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The Sunstone Company Line

As a company, Sunstone Games is built around three key ideas:
  • Players are intelligent
  • Players appreciate quality
  • Players come from every demographic
For our first blog post, I thought I'd expand on what those three ideas mean - and how we interpret them as promises to our players.

Players Are Intelligent
Video game developers are, almost without exception, very smart people.  So smart that they often adopt an air of authority, and lose sight of the fact that even very smart people make a lot of foolish decisions.
Sunstone Games is filled with very smart people - but we are dedicated to putting the needs of our players first.  That means players get to be a part of every decision we make.  Player feedback, player involvement, and player participation are an integral part of our process at every level.  We trust our players to be intelligent, thoughtful, and useful participants in the creative process.

Players Appreciate Quality
People who play video games have lots of options - especially in mobile games.  Becoming visible in a crowded market is a challenge.  One solution is to create a large number of low-quality games, and then polish up whichever games happen to sell.  This is known as "Minimum Viable Product."
This strategy makes lots of sense to the business world, because it does not require any judgement about which games will or will not be successful.  At Sunstone Games, we believe that it is our duty as game creators to apply our judgement, and produce only quality products.  Quality is more important than maximizing financial return, because quality builds a relationship of trust between us and our players.

Players Come from Every Demographic

Early home consoles were marketed as toys - products aimed at children.  And even though games have become a ubiquitous part of life for huge segments of the population it is still common to think of video games as the exclusive purview of 14-year-old boys.  We know that the median age for people playing games is close to 30.  But instead of producing games which appeal to our older players, we too often just add nudity and profanity to our existing games.  We know that female players outnumber male players online, but instead of eliminating our gender bias we too often create "pink" versions of popular games.
We at Sunstone Games believe that players are not defined by gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or income bracket - and our games will not rely on those assumptions.

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