What problems are game developers facing today?

Hi everyone,
i am trying to find out what problems game developers are facing today. This is why i am doing a survey to better understand what your pain points are.

So please check out this short survey.
http://goo.gl/forms/9jEKGFECht

If you are interested in the outcome and aggregated results, feel free to leave your email at the bottom of the survey.

Thanks for your help.
Sebastian

 

Paying rent on time was not on the questionnaire The rest is a breeze.

 

For me it is time and money. I make a good living as a software developer for creating web applications, console programs and windows applications; yet I would rather be using my talents creating video games.

Right now I get maybe 5-6 hours weekly after family is to bed and on weekends I might get 5-8 solid hours Saturday night and sometimes 2-4 hours Sunday night as well. I am also held back by lack of funds for assets from the asset store. I do my best with just primitives as place holders but some development is reaching that point where a true model or object needs to be implemented.

 

Get a life

 

Basically same time I have available to put in. Generally 10 to 12 hours per week. Sometimes I can push that to 20 hours or more when I am on holiday/vacation from work but that is usually at the end of the year.

I also make a good living as a senior software developer so buying assets is not an issue other than finding assets to buy.

I guess more graphics assets would be nice and more time would be welcome. Overall I don't really see these as "problems". It's all about managing expectations.

 

wow, i'll work 12 -16 hours a day when starting a new project. With 10-12 hours a week i wonder how you get things done...

 

Well, it's all about getting things done when you can. I'm certain that they would work more on their projects if they could. A little is better than nothing.

For me, it's time. I would always love more time.

 

Little by little and I generally tackle small projects. I already put in 40 to 50 hours per week on the computer for my day job. Long ago when I had jobs outside of software dev I put in 8 to 12 hours per day as well. I guess for me I just like to get away from the computer or at least software development for a while.

 

It takes too long and it is too complicated to get things to do what you want. And secondly, quality content takes a lot of time to create/artwork etc.

 

Well, it really depends on what manner of developer you're looking at. A professional indie dev is going to have some different issues from a hobbyist. And an employed developer is going to have different problems from a professional indie dev.

The one common struggle that I think all of us face is time. There's never enough of it. Game development is very costly in terms of time, and there still is no real way to get around that. We've made great strides in working to mitigate this, but extending capabilities often just serves to increase development time. More tech and better graphics often outpaces improvements in the tools necessary to make content in a timely fashion.

I'm a hobbyist with no real time pressure to complete projects. And even I often feel myself short on time, wishing that I had a little more that I could devote to progressing.

Aside from that I don't have many complaints. The tools available are better and cheaper than ever. I'm familiar with most forms of content creation, so I never really worry on that front. (degree in Graphic Design, art is the easy part for me) It took me a while to become capable at programming, but I've reached the point where I can navigate and handle Unity's structure quite well. I've managed to fashion myself into a one-man studio. Time is really my own gripe.

 

@RichardKain you mentioned a degree in graphic design... were you already an artist before you went to school?

 

To a certain degree, yes. I have always had a knack for art, mainly cartooning. (and sculpture) When I went to school, graphic design was a fairly natural choice for me. It wasn't until after I graduated from college that I started to pick up some programming. While graphic design was a fun major to study, the job opportunities in the early 00's for graphic designers were pitiful. Transitioning into more technical disciplines was both an interest of mine, and a good career move.

These days, I hardly ever seem to draw. It's pretty much all code all the time on the job. As soon as I finish my current Cheshire project, I was planning on taking a coding break for a week or two, and focusing on cranking out some art assets. It will be a good chance to flex some of those rusty skills.

 

Nice to see a halfway decent survey!

My biggest challenge is also time. Trouble is time put into game development doesn't cover the bills anywhere near as effectively as my chemical engineering job.

That said based on the current direction my employer is going time may not be an issue soon. **Nervous nail biting**

 

Maybe you can explain how this survey is going to solve any problems because it's easy to make an account here and just ask to fill in a survey. Right now It's very unclear what your goal is. Trying to find out what problems game developers have doesn't tell me anything.

 

Time. I have too many things I want to do and too little time to do all of them.

 

My biggest challenge lately has been keeping myself away from the forums. I spend entirely too much time on them.

