Bastion dev: ports should be better than their sources

By Brenna Hillier

Lazy, buggy, or even perfect ports aren’t good enough, according to Supergiant Games co-founder Amir Rao.

Speaking at DICE 2013, as reported by GamesIndustry, Rao said developers don’t take much pleasure in porting and platform holders usually aren’t heavily invested in them, so they often end up as quick-and-dirty knock-offs.

“We shouldn’t be surprised when we do things in a cynical and disappointing way, that they produce disappointing results,” he said.

Rao said Supergiant wanted to do better than that with Bastion, and took Plants vs Zombies as inspiration, noting how it was improved in the jump from PC to Xbox Live Arcade. The original game should be like an album, he added, and as the band tours the new material, it refines and developers it at each stop.

“What fans really want is for you to put the same creative energy that went into making the original game into reimagining it,” Rao argued.

Bastion sold 1.7 million copies across all platforms; 90% of purchases occurred after launch month.