10 misconceptions you probably had about game developers
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Date: 2022-03-21
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Comments and reviews: 10
Wasteland
I cracked up when you said that game devs are rich. I know that is BS. If you look at a lot of really good Indie developers they struggle financially. Especially when they're starting out. When Valambeer started out they had to live on Raman noodles. From what I've heard that is pretty much standard operating procedure for most indies.
And you are correct on Indie teams having serious constraints. They are often limited by hardware, time, finances, and team size. Where they do have freedom is trying ideas that the AAA studios won't touch because the idea isn't safe enough for the suits.
I don't dump on casual/mobile games. They have to pay the bills too. You never know, they may be doing casual games to pay the bills so they can build their dream RPG or what have you. Just because they build mobile doesn't mean they don't have dreams. Besides wich, mobile is several times larger than the PC or console share of the market. You have to make money somehow, and like a native following migrating game animals, you have to go where the resources (money) is.
I don't buy the one designer making all the decisions. But, it doesn't excuse them. There is this thing called oversight they're kind of responsible for. Maybe small things might slip through the cracks. But, the big stuff should be caught.
Same goes for glitches. I understand that a lot of devs do care and do their best to stay on top of the problems. But, just as clearly, some don't. Like all of this, case by case is how you have to go.
One thing I do strongly dissagree with you on is your last comments praising publishers.....um...no. Publishers are where microtrasnactions, loot crate gambling, etc. is coming from. Its the suits with the money being greedy.
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I cracked up when you said that game devs are rich. I know that is BS. If you look at a lot of really good Indie developers they struggle financially. Especially when they're starting out. When Valambeer started out they had to live on Raman noodles. From what I've heard that is pretty much standard operating procedure for most indies.
And you are correct on Indie teams having serious constraints. They are often limited by hardware, time, finances, and team size. Where they do have freedom is trying ideas that the AAA studios won't touch because the idea isn't safe enough for the suits.
I don't dump on casual/mobile games. They have to pay the bills too. You never know, they may be doing casual games to pay the bills so they can build their dream RPG or what have you. Just because they build mobile doesn't mean they don't have dreams. Besides wich, mobile is several times larger than the PC or console share of the market. You have to make money somehow, and like a native following migrating game animals, you have to go where the resources (money) is.
I don't buy the one designer making all the decisions. But, it doesn't excuse them. There is this thing called oversight they're kind of responsible for. Maybe small things might slip through the cracks. But, the big stuff should be caught.
Same goes for glitches. I understand that a lot of devs do care and do their best to stay on top of the problems. But, just as clearly, some don't. Like all of this, case by case is how you have to go.
One thing I do strongly dissagree with you on is your last comments praising publishers.....um...no. Publishers are where microtrasnactions, loot crate gambling, etc. is coming from. Its the suits with the money being greedy.
reply
TiagoTiago
If you can't program, you won't be developing the game; you might be an game artist, musician, writer, mocap actor etc, but you won't be a developer. But a position that overlaps in lots of aspects with developer would be game designer; comparing to cinema, a game designer is sorta a mix between writer and director, basically the ideas guy that tells other people what results he wants but doesn't actually create the end result directly. While being able to code does help you be better at being a designer because you can have a better idea of what is easy and hard to do, and you can build simple prototypes and such to test mechanics and give examples; you don't necessarily need to be very good at programming, or even know how to at all.
Depending on the size of the team, your skills (both technical and artistic) and who's the creative force behind the project; many positions can overlap in various extents; but at a minimum, you need to have at least 1 developer, 1 person that can actually turn ideas into code (though, in some edge cases, that role might be performed by some third-party that already put the hard work into an engine or modable system that provides the skeleton of a game (or modular components that can be put together) that just requires an artistic coating; but usually in those cases, the artistic side needs to be pretty strong to produce anything worth the attention of players). A good game without meaningful art might be enjoyable; but good art without code is not even a game to start with.
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If you can't program, you won't be developing the game; you might be an game artist, musician, writer, mocap actor etc, but you won't be a developer. But a position that overlaps in lots of aspects with developer would be game designer; comparing to cinema, a game designer is sorta a mix between writer and director, basically the ideas guy that tells other people what results he wants but doesn't actually create the end result directly. While being able to code does help you be better at being a designer because you can have a better idea of what is easy and hard to do, and you can build simple prototypes and such to test mechanics and give examples; you don't necessarily need to be very good at programming, or even know how to at all.
Depending on the size of the team, your skills (both technical and artistic) and who's the creative force behind the project; many positions can overlap in various extents; but at a minimum, you need to have at least 1 developer, 1 person that can actually turn ideas into code (though, in some edge cases, that role might be performed by some third-party that already put the hard work into an engine or modable system that provides the skeleton of a game (or modular components that can be put together) that just requires an artistic coating; but usually in those cases, the artistic side needs to be pretty strong to produce anything worth the attention of players). A good game without meaningful art might be enjoyable; but good art without code is not even a game to start with.
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Jared
People who get mad about dlc regardless of how substantial it is are ridiculous. If the original game wasn-t worth 60$ it wasn-t worth 60$, but that-s not usually the case. The fact that AAA video games are still 60$ and haven-t adjusted for inflation in years is awesome! And the fact that developers and publishers have decided to make up for that by creating more game, and in the case of most single player games it-s more like a mini sequel or spinoff story than a continuation, is actually pretty cool! If they weren-t doing that they-d be charging more for the games up front and you-d probably be ending up with less game for your money in the end. Plus, this gives the consumer more options. Instead of paying 80-100$ for a game, which they certainly would if they were priced up for inflation and came with what would otherwise be dlc. You can pay 60$ and only buy the dlc if you really get into the game and decide its worth it! The gaming community really needs to let go of the beef against single player dlc and focus on micro transactions and pressuring publishers and devs to make the multiplayer game dlc-s more straightforward and substantial.
