What's Wrong With the Games Industry

Gamasutra has up a piece by game developer Stephen Ford, entitled What's Wrong with the Games Industry (and How to Make it Right). The article covers the idiosyncrasies of game development, such as the problems of pitching a title, making a demo, working to publisher expectations. It then looks at ways to make the same-old same-old 'right'. From the article: "One amazing fact that has yet to permeate the strata of the industry is that most of their employees have the equipment that they need to do their jobs at home. One example is freelance audio engineers, who do most of their work off site and mail the files in. However, for code, design and art there are still large levels of resistance to the idea that you can effectively export work off site and maintain control. On-site control is an illusion, and while the camaraderie of a large office space is nice, it is also the least financially efficient way of getting production work done in an age of broadband."

Comments

easy

[minus_273]

" What's Wrong with the Games Industry? "

Sony

Bunch of fluff

[Lazerf4rt]

This article is a bunch of high-concept fluff. I work in the games industry and to me, the only problem is a productivity problem. We waste a lot of time, not because we're lazy bastards, but simply because:

• We wait for the compiler.
• We wait for our machines to synchronize with the latest network data.
• We wait for out machines to convert the latest game data to the target platform.
• We wait for the editor and tools to launch.
• We waste time manually loading and manipulating the game to get to the area we are testing/working on.
• We rarely use crash dumps correctly. When a rare crash is reported, we go back to our computers and waste time trying to reproduce it in the debugger.

I'm sure small projects are better than large ones. But I'm always amazed when people totally overlook the time wasted on all of the above.

Re:Bunch of fluff

[slcdb]

• We wait for the compiler.

Been there.

• We wait for our machines to synchronize with the latest network data.

Done that.

• We wait for out machines to convert the latest game data to the target platform.

Check.

• We wait for the editor and tools to launch.

Yep.

• We waste time manually loading and manipulating the game to get to the area we are testing/working on.

Sounds familiar.

• We rarely use crash dumps correctly. When a rare crash is reported, we go back to our computers and waste time trying to reproduce it in the debugger.

Happens all the time.

Sounds just like where I work. Except I'm not in the gaming industry. These are problems that are prevalent throughout the entire software engineering world.

Simple, EA

[SkoZombie]

EA is creating a gaming monoculture. The 'risky' (read: innovative) games are killed off in case they offend, and it's all about churning out high yield, low quality products. EA doesn't care about extending a game's life, they just care about making a sequel.

Re:Well...

[IgLou]

I concur! The one thing I like about folks in my office is that they are right there and I can walk over and get their attention and talk to get things done. I can communicate far more in 1 minute of face to face than 100 emails. (That and I'm lazy so when I go to someone's desk they know it's important!)

I worry about those boys..

[PopeRatzo]

I know a few game coders and I'm honestly concerned for their well-being if they don't have to get up in the morning, take a shower, eat something and go into the office where they are forced to interact with other humans.

I have seen firsthand the results of 36-hour codings sessions and the psychological and physiological damage done by the outrageous demands of the software industry on young programmers.

Just because management puts up a nerf basketball hoop and stocks the fridge with Vault, they're expected to be seen as "cool" by their underlings who are then expected to push themselves beyond human limits.

Please don't mod this as "funny" because I'm dead serious. People are getting hurt out there.