Sportsfriends

BACKGROUND: Around the world, larger videogame production studios are closing down in favor of smaller teams and looser constellations of individual creators. In this climate, we need to revisit old modes of working. Sportsfriends looks beyond the traditional studio model to ask: how can designers combine multiple games into one cohesive sum greater than its parts, and what might they gain in doing so? CONTRIBUTION: Sportsfriends is a tight-knit compendium of four different local multiplayer games by four different NYC game designers. Wilson was the Lead Producer and Co-Designer of the project, in conjunction with game designers Ramiro Corbetta, Noah Sasso, Bennett Foddy, and a larger team of contractors. Unlike the looser game "bundles" that have flooded the industry, Sportsfriends takes four stylistically different games and presents them as one cohesive product. Despite their aesthetic differences, all four games share a common ideological goal of bringing players together through local multiplayer. Explicitly challenging the increasing ubiquity of online and single-player games, Sportsfriends requires multiple players, all in the same physical space. In this sense, the process behind the project - bringing together a plurality of voices - mirrors the intended social outcomes. SIGNIFICANCE: Sportsfriends led a renaissance of local multiplayer games this decade. The game was released commercially in 2014 on PlayStation 3&4 and Steam, and has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of players. The game was crowd-funded on Kickstarter for over $150,000 USD, by over 4000 backers, and was further funded by Sony America's prestigious Pub Fund program. The game has received positive reviews from most major gaming press outlets, including Polygon, IGN, and Gamespot. Eurogamer writes that "Sportsfriends represents video games at their very, very best."