Full Games List
Featured Games
New Games
Reviews
Media
Images
Blogs
Game Updates
Images Feedback Summary
Game Design Highlights
Tutorials
Articles
Scripts
Utilities / Plugins
Resources
Engines
Engine Bulletins
What is Makerscore?
Past Events
Achievements
Misaos
Forums
Post History
Chat
New to RMN?
Full Store List
RMN Music Pack (free)
GAME DEVELOPERS THAT DON'T... LIKE MAKING GAMES...?
Posts
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Sooz
View playlists
CloseGam mak seems to me to be one of the worst creative fields for higher-up meddlers to touch, since it requires so much balancing and expertise and time. It's almost a wonder any good non-indie games come out at all, given the amount of untrained people holding the reins of studios.
Saw thread title, immediately thought it was about me.
It's not quite that I don't like making games....it's just that I'm a million years old and so....so...tired.
It's not quite that I don't like making games....it's just that I'm a million years old and so....so...tired.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Ugh, when Squaresoft fired the Final Fantasy guy as president, they brought in a financer who knew nothing about video games and whose goal in life was to become a president of a company. In 2013 he was replaced by another accountant. This trend is stupid and kills good game companies.
Here's an actual fucking quote from the president of Square Enix:
He then goes on to talk about his idea of "unifying development and sales," which, according to him, means that game designers should be focusing on getting people to spend money instead of getting them to have fun. That's not my interpretation or some kind of exaggeration, that's his viewpoint that he spent a long time describing in an interview to make sure he was conveying clearly.
Admittedly, I'm adding really convenient ellipses in there to make this guy sound like way more of a douchebag than his original quote did. But I'm not putting ideas in his mouth. This is very much the gist of what he said in this interview. He just put a bunch of meaningless sweet-talk about in between his sentences to distract people from what he actually meant.
It's very clear if you read his stuff that his overarching philosphy is "Square Enix needs to stop letting its game designers create good games, because they have a lower profit margin than bad ones." These are the people making games today.
Here's an actual fucking quote from the president of Square Enix:
author=Yosuke Matsuda
The business model is at a turning-point. Up until now, the profit of home-console games have been decided by price times the number sold. Development and sales were divided, and the game developers only needed to concentrate on their work. That's where the strengths of our company laid within.
At the very beginning, the game business started out with 'how can we get people to insert coins'. Afterwards, consoles became popular, and our company grew as game design and billing methods were divided. Presently, online games are prosperous, which again, has the theme of 'how can we charge the people,' as developers and sales have become inseparable.
...
We will continue ... changing what needs to be changed. I am convinced we can make this drastic change into a chance of opportunity.
He then goes on to talk about his idea of "unifying development and sales," which, according to him, means that game designers should be focusing on getting people to spend money instead of getting them to have fun. That's not my interpretation or some kind of exaggeration, that's his viewpoint that he spent a long time describing in an interview to make sure he was conveying clearly.
Admittedly, I'm adding really convenient ellipses in there to make this guy sound like way more of a douchebag than his original quote did. But I'm not putting ideas in his mouth. This is very much the gist of what he said in this interview. He just put a bunch of meaningless sweet-talk about in between his sentences to distract people from what he actually meant.
It's very clear if you read his stuff that his overarching philosphy is "Square Enix needs to stop letting its game designers create good games, because they have a lower profit margin than bad ones." These are the people making games today.
Oh man, that's sad. Granted, I would have guessed it was something like that, as I suppose that's just how most of the world is now, but geez... -_-
If SE can get the money from FF Mobius and other mobile games to fund Yoko Taro's and Platinum Games' child then I say OPEN THE BLOOD GATES
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
It's nothing really new; we all know what led to the Great Crash of '83...
Alichains
637
80 million different systems, each with the same library of games? And no quality control?
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
Well, now we have 80 million identical games, and no quality control. Progress!
author=Nivlacart
Textextext...videogame industry sucks...Textextext...
That explains why most videogames nowdays are generic comercial crap.
Videogames should be a labour of love, but most of them aren't :(
I believe only people passionate about videogames can actually make great videogames.
So I'll expect to play one such great game made by you in the near future ;)
Roots
14
author=Nivlacart
I'm in a perpetual state of disbelief. Games are such a fun medium, I didn't think anyone who got into the industry and stayed there would continue thinking 'it's just a job'. But now I know people like this do exist.
