Adding that extra bit of realism really adds to the cost of the games. By pushing the envelope concerning realism big game companies raise the barrier in games development for the smaller companies who don't have deep pockets to hire dozens and dozens of artists. Even a good game with less then average realism and detail just fails as realism and detail is the only thing that consumers are interested in at first sight.
75% of the costs of a game are in the art and animation. Unless we are being able to create content cheap the costs for developing AAA titles will be high. Some attempts are made to be able to reuse content (see COLADA).
If we compare to the movie industry, movie equipment (camera's/video editting software) has become a lot cheaper the last decade while development kits for consoles and advances in technology have only increased the costs for developing games. Yet still, an indie movie (the blairwitch project) made on a low budget is still able to rake in millions, but we still have to see the first indie game do that (I hope darwinia does, just to prove that its possible).
I wonder what the relevant success of each console is if one looks at how much these consoles are being pirated. I know its relatively easy to hack the xbox and play games for free. With the Ps2 it is much more difficult and with the gamecube very very hard. So Nintendo loses much less money on titles due to piracy then for example Microsoft.
To some extent marketing costs plays a role in the visibility of a game but really good games, and I mean really really good games such as World of Warcraft just sell themselves....Right? I know good "indie" movies sell themselves that way see "the blair witch project". Or are there just to many titles out there that we can't see the forest for the trees?
Satoru Iwata -President Nintendo
"We do not run from risk. We run to risk. We move beyond current boundaries."
What he's actually saying: Risk 2000 is being developed for the revolution! Finally bring a good boardgame to the console!
There should be a site called www.gamesgraveyard.com or something for all the games that didn't make it to the publisher (as far as there is a demo level)
I don't understand why the big gaming studio still hire "repected" game designers as the whole game industry is moving towards hollywood anyway.
Which gamestudio is going to hire Tim Burton or the Coen brothers for making a Game??? Can't wait...
"We don't think it's necessary to do the simultaneous worldwide launch simply because others are doing this."
Interesting line of reasoning:
"We don't think it's necessary to become the market leader in console market simply because others are doing this." "We don't think it's necessary to breath simply because others are doing this."
why didn't I think of this? These CEO's are really brilliant!
As is typical with MMORPG's, a few (WoW and 2nd life) dominate 70% of the market and make all the profit.....its either grab the whole market or nothing.
You can find some very interesting videos of will wright talks on google videos. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-553408056 8776365031
WW talk at SDForum.
I must say I didn't like him at first but man... the guy is smart and funny, he knows what he's talking about you got to give him that.
But hey, there are so many game developers out there with failed games (although some of these games are brilliant but never got the right marketing), so is it smartness or just plain luck that he's considered to be one of the game gods?
tribal trouble didn't win;-(
its an amazing RTS game developed by only 3 guys and its looks nice and is very funny...
I'm just gonna buy it to support the developers.
I predict the same will happen with God of War, You can only milk an existing "concept" so many times before it runs out and gets boring. However there still is money to be made between the sequels.
How does Cell architecture affect COTdevelopment??
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GDC - Sony Keynote
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· Score: 0
Lots of middleware companies already onboard, from Alias to Havok to Epic to IGN/Gamespy.
I was wondering how does the cell architecture affect component based development? Will it not get much harder for game studios to develop for the ps3 and the xbox 360? We now have dedicated cell processor that can either distributedly run graphics/ ai etc. Which effectively asks for your COTS developers to create independent subsystems rather than libraries which are included in the game code. Anyone has any ideas on this?
-box?
-manual?
-disc?
anyway? when you can just download your games. Ingame tutorials, such as NPC characters (see fable, neverwinter nights) that provide instruction work way better than manuals anyway. In certain games (GTA) you find playgrounds, environment such as a shooting range that allow you to practice with items in the game without causing harm. Besides, I couldn't hardly read the god of war manual that came with the game anyway because of the brown letters on a yellow background, speaking about usability.....
Blizzard should enforce their policies more strictly to prevent the exploit of chinese farmers but on the other hand the guys that exploit these farmers pay for their WoW accounts.
In a hits driven market where about 4% of the games accounts for over 55% of all sales, there is no correlation between longer development time and market success. A longer development leads to higher engineering quality (e.g. more iterations for testing etc). But still that does not guarantee a hit title.
I think there is an upper limit on the development time at a certain time technology catches up and your fancy 3d engine is already outdated before your game hits the shelves. Reworking at that stage is very expensive, leading to high costs etc etc.
Its hard to compare these two books merely because they use the pattern format differently. GoF presents solutions to typical OO design problems and the game patterns book only uses the pattern format (name context forces) etc to describe elements of game design. These two things are completely different.
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Adding that extra bit of realism really adds to the cost of the games. By pushing the envelope concerning realism big game companies raise the barrier in games development for the smaller companies who don't have deep pockets to hire dozens and dozens of artists. Even a good game with less then average realism and detail just fails as realism and detail is the only thing that consumers are interested in at first sight.
