#game industry

[devsgames]

Just this week in games:

- EA laid off 700 workers

- Sony laid of 900 workers

- Rockstar announces in-person work mandates for all employees (a 'soft layoff' that will force some staff to quit, which likely means that actual layoffs are forthcoming)

In 2023 6,000 games workers were laid off. Now in 2024 over 10,000 workers have been laid off, and there's still 10 months to go.

Not to be hyperbolic, but I think this is perhaps the worst year for video games ever if we're measuring by number of layoffs.

#gamedev #game development #game dev #gamedevelopment #game industry #games industry #sony #playstation #rockstar #rockstar games #ea #ea games

[ayeforscotland]

Remember that whole strike thing? What the fuck was that for again?

There’s no going back once you open that gate. This is fucking depressing.

#ayeforscotland #video games #game industry #anti ai

[alpaca-clouds]

Why the media CEOs will always learn the wrong lessons

Yesterday a friend and I talked about how the entire (AAA) game industrie looked at BG3 being as popular as it is and going: "Oh, we need to produce 100+ hour games, I guess! Those sell!" Which... obviously is not why it is popular. The game is not popular because it has 100+ hours of gameplay, but because it has engaging characters, that are well-acted and that work as good hooks for the players. Like, let's face it: The reason why I so far have sunken 160 hours into this game is, because I wanna spend time with these characters - and because I wanna give them their happy endings.

But the same has happened too, just a bit earlier this year, right? When Barbie broke the 1 billion and every Hollywood CEO went: "Oh, so the people want movies based on toy franchises! Got it!" To which the internet at large replied: "... How is that the lesson you learned from this?"

Well, let me explain to you, why this is the lesson they learn: It is because the CEOs and the boards of directors at large are not artists or even engaged with the medium they produce. They mostly are economists. And their dry little hearts do not understand stuff more complex than numbers and spread sheets.

That sounds evil, I know, but... It is sadly the truth. When they look at a successful movie/series/game/book/comic, they look at it as a product, not a piece of art or narrative. It is just a product that has very clear metrics.

To them Barbie is not a movie with interesting stylistic choices that stand out from the majority of high budget action blockbusters. It is a toy movie with mildly feminist themes.

Or Oppenheimer is not a movie to them with a strong visual language and good acting direction. No, it is a historical blockbuster.

And this is true for basically every form of media. I mean, books are actually a fairly good example. In my life I do remember the big book fads that happened. When Harry Potter was a success, there was at least a dozen other "magical school" book series being released. When Twilight was a big success there was suddenly an endless number of "teen girl falls in love with bad boy, who is [magical creature]" YA. When the Hunger Games was a success, there were hundreds of "YA dystopia" books. Meanwhile in adult reading, we had the big "next Game of Throne" fad.

Of course, the irony is, that within each of those fads there might have been one or two somewhat successful series - but never even one that came even close to whatever started the fad.

Or with movies, we have seen it, too. When Avengers broke the 1 billion (which up to this point only few movies did) the studios went: "Ooooooh, so we need shared universe film series" - and then all went to try and fail to create their own cinematic universe.

Because the people, who call the shots, are just immensely desinterested in the thing they are selling. They do not really care about the content. All they care about is having a supposedly easy avenue of selling it. Just as they do not care about the consumer. All they care about is that the consumer buys it. Why he buys it... Well, they do not care. They could not care less, in fact.

So, yeah, get ready for a 20 overproduced games with a bloated 100+ hours of empty gameplay, but without the engaging characters. And for like at least 15 more moves based on some toy franchise, that nobody actually cares about.

And then get ready for all the CEOs to do the surprised Pikachu face, when all of that ends up not financially successful.

Really, I read some interviews yesterday from some AAA-studio CEOs and their blatant shock and missing understanding on why BG3 works for so many people.

Because, yeah... capitalism does not appreciate art. Capitalism does not understand art. It only understands spread sheets.

