Easy developing means more games, some will be really bad and some will be brilliant.
About the public image of the engine… people isn’t stupid, you only need 1 or 2 good games to show how good the engine is. For example Unity, I thought it had bad graphics, suddenly saw Ori and the Blind Forest and Pillars of Eternity, now I think it is a really nice engine.
BTW, I hate that elitist idea about paying is better, I know a lot of people who own 3d max and they make really bad 3D, and a lot of people who use blender because they can’t afford 3d max and they do AAA graphics.
The tool end up being almost irrelevant as you can see in that “accidental runner”. The important is the people who uses it (This even happens with the big companies. Even inside the same company, as an example with Konami using the same engine used in MGS3 to make Silent Hill 4, or using the same Fox engine used for MGSV to make PES2015… just to put some small examples).
I did not defend nor offend this game, and I’m not the developer.
I understand you’re in a process of finishing your own ‘Runner’ game but this doesn’t mean you can go around call other people’s games garbage repeatedly. We get it, you don’t like it, I don’t like it, don’t buy it! Unless like I said, you’re jealous?
I’m not going to continue this unneeded debate as the talkback about this game is already being made in it’s own thread.
Back to the topic, I think the OP just wanted to say his fears about the engine’s future. As everyone including myself pointed out that there are great and interesting indy games that are currently in development and we all see Unreal will have a bright future. I, for myself is very optimistic about the future use of the engine but it will give us no harm if we hear other people’s ideas about this matter.
This so much. I started getting into game development as a hobby around this time last year and I was taken aback by this mentality of some developers like this.
This is such an interesting topic to me. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit lately.
I think it’s a good thing that games are becoming easier to make. Maybe I should rephrase that: I think it’s great that the tools to make games are becoming accessible. I don’t think the craft of game design has necessarily become easier, just that the current set of available tools makes it easier for more people to practice that craft.
I equate the current state of indie game development to the state of indie music composition. It’s become easier to make professional level audio in your bedroom or home studio. This has helped aspiring musicians become better musicians and composers, and it’s lead to more total bands and music. That means there’s more music you like, and more music you don’t like. It probably hasn’t slowed down bands that were figuring it out before the technology was accessible (their studios probably just got better and cheaper), but it has helped a bunch of aspiring musicians become real musicians. If music fans can sift through the stuff they don’t like, they’ll be rewarded with more of what they do like. Add to that an increase in individual expression and you get an even broader spectrum of art, and I think that’s very cool.
With lower barriers and more aspiring game developers getting a chance to make games, we’ll get more games. We’ll get a lot of bad art as we all work out our process and our taste, but we’ll also get a lot of great art. Ideally that will lead to more “shoulders to stand on”, so that we all benefit, designers and players alike.
The challenge that appears to be emerging is the matching of players and games. I think it’s reasonable to say that gamers want to hear about games they’re going to love, and designers want to get their games in front of a willing audience. As long as gamers are wiling to pay (enough?) for games they’ll actually like, this will be a problem that publishers will want to solve. (It’s worth mentioning that I don’t think all game designers care about getting paid. I doubt I’m alone when I say that I would love to make enough money on a game to be able to make another game, but that ultimately it doesn’t matter; I’m going to continue making games regardless of my financial success or failure in games.)
The “finding good games you’ll actually like / getting your game in front of the right audience” problem feels like a very hard one, but I do think we’ll see a lot of very capable organizations try. Valve know a lot about this problem and appear to be paying close attention. Epic appear to be paying very close attention as well. I feel like everyone wins when someone organizes things on the internet.
As someone who works in the corporate world as an IT consultant, I can tell you that the mindset among managers is still “technology-as-a-solution”. Technology is just the tool to get things done, it is not a solution, method, or vision. All of those things you have to develop yourselves.
Yes, the toolsets are increasingly easier to use - this is a good thing. But it still doesn’t make it easy. I’m sure plenty of you have laughed at some forum posts which essentially are asking Epic for features in the UE4 engine which essentially equate to “Can you build my game for me”.
When I started on this as a hobby late last year, I knew this would be VERY hard. I know I most likely won’t be successful, but I never can be if I do not try. There is going to loads of rubbish made. I’ll probably make some, but I hopefully won’t be releasing that to the general public.
I’m sure even the most experienced game developers have had experience of creating rubbish, and with large budgets too. But if Epic has helped foster some great talent by making the engine free to use, I’m more than willing to wade through the rubbish.
Here is my take on OP. I believe that development being easier so that the every man can do it is a GOOD THING.
Why? It’s allows true visionaries with little skill to achieve their masterpiece. This has happened in film, look at youtube.
Many of the videos are ****, but some are GOLD. I don’t think that would’ve happened if someone decided to make it difficult for people for some reason.
I see plenty of good games and good ideas coming from them. You know what? I’ve haven’t seen too many bad games. Why? Because I don’t look for them. I care about the ones that will become great and it seems that others do to.
Please support efforts for developers to express their ideals and for engine creators to give us the tools to do so.
