When energy prices rise, everything becomes more expensive, as everything we use is produced, stored and shipped using energy. Add to that the pandemic and ongoing logistics disruptions and we have an avalanche of problems on the horizon.
As for computers and the internet, both server bills and home utility bills are about to explode.
If your multiplayer code isn’t optimised, you will either charge more, earn less or go broke trying.
The winter of 2022 - 2023 will have a significant drop in luxury purchases and people will be forced to do with what they have, repair what is broken and opt for second hand items.
If you are aiming for a super graphics UE5 game for 2023, you may not have enough players able to run it. In fact, you may not even have enough time to make it, because upcoming rental, utilities, insurance and food prices may force you to take a second job or create a job fast, just to keep your current life.
Eventually, the current Government programs for covid subsidies will have to be paid back, as these are often loans. That will happen through taxation.
This should all be good and well again in about 15-25 years time.
The good news is, that we are moving very fast through rough times, towards something more sustainable and local.
If you act now and prepare for the future, your product might be way more competitive and affordable.
Which brings me to the final point, which applies to young people in general:
Investigate upcoming technologies and how they will relate to what you love to do. Should you get into crypto, blockchain and NFT’s? Cloud based systems? Educational software? Architecture? VR? AR? Robotics? Simulations? AI and Machine Learning? Automatic driving systems? Something else?
Whatever you learn today, has the potential, or not, to be valuable in the future. If your game has no success, you better have created some skills you can earn money from, because the jobs market is going to jump up and down for quite some time now. A huge portion of companies that haven’t been run efficiently and/or had good emergency funds, will go bankrupt within three years. That probably means most businesses around today. Traditional jobs are not going to be on a silver platter between 2023 and 2028.
Hint: There are heaps of grants and funds aimed at specific categories AND combining that with some charities, can increase your chances of getting public and private funding with very little strings attached.
Here is an idea for that: Create a team of as much diversity as you can, create a game with focus on solving some issue, like cleaning up the oceans, teaching kids how to recycle at home, running a refugee camp, creating a transparent democracy, figuring out solutions to homelessness, reduce political polarisation through some humane and unifying efforts in-game, and so forth. Then team up with some charity organisation in that field and offer them a percentage of possible profits in exchange for their name and logo on your PR material. → Just don’t do it for political reasons to shove some agenda down the throats of your players.
All while figuring out how to minimise CPU, GPU and RAM usage.
If it was me, I’d go 100% capitalist on this and work on military simulations. One thing is certain; our leaders never run out of OUR money when it’s time to kill.