As an aside, this mentality isn't unique to the gaming industry. I've been a software engineer for 10 years now. I love designing software, solving problems, and writing code. But most of the jobs I've held I did not enjoy (and I've had about nine of them, believe it or not). Even though I was working on software, many of those felt like "just a job" and I wasn't passionate about what I was doing. I would go home at night and work on writing code for my own projects that I found fun, challenging, and interesting. I even thought about changing my career a couple times so that software development would only become a hobby of mine.
Having said that, I have had a couple different jobs where I was happy with my career. You just have to keep searching until you find something that works for you, and not settle for "just a job". Given what I've read/heard about the gaming industry, its more difficult to find a good company and career. Let your internship be an eye-opener for you that a lot of jobs/companies suck, but don't let a single experience lead you to believe that they are all the same and that everyone working there is equally apathetic.
author=LockeZ
Ugh, when Squaresoft fired the Final Fantasy guy as president, they brought in a financer who knew nothing about video games and whose goal in life was to become a president of a company. In 2013 he was replaced by another accountant. This trend is stupid and kills good game companies.
Here's an actual fucking quote from the president of Square Enix:author=Yosuke Matsuda
The business model is at a turning-point. Up until now, the profit of home-console games have been decided by price times the number sold. Development and sales were divided, and the game developers only needed to concentrate on their work. That's where the strengths of our company laid within.
At the very beginning, the game business started out with 'how can we get people to insert coins'. Afterwards, consoles became popular, and our company grew as game design and billing methods were divided. Presently, online games are prosperous, which again, has the theme of 'how can we charge the people,' as developers and sales have become inseparable.
...
We will continue ... changing what needs to be changed. I am convinced we can make this drastic change into a chance of opportunity.
He then goes on to talk about his idea of "unifying development and sales," which, according to him, means that game designers should be focusing on getting people to spend money instead of getting them to have fun. That's not my interpretation or some kind of exaggeration, that's his viewpoint that he spent a long time describing in an interview to make sure he was conveying clearly.
Admittedly, I'm adding really convenient ellipses in there to make this guy sound like way more of a douchebag than his original quote did. But I'm not putting ideas in his mouth. This is very much the gist of what he said in this interview. He just put a bunch of meaningless sweet-talk about in between his sentences to distract people from what he actually meant.
It's very clear if you read his stuff that his overarching philosphy is "Square Enix needs to stop letting its game designers create good games, because they have a lower profit margin than bad ones." These are the people making games today.
Here's an idea. Let's try making an online game that doesn't milk people for money. I can guarantee it will pay off. How do I know this? Because I've seen the alternative. Maplestory, where the game is so rigged between halting drops for overlvl (ummm, my priest can't deal damage on the same scale, or take damage without dying, I need to fight underlvl), rare items that you need to win, and need to scroll only to mess up easily, and other for-profit stupidity, that the people who actually win are those who either hack and merchant, big parties that get lucky on bosses, or usually just straight up hackers. People probably play it still because that's the model. But I've stopped playing free MMOs (and I won't pay either)
Seriously, it's simple.
Suppose, I was Square and wanted to make a Kingdom Hearts MMO. This is how I would do it.
- No monthly fee. That's garbage. If I was feeling charitable, I'd make it free, but most of these games have messed up game balance. So no, just a flat registration fee. I make $30 per account setup. Still making steady money, but I can produce a game that people can win.
- The game is not designed so that the Shop is necessary. Instead, it is designed with Shop items being cooler, easing play to be sure, but being a Kingdom Hearts it is winnable, it just takes more skill. Example 1: There are special areas where you buy a key or ticket to enter, and fight special bosses. However, to reach maximum level, or complete the main quest branch, you do not need to fight these. Further, all maps are technically reachable, you just need to find a back entrance (possibly requiring wall jumps and special techniques to make it there. Example 2: Magic and special attacks are found in quests, and by equipping certain items. You can also buy this at the Shop (along with some stores), with lower and middle found in moogle stores, and top tier abilities in the Shop. That said, some of the good summons are found by quest.
- Free customization of characters at setup. If you want to later change stuff, there are shops that let you permanently change hair, eyes, name, gender, etc.
- No EXP penalty. I pretty much hate that.
