Harsh realities of game development

[BS-er]

The following is an interesting article on the harsh realities of game development, and why anyone should think twice before going there:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article866.asp

I agree with most of it.  However I'm probably more tolerant than most when it comes to the overwhelming amount of non-fun grunt work that's needed.  I suspect Lizard is too, seeing all the work he has done.  Anyway the article is a good perspective from someone who has been down that road.

My own advice to anybody is: Don't be like us and go into game development, and above all, don't start or join an amateur or indie game project that is even slightly ambitious.  It's grueling work, and not nearly as fun as you might think.  However if you willing to go forth anyway, knowing how tough it will be, and you have the time and tolerance, maybe you should disregard my previous advice, because it does have its enjoyable aspects and is a good creative outlet.

[OvermindDL1]

I like the non-fun grunt work, that is the part I do consider fun, leave the little odf/idf's to others and so forth, gimme the ugly back-end code and bugs and let me go to town.

[Lizard]

why was that guy that wrote the article ever a game developer ?


from the sound of it he finds (found) the job tedious and painful, I get far more satisfaction from making my own games than I do from playing someone else's .


I guess I've always been a little bit odd 



..... but honestly if he thinks making games is hard graft he's never done a proper job, sure making games can get a little bit repetetive and boring at times but try working on an assembly line in some factory or as a labourer in the construction industry for the rest of your life then try and tell me that making games is boring or hard work ........... some people don't even know they're born .   



I must admit though that newbies never have a clue what they are letting themselves in for , I can usually tell which ones will stick at it and which ones are all just a lot of talk .

[BS-er]

He may actually have the best perspective in some ways, at least with regard to the mainstream game industry.  He's been working in a high-pressure business environment that probably finds a way to suck the joy out of most anything.  That is why I hesitate applying for a job in the mainstream game industry.  An Activision subsidiary (Vicarious Visions) is practically down the road from me (well 25 miles away but close enough), but I'm not sure I want to go there, although I may try to get some clues from existing employees.

[Lizard]

to be honest I'm not interested in working in the mainstream, not in the slightest, I think the lack of freedom and creativity in most mainstream environments would be absolutely stifling, it all seems so rigid and inflexible dictated by profit margins, deadlines and trying to predict the next big bandwagon to jump on.

I like the idea of indie development , not because I think that's where the money is but because it offers a greater level of creative freedom, I do this sheerly for the love of doing it not because I think it's ever going to make me a rich man ( but if it does I won't be complaining ...  ) . I try not to consider the money side of things too much, I just continue in the hope that enough people will buy our game to allow us to carry on doing this for a while longer, I believe we are heading in the right direction but these things are almost impossible to predict so I try not to let them worry me too much.

[Dx]

I think if you had to work for X developer/publisher under those conditions, it would take the joy out of it, then it's just another job.

[JonathanS]

I think the reason that mainstream is so stifled and creativity killed is because it's to expensive to go out on a limb so they'll stick with the proven to work methods and new ideas rarely get a chance to work.

I mean, honestly, the best games of late are just variants of FPS games that have been on the shelf. (Tomb Raider: legend - FPS with climbing and Halo 3 - Just a dang good FPS)

[AcneVulgaris]

Hi guys...I was looking at my rss feed and saw this...thought I'd let you know about a pretty cool discovery I made that pretty much eliminates the grunt work.

While I was impeding BSer on the coding for that brief period, I was pestering him about a pluggable architecture that had become something of an obsession for me.  After I moved on, I worked on building just such an engine (I like that grunt work too).  I was working with Ogre on my linux laptop, and decided I would rather work on my big honkin Powermac, and tried to port what I had, but never could get Ogre incorporated into my build system.  I went poking around for an engine that was easier to integrate, and found this:  http://www.unity3d.com ....these guys have implemented a lot of what I had envisioned, and much much more.  It was eerie how closely aligned their vision was with mine.

About 20 hours of work/learning produced this:
http://www.slackerrevolution.com/picklelake/PickleLake.html

In the three weeks since, I've improved that demo by leaps and bounds,  to the point it is actually kind of fun to play.  I'll be finishing that up and releasing it in a few weeks....then cranking out other weird little games.

The Unity engine makes it really REALLY easy...and the performance/portability/scalability are just awesome.  It runs pretty well on my wife's $500 dell laptop, my old mac mini G4, and my old 3ghz P4 windows laptop.  It will also run on iPhone and Nintendo WII, but you have to bribe Apple and Nintendo for that, I think.

The IDE requires a Mac.  It's worth buying a Mac for just this one thing, IMHO.  If you have a G4 or better around, download the 30 day trial and check it out....it's truly amazing.

Sorry to gush....I'm just really excited about this...been sleeping about 3 hours a night ever since I got it

[Lizard]

that's pretty neat, so what's the plan ? browser based BZ2 ? 


the controls are a bit horrible and yucky though, nasty reverse mouses. 


it all runs very smoothly and looks quite pretty, the physics on the lozenge shaped things that you can shoot are quite nice too, this certainly has a lot of potential for developing browser based 3D games.

[Dx]

I wonder how hard it would be to use the Ogre dx9 renderer in Battlezone, it's not like it needs all the fancy shaders and stuff.

[AcneVulgaris]

that's pretty neat, so what's the plan ? browser based BZ2 ? 

That is certainly possible, and I would love to do it, but I'm a bit reluctant to go that route, as Ken and Nathan are still working on it.  I don't want to rip them off TOO much until they are tired of it   PickleWars will definately be "inspired" by bz hover physics, though.  How about Fleshstorm II?  I've already got some Fleshstorm sounds in there....if only there were some assets lying around....

The browser thing is a limitation of the indie version ($200)....if I pay 5 grand, it will make windows packages.  Once you go full screen, however, it doesn't really matter.  Windows versions can be distributed as a webpage/unity app that reside on the local machine.  If I somehow make 5 grand, I'll update to pro so I can distribute real packages though.  It does makes lovely Mac apps, and, at least on the Mac, there is little difference in performance between the browser and the app...the browser is just awkward for starting out.

the controls are a bit horrible and yucky though, nasty reverse mouses. 

You're one of those damn kids who plays with the mouse upside down, aren't you?  I've since added a mouse inverter and sensitivity option.

[Lizard]

that's pretty neat, so what's the plan ? browser based BZ2 ? 

That is certainly possible, and I would love to do it, but I'm a bit reluctant to go that route, as Ken and Nathan are still working on it.  I don't want to rip them off TOO much until they are tired of it   PickleWars will definately be "inspired" by bz hover physics, though.  How about Fleshstorm II?  I've already got some Fleshstorm sounds in there....if only there were some assets lying around....

if you want assets feel free to raid the Fleshstorm Developers pack for models and textures you can use anything you want from my back catalogue , if it's a commercial project you'll have to pay me a small fee though, but if it's non profit you can use whatever you like without restriction just give me a credit somewhere. 

[AcneVulgaris]

Excellent!  Downloading now. I won't be trying to be commercial for a while yet, but if I do end up making some money off your assets, I'll cut you in.

[Lizard]

cool, let me know how you get on with my creations , if the scuttles give you any bother just give them a kick. 

[AcneVulgaris]

Well, I got my game finished, but the release has been a trainwreck.  Some audio bug in Unity is taking down the host browser on windows....not every time, but fairly often.  I cut the audio down to a minimum, and it seems like most people can get it going after a couple tries.   I've got one of the Unity devs attention, so hopefully he can fix it.  Its a shame, really...it all works so beautifully on the mac.

There is a thread over at BZU if you want to have a stab at it.

I guess there's no free lunch...the harsh realities always reassert themselves.