Never A Better Time To Be A Game Designer

The tools of the trade that is game design, the knowledge required to make a game, and the barriers to development have never been more ideal. They are everywhere, available for free to begin with, and now societies and governments are willing to put their support into game studios as well.

Thirty years ago you had to have quite the subset of programming knowledge to even consider making a game. The artist was also a coder. The plot developer was also a coder. Sometimes entire games were made by one person. There were times back then when platform creators would push out insane contracts onto random developers in order to have content made for their platforms, the most prolific example being Atari 2600 having E.T. made for the console’s launch. Atari had given the developer just six weeks to make the game, and it resulted in what was and is probably the worst game in existence.

The industry has learned over time that you need dedicated people for different areas of game design, which should have been more than obvious from the get-go,  but nonetheless the industry had adapted. However in the past decade we have seen a very interesting trend occurring in the game design space, where teams for development of great games have become smaller and smaller. The talent and creativity coming from these developers has never been higher, and they are producing excellent games with high production values, which I talked about in a post a few weeks ago. I won’t get into that now, so if you want to learn more about those games you can check out that post. Today, I want to delve into six main reasons as to why it’s never been a better time to be a game developer. They are as follows:

1. Government grants
2. Openly Available Software/Engines
3. Expos
4. Kickstarter
5. Steam Pipeline

1. Government Grants/Tax Breaks

In Canada, at least, the government offers a lot of grants to independent developers to start ups game studios or to solely produce games first. Phil Fisher, the creator FEZ received a government grant that was in the tens of thousands in order for him to develop his game. Upon completing his game he went on to distribute it on the Xbox live marketplace and sold almost 20,000 units in it’s first day; the game was so well received that when Fisher made a PC version of the game it sold over 105,000 copies in the first two days. It’s because of stories like these that the Canadian Government has recognized the potential for growth in the digital media marketplace in Canada, specifically in games, and has moved to provide financial support to help start up new players in the business and claim a significant portion of the gaming market. Independent publishing initiatives from console makers also let these indie developers retain creative control over their properties

That’s what happening for independent developers. For developers under a publisher, the government has decided to give tax breaks to game design companies with the hope that they would stimulate job growth and bring more money into the country. Just this last September Ubisoft announced that they will be investing $362 million into their Canadian Studios, has opened up 500 job positions, and plans to hire around 3,500 employees across the next seven years as a result. If that’s not evident of an incentive I don’t know what it is. This means more games coming out of Canada, more game design graduates being hired and a bright future for the gaming industry in Canada. The happier our little gaming family becomes.

2. Openly Available Software/Engines

In order to streamline development, several software engineering companies have created their own development platforms and environments and have made them freely available to any developer who wishes to try their hand at development. The most popular of which is probably Unity, a very open platform with tons of features that supports every possible gaming platform you could care about.

It’s free to use, and only when you decide to sell a game you made do you have to pay Unity royalties. Otherwise you can tinker and play around with it to your heart’s desire, and learn everything there is to possibly learn about modern game development.

3. Expos

Developers 20 years ago had to rely on the crazy marketing tactics that were Nintendo, Sony and whoever else(Atari, Sega,etc.).

Now is it any developer you don’t have to have a huge amount of funding or rely on a publisher or console maker. If you are a legitimate independent developer you can showcase your game at numerous independent developer events throughout the year. Of course social media, YouTube and blogs are great but at the end of the day you want the game to be in people’s hands, have them play and try it out and get real world feedback. To this end we have a Penny Arcade Expo, Fan Expo, and so many more.

There even opportunities for university and college students to show off their games. The Level Up Showcase, of which I personally produce with a team in Toronto, is geared specifically towards undergraduate game designers only. This gives them an opportunity to gain exposure, get feedback from real players, and proudly show off their creations.

4. Kickstarter

Kickstarter has become the new hope for many game developers, both established and new. It allows any game developer fund their projects without the need of a publisher, and thus takes away all the restrictions that would’ve normally been imposed on them. Now a developer can come up with a crazy idea for a game and let the community decide whether or not it’s something they want created for them to play. And these projects are by no means small scale or small budget. As I mentioned before, publishers retain the rights to franchises as part of the deal for paying developers to make games; “I feed you, and in return you give me everything.” Keiji Inafune, the creator of the well-known and hit franchise Mega Man, wanted to create another Mega Man iteration, something true to its roots for the fans that have been so desperately asking for one. The publisher, Capcom, however, has decided that the franchise is unprofitable at the moment, and so they are unwilling to fund any Mega Man related projects.

But Inafune was still reacting to the requests of his fans, as well as his own personal desires to make another one. What he decided to do, was to take the project in his own hands, and turn to Kickstarter.

But Ray, you said that Capcom owns Mega Man! How can Inafune make another Mega Man game, even if he does get the money?

Very good question. Inafune got around this by proposing a very Mega Man-like game but set in a different universe, with different characters and a different plot, thereby protecting himself from infringing on any trademarks, even if they are in part his own. And so Mighty No. 9 was born.

Most people don’t even know the man(Inafune) behind Mega Man. Most don’t even know he’s Japanese. But when he launched the Kickstarter campaign, every gaming news outlet who did know him spread the word like wildfire, with keywords such as “Mega Man creator launches Kickstarter”, and that’s when the community listened. And back his campaign. By a lot. So much so that the campaign’s goal was actually more than quadrupled as of October 1st, 2013.

An example of a campaign that didn’t have a pedigree backing it would be Rival Threads: Last Class Heroes by Studio Kontrabida.

They only asked for $5,000 to create the next iteration of their own franchise, Last Class Heroes, and instead ended up with almost five times of what they asked for! It had a lot to do with the quality of their campaign , how much they had planned ahead and what they pitched to potential backers, but this is relatively on par as to what one should expect from a crowdfunding campaign. If you can get a solid idea, team and plan together, then Kickstarter would be a powerful tool to use.

5. Steam Pipeline

Steam Pipeline. Oh my god. I wish I was seventeen again. Pipeline is an educational initiative created by Steam, the game studio and digital good distributor, where they take exceptional high school students and place them within their company to create content and have first-hand experience of what it’s like to work in game development.

For me, it’s essentially a dream come true. It’s hard enough to get a job, let alone an internship, in a gaming company in the first place, now a teenager with a bit of aptitude for digital media can actually get a pseudo-internship there!

There are many more opportunities and tools out there that I haven’t covered but I would say these are the newest and best ones to consider.