I have a problem. I feel like I need to say something about it. I need to tell the world. I can't stop making stuff. I have a compulsive need to make stuff. Programming, drawing, writing, visual effects, I just can't stop. If I do, it doesn't take long for me to go from always moving, always working, to dead lump in my chair who can't do anything but watch youtube videos.
I say this to put how I want to make games into context. I started making games because games are cool and it was cool to be able to make them, but over the few years I've been doing this, my relationship with development has changed alot. Maybe for the worse.
I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about Doomer and how I work, and I've realized some things. Over time I've kept developing because it's the perfect mix of expression, creation, and anonymity.
The exact control over what is drawn on screen allows me to express what I think needs to be shown. I the exact control over how everything moves, everything sounds, and in the end how everything is. That special point of games has been something that keeps me coming back, even if I'm not always great at utilizing individual parts(my pixel art ranges from offensive to atrocious to just not very good) the exact control over it gives an ego maniac like me just what we want(to be god.)
With a film you're constrained by what and who you have around you. One guy with a computer can bring you into a whole new world with a game, but doing the same thing with a movie takes alot more people. Trying to do it with a book is just less reliable. It's hard to get every person to draw the same pictures in their head, unless you go into such detail that it's boring to read, at which point. . . well it's boring. Point being, games are a great middle ground.
All that brings me to my final point, the anonymity. When someone sees a game, and it sucks, most people don't think about who the developer is. Most normal people didn't play something like Kindergarten Killer or DukeNukem: Forever and think "Wow I hate the developer." Instead I feel like most people hate the game/series primarily, and the developer hate is reserved for us culture snobs on the internet. With books, the authors name is slapped right under the title most of the time, same goes for actors (also directors occasionally) in movies. The only time game developers have their names up there are in hella auteur cases (Suda51, Kojima, Tim Schafer, ect.).
In the end, I'm not sure how much all of this is worth. Some little developer in his little corner of the internet, trying to be deep and analytical about his little trash game. I guess that's the logical endpoint. If the game isn't good, isn't at least passable, then this really won't mean anything.
I hope my rambling made sense, or at least made for interesting nonsense. This one was really text heavy, so I guess it'd be good to link to something for the giggles. A friend recently inspired me to rediscover this clip.
Thanks,
Wyatt White
All bravado, No brains.
I say this to put how I want to make games into context. I started making games because games are cool and it was cool to be able to make them, but over the few years I've been doing this, my relationship with development has changed alot. Maybe for the worse.
I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about Doomer and how I work, and I've realized some things. Over time I've kept developing because it's the perfect mix of expression, creation, and anonymity.
The exact control over what is drawn on screen allows me to express what I think needs to be shown. I the exact control over how everything moves, everything sounds, and in the end how everything is. That special point of games has been something that keeps me coming back, even if I'm not always great at utilizing individual parts(my pixel art ranges from offensive to atrocious to just not very good) the exact control over it gives an ego maniac like me just what we want(to be god.)
With a film you're constrained by what and who you have around you. One guy with a computer can bring you into a whole new world with a game, but doing the same thing with a movie takes alot more people. Trying to do it with a book is just less reliable. It's hard to get every person to draw the same pictures in their head, unless you go into such detail that it's boring to read, at which point. . . well it's boring. Point being, games are a great middle ground.
All that brings me to my final point, the anonymity. When someone sees a game, and it sucks, most people don't think about who the developer is. Most normal people didn't play something like Kindergarten Killer or DukeNukem: Forever and think "Wow I hate the developer." Instead I feel like most people hate the game/series primarily, and the developer hate is reserved for us culture snobs on the internet. With books, the authors name is slapped right under the title most of the time, same goes for actors (also directors occasionally) in movies. The only time game developers have their names up there are in hella auteur cases (Suda51, Kojima, Tim Schafer, ect.).
In the end, I'm not sure how much all of this is worth. Some little developer in his little corner of the internet, trying to be deep and analytical about his little trash game. I guess that's the logical endpoint. If the game isn't good, isn't at least passable, then this really won't mean anything.
I hope my rambling made sense, or at least made for interesting nonsense. This one was really text heavy, so I guess it'd be good to link to something for the giggles. A friend recently inspired me to rediscover this clip.
Thanks,
Wyatt White
All bravado, No brains.