Depressing State.
|
Today I was invited to a group dedicated to discussing the design of games, and games in general, as well as the overall state of gaming, the game industry and most things included in this. First and foremost, however, it’s an ongoing discussion. Unfortunately (and there’s not escaping it) the first 2 or 3 posts in the group are all very depressing and bitter, warning us as designers not to get into the industry. What? Well, obviously this is not a great way to start off as a designer, but at the same time it’s true. The state of the games-industry is absolutely horrific. There’s almost no one making any money to keep players interested. Developers are laid off left, right and center and it’s incredibly disappointing all-in-all. So how do we keep the quality of a game exceptional, generate income and keep attracting new users? After all, players are ready to spend money on games, we see this in AAA-titles and subscription-based games. However these are all equally as progressively disappointing in most cases. The AAA-titles are only A these days in the sense of money spent developing. Not to say that they aren’t enjoyable, but that simply isn’t enough anymore. As designers struggle to practice their craft, their livelyhood, and create something extraordinary, thousands of mediocre and sub-par games are pouring out of the industry, creating a heavy cloud that the rays of sunlight that are the good games can’t pierce through. “Create a good game and we will play it” doesn’t work if you can’t find the game. As my tutor said: If you’re in the mood for brownies, you look it up on google and you find recipes to make them. But if you’re looking for a Type X game, googling it doesn’t help much if it doesn’t exist. All brownies are good. With all the negativity around this, I don’t think this is “the end” of anything. At the end of the day, all things change, and once you hit rock-bottom you can only go up. You just need to build yourself a ladder.  |
