EA Montreal's Reid Schneider has talked about some of the lessons the Army Of Two development team learned while working on the sequel

Schneider delivered a presentation titled 'Preaching To The Choir: Do We Make Games For Ourselves?' in which he argued that developers "need to marry our creative aspirations with the reality that we work in a packaged goods business."

Schneider warned against insular development environments where the same influences can be magnified. "If you think about your typical game developer, we're all coming from the same place," he explained. As an example the producer cited his experiences on the original Army Of Two: "One of the original ideas for Army Of Two was to re-create the Eighties buddy action flick in a videogame," said Schnieder. "Where we really missed the boat was on tone."

"We assumed everyone would find the same things funny that we did, and we were definitely wrong on that," he explained. "We alienated about 50 per cent of our market, including Europe. Europe didn't find the same things funny that we did in North America."

Schneider also said the development community was getting older, which was reflected in the industry's approach to games. Summing up, Schneider said the hardcore audience wasn't disappearing, but that new markets were emerging. "Globally, the industry is growing," he said. "You need to know who you're targeting, and you should never, ever straddle the fence and try to make something that appeals to everyone. That requires ruthless focus."

For more on Army Of Two: The 40th Day read our interview with Creative Director Alex Hutchinson.

[via Gamasutra]