Poll: Which aspect of game development should we be focusing on?

[Adventurer2626]

Hello all,

This has been something swimming around in the back of my mind. The grape vine seems to be under the impression that graphics as the "in thing" for publishers and indie developers is on the way out. Well, that begs the question: what's on the way in? After the glam of the super photorealistic picture wears off, what will we put on a pedestal next? Or is graphical fidelity here to stay? A balance would be nice, but we're humans. When do we ever do balance?

What do you think?

Spoiler: My thoughts.

I think graphics will continue for a couple more development cycles but eventually the focus will shift. I'm going to pick immersion. Some of the other options might be more realistic for our gritty, Nolanesque, fat cat, publisher run industry that we supposedly live in but imma be optimistic for once. I think people subconsciously crave more immersion and interaction with the gaming worlds provided for us. We think graphics are the best way to do that but not only is the uncanny valley present in graphics, it's three dimensional and extends into other aspects as well. Why can't I pick this up? I wouldn't say that in this situation. I want to kill him, why can't I? Why can't I dye this? I want to build my own house. I saved the world, why do you still treat me like a greenhorn? We ask ourselves these questions and oh so many more daily. I think smarter developers with more powerful software and hardware will explore some solutions to these in the near future.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I picked budgeting since how you divide it has a huge impact on the final game. More should be spent not on graphics but on gameplay. It's why games like Rome Total War and Master of Orion 2 are still fun, graphically they've both aged but in terms of gameplay they're still great. Fun takes precedence over fancy stories or graphics or anything else.

 

[Mocmocman]

Honestly, I think that the focus should vary with the game. In a game like Skyrim, where it allows the player to do whatever they want, players are going to want the world to be me dynamic, and they want to get more interaction out of the game. Other, more story driven games will get a pass, if the the writing is quite good. Other games stand out as good because they introduce a new and fun mechanic in the mix. In the indie scene, graphics are not as easy to create, and developers try to go for a different bit to stand out, often art style, game mechanics, or story. I don't think the industry is all going to favor one thing, because if there are 100 games that favor graphic fidelity for every one that favors story, developers are going to try and get in the market with less competition. I do think, however, that graphics are becoming the main show horse for AAA games nowadays. If you look at them, graphics in games are kinda leveling off, and developers are looking for other drawing points. We have lots of games going open world, and others showing off new and improved AI (The fish swim away!). I'm looking forward to the new AI improvements, as we have increasingly realistic environments, and now we need realistic people in which to populate them. But I cant say that any one thing is more important to focus on than another and would like advances in all of the areas. Sorry if this didn't make much sense, was long winded, or just plain ramble-y, but it is late, and I am typing what pops into my head.

 

[skywolfblue]

AI & Character Animation would be my suggestion. I guess that fits under Immersion.

We have fancy bloom effects, but characters don't know how to hold something they don't have a canned animation for. There isn't nearly enough hugging or shaking hands or slapping their fellows on the back!

Wouldn't it be awesome if all AI characters acted like Elizabeth from Bioshock: Infinite and the way she interacts with other NPCs in the world? Only, it'd be more awesome if they did that on their own, without scripting!

And "Difficulty" could mean more then just adding more HP, instead enemies get far smarter about changing their strategies to counter you. A boss that was easy on normal is now (on hard) using psychological warfare to trick you into his trap!

 

[Maximum Bert]

Depends on the game and what you are trying to achieve and how its shaping up. Also the skills (strong and weak) of those involved with the game need to be taken into account then there is ofc the end goal of what you are aiming for and how it may have changed from concept to completion.

The only real aspect they should be giving priority is making it good so at a very low level make sure it actually works.

 

[DSK-]

Stability and testing, although I'd include writing and immersion/interaction as one single entity if I could. All to often games that could be good or great fall to the wayside because developers/publishers rushed it.

And it's a frustrating experience for the player afterwards.

 

[Hero of Lime]

I think everything besides graphics needs to be more fine tuned. I hope developers realize there are more important things to work on than the look of the game. So I voted Interaction/Immersion since fine tuning gameplay is something I find very important that many developers do not seem to care about enough of.

 

[WoW Killer]

Picked interaction because that's the only one that was gameplay related. Always gameplay. Always.

