Ask A Game Dev! - We Are Your Friend's Uncle

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Ask A Game Dev! - We Are Your Friend's Uncle

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Willie Tomg posted:

I am noticing the throughlines that

--Steam is awful and margins are thinning
--While the struggle is real all over, the USA is an absolute hell nation

Steam was only brought up by one of the developers, I wouldn't call that a throughline.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 21:13

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:40

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

al-azad posted:

They don't really need to fund games, just offer them a dedicated platform separate from the eventual Russian rip-off of your game and Simpsons Tap poo poo. If I had a game and was thinking about making a mobile release and Apple was like "we'll put it on Arcade" there doesn't seem to be a reason not to take that offer.

If they are not funding the development of the game it all comes down to how revenue is worked out. A reason to not take the offer would be if you dont stand to make any money

# ¿ Oct 23, 2019 21:53

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Studio posted:

Sounds like the UK works 42.5 hours a week , and that should be lower imo

No, as Akuma said above 37.5 or 40 is the norm in the UK.
If I started somewhere with a 42.5 standard work week I would a) want to know why and b) make sure I was being paid accordingly.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2021 12:07

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Red Mike posted:

On that note, I've always wondered what the "diamonds buried in the mud" games are, because every time I've tried getting examples out of people or finding some myself I've only found three things, which directly correlate to the types of failures a game dev project might run into that isn't practical like running out of money/time:

1. "Failures" that were mild successes (recoup majority of investment) and that had quite an audience but for various reasons unrelated to the market size (e.g. wrong price point or design that needs a large playerbase first to be fun at all; or also commonly sales/marketing lack of investment)
2. Actual failures that are just average-ish games, whether or not they were marketed well, but that resonated with the people I'm talking to and only a few others so they didn't form an audience really (this could also be sales/marketing lack of investment)
3. Failures that got an audience and the audience decided they didn't really like the game - usually a game with a gimmick/"hook" that's enough to draw people in, but not enough to sustain the game

#1 is a common failure when releasing a game, and some of the ways you could fail might be unavoidable because of things outside your control. I don't think market size affects this much though, because the market size is the thing enabling you in the first place (unless you wanted your game to take years to develop and then build an audience around on multiple platforms and/or with gates that would likely prevent you releasing).
#3 is the most frustrating type of failure, but one that people generally should catch early in development at the prototyping stage. It's difficult to admit you've designed a game that's only fun for 5 minutes/until the player figures it out/etc, but doing that is what saves you spending thousands and thousands of pounds on a dead-on-arrival product.
#2 is the most difficult failure to admit to yourself, as a developer. It's very easy to have a product you like, or that a few people like, and keep asking yourself "why can't other people recognise how good this is", or in cases like multiplayer active-development games "why aren't our players ever happy".

Surely if there were diamonds buried in the mud, then much like in film we'd end up having new "cult hits" that bomb at the box office but people hear about and start buying. Even if they were average, we'd see one or two pop up 'out of nowhere' when someone randomly comes across it post-release when going through a backlog. Has that happened in modern storefronts at all?

Might be handy to give some examples for your 3 categories.

I tend to agree with you that there isn't this massive pile of buried overlooked classics that are just sitting there waiting to be discovered.
You do get the occasional one though - most recent example being among us.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2021 12:38

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

leper khan posted:

Number of hours worked per person per week is not a metric that has a linear correlation with the quality of the final work.

100% this.

'Magic' from a team usually comes from a team caring enough about their product to put in ~~stupid amounts of hours and~~ effort to make it as good as they can

is more accurate

# ¿ Mar 17, 2021 10:25

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

leper khan posted:

Cult followings don't necessarily make money. Companies follow the things that sell, not the things some group of fans says they like on the internet.

This is also why EA will not make another Skate.

EA are currently making another Skate

# ¿ May 2, 2022 14:51

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Popoto posted:

Hey thread, me again. Portfolio is online (and happy that the two industry insiders that I personally know thought it was quite decent and didn't look amateurish (my -biggest- worry)), LinkedIn is updated, and I've settled on trying to discover "Technical Designer" as the researched title. Hopefully, somewhere out there, an entry level post will pop up. Now, I wanted to ask: what are the current avenue for searching for work, other than going directly on a company's website? There's linkedIn, of course, then also indeed.com. What about monster.com, is that still a thing?

My usual motto before for job boards was to always check the company website after to see if the offer is shown there, and if possible use their own contact form instead of the job board one.

There's also r/gamedevclassified, but it seems mostly for contractual work for indie devs (might still do that if nothing shows up in the other channels).

Basically I just want to make sure I'm not missing an extremely obvious website that everyone knows about and post online, but because of my outsider status I wouldn't know about.

Love to look for a job during a giant economic downturn lol. I guess despite all hope is sort of up, as I saw one posting that asked for basic C# and Unity3D knowledge to integrate gamedesigners/artists work, meaning there might be a place somewhere out there for what I can do, unfortunately the job wasn't remote. I'll keep looking.

Depends on where you are.
In the UK there are 3 or 4 dedicated games industry recruitment agencies in addition to LinkedIn and going to studios directly.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2022 15:57

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:40

Mr Beens: Dec 2, 2006

Reasons not to use a sound library recording of a car

Not high enough quality/bit rate, channels
Not the right range of revs
Not the right range of audio elements ( it's not just the engine you want, turbos, gear change, braking, different acceleration patterns, suspension etc)
Library only has internal recordings, you might also want external, drive bys
Not the exact model or year you need
Licensing restrictions from the library
Licensing restrictions from the manufacturer
You need to train your audio team on capturing methods and equipment
Efficient to capture multiple cars in one session at one location (cost and time)

# ¿ Oct 21, 2023 00:49

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