 

"Life is short,
and art long,
opportunity fleeting,
experience perilous,
and decision difficult."
Hippocrates

 

I don't know what the OP's purpose is but when I see these kind of surveys being posted here it reminds of back when I was into Internet Marketing. You know the whole making money comes down to solving problems thing. A great way to research the market is by getting a section of your target industry to fill out a survey telling you what their biggest problems are. Then you just compile those responses and presto here comes an Asset (or whatever).

 

I'm very glad my wish of making a game is being fulfilled thanks to unity. It's a dream come true. The problem is finishing the game lol. But I'm happy because I'm finally able to manage a project without stalling and falling under its own weight.

 

I agree with you Dogzerx2. Completely. I don't know if I ever would have made games if a Unity hadn't come around and a friend hadn't suggested it! I just don't have the education to develop an engine (excluding a graphics engine, I was attempting to use Ogre3d O_O) with all the vector math and other stuff I would need more advanced math skills to know about to do anything interesting.

As for the hours most everyone in this thread is discussing I'm finding something else out; life is short and time is precious. Don't get me wrong I love working with computers; yet though I may still be young (mid twenties), the past three years (heck the past six years) have passed by in a frickin' blur and I feel as if I don't have much to show for it. I only got introduced to Unity a year + six months ago and only really started doing anything with it just ten months ago.

I've been working a job in food service for six years now. Pretty impressive for someone so young I've been told. But: six. years. in food service. Money is good; it pays the rent and lets you buy new toys. I attended college for three of those six years for some very stupid reasons imo. Make no mistake; getting an education is never a bad idea. Pursuing something you have zero passion for and know almost nothing about is not in my opinion a wise idea.

In two months I'm off to university to study Comp Sci, and I. am. pumped!!!

The moral of my story is don't take a backseat to your life... though I left out some details part of my journey through college and this job was due in part to laziness. At times I thought I had all the time in the world; and barring any major medical diagnoses or some horrific accident I have many days, months, and years ahead of me. I just haven't succeeded at anything I set out to do. I did not graduate after all of that; and I'm glad I didn't waste (any more) time on that.

 

Interesting discussion.
Thanks for all the great feedback so far.

Would be really good to get some more to fill out the short survey.

Thx,
Sebastian

 

"What problems are game developers facing today?"

maybe plethora of "free" engines + cracked software + easy Learning on the web = lots of skilled people using expensive techonologies at low costs....

see.... the amount of programmers and CG artists available in india and pakistan....

i'ts almost like "XXX has talent" 100000000 candidates... 1 position.

 

Done. \/

Definitely biggest problem is finding away to pay the bills whilst also having enough time to make games!

 

I definitely wish I put more thought into my projects. I can come up with a lot of great ideas, but I never envision the end game.

 

This video on visual programming might be relevant. It shows they were thinking about these things 20+ years ago!

Edit: Ha, I posted this in the wrong topic but never mind!

 

It wasn't even simply thinking about it. Clickteam had an actual product twenty years ago for making games.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klik

 

clickteam fusion is what 5 nights at freddy's is made in.

Wow... that wiki page... they have a lot of software lol.

 

Yeah and I often wonder why people post so much about visual programming in Unity.

There are already visual programming tools out there and have been for quite a while!

I was about to suggest checking out Clickteam's Fusion 2.5 when I noticed @Tomnnn beat me to it.

Anyway... yeah... if a person wants to do visual programming there is stuff out there. Why not just go try it out?!

 

HI guys, thanks for the feedback an discussion so far.
From our survey we realized the most problems are in the areas of marketing, time and assets/content creation.
In terms of time, does this mean for you as a developer, you are not trying to stick to game conecpt which arer easier for you to implement or are you also trying out new concepts (e.g. like implementing multiplayer features), which may make your game more succesful but could mean more work for you.

For the question what we do. We are trying build a service which connects playes in games (some sort of multiplayer, but also other cloud connected features). We are trying to bring tools which the big studios use to small game developers. Those tools can help to save you time, help your game grow with e.g. viral marketing and helps you to make your games better without a big hassle. So for us its important to understand if you as a game develoepr directly look for those featrures (e-g-