Each generation we hear claims this system is going to be easier to make games on yet we see the same patterns of long development and delays. What are the main issues and why do some development teams seem to always get away with it?
How can you speed up game development without sacrificing quality?
- Thread starter Iron Eddie
- Start date
Shorter games and smaller scopes in general. Both things that won't really happen. More developers only goes so far. Software development takes time.
Stop asking for games to be 90hr replayable collectathons where you can go to every mountain for a piece of a weapon that is worse then one you already have and will only be used to clear out a camp of the same enemy type on the last 5 islands that will all respawn when you leave anyway
Surprise here's the dlc update with the Blue skin we left out at launch but can be yours for $5 or the max value $99 pack that also includes Red and this photo of our designer crying because we don't let her leave
Surprise here's the dlc update with the Blue skin we left out at launch but can be yours for $5 or the max value $99 pack that also includes Red and this photo of our designer crying because we don't let her leave
This. If we're talking "quality" in abstract terms of the platonic ideal of a game's vision perfectly executed then the question is a contradiction by default.
Thereby harming the quality of the game.
You might not value graphics, but clearly a lot of people do.
OP
OP
Not talking about those games but rather games that take longer than they should and development teams that always seem to get away with delays (or lengthy development and few games).
Stop making massive unecessary non linear games and maps.
Make focused experiences.
Don't pad the game with useless side quests.
And whatnot
Make focused experiences.
Don't pad the game with useless side quests.
And whatnot
It's really weird that you're phrasing this as "Getting away with it". Better tools and hardware allow for high quality games, and high quality games take longer to make than lower quality games.
There's already publishers that share assets and mechanics to speed up development, ubisoft has an army of devs all over the world to generate the insane amount of assets and content they pump out. Most developers and franchises can't hire 11,000 developers to have a rotation of yearly assassins creed games.
There's already publishers that share assets and mechanics to speed up development, ubisoft has an army of devs all over the world to generate the insane amount of assets and content they pump out. Most developers and franchises can't hire 11,000 developers to have a rotation of yearly assassins creed games.
And Indie Games can take time, too. Cuphead was announced in 2014, and didn't come out for another three years. Braid won game design awards in 2006, but wasn't released commercially until 2008.
That can happen for all kinds of reasons.
Maybe a feature they thought would be simple is actually really hard, maybe a decision was made by management that takes longer, maybe a serious bug is difficult to fix, etc.
Obviously some stuff is mostly just tedious like asset creation, which is part of what Unreal 5's demo was focusing on. Or being to use in engine tools that preciously required buying some middleware or making the tool yourself.
I'm not a gamedev though so if one of them decides to pop in they could probably explain it better.
Vote with your wallet, there's a reason these days a company like EA or Activision makes half of its money on micro transactions and put out only GAAS.
They don't do it because they think we like complaining about it
They don't do it because they think we like complaining about it
OP
OP
Then perhaps the scale of the game is unrealistic or they went in without a great plan. To me this all relates to the issues surrounding AAA games and why the $60 retail is the problem. That's why we have crunch because the game is likely then marketed to sell at least 10 million copies but you also have hundreds of people working on the game those costs quickly add up. This all makes it that much harder for the AA games to compete.
I understand that but there are some developers who always seem to have projects delayed or extended development time. I guess the question then is what is realistic and why does it keep happening?
AI / Machine Learning
Rockstar is going to feed Red Dead Redemption 2 into a supercomputer which will analyze the game world, and based on it create a world for Red Dead Redemption 3 with higher quality assets. All rockstar has to do is customize main characters and deal with the story and VA.
Saved them 30% - 40% dev time right there. No longer will 500 people have to work 16 hour days to place rocks and shrubs all around the game map. DM me if y'all are hiring.
note : I have no idea what I'm talking about
Rockstar is going to feed Red Dead Redemption 2 into a supercomputer which will analyze the game world, and based on it create a world for Red Dead Redemption 3 with higher quality assets. All rockstar has to do is customize main characters and deal with the story and VA.
Saved them 30% - 40% dev time right there. No longer will 500 people have to work 16 hour days to place rocks and shrubs all around the game map. DM me if y'all are hiring.
note : I have no idea what I'm talking about
Pretty much. Massive budgets, strict schedules, and the furthering of expectations based on how the previous biggest-project-ever went are the reasons why all of this happens, and why the industry has so much burnout right now - and look at how many major games on that scale launch with huge, bugs and problems and day-one patches.
This will make its unsustainability obvious eventually (and watch every major publisher be [shocked pikachu face] in response...), either from an expenditure standpoint or a human resources standpoint.
I almost universally find smaller-budget "AA" games a whole lot better of an experience than the typical AAA game anyway, just because they put more of an emphasis on gameplay than marketability.
You ever have a manager/boss at a job that sucks at time/project management yet gets put on tasks anyway? That's a huge reason why right there.
Also cuz there are no unions. Also cuz games are just really hard to make. The only other type of software I can think of that's that difficult to make is probably an operating system.
Cutting down the scope of your game probably helps and outsourcing tasks to other companies helps too.
There need to be some way to make asset creation massively easier. As resolution and visual fidelity increase, I think that's what's taking increasingly the most time
this is big imo, compared to the pre ps3 era i cannot think of many games that reuse alot of assets in sequels anymore.
Unreal's recent demo talked a lot about that. If you go back to the thread for the demo some of the devs seemed really excited about a lot of the asset importing stuff.
Apparently Epic bought some texture library company recently, so I'm sure that'll help speed things up too.
Make the full game at prototype level quality, and only after that has been playtested and iterated move to full production.
A big part of the cost of making a game is things that got thrown out because they didn't work. Iteration with near final quality assets is expensive.
A big part of the cost of making a game is things that got thrown out because they didn't work. Iteration with near final quality assets is expensive.
Focus on what matters. We don't need endgame, loot, level ups and replayability in every game. We also don't need open worlds with 80% filler content in most games.
OP
OP
Yuck, there has to be a better way.
Obviously we have many developers who do make great games in a timely fashion.
Then it'll be harder to put MTX in their games. That's part of why we have so many open world games and looter shooters this gen.
We'll probably reach a point where AI and machine learning will allow to automatize a large part of the time consuming aspects of game development. It's the only way I see the medium being able to take advantage of the insanely powerful machines that we'll have in a few years...
You need good tools, a fast iteration time, realtime visualization of everything in your game (don't wait 15 min for your lightmaps to bake, 15 min of importing your assets), automate everything you can. Achieving this takes time though.
The industry needs to be better at estimating the time and cost of making a game, but I don't know which industry is.
The industry needs to be better at estimating the time and cost of making a game, but I don't know which industry is.
It is faster, it's just the more limitations that are removed and standards are set, the more ambitious developers tend to get. Games on the same scale as several years ago are still being made, but not by the big, budget pushing and industry defining devs of today. The bar keeps getting raised higher, higher, and higher.