Hard times ahead?

[Kosmo]

One of the biggest problems is that publishers control the market way too much and bigger companies like EA make game development to appear like any other industry with their factory work and dumbed down game concepts.

Project Offset is a great example what a team roughly 3 memebers in size can do when they have the drive for it instead of them working on a game to make them rich.

[Algor]

Only time will tell if Project Offset actually becomes something though.

It is one thing for a team of 100 people to finish a project on a standard development timeline, and it is a near impossible thing for three people to complete a game on their own in a timely manner.

[KungFuSquirrel]

Certainly 3 is ridiculously few, but at the same time I think 100+ man teams are also counter-productive. I don't see any reason a smallish team (35 people seems a good sweet spot) can't still make solid, enjoyable, and visually appealing titles in a reasonable span of time - 2-3 years, maybe 1-2 years for followups with smart use of existing tech/content, maybe less if you're on BIA (don't worry, I mean that in a good way ). I think the problem is tools aren't quite evolving with the technology. With improved tools, people can be more productive at a higher level of quality in a shorter amount of time. Case in point: ZBrush. Entirely unified editors are also a step in the right direction - the educational title I worked on before Quake was on a free engine in which everything - modeling, animation, scripting, level design, AI placement, triggers, etc. etc. - was built and implemented in Maya and maya scripts/plugins provided by the engine developers, or the project's programmer.

Smaller teams are for the benefit of everyone - fewer dependencies, less chance of communication breakdown, lower development cost (and thus lower minimum number of sales to turn a profit), etc. There's still a place for the little guy.

[TomWithTheWeather]

True, and to think about it, even if the time of powerful individuals making something that changes the whole industry it gone, you still can see that most major innovations that have huge impact on the industry come from smaller development studios. Well, I don't know how small something like Epic is but making the most popula engine to date, or might even be the most popular engine ever.

Epic is around 60 people. They usually split into two dev teams (GoW and UT2k7) and I'd guess two or three of the programmers are dedicated R&D engine guys.

As far as Project Offset goes, they have some decent technology, though nothing really different from UE3, but it won't go anywhere unless they start licensing it like crazy or hire at least like 20 more people to the team.

[hazardous!]

Smaller teams are for the benefit of everyone - fewer dependencies, less chance of communication breakdown, lower development cost (and thus lower minimum number of sales to turn a profit), etc. There's still a place for the little guy.

This is what I'm hoping for.

I'm still far away from a job in the game-industry (isn't this word a shame already - creativity cannot be industrialized), but it's my only goal, because this is a very young and not so strictly regularized area, which combines all arts.

I also believe that companies like EA will grow even larger and when the fans are enventually sick of the 100th WW2 ego-shooter, they'll rip another promissing idea from a bunch of creative hobbyists and market it on a grand scale.

But the day will come when a Quentin Tarantino of the games appears and will create an antipole to EA's junk food - at least for a while.

[Kosmo]

The industry is in a growing point, old methods don't fly anymore, like every other industry game industry hasto evolve too, and the competition will get harder and things will get rough before they will get better, but like movie industry, indipendend movies are celebrated and there is plenty of room in there for a little guy.

Charlie Cleveland aka. Flayra the leader of NS mod team and the founder of Unknown Worlds Entertainment has some pretty good ideas on how indie developer can make it, through a network of smaller developer teams that work on different parts of the game hired by the game developer itself, this doesn't necessarily mean that there is a studio that hires studios to make art for example, it could mean that a studio hires a freelancer to do concept art for them and put his own guys to work on art and programming, and some art is bough from outside (something S2 Games is already doing) and engine comes from outside, this cuts the development costs and time.

I have on several occasions tought about finding my own studio with few of my friends who are also interested in working in game development, we would do graphics design for game developers to fund the work on our own game this takes the risk of working for 3 years for demo and then failing to get publishers interested on our project and going belly up.

[FrieChamp]

At times you guys bash EA a little bit too much, as if Satan himself was running the corporation, with the goal to destroy all games.

You all played BF2, maybe battle for middle earth or c&c generals, black & white 2 just came oiut, the new bond game, nfs most wanted also looks fun...

[-Stratesiz-]

In the end, it's about making profits. Small companies usually don't posess the resources (money, human capital, time, etc.) required for future projects. Even if their product turns out to be lucrative, it still might not cover all the costs. Mainstreamization of games is inevitable since small niche markets are rarely profitable. Distribution methods such as Steam, however, have managed to abridge the value chain, enabling larger profit margins for the company, and hence create a stronger incentive to create smaller episode based projects that carry minimum risk and generate a steady flow of income.