- Pet system. Pets give Treasure Magnet as they get near dead enemies (extending your own treasure magnet to search range), finding hidden items, and fight. You can buy items at the Shop to raise their stats, or to combine pets. Or to buy pets, since only five pet recipes are found in game.
- Essentially, so far, we have a system that is set up with the difficulty of a Brave KH game. Buying loads of Shop stuff makes it Easy. You can also get stuff that is fashion equipment, like snazzy clothing or custom keyblades, hair equips, or Relics (only the latter has in-game powers).
- You don't need a permit to craft or use the FM. Seriously, wtf was Maplestory thinking?
- Stays true to the spirit of Kingdom Hearts, you can dodge attacks and do all sorts of maneuvers.
- Do something cool with the class system, like different types of Keyblade users.
You want to make money? Stop making xerox games designed to milk people, and make an interesting game where Shop is optional, but so darned cool that people who want to use it will use it. In Maple, I loved doing hair and eye changes and wearing the clothes (I liked permanent ones though, even at added cost) but I hated when I had to bribe to win. Simply model. Happy customers are loyal customers, and keep adding new maps, quests, and abilities. Oh yea, and browser-based. Having the load of the game on their computer when you add more stuff doesn't promote good will.
Tyranos
1115
author=Nivlacart
If you knew me in real life, I'm a blazingly passionate guy when it comes to game making. I would gush for hours on end about ideas that could be shoved into a game. The idea of creating games excites me to no end. Which is why some recent events really confused me.
School has a mandatory internship module, so I've been interning at an indie game studio for about 2 months now. I thought I would be having a ball of a time, I've been waiting for this moment my whole life. But I've never felt so out of place.
During lunch breaks trying to chat with people I came to realize nobody here really likes making games. So far what I've heard from them is 'It's just a job'. The games they're making doesn't seem to be built on ideas they think are fun, but ideas they think that work out so far and they're tacking it on. No one here really discusses the game or has remotely any hype about it.
I'm in a perpetual state of disbelief. Games are such a fun medium, I didn't think anyone who got into the industry and stayed there would continue thinking 'it's just a job'. But now I know people like this do exist.
I know it's probably unprofessional to gripe about a job I'm being paid for but it's... it's a big culture shock to me. From being around RMN and other sites, I expected the world out there to be 'This game is great!' and 'Let's work together to make this!' I know that probably I wouldn't always meet people who are as passionate, who wouldn't spazz over E3 uncontrollably like I would, but I didn't expect apathy towards it. Maybe my hopes were set wayyy too high.
What do you guys think about the thought of a portion of the game industry just in it for the lucrative market over the enjoyment of making something exciting?
My best friend once warned me 'If you make something you love your job, you will come to hate the thing you love' and I fear that. Do you think out there, it's true?
Man. Jobs are scary.
First of all did your face resemble your avatars face? Because if anyone looks that intense it's enough to get anyone into anything. You could inspire legions with that intensity.
Second all any of this means is that you'll go farther. Something I often talk about is how when a developer LIKES making games those games tend to be FUN which is the bottom line of any game. If it's not fun it's not a good game. You can talk about politics and other bullshit all you want but by the end of the day you can program what you wish and draw what you wish and you've taken a love to that. It'll show and your games might just inspire your classmates. Trust me. Look at Shadowrun Returns, Pillars of Eternity, or The Witcher 3. All of those are held as highly enjoyable gaming experiences and the developers of those games loved making games and thought to make a game they would love to play.
EDIT: Oh and all three of those were also commercial successes. Witcher constantly putting out DLC that was FREE to keep your attention on their game and keep you trying out new things that other games would charge around 5 dollars for and then brilliantly revealing an actual expansion, again while keeping your attention with fun. Good business, games as as service, and game design are not mutually exclusive.
Pillars of Eternity is now seeing an expansion that is about as large as the first part of the base game. This game kept you coming back by making each class play drastically differently and have access to different equipment as well as playstyles. Then while you are still on Act 1 BAM expansion.
Shadowrun Returns just released a new expansion as well and kept interest high with the ability to make your own campaigns. Hong Kong looks good and by staying true to Shadowrun they've gotten more people interested in Shadowrun and did not alienate the hardcore fans. Again innovation for the sake of innovating is not really innovation now is it? SRR proves this.
