Game engines as an art form
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Game engines as an art form
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Re: Game engines as an art form
#2> If you had asked me why I’d been so dedicated to developing the same game engine for so long, I probably wouldn’t have had a very good answer for you until somewhat recently. Perhaps I would have cracked a joke about game engine development being a basic human need for me, right up there with food, water, and oxygen, but obviously we all know that’s not a real answer.
I was exactly this person for a long time. I took a lot of pride in the fact that I wrote my engines from scratch when everyone else was using Unity. When people asked what drove me, I would joke that I had a disease. I had to make games. After getting some counseling and getting married, I've realized that game development is a great coping mechanism to help you feel safe and in control. You are the master of your own universe. For some reason it also helps you feel worthy, like you've accomplished something.
I'm not saying gamedev is bad, but I think a lot of people unknowingly use it to self-medicate.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#3I think the more people creating game engines and open-source game frameworks the better, since every now and then something like Godot will emerge and continue to prevent a Unity-or-Unreal mono-culture. Which, to be clear, I don't think we're close to; to pick just one example Monogame, for instance, has been doing its thing for ages now and is going strong. As someone who's full-time job is working in Unity I think this sort of thing ends up being healthy for the whole developer ecosystem.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#43D A&V multiplayer is the final medium/media.
Game engines are the final craft.
Programming is a higher art than painting or music.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#53D A&V multiplayer is the final medium/media. Game engines are the final craft. Programming is a higher art than painting or music.
Team Shanghai Alice / Zun (aka: that one crazy developer) does all his own artwork, music, and programming for the Touhou series.
A lot of people joke that his artwork is sub-par and the music is repetitive, but frankly... the integration of all three into a single product / series of games is pretty amazing.
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I don't know if gaming is the "ultimate" form of art. And no one is going to say that Zun's art or music is the best in the world.
But the fact that Zun can do all three and have them play off each other in his games is pretty masterful. There's a big difference in feel between people who only have mastered say Programming, but rely upon a team-member to do the art and/or music.
Having the sound-effects integrate into your musical scores (thanks to understanding music theory / beats), as well as generating artwork from programmatic features (the pretty "bullet patterns" of Zun's games) is pretty unique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8JmfCYmtHo
Zun can make bullet patterns that look beautiful, while simultaneously is fun to dodge / play with, and with sound effects that integrate well into the music.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#6> If you had asked me why I’d been so dedicated to developing the same game engine for so long, I probably wouldn’t have had a very good answer for you until somewhat recently. Perhaps I would have cracked a joke about game engine development being a basic human need for me, right up there with food, water, and oxygen, but obviously we all know that’s not a real answer. I was exactly this person for a long time. I to…
I think that applies to making anything completely by yourself, a DAW, a drawing app, a house. The only problem I'm facing is: I keep going deeper and deeper in making tools and never made a game since (game engine -> programming language -> OS), tbh I am a bit jealous to see people already using Unity making cool effects, where I would have to spend weeks learning the maths and engineering behind those
Re: Game engines as an art form
#7> If you had asked me why I’d been so dedicated to developing the same game engine for so long, I probably wouldn’t have had a very good answer for you until somewhat recently. Perhaps I would have cracked a joke about game engine development being a basic human need for me, right up there with food, water, and oxygen, but obviously we all know that’s not a real answer. I was exactly this person for a long time. I to…
I'm doing this right now on my language platform.
On one hand, I'm inventing a new way to build online experiences (games, social apps, collaborative apps, small/medium business)
On the other hand, I have no customers
I have 100% code coverage for many of the packages.
I'm building my own gossip failure detector right now using some blockchain ideas so I can gossip really-really quickly at an exceptional low rate.
All this madness started because I was building an online board game.
Fortunately, I've retired from big tech and can afford a few years to indulge myself.
Check it out: http://www.adama-lang.org/
Re: Game engines as an art form
#8> If you had asked me why I’d been so dedicated to developing the same game engine for so long, I probably wouldn’t have had a very good answer for you until somewhat recently. Perhaps I would have cracked a joke about game engine development being a basic human need for me, right up there with food, water, and oxygen, but obviously we all know that’s not a real answer. I was exactly this person for a long time. I to…
> I've realized that game development is a great coping mechanism to help you feel safe and in control. You are the master of your own universe.
This is THE reason I started programming when I was 11 years old! I was always dreaming of this universe that I would create. I even tried to make an RPG game using Game Maker. I stopped when, after a couple of weeks, I had a barely working fighting system and nothing else. I learned that games are huge!
Later, while I was in university, I implemented four gamedev frameworks. Every time I decided I was done, I would develop a small game with it and I always found something I didn't like. A few months later I would start from scratch having learned something new and trying to find a solution to what I hadn't liked. At some point I realized I enjoyed better writing the framework than the actual game.
Funnily enough, I never went into game dev professionally. Although I still implement libraries that nobody, other than me, uses from scratch in my free time.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#93D A&V multiplayer is the final medium/media. Game engines are the final craft. Programming is a higher art than painting or music.
Team Shanghai Alice / Zun (aka: that one crazy developer) does all his own artwork, music, and programming for the Touhou series. A lot of people joke that his artwork is sub-par and the music is repetitive, but frankly... the integration of all three into a single product / series of games is pretty amazing. --------- I don't know if gaming is the "ultimate" form of art. And no one is going to say that Zun's art or…
Full stack ownership of a game is what can make it truly good art imo.
AAA games have art in them (the assets made by individuals), but the entire pieces are less art than product after being ground to completion by an org chart.
Re: Game engines as an art form
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Team Shanghai Alice / Zun (aka: that one crazy developer) does all his own artwork, music, and programming for the Touhou series. A lot of people joke that his artwork is sub-par and the music is repetitive, but frankly... the integration of all three into a single product / series of games is pretty amazing. --------- I don't know if gaming is the "ultimate" form of art. And no one is going to say that Zun's art or…
Full stack ownership of a game is what can make it truly good art imo. AAA games have art in them (the assets made by individuals), but the entire pieces are less art than product after being ground to completion by an org chart.
> Full stack ownership of a game is what can make it truly good art imo.
Good is not quite the nuance I'm trying to say here. Final Fantasy VII remakes are "good art" and good enough programming, probably top-quality music as well despite being made by a giant organization.
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Integration is probably the thing I'm trying to discuss, which is "good" in its own way. The Touhou games are probably the best example of that, but maybe that's a bit niche.
Supergiant Game's "Bastion" was probably the best "integration" I've seen in more recent years of art / music / sound / programming. The way the narrator responded to my button-pushes and actions was downright creepy at times (creepy in a good way though)
AAA games like Red Dead Redemption, try to accomplish the same thing but its just not quite as tight or as well done. I give them props for the effort (and getting further than most other AAA titles), but its just really difficult to compete with the level of integration that smaller teams can provide.