#baldurs gate 3 #oppenheimer #barbie #barbie movie #hollywood #game industry #media #indie media #media criticism #anti capitalism #late stage capitalism

[slitherpunk]

seeing all these game companies go through layoffs and thinking "gee it sure seemed like that was a pretty big and successful company". and i mean, they are. most of these companies certainly Could afford to NOT fire this many people. but it's all to appease investors and shareholders. we saw that with the news about Embracer Group

(https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/embracer-says-it-s-looking-out-for-shareholders-after-cutting-almost-1-400-jobs)

At least they aren't skirting around it trying to appease people with "times are tough. this was unavoidable." No, they're to the point admitting: our workforce is expendable, and they don't matter, all that matters is that we make a lot of money as cheaply as possible.

#game industry

[wanderways-official]

Ludum Mortuus Est

Blog post by Scott Jennings

“Every game developer is terrified. Every game developer knows someone who has been long-term unemployed over the past year, or is in that state themselves, or has left the industry.

This is unsustainable. We cannot work like this. We cannot function like this.

Game development is in an extinction level event crisis, and it is entirely self inflicted.”

#it’s scary out there #video games #games #gamedev #game industry #fuck capitalism #it sucks out here

[once-delight]

i just made the discovery that in Baldurs Gate 3, if you cast any flame related spell/item unto candles/chandeliers/torches, etc. they will light up. If you hit them with a water spell, they will be put out.

It sounds so obvious, but as a game designer, I can tell you, this is the stuff we put on the "nice to have" side of the whiteboard and never gets to implement because there's a thousand things more important just for basic functionality. It's not because game devs don't think about stuff like this, we really really want the opportunity, but don't get to because of time limits.

The fact that they have been so thorough is really a testament to the value of long dev times, zero crunch and extensive beta testing, and it must be so satisfying to the game devs that they got to implement this.

Look at the game designers. They're thriving

#Baldurs gate 3 #Bg3 #Baldurs gate #Game design #game development #Gamedev #game industry #Developer's foresight #Game dev gasm

[hpowellsmith]

Do you think a degree is a good place to start to get into the narrative designer scene? I don't have any sort of degrees and whenever I look at job postings it kind of intimidates me.

You don't necessarily need a game design degree. There isn't a single route into getting a narrative design job and most of the narrative people I've worked with have academic experience in other areas. Classics, publishing, linguistics, screenwriting (and other kinds of writing), film, literature, teaching, computer science, biomedical science, history, and philosophy are all things that come to mind off the top of my head. I personally have an English Literature bachelor's degree and a postgrad teaching certificate.

I do know a few narrative people with game design degrees and they speak highly of that experience - but it isn't essential and there's some ambivalence in the field of games about how much value you get from it. It would really depend on where you were attending and who was teaching it, and so on. Do research the lecturers and their industry experience before signing up to anything!

A lot of narrative jobs will require some sort of degree. Not all! But many will explicitly. Then, more trickily, there's the implicitness of it all: it's rare that I've encountered a narrative person at a studio who doesn't have a degree, and among many other things that's a marker of the lack of class diversity in the field.

That said: a degree is unlikely to directly help you get a narrative job unless it's very specific (eg you're an expert in the Franklin expedition, and the game is about trying to rescue the ships). It will more give you transferable skills. My PGCE helped me learn to deliver presentations and pitches. My English degree helped me discuss art. My PGCE taught me about being rigorous about developing skills and assessing where I'm at and taking feedback. My English degree pushed me to read widely. But none of that fed directly into getting a job in games - when I graduated from my undergrad degree I didn't know how games jobs worked anyway and neither did my career advisors.

Whether or not you have a degree, you need to have examples of your skills and how you've applied them to your work. If you've had jobs in other areas, you can refer to that - you're great at spotting data entry errors? fantastic. you can meditate an argument between a group of crying five year olds? great. And most of all you need completed examples of your writing and your games work for your portfolio. It doesn't have to be massive ambitious projects, but you need to prove that you know how games fit together, what makes them feel good or not good to play, and can apply it to your own work.

Make interactive fiction. Make a small game, or a bigger game, in bitsy. Join a game jam and work with other people on something - that will give you something to talk about in interviews, and teach you about working with other people on a creative project. Finish things! Not only will that give you more to discuss, it will also mean that you have a better sense of the bigger picture of interactive storytelling. I got my first studio job off the back of years of short hobby IF and a completed CoG game; I brought skills from my studies but I wouldn't have got a foot in the door without those projects to show that I could write well, understood narrative design, and could finish games.

