Re: Games, games and games

[Dan Helfman <witten@linux.ucla.edu>]

On Sun, Jun 10, 2001 at 01:17:37PM -0500, Steve Baker wrote:
> One other thing that always upsets me about current games is the
> phenomenal effort that goes into designing the game engine and the
> 3D models - versus the relatively little thought that goes into
> them.

It's been said before, but:

With most gamers continually expecting snazzier engines and
ever-increasing eye-candy, development cycles of commercial games are
getting longer and longer. So it's only natural that in order to shove a
title out the door, developers skimp on those aspects of a game that are
not deemed absolutely essential to selling a bazillion copies. And since
"depth" doesn't directly contribute to the wow-factor of screenshots,
it's often the first to go (or it's just never considered to begin
with). I think that the recent Penny Arcade series of news items and
strips covering this very issue (starting from
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2001-06-04 and
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-06-04) has some pretty
insightful things to say about it.

As you suggest, part of the solution might be reuse.. recycling and
sharing engines and data could reduce development time by quite a
significant amount, leaving developers more time to focus on the things
that really matter in a game. But the other half of the problem is the
gamers. If they demanded more depth in games and didn't care quite so
much about having the fanciest graphics, then maybe developers would
churn out some higher-grade stuff.

> ----------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------------
> HomeMail : <sjbaker1@airmail.net>   WorkMail: <sjbaker@link.com>
> HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
> Projects : http://plib.sf.net     http://tuxaqfh.sf.net  http://tuxkart.sf.net
>            http://agtoys.sf.net   http://prettypoly.sf.net
>            http://freeglut.sf.net http://toobular.sf.net

-- 
Dan Helfman
Hover Carnage: http://hover.sf.net

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