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Comment on Young gamers in Japan may not be forming the same attachment to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest because modern dev cycles are as long as their childhood, users theorize - AUTOMATON WEST

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brucethemoose@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

AAA expectations are astronomical, AAs take some extra time to keep up, and indies that actually make it take the time to do their own thing, otherwise they’d be lost in the largely unseen sea of failed indies.

Also, oldschool game dev was toxic. It had some serious crunch culture, just to start. But I think it also attracted all star devs into “sweet spot” dev team sized; not too big or too small to sap efficiency. Now, if you do software and want to make any money or provide for a family… well, you don’t do game dev.

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SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I remember reading a story from an old Sega or Capcom and he basically said that the boss would lock the door of their office when they had to meet a deadline.

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- VitoRobles@lemmy.today ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I saw a meme (which could be based on a real message) that said “they” (a Japanese game company) is rewarding their devs by giving them a week to go visit their family.
  
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VitoRobles@lemmy.today ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I wonder if Japanese companies are paying attention to FromSoft. I absolutely love that FromSoft reuses assets and improves their base engine. You can see the evolution from DS1 to Elden Ring (and Sekiro), releasing a game every year or two.

Growing up - Dragon Quest 1-4 were built on the same engine with minor improvements. FF 4-6 wasn’t a massive leap, but a gradual jump in graphics.

Yakuza games seem to release yearly. They have built a workflow where people work on the same mini games and “slot” it in for whatever the newest release it is.

As much as I shit on Ubisoft, they really dialed in on their engine and tools to crunch out cookie cutter checklist open world games.

Thinking about it, all my examples could also have been plagued with toxic crunch culture.

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- brucethemoose@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  1st party engine devs have been stuck in dev hell, mostly. There are some exceptions, like you said; I’d cite Decima as another success.
  
  But think of EA’s Frostbite, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite, Clausewitz, BGS, many more. Especially indies that try.
  
  It’s not just that old games crunched, but making a new engine that supports modern platforms and modern hardware is just an immensely complex task. There’s just too much to worry about.
  
  The best success seems to either come from:
  
  Hyperfocus your engine’s scope to one game niche. Larian’s divinity engine, for example, makes BG3-likes; that’s it, that all it does.
  
  Engine shop very, very carefully. For instance, KCD2 leaned into CryEngine’s strengths hard, especially the dense, well-lit foilage.
  
  And either case needs a lucky roll of the dice anyway. See: Cyberpunk 2077 in utter dev hell (even if they eventually pulled out) from wrangling their engine. Or the latest Borderlands being a technical wreck even though they basically invented Unreal Engine alongside Epic.
  
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