With GDC (Game Developer's Conference) over, it's a good time to step back a look at what awesome things have happened... but that's not my job anymore! Instead, I get to bring you something even more interesting! Thoughts! Feelings! Opinions!
Even better yet, they're thoughts, feelings and opinons on something that I have experience in myself! Game Development. An Art that has existed ever since pong used paddles instead of beer and a small reckless child named Shigeru Miyamoto went exploring in caves. Of course, as any game developer in their late 20s and upwards will know, Game Development is an impossibly, extremely and mind-numbingly hard thing to do. It requires so much of your time for organising, planning, organising the planning, planning the organising and then actually the making the stupid thing. Now of course, if any of you readers play a game from 10 to 20 years ago, you'll wonder how it could possibly be hard to make such a simple thing...
Well let's take Pong for an example. Someone who has never made a game of Pong from scratch (Not that Scratch) would describe Pong as: "The left and right knobs move their respective paddles up and down and the score goes up every time someone misses". Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as that. If we were to expand those instructions to the level of detail a computer needs, we would have something like:
"The ball moves around at a constant rate but checks before every movement to make sure it isn't colliding with a paddle or the edge of the screen. If it collides with a paddle it must change it's velocity relative to where it touches the paddle (I could do an equation here for that but I don't have the time nor the ability to make Square Root signs on keyboards). If it collides with the edge of the screen then it must check which side of the screen it is on. If it is the top or bottom of the screen it must inverse its y velocity. If it is the left or right of the screen, then a point is added to the score of the player on that side. When the knobs are turned, the paddles must move in the exact same velocity in the y axis but must check before hand to make sure it is not going off the edge of the screen. And of course we have to create the ridiculous amount of code it would require for all of these things to be displayed on the screen at once in a fully optimised manner that allows for no drop of FPS."
That was Pong. You can imagine the pain and hardship that goes into making RPG games and First Person Shooters. Video Games are a medium, through which we can do almost anything but first you have to wade through an immense amount of difficulties... and of course, as such is the curse of the programmer, there's a chance that your final product won't work, be a good game or be good for your future as a game developer.
This is where we get onto the sidenote of this article. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then please return to the title of the article.
But it is true. Despite what I've just been rambling on about for the last 517 words, making video games is easy - especially due to the events of the past few years and of last week's GDC. Unity 5, Unreal Engine 4, Cryengine and Source 2 are all top of the line video game engines that have either recently or always opened up their borders to the new and ambitious. With literally millions of tutorials and forums online, it's never been easier for people aged 6 or 60 to just pick up an engine and start playing around with it. All those obstacles that stood in the way of your vision? Gone! Well... most of them. Of course, game development can be hard and arduous but with the right planning and forethought, it will be a breeze. Some people say that the more time you spend on making a game, the better it will be. This is not necessarily true (See Duke Nukem Forever and Lego Universe for examples), but the message has its values. Even if you have a small idea that you don't think will ever amount to anything, make it! Put it on a free online games website like Newgrounds or Kongregate. You may not get any money for it, but you may talk with other developers or new ideas can spawn.
It has never been easier for someone to get into the video game industry than it has been now. Anyone can do it. Now we go the Ratatouille route and ask if anyone should do it or not but that's a question for another article, I can tell you're starting to get bored.
And of course, there is always the chance that your game idea will revolutionise the entire industry and you'll make a lot of money. While I wouldn't pin everything on it, I would be very happy to review it. Oh wait, that's not my job either...
Thank you for reading. If you have your own thoughts, feelings and opinions on how game development is hard (but also easy) then please feel free to share them in the comments below
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Take it easy on the Lego series bro. They are deceptively simple but have lots of value. The effort is in the details. ;)
I still play Lego Marvel Superheroes to this day.
Thanks for the article!
Good read! So excited about the new Unity3d model especially. The free version for 4 was limited in ways that kept getting in the way, but the new model basically gives you everything for free. At least until they make you rich, then they want a cut. But I will be rich so that is ok haha.
Gaming today has definitely gotten much easier though, so many libraries already made and waiting for us to create with. If you have ever created something in Project Spark or even to an extent Minecraft and Little Big Planet you are ready to make games. The frameworks, the assets are all there waiting for us and the web is full of tutorials on how to use them.
It's easier than ever to create content, some of the current UI's Drag and drops are a godsend.
However scripting is hell. I was taught the basics in high school it is the most boring thing imaginable but it payed off. I created a village in TES construction set and it took me longer to program a single NPC than it did to create an entire house. But it was worth it when I saw my Necrotrader eating breakfast in the morning, selling his wares during the day, and going home to have dinner and sleep.
It's extremely hard to be both a well rounded artist and capable programmer honestly, especially since they come from very different types of fields and for lack of a better word, personalities. Not that it can't happen, but it's so damn hard to accomplish and is currently the massive hurdle i am trying to get over. This is why even most tiny indie teams usually have a dedicated artist and dedicated programmer.