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People who get mad about dlc regardless of how substantial it is are ridiculous. If the original game wasn-t worth 60$ it wasn-t worth 60$, but that-s not usually the case. The fact that AAA video games are still 60$ and haven-t adjusted for inflation in years is awesome! And the fact that developers and publishers have decided to make up for that by creating more game, and in the case of most single player games it-s more like a mini sequel or spinoff story than a continuation, is actually pretty cool! If they weren-t doing that they-d be charging more for the games up front and you-d probably be ending up with less game for your money in the end. Plus, this gives the consumer more options. Instead of paying 80-100$ for a game, which they certainly would if they were priced up for inflation and came with what would otherwise be dlc. You can pay 60$ and only buy the dlc if you really get into the game and decide its worth it! The gaming community really needs to let go of the beef against single player dlc and focus on micro transactions and pressuring publishers and devs to make the multiplayer game dlc-s more straightforward and substantial.
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Hei
I'm not too knowledgable about -game engines-.. And I'm not good at computer stuff in general, but I'd like Gameranx to do a video on what a game engine IS and what it DOES, and what makes it different than any other computer program.
I don't give a damn about likes, but I really want to know this. So - like if you want to know these things for yourself - just so that Gameranx can see the comment and, perhaps, do a video on it. Because - I have no clue.
If, in any case, they've done a video on this, just disregard all above.
Happy new years, fellow gamers!
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I'm not too knowledgable about -game engines-.. And I'm not good at computer stuff in general, but I'd like Gameranx to do a video on what a game engine IS and what it DOES, and what makes it different than any other computer program.
I don't give a damn about likes, but I really want to know this. So - like if you want to know these things for yourself - just so that Gameranx can see the comment and, perhaps, do a video on it. Because - I have no clue.
If, in any case, they've done a video on this, just disregard all above.
Happy new years, fellow gamers!
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Keres666
As a qa tester... that #1 point is nice but only scratches the surface... a lot of bugs are found and reported but a lot of them are high risk fixes that are better than whatever the solution might be... the solution might be breaking things worse or force a feature that MAY cause a bug to 0.1% of players so it isnt worth it... not to mention bugs that happen 1/100000 and were found and testers just could never reproduce it... bugs need to be reproducible to be fixed... or PC issues (theres no way for us to check that your chinese ram isn't causing that crash)
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As a qa tester... that #1 point is nice but only scratches the surface... a lot of bugs are found and reported but a lot of them are high risk fixes that are better than whatever the solution might be... the solution might be breaking things worse or force a feature that MAY cause a bug to 0.1% of players so it isnt worth it... not to mention bugs that happen 1/100000 and were found and testers just could never reproduce it... bugs need to be reproducible to be fixed... or PC issues (theres no way for us to check that your chinese ram isn't causing that crash)
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Aeturnalis
#8 lol the company I work for makes $150 million+ per year... I assure you, 99.999% of the people who work for them make less than $70k, and a solid half of the workforce are considered skilled trades. Here's the thing: 60% or more of the value created by every worker ends up in the hands of a small number of stock holders. GTAV has made billions of dollars... not for the people who did all of the work on it. Skilled programmers and graphical artists earn a respectable income, but for every dollar a programmer makes, the shareholders make $90.
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#8 lol the company I work for makes $150 million+ per year... I assure you, 99.999% of the people who work for them make less than $70k, and a solid half of the workforce are considered skilled trades. Here's the thing: 60% or more of the value created by every worker ends up in the hands of a small number of stock holders. GTAV has made billions of dollars... not for the people who did all of the work on it. Skilled programmers and graphical artists earn a respectable income, but for every dollar a programmer makes, the shareholders make $90.
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Felix
While all of these are possible without a doupt, in some aspects it might not or just proves some flaws in the game development. At Nr.1 if a fatal bug happens from performing a relatively normal action, its not random and it hinders game progression then your QA testers and perhaps coders did a crap job, and im speaking for a post release that didn't get solved by a patch.
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While all of these are possible without a doupt, in some aspects it might not or just proves some flaws in the game development. At Nr.1 if a fatal bug happens from performing a relatively normal action, its not random and it hinders game progression then your QA testers and perhaps coders did a crap job, and im speaking for a post release that didn't get solved by a patch.
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Soulsphere001
I have no idea how people can have these misconceptions, though I sort of understand #1 when there are a lot of bugs in a final product. It's not easy to fix some bugs, though, especially when that product is rushed like most games are at near the end of development. Crunch time can lead to all sorts of problems.
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I have no idea how people can have these misconceptions, though I sort of understand #1 when there are a lot of bugs in a final product. It's not easy to fix some bugs, though, especially when that product is rushed like most games are at near the end of development. Crunch time can lead to all sorts of problems.
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Tyler
Yeah both Ned Luke & Steven Ogg who play Michael & Trevor in GTA 5 both don't play games! Steven Ogg who plays Trevor didn't even know how to put the disk in! Haha same with buddy who played John Marston he lied and said he played GTA 4 when he never did.
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Yeah both Ned Luke & Steven Ogg who play Michael & Trevor in GTA 5 both don't play games! Steven Ogg who plays Trevor didn't even know how to put the disk in! Haha same with buddy who played John Marston he lied and said he played GTA 4 when he never did.
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Danyal
If i get a bug, I always put the blame on my pc although it doesn't make any sense but honestly when a group of people are working their asses off to make a 3A game and a few bugs are still left, it's alright ,not completely but alright
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If i get a bug, I always put the blame on my pc although it doesn't make any sense but honestly when a group of people are working their asses off to make a 3A game and a few bugs are still left, it's alright ,not completely but alright
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