More specifically, I think control is perhaps the most fundamental aspect. We often categorise games into genres based on things like interface, for instance First Person Shooter and Third Person Shooter. Yet I'm sure many of you will agree that FPS and TPS are practically the same genre. For one thing, they have the same control system. Furthermore, it's often commented that PC FPS games and Console FPS games could really be viewed as separate genres; again, it's the control system that sets them apart. So yeah, I think control is probably the most important thing when you get down to it.

 

[Rainforce]

I think everything besides graphics needs to be more fine tuned.

NAH...needs better GRAPHICS! better! faster! HARDER! Deeper retina damaging lensflare! Better physics and reflection so you can almost SMELL the torn and ragged clothes of that hobo across the street! More frames per second, because having 60 which is pretty much twice the amount the human eye can do is STILL NOT ENOUGH AND AS A UBERMENSCH I OF COURSE CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE between 500 and 10000fps! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHok let's drop this. I'm actually pretty happy with the fact that so many agree with me that it's the whole immersion thing that needs improving, including writing.

 

[miketehmage]

I went for interaction and immersion because what is a game without interaction? And I'm a total immersion whore. But as others have said, the focus should vary from game to game.

 

[Erttheking]

I think we've gotten the fun part of games down for awhile, but writing is still really lagging. Every once in awhile you get a brilliantly written gem of a game but I really wish that there were more of them. I think we should focus on that.

 

[Corven]

Marketing is where I think most publishers need to re-evaluate their spending, the way it looks to me is that it is due to over inflated marketing budgets that most games these days need "to sell 5 million copies at a minimum or else it is a failure".

This is what has got me worried about dark souls 2 with that PR guys statement that they were going to do a hail mary blitz on marketing and "hope for the best".

 

[Snotnarok]

Depends on what game they're making...you can't make suggest an over arching theme for all games to follow.

What do I think they should focus on? Whatever element makes the specific game better.

You can't tell me Earth Defense Force has the same focus and standards as Final Fantasy

 

[StriderShinryu]

As some others have said, the answer varies from game to game. There is no one focus that works for every game or genre, even budgeting given that some developers inately have more or less money to work with. Is budgeting extremely important for indies or smaller development houses? Sure, but it's not as big an issue at all for a developer working under Activision or EA.

 

[Morsomk_v1legacy]

I chose Interaction, because no offense to gaming, but I am actually getting bored with how you can play games. I want to see new ways in how you can play games. For example, I loved the Wii mote because it was different from everything else. Granted it wasn't the tightest control you could use in the market, but it was so different from the exactly same remotes that the PS3 and Xbox 360 had that I had gotten bored of.

I also agree with everyone else on the fact that it depends mostly on what type of genre the game is. I also feel like that we need to slow down the graphics train or otherwise its going to hit a wall.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

I voted for writing cuz I'm a writer, but honestly budgeting might be the most important thing. AAA games are always at risk of imploding because they need to sell so many copies and need to be pushed out even if they're not finished. Whereas an indie game could be made by one dude in his basement working in Flash for a couple hours every weekend for five years, and so be polished to perfection.

CAPTCHA: sippy cup

Apropos of less than nothing...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

probably writing/immersion/budgeting, in that order, HOWEVER

they can flip all of those, as long as they stop spending a single fucking penny on marketing, dear lord do budgets get over inflated due to horseshit like that *glares at EA*, fire every god damn marketing degree out there, word of mouth and whoever decides to "sponsor" your game can fucking pay/talk about it, not the other way around. if the game is good, it'll fucking float by itself.

 

[Adventurer2626]

Lots of good points. Sorry for not including mechanics, that would be a good focus for creativity. Nothing like a new IP with a groundbreaking mechanic to liven up the competition a bit. It would be excellent if expenditure branched out to the other aspects that are neglected, though a game has to play to its genre's strengths as people have noted. A tough call really and that's why I think it's a discussion worth having.

 

[eimatshya]

I'd say writing. As it stands, most games have a huge disconnect between story and gameplay. They really need to work on toning down the use of cut-scenes. I can't for the life of me understand why games keep putting in these cut scenes in which they make you character do something completely stupid, and then give you back control so you can experience the repercussions. It's teeth-grindingly irritating, and yet games just keep doing it.