Speaking from experience, I can't agree more with this.
The pandemic has made our jobs soooooo much harder, and there is only so much you can adapt to. We aren't machines. We're human beings. We have lives and responsibilities outside of making video games, and the pandemic has affected a lot of us in many unforeseen and unexpected ways, both personally and professionally.
I've lost family to this pandemic. I know coworkers who have lost family and friends to this pandemic as well. That stress, on top of the practicalities of trying to make video games from home has had an effect on game development that you guys don't get to see.
And don't even get me started on the technical issues we often face. From VPN and network connection issues that make downloading and uploading large files a nightmare, to trying to accommodate different time zones because some of us are in either another state, and even another country, etc, etc.
Some of you say, "yeah, we know game development is hard, BUT…"
That just speaks to me that no, I'm sorry, you don't know how hard game development is. It's hard during the most ideal circumstances. Navigating that difficulty during a global pandemic has exacerbated it tenfold.
As a professional game designer, I feel other studio's pain in trying to do the best they can to produce fun games for us to play during a crisis.
As a gamer, I'm just grateful that we've even gotten the games we've gotten is year at all. I can't give enough kudos and congrats to the various studios in the industry that managed to ship their games this year so far.
Am I disappointed that some of my most anticipated titles of the year have been pushed back or delayed until next year? Yeah, a tiny little bit, but I can't say I'm upset or angry about it, because, well, I still have a shit ton of games and other things to occupy my time while I wait. I don't need an influx of new announcements to momentarily give me an endorphin and dopamine hit, or to keep my hype going.
Maybe I'm biased, but I just get irked when I see people brushing off the impact that this pandemic has had on the gaming industry. Like, I get it, people want to get hyped about shiny new shit 24/7, but we're only human, and we're all doing the best we can to get these games out the door in the best state they can be in for players to enjoy. It's just been significantly harder than normal, and processes that used to be taken for granted have had to be reevaluated and adapted to fit this new "normal." Tasks that would take, say, moments in the office, can take hours or more when performing them WFH, for example.
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