Crunch time game dev

My only nephew is something of a math prodigy, and the fact that he wants to be a game designer when he grows up (and has even been to game dev camp) fills me with the creeping horror that only someone who’s been chronicling the game industry for years can know. The industry is awesome, and it is also a meat grinder that chews amazing people up and spits them right back out. He deserves a better future than that. Everybody does. Such is the subject of a lengthy piece on Gamasutra this week. Author Simon Parkin interviews multiple developers about their experience making games – and their obvious relief when they finally escape. They’re not just talking crunch; they’re discussing relatively low pay, contract positions, nepotism, instability, post-launch exhaustion, sexism, and actual corruption driving people away. “Long-term careers in the video game industry are uncommon and are, counterintuitively, becoming rarer as the years progress,” Parkin … [Read more...] about How the best devs are ‘fleeing in droves’ to escape the abusive games industry

Don’t be too mad at Star Wars: Battlefront II. It’s a symptom of a problem, not the cause. I mean, be mad at people dumb enough to put the blame for negative reactions on the press, that’s just plain stupid. But at the heart of the matter is a problem that’s actually choking through game development all the way down the line. Because while people are talking about “well, maybe games need to cost more” (and that aforementioned none-too-wise comment of an analyst does precisely that), the reality is that this would still be happening no matter what. The problem is not a matter of Battlefront II costing too little money to pay for its development. The problem is that design and budgets are broken, the market is a mess, and microtransactions are being used as a bludgeon instead of a tool. And all of this is exacerbated by the fact that every single publisher wants to pretend that everything is peachy. One of the things that I’ve long been an … [Read more...] about The Soapbox: The long tail of game development isn’t an excuse for gouging

Since the February layoffs that reduced ArenaNet’s headcount by about 1/3, the company’s been mostly silent regarding its internal goings-on and the general morale in the studio. Today, Eurogamer published an interview with two employees who survived the purge, getting their takes on how things have gone over the past month-plus and what it means for the future of both ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2. Along with the expected tales of losing friends and co-workers, lead Living World designer Linsey Murdock said that the team “had to make some adjustments.” That’s understandable from a general manpower perspective, but Murdock also said that the content of GW2 could also shift, due in part to a reassessment of how the game has been updated in recent years: “This is an opportunity for us to assess whether we’re just doing this because we always have – or because this has been the pattern for the past two seasons – or shall we refresh things … [Read more...] about ArenaNet Devs Open Up Regarding Layoffs, Hope To Make Guild Wars 2 Less “Formulaic”

The conflict between Steam and its newest challenger, the Epic Games Store, has thus far been a Cold War of sorts, but the other night on Twitter, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney threw down the proverbial gauntlet. In a series of Tweets responding to a question about whether Epic would ever reconsider its strategy of aggressively pursuing EGS-exclusive titles — a matter of much consternation among the PC gaming community as of late — Sweeney wrote, “If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives […] and consider putting our own games on Steam.” Sweeney’s statement has, perhaps unsurprisingly, garnered quite the reaction from gamers and journalists, though maybe not the kind he was hoping for, given that its timing is mighty convenient, following the recent Polygon report into Epic’s treatment of its own Fortnite devs during … [Read more...] about Amid crunch allegations and another dance lawsuit, Epic Games challenges Steam to buff developer payouts

Although the frankly obscene amount of hype that surrounded Apex Legends in the weeks following its launch earlier this year has subsided to more reasonable levels, the devs at Respawn Entertainment have still been adjusting to the game’s unexpected success. As Executive Producer Drew McCoy notes in the latest producer’s letter, the game’s rapid growth, while a pleasant surprise, has presented some challenges to the dev team in regard to update cadence, communication with the community, and so on, and it’s these issues that the studio is now planning to address. In the letter, McCoy lays out some of the critical issues that Respawn is looking to address in the near future, including server performance, cheaters, and hit registration issues. He also gives players a peek at what they can expect from the game going forward, and although players will have to wait for EA Play in June to get solid details about what’s coming in season 2, McCoy confirms that … [Read more...] about Apex Legends devs discuss season 2, content cadence, and avoiding development crunch