“I want to make great games !”
The upcoming generation of console hardware is definitely exciting. It has plenty of power. It’s never enough power, but there is still plenty that could be done.
However, we are talking about very raw power. Raw power that allows to bring to a TV screen what has to be created by dozens of expert developers for one, two, three years.
As a programmer that got into this business as a way to build my own worlds, I find myself very limited. I can’t really do much more than generating fractal mountains. To do the cool stuff one needs lots of expert modelers, animators, motion actors (whose motions need to be sampled in expensive motion capture studios).
As I see the titles of those next gen games, I feel more and more out of place in the game industry. Sure, one can still possibly do fun games that can entertain a great deal. But, I’ve always seen games as a way to simulate realistic worlds, and now that the simulation is becoming convincing, I feel like, at best, I could be a tiny piece in a large mosaic (provided that a company can put me to work together with a hundred people for one game).
There is always going to be a place for a programmer, possibly now more than before, but at the same time, one truly doesn’t have much individuality. It’s hard to sensibly make a difference… when you have to rely so much on people that have a much more creative impact, although artists themselves have to use software to realize their creations ;)
It’s not all hopeless for us programmers. Some will eventually scavenge for 10 years old papers and will start to put in practice real-time techniques to shift routine artists’ work into feasible mathematical solutions. There are already some softwares out there that will let you build human faces from a few parameters.. some even build bodies with muscles.. however, it’s still too early. As usual with technology, it takes time to become mainstream.. methods to put things in practice with a relatively low effort need to be devised.
Some day.. ehh.. bha !
Posted by Davide Pasca in Uncategorized