On Game Development
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On Game Development
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Re: On Game Development
#2While it's true that games don't necessarily have the same impact on people's lives as other, more "important" work, for me, making a game or studying how a game works is such a fun process that it's worth doing anyway.
I spent some time trying to make games in my high school years (NeHe's tutorials helped me a lot)and trying to understand how other games work (I remember the sense of achievement when I managed to switch textures in some crappy FPS game).
Today I deeply regret that I didn't put enough effort to study this field properly... I like my current gig, but I will always look at real game developers with a sense of envy.
Re: On Game Development
#3Don't forget the stress relief video games can give. Society managed to make even sheltered 1st world lives stressful thanks to unrealistic expectations imposed on a personal and professional level. We're all apes though, despite all that's expected of us. And these apes love to wonder about their world and explore its every corner. Video games satiate this desire somewhat - and that will do, on a fucking Monday night after a long, frustrating day at work.
Re: On Game Development
#4Jonathan Blow (Braid and Indie Fund) recently gave an amazing presentation on the evolution of Television, and he made an interesting parallel to the evolution of games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AxFzf...
Re: On Game Development
#5While it's true that games don't necessarily have the same impact on people's lives as other, more "important" work, for me, making a game or studying how a game works is such a fun process that it's worth doing anyway. I spent some time trying to make games in my high school years (NeHe's tutorials helped me a lot)and trying to understand how other games work (I remember the sense of achievement when I managed to sw…
I don't think it's ever too late to start. I've dabbled in some XNA, but next on my list is to make an old school "scene-style" 2D scrolling demo.
Re: On Game Development
#6Don't forget the stress relief video games can give. Society managed to make even sheltered 1st world lives stressful thanks to unrealistic expectations imposed on a personal and professional level. We're all apes though, despite all that's expected of us. And these apes love to wonder about their world and explore its every corner. Video games satiate this desire somewhat - and that will do, on a fucking Monday nigh…
Re: On Game Development
#7I investigated the "why make games" question recently:
Re: On Game Development
#8Nice post Alex, thanks for that.
A lot of people forget how important two particular industries have been in terms of pushing the envelope when it comes to computer processing and Internet bandwidth technology: Pornography and gaming.
While porn and games are certainly among the more hedonistic (and certainly less virtuous) of products, because people care so much about them is in large part the reason why we have more powerful CPU/GPUs - for example - or faster connection speeds. (I guess you can thank U.S. military investments for some of this stuff as well.)
My point is, gaming is important. Like, really important. It might not have the direct impact on African schoolchildren that Kiva or Doctors Without Borders does, but one could argue that those organizations would not be able to leverage the technology that they rely on so much if others hand't paved the way. Keep doin' the good work, son! ;-)
Re: On Game Development
#9I investigated the "why make games" question recently: http://ludamix.com/essays/the_answer/index.html
Good post!
I specially liked the "Why should people bother playing the game I make?" part. I keep making myself this question over and over again, and your answer really clicked with me.
Re: On Game Development
#10It would be a drab, depressing existence to live out your slightly longer life on a planet where everyone was a doctor and no one a novelist. Kudos for making beautiful experiences.