Some unsolicited advice:

Be cautious about expensive game writing courses. They can be valuable for networking and pushing your to be rigorous about your work, or they can be a money sink. Remember that in 99% of "dream studios" there will be people working there for whom it's a nightmare. Don't put people on pedestals and remember that studio games are a team effort - but also respect and celebrate your own contributions. Don't dunk on games in public: I've seen a lot of people do that and then turn around and ask for a job from the people they were dunking on. It doesn't make people inclined to say yes. Don't neglect your peers in favour of trying to get in with a crowd that's already established; but if trusted people offer mentorship (such as Limit Break in the UK) go for it. When you are one of those established people, don't pull up the ladder behind you.

Here is a doc of resources from Raymond Vermeulen and another from Adanna aka AFNarratives. Also there are a ton of free talks available from AdventureX, Narrascope, Writer's Guild of Great Britain, and the GDC Vault about narrative which are both interesting and useful.

None of this is any guarantee of anything, there are a lot of people competing for not many jobs and if you find someone selling One Weird Trick to get into the field of narrative design, avoid them. I've seen talented people with a lot of experience struggling to find another contract after one has ended. So I don't want to act like I have it all figured out - but I hope it's helpful.

#indie games #game writing #narrative design #game industry

[coldgoldlazarus]

I genuinely love when people show two clips side-by-side for a comparison of graphics in a game, like "here's with DLSS/4K/Ray-Tracing/AI Upscaling/Horse Testicles/OLED/Whatever turned off, and here it is with that stuff turned on!" and it looks the exact fucking same. What a magnificent argument you're making, even though it's not the argument you think you're making.

#not a reblog #game industry #graphics

[antidisneyinc]

saw a clip for that hogwarts game and irrespective of It and Her all i could think was how underwhelmingly bland and empty it looks. like a regular british boarding school. i'm beginning to think the convergence of big budget AAA games with the popularity of Photoreal Visuals just does not contribute to imaginative boundless escapism the way we thought it would. when your top priority is selling the tactile believability of a space, do you swing for the fences and create something genuinely fantastical that could risk stretching that belief? no, logically, you recreate film sets. like a theme park.

#😐 #game industry

[found-in-retro-game-mags]

Developer Spotlight on Cyclone Studios (PC Accelerator #3, Nov. 1998)

“So like just about everyone else in the industry this time of year, the guys at Cyclone practically live at the office, finishing games like Uprising 2 and Requiem. It’s not strange to arrive at 9:00 in the morning only to find developers leaving at the same time to catch a few Zs before they return.”

#pcxl #retro gaming #game industry #cyclone studios #requiem avenging angel #uprising #pc gaming #don't worry they have a kiddie pool and connect four

[devsgames]

I'm sorry but for people who cheer on mass game industry layoffs because they think it's some kind of upheaval that is going to "topple the AAA industry" or "teach them a lesson": I hate to break it to you but AAA studios have a metric shitload of money and despite what their press releases say, they really aren't hurting as much as they'd have you think right now. Thousands of jobs lost is a temporary setback to them; if it was actually a last resort move they wouldn't have all simultaneously put themselves in a position where they had to do it in the first place. These studios have been around for decades and will continue to be around, and they will continue to operate just as they have for the last thirty years because they have huge vaults and no morals. They aren't learning a lesson from this because most of them saw it coming but would never admit that.

Know who is being permanently impacted by games layoffs?

It's the indie studio making sick ass games you'll never get to play because they laid everyone off when a publisher tried to save money by pulling all their funding. The hundreds of workers who woke up one morning and found out they suddenly have no job to put food on the table for their children. The international workers who were let go from the job that supplies their visa that helps them stay in the country. The thousands of students who now have to compete over a pool of a dozen job openings, who will work in studios where all the senior staff and leadership who would normally be there to help mentor them into their roles were fired. The disabled workers who now no longer have health or insurance coverage for their survival. The workers who didn't get laid off but survived to see all their friends and coworkers lose their livelihoods for completely arbitrary reasons and whose morale has all but been completely obliterated. The workers in the Global South working for outsourcing companies who were relying on cancelled projects from AAA studios to put food on their tables.