75% of the costs of a game are in the art and animation. Unless we are being able to create content cheap the costs for developing AAA titles will be high. Some attempts are made to be able to reuse content (see COLADA). If we compare to the movie industry, movie equipment (camera's/video editting software) has become a lot cheaper the last decade while development kits for consoles and advances in technology have only increased the costs for developing games. Yet still, an indie movie (the blairwitch project) made on a low budget is still able to rake in millions, but we still have to see the first indie game do that (I hope darwinia does, just to prove that its possible).
I wonder what the relevant success of each console is if one looks at how much these consoles are being pirated. I know its relatively easy to hack the xbox and play games for free. With the Ps2 it is much more difficult and with the gamecube very very hard. So Nintendo loses much less money on titles due to piracy then for example Microsoft.
To some extent marketing costs plays a role in the visibility of a game but really good games, and I mean really really good games such as World of Warcraft just sell themselves....Right? I know good "indie" movies sell themselves that way see "the blair witch project". Or are there just to many titles out there that we can't see the forest for the trees?
Satoru Iwata -President Nintendo
"We do not run from risk. We run to risk. We move beyond current boundaries."
What he's actually saying: Risk 2000 is being developed for the revolution! Finally bring a good boardgame to the console!
There should be a site called www.gamesgraveyard.com or something for all the games that didn't make it to the publisher (as far as there is a demo level)
I don't understand why the big gaming studio still hire "repected" game designers as the whole game industry is moving towards hollywood anyway. Which gamestudio is going to hire Tim Burton or the Coen brothers for making a Game??? Can't wait...
"We don't think it's necessary to do the simultaneous worldwide launch simply because others are doing this." Interesting line of reasoning: "We don't think it's necessary to become the market leader in console market simply because others are doing this." "We don't think it's necessary to breath simply because others are doing this." why didn't I think of this? These CEO's are really brilliant!
Maybe they need more time to make the game as balanced as the brilliant starcraft was.
well still the basics need to be created right? Not everything in spore it generated that way I guess, how about water and trees etc?
As is typical with MMORPG's, a few (WoW and 2nd life) dominate 70% of the market and make all the profit.....its either grab the whole market or nothing.
Spore must be the most expensive game ever made by now, eclipsing daikatana?
You can find some very interesting videos of will wright talks on google videos. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-553408056 8776365031
WW talk at SDForum.
I must say I didn't like him at first but man... the guy is smart and funny, he knows what he's talking about you got to give him that.
But hey, there are so many game developers out there with failed games (although some of these games are brilliant but never got the right marketing), so is it smartness or just plain luck that he's considered to be one of the game gods?
tribal trouble didn't win ;-(
its an amazing RTS game developed by only 3 guys and its looks nice and is very funny...
I'm just gonna buy it to support the developers.
I predict the same will happen with God of War, You can only milk an existing "concept" so many times before it runs out and gets boring. However there still is money to be made between the sequels.
Lots of middleware companies already onboard, from Alias to Havok to Epic to IGN/Gamespy. I was wondering how does the cell architecture affect component based development? Will it not get much harder for game studios to develop for the ps3 and the xbox 360? We now have dedicated cell processor that can either distributedly run graphics/ ai etc. Which effectively asks for your COTS developers to create independent subsystems rather than libraries which are included in the game code. Anyone has any ideas on this?
who needs stories anyway? I'm gonna build me the SEINFELD of games!!
-box? -manual? -disc? anyway? when you can just download your games. Ingame tutorials, such as NPC characters (see fable, neverwinter nights) that provide instruction work way better than manuals anyway. In certain games (GTA) you find playgrounds, environment such as a shooting range that allow you to practice with items in the game without causing harm. Besides, I couldn't hardly read the god of war manual that came with the game anyway because of the brown letters on a yellow background, speaking about usability.....
were updates and bugfixes? Hey I can create my own popular portal by making crappy games.
Blizzard should enforce their policies more strictly to prevent the exploit of chinese farmers but on the other hand the guys that exploit these farmers pay for their WoW accounts.
In a hits driven market where about 4% of the games accounts for over 55% of all sales, there is no correlation between longer development time and market success. A longer development leads to higher engineering quality (e.g. more iterations for testing etc). But still that does not guarantee a hit title. I think there is an upper limit on the development time at a certain time technology catches up and your fancy 3d engine is already outdated before your game hits the shelves. Reworking at that stage is very expensive, leading to high costs etc etc.
And what about job security, the dozens of game companies that run out of money each year and can't pay their employees?
What do you think of interaction design patterns or usability patterns?
Its hard to compare these two books merely because they use the pattern format differently. GoF presents solutions to typical OO design problems and the game patterns book only uses the pattern format (name context forces) etc to describe elements of game design. These two things are completely different.