[FrieChamp]

Will you publish my game stratty?

[kleinluka]

burnout 4 for the win

[Section_Ei8ht]

But in this day and age, you're beginning to not need a distributor. We have the internet. Steam is a shining example. If you are dedicated enough, you can get a small team together not thinking about the profit or the cost, and even if its just in your spare time, you can make and release something that could be truly amazing.

To quote John Carmack:

In the information age, the barriers just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you dont need millions of dollars of capitalization. You just need enough pizza [added] and [insert favorite beverage] to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the deadication to go through with it.

[ginsengavenger]

At times you guys bash EA a little bit too much, as if Satan himself was running the corporation, with the goal to destroy all games.

You all played BF2, maybe battle for middle earth or c&c generals, black & white 2 just came oiut, the new bond game, nfs most wanted also looks fun...

And where are the guys who made BF2 now? They're looking for jobs.

The guys making Project Offset, who is paying them? Nobody. They don't have jobs, they have a project.

The industry is very young and constantly in flux. When you hire to a company you are hiring for the term of the project, after which the company will be out of money and you can bet you will have to find a new job (at this point the publisher begins to rake in the dough and recoup their expenses, including paying you to make the game).

The state of the industry is constantly and rapidly changing compared to traditional industries. Hopefully we will move toward a better state of stability for the people actually producing these games but it will take time.

On the other hand, a lot of the artists at my current work have been in film, tv, commercial CG - they think games are stable.

Let's just say I won't be having kids until I have a stable job, and at this point that means not working in games.

[Section_Ei8ht]

bah, who needs kids?

[KungFuSquirrel]

Let's just say I won't be having kids until I have a stable job, and at this point that means not working in games.

I think you're overstating instability through the industry. The uncertainty is most prevalent in the small companies on their first few titles. Get through that, and if one deal falls through, there's good chances to pick up more. Sometimes it's not enough, but it's not a 100% guarantee of death.

Publisher owned studios in particular are very solid in this regard, as it's unlikely any internal houses will be closed unless the publisher runs on some severe hard times financially (which don't look to be issues for any of the major players anytime soon). Raven is a good example: average length of stay is something like 6 years (or was before we ballooned and added a ton more people ), and the company just celebrated 15 years in business earlier this year, with more and more people celebrating their 8, 9, and 10+ year anniversaries.

Big-money independent studios like Epic, Valve, and id aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Smaller independents like Gearbox land deal after deal and keep floating along more than comfortably, and now are kicking ass with their own IP. If a company like Splash Damage had a project cancelled, half the other major publishers would probably jump to get them to make a game for them given the success of the ET franchise and their work with id titles. And the growing factor of online distribution gives greater and greater opportunity for studios to examine options of self-funding, keeping themselves alive even in a worst case scenario.

There's certainly instability to be had, but there's a hell of a lot of strong forces in the industry right now that it would take a full entertainment market collapse to topple. If you're that worried about stability, I'd think it's less a problem of the industry than it is your current location - BUT... since rumor is your company got double digit millions from sony to develop for the PS3, and there's the established legacy and success from prior titles over the years (such as the success of the rogue squadron games)... I think stability is by far the least of your worries

[ginsengavenger]

Well, don't blame me for being a bit jaded after my last job, where a big publisher did lay off its internal development staff

I just really, really want people to know what they're getting into here. There are sweet deals and great jobs to be had, no doubt - most of the time most of the people are doing pretty well, and the work is awesome. But everything is always at the whim of that faceless guy writing the checks, and he doesn't care about you, he cares about his bottom line. And you're right, studios can usually stay afloat even when times are rough - but when money dries up it's management who stays and the staff who go.

It's not every day but these things do happen, it's endemic to the industry and has been for years. It seems like every few weeks I read about another studio closing or cutting way back.

You're right, I may overstate the instability but I do think that if you are in the industry, odds are it is going to happen to you. The industry is built on young men who can move anywhere, anytime to take a job.

In response to the topic I don't think the times ahead are any harder than what has come before, in fact I do think things are getting better as companies are developing intelligent strategies like keeping 2-3 projects in the works at any time so if something gets canceled people can be moved to another project instead of being laid off - it's just that working in games is not like working at Procter & Gamble or GM. Of course they don't get to make games for a living, but nobody in games has a pension plan either