So whenever you're inclined to assume that the suffering of workers is somehow teaching rich people a lesson, remember that no, it doesn't actually and almost never will. All it does is teach thousands of talented workers in the video game industry that games were never - and will never - be worth it.

#anyway organize your workplace #some of y'all simply do not understand how these things work and it shows #gamedev #game development #game dev #gamedevelopment #game industry #games industry #layoffs #video games #blog #thoughts

[ayeforscotland]

Some video game developer discussion for you all. I’d be keen to hear opinions from PoC on this because I feel it is something you only really see with PoC characters.

And it’s about black hair specifically. Eddy was announced as a character in Tekken8 and a lot of people have eyerolled at his haircut specifically.

And a lot of recent characters across a whole bunch of games have been given that haircut. It seems to be inspired by Killmonger in Black Panther.

Saw a dev on twitter saying this haircut is going through the same thing cornrows did - a massive saturation of PoC characters with the same haircut before the next style comes along.

Now there’s been games with white male protagonists similar haircuts (slicked back, shaved sides) but feel like it’s not been as blatant.

And this isn’t to say the writing or art is bad at all. All of these characters look great, but people are noticing the same haircut when there’s so many to choose from.

#ayeforscotland #game industry

[slitherpunk]

whaaat... are you telling me venture capitalists weren't in it for love of the art...

#game industry #gamedev

[pastrygeckos]

The horror is real

#game industry #lqa

[apollolewis]

If we ever get aa7 I really want the original director to come back, Ace attorney is at its best when it’s written and directed by Takumi Shuu. Honestly I’d be happy if he was overseeing it in any way. I pretty much love all of the games he’s written for and directed that I’ve played.

#ace attorney #ghost tricks #shu takumi #takumi Shu #game industry #capcom #the great ace attorney

[theedoctorb]

Lessons Learned from Both Sides of Games

CW: Discussion of harassment, threats, and mental health challenges. I’m a clinical psychologist who has been working at the intersection of mental health and the game industry for just over seven years. My whole job is to help educate companies, communities, and individuals on mental wellness and to bolster that wellness across the entire game space. I was a gaming superfan for my entire life before that. I still have the first sixty issues of Nintendo Power on a shelf. Having spent considerable time in the game industry and even more time outside of it, I thought I might share some insights I’ve learned in the process, especially given how often I see people forget some of these things.  

The People Who Design and Make Games Are People Who Love Games 

The game industry is brutal. It’s hard to find a steady job in it. Many jobs are underpaid and undervalued. There’s chronic gender-based violence, and marginalized voices are often excluded from conversations and representation. Overwork and burnout are so common that they become topics of gallows humor at industry gatherings. While people are trying to change all of this (it’s a major aspect of my job), these are all still sadly true.  

Why is this important? Because it shows that the people who are making your games make games because they passionately want to. In the better part of a decade that I’ve had frank, private conversations with industry employees at all levels, I’ve never met a studio employee who didn’t care about games. They love them. They’re players themselves. It doesn’t matter whether it’s video games or tabletop games, they love games. The vast majority of studio employees I’ve met also care about the community. They just want to make games people enjoy. Does that mean they don’t make mistakes? They do. Most also genuinely care about fixing them and making your game experience the best it can be. They wouldn’t put up with the harshness of the industry if they didn’t! 

Additionally, corporations make moves to maximize their profits over consumer demands. Most corporations are – after all – in the business of making money. That still doesn’t negate the fact that they’re generally made up of individuals who care deeply. 

What Goes on Behind-The-Scenes is so Different Than I Thought 

Before I started working in games, I did what so many fans do: think of the companies as faceless entities with malevolent intent and speculated wildly with my friends, reveling in the schadenfreude of corporate trip-ups. What I learned after getting into the industry is that the companies are made of individuals. Some with more power than others. A lot more, in some cases, but it’s still individuals who make our games and make up the companies. 

