# crowd sourced game development pressure video game development continues to shift in the direction of the crowd sourced / fan based giving rise to ethical and artistic paradoxes interesting how quickly game developer blackpowder games seemed to bowed to community pressure over its unique black and white aesthetic in ir first title "betrayer" ir initial decision was to go with a stark black / white and red aesthetic - but due to community feedback they're now implementing sliders for those who feel teh game would look cool with color (rolls eyes) some (who?) suggest that this b&w look was only a cheap marketing ploy - the hook and look to stand out in a massively over-saturated market which has now been quickly thrown out in order to appeal to a wider audience as a more elegant solution it was also suggested that they could actively incorporate this color slider as a game mechanic (itself optional); you can either see in black / white and red or in color - but that each yautja-like vision mode has its distinct advantages and disadvantages they could shoe-horn in this ability narrative wise by simply saying the main character was born with eg. "the shades" - an ability to sense danger signs and portents in ir environment odd how you're allowed to change teh game as you go along (possibly with the help of fanboys) but not allowed to change the initial back story / narrative context of teh game itself or be less fixed in your choices from the very outset and put all your ideas out to tender allowing the community to give feedback on the underlying premises of your game this could however end up in you making as few artistic and aesthetic choices as possible - perhaps not a bad thing like an obliquely reverse jeff koons or damian hurst; "custom games made to strict fan order - by flans" // video here in which valve is leading the way in crowd sourcing - by thinking of games in terms of services using linux and through including gamers into the very structure of development perhaps the quicker indie dev teams like blackpowder more fully realize this the smoother the developmental process this recent switch over to the power of flans requires an inventive rethink of how to approach interact with and utilize garming communities // republic of bob