aggressive, but you get the idea.

In optimistic terms when talking about games in general, AAA just means the highest quality or one of the highest qualities of a product. So saying an indie game maker is making an AAA game supposedly means they're making a game rivaling top tier commercial games, or a top tier quality game in general. Or something.

I believe "AAA" comes from minor league baseball. But I don't know much about sports so I could be wrong.

[jnecros]

"AAA" is generally high quality, but I've been taught that the AAA titles sell over 1 million copies, as such AAA "indie" is questionable. How do "independent" devs market a game to sell that many? Word of mouth is not realistic sorry

[Cthulhu]

AAA games are the video game equivalents of summer blockbusters.  A very polished, very popular game, usually with absurdly large amounts of money and very large development teams.  They're the games that get an 8+ by default from "review' sites. 

[inteuniso]

And just like summer blockbusters, just because a game has good production values and a lot of cash invested, doesn't mean it's better than an "indie" (small company without one of the large publishers) game.

For example, just because Avatar has an almost half billion dollars invested, doesn't mean it's a better movie than Moon, which had a (comparatively) small budget of 5 million. I still am not tired of Moon (might watch it again this weekend, get some friends into it) and got tired of Avatar after watching it twice.

[jnecros]

Yeah exactly, I think most all of us DF fans lean towards true indie titles because they are more complex, less market-oriented.

Sure, Avatar had big bucks behind it, I have not seen it because it sounded like a bullshit story, but yeah it was a AAA movie due to earnings. Moon was great, I agree, but it was a AA film for sure, not exactly a A indie shot in somebody's garage. Also, NPR ran a spotlight on it, this is most likely due to the fact that the director is David Bowie's son.

[RF]

For example, just because Avatar has an almost half billion dollars invested, doesn't mean it's a better movie than Moon, which had a (comparatively) small budget of 5 million. I still am not tired of Moon (might watch it again this weekend, get some friends into it) and got tired of Avatar after watching it twice.

I just read the plot of that movie and there's a novella I've read with the exact same plot.

No credits or anything? Weird.

[Fikes]

I don't think AAA has to do with earnings, I think it is more a level of standards you apply to your product. A AAA movie means you won't see a boom mike slip into the frame and you can expect a quality sound track while a B movie may have a very simplistic sound track (Neapolitan Dynamite) or may use the same footage in different parts of the movie.

For games it is even easier to tell the difference. A AAA game has cut scenes, good music score, releases mostly complete and bug free, and has features you'd expect in AAA games like online multiplayer, key bindings, and other general settings.

Meanwhile, our beloved B (or indie) games generally release strewn with bugs and poorly supported multiplayer while lacking an epic soundtrack and any sort of cut scenes.

While budget and team size often grow as a result of the standard, they aren’t what makes the game AAA. Neither is the end quality. Instead it is just a company attempting to adhere to a standard.

[Astral]

releases mostly complete and bug free,

Bullshit. Most games these days go with the "release now, patch later, using players as unpaid beta testers" philosophy that was so common with PC games back in the day. Now that consoles are connected, they think they can manage with it. And they abuse the right.

[Sensei]

AAA = "Big name". It's really a matter of media coverage. Naturally this is synonymous with high budget.

[Johnfalcon99977]

Sooo... for those who don't know, this game has a kickstarter now. Its actually kinda funny, seeing as the last time I heard about this game was like 2010 or something, and now they have a big kickstarter for a very large 600,000 dollars. There is also a video by Totalbiscuit showing off the Multiplayer Alpha and an interview with the dev.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

This game looks very promising, however if there isn't a shoot-yourself-in-the-head hotkey I WILL be disappointed, and the land/bear/cat/dog/mutant-from-fallout/shark is a terrible alien design.

[Girlinhat]

AAA titles are the ones you see on G4 during X-Play or Attack of the Show or something.  They'll cover Final Fantasy 13 because it's from Square-motherfuckin-Enix, but they won't cover Skies of Arcadia because the production company isn't big enough to warrant paying attention to.  AAA is generally "another one from this company" like Valve or Bioware or something.

Although more strictly speaking, it also means "They're taking themselves very seriously" is a good definition too.  You generally don't see filler stats, pointless items, or broken textures in AAA.  Like...  indie game gives you "Craft one iron with one jet fuel to produce one rocket-propelled fork" while AAA gives you "Craft one iron with one jet fuel to produce 5 RPG."

[Johnfalcon99977]

-snip-

You realize you're trying to continue a conversation that is over a year old, right? Please try and discuss the Kickstarter and the game instead of the whole triple A thing.