Some companies are bigger, and that generally brings a slow-churning bureaucracy with a lot of conflicting needs and perspectives. Why don’t you hear about the inner workings of those companies as fans? Because company employees are often under non-disclosure agreements (NDA) and non-disparagement agreements, and companies have designated representatives who speak for them. I’ve lost count of how many times friends of mine have seen fan speculation trending or some “confirmed” leak about their company or project, and they desperately wanted to say, “That’s not how it works! I was in that meeting! It didn’t go like that at all!” but they can’t. Not without risking their jobs and even massive financial penalties for contract breach.  

What’s more, there are often intricate webs of sponsorships and contractual obligations that confound any speed of decision making. That’s at both the creator and corporate level. Even your favorite creators might be under some of the same contracts as employees and have similar restrictions on what they can and cannot say about a brand or company without risking their livelihoods.  

It was both eye-opening and humbling to realize that I genuinely had no idea how the inside of the game-making process worked when I was a fan, despite my Dunning-Kruger-esque self-assuredness. I had no idea the specifics of any one project, which I still generally don’t unless I’ve also signed an NDA for a specific project. There are often too many layers of insider nuance, and much beyond that is pure speculation. 

Rage-bait Fandom is a Thing, and It Actually Hurts People 

Let me be clear about something, I’m not talking about all fans here. I’m not even talking about the majority of fans. I’m talking about a small subsection of fans who – in some cases – literally profit by building content platforms on stoking the rage of the fanbase. They might ostensibly clutch their pearls and protest that they are doing it all for the community they supposedly represent, but then they use their platform to fan the flames of rumor and innuendo. They spread misinformation, and the misinformation does spread. It spreads because it preys on our various biases about corporations as faceless monsters who want to hurt fandoms. It preys on an us-versus-them dynamic. It intuitively makes sense to us. Then our rage escalates because others around us bolster it with their rage. 

Some of these content creators claim to have insider knowledge of a studio when no one at the studio knows who they are, or worse, the people at the studio do know them, dislike them, and can’t publicly say anything to correct the misinformation they spread.  It should be noted that I’m not referring to reputable journalists who engage in due diligence regarding the veracity of anonymous sources. I’m talking about content creators who build their platforms on manufactured rage and misinformation, sometimes even naming names of studio employees – employees who often have no influence or power over the decisions which were made.  

This is where the harassment often begins. Harassment of studio employees is so common in games that it is also periodically the subject of gallows humor at industry gatherings. The problem is that it’s not funny when people receive repeated, unwanted contact from other people. It’s not funny to receive emails and DMs of graphically violent imagery, death threats, or threats of sexual assault. It’s not funny when fans declare that it’s “open-season” on moderators in forums and streams because they’re paid (not always) by the corporation. It’s not funny when friends of mine develop full-blown posttraumatic stress disorder because their private information has been publicly released by angry fans, their families also receive death threats, or the SWAT team bursts through the doors of their house because someone called 911 with a fake anonymous tip.  

Before I worked in the industry, I couldn’t imagine the kind of toll this took on people, because they weren’t people to me; they were a faceless, malevolent corporation. Now I know differently and check in on my friends often, especially anyone whose job is public-facing. Corporate actions can and should be scrutinized (again, part of my job), but scrutiny is not harassment, and harassment and threats are not okay. If you believe harassment is okay, then you’re actively hurting the people who are trying to make the games you claim to love. You’re hurting the games you claim to love. 

Final Thoughts 

What are the take-home lessons I learned in all this time? It boils down to a few things: 

Most game employees love games and just want to make good ones you enjoy. That’s why they are in this difficult industry. 

There are often things going on behind-the-scenes that we don’t know about, and that often confounds processes. 

There’s a whole sub-industry regarding manufactured fan rage, and it hurts people by tacitly (or overtly) encouraging harassment.  

Corporate decisions can and should be scrutinized, but harassment and threats towards individuals are not okay.   

It’s still sometimes hard to let go of my previous biases, especially when companies make decisions that hurt the community, but I’m fortunate to be surrounded by people who are willing to say, “Hey, maybe we take a breath and think this through?” or even, “I think you’re wrong here, and here’s why…” That way, I can channel my anger in more productive ways that don’t hurt others, especially given most of us who are fans share the same goal: wanting the games and community to be as amazing as possible.  

#game industry #mental health #video games #ttrpg