Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news From: Philip Gooch Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english Subject: Re: PSX2!!!!!!!!!! Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 13:47:32 +0100 Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE) Lines: 55 Message-ID: <37E62CE4.F0A181C9@easynet.co.uk> References: <37DE9588.D78D019B@which.net> <861zbujqt9.fsf@foo.mel.cybec.com.au> <37E5EEC1.2E841B28@easynet.co.uk> <37e608dc.6716292@www.netyaroze-europe.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 193.131.140.238 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en Nick Ferguson wrote: > ...Do you think that ultimately there will > be a big(ger) divide between the programming and the "creative"/design > aspect of game creation? Does this mean that programmers, ultimately, > will be stuck working out 3D / Math / Physics / Object / Logic > "libraries" and dev tools whilst the technically less proficient > "designers" get to have all the fun? I mean, even more so than the > case is today? ;-) Interesting scenario. Edge ran an article on this recently. I think it will happen - it's already commonplace to use existing 3D engines in new games. The team who created Half-life were able to concentrate on the plot and AI, to great effect, because they didn't need to worry about the 3D side of things. The current situation with game development is unsustainable (huge teams, massive budgets), but if the scenario develops where the most talented programmers work on the core game engines, and license the technology, then there's the possibility for opening things up to smaller teams of lesser mortals to worry about the game creation process. > Some would say that development is getting increasingly technical, so > is the techie / design divide going to get even bigger? Will > programmers get increasingly removed from the "creative"/design > process? I think this is quite an interesting question - if a worrying > one. I think we will see two types of programmers emerge: the hard core engine programmers and the general developers. The hard core will be made up of people with PhDs in Physics, Maths and AI, and the general developers can be anyone who has the time and inclination to learn how to make use of the technology. If this does not happen, the industry will die, because there are simply not enough people with the talent to develop amazing graphics/physics/AI routines from scratch each time. It is very important to maintain access for the 'bedroom coder'. To do this, the groups who develop the core technology should allow it to be used freely for non-commercial purposes, but charge appropriately for commercial use. The bedroom coder then just needs to know how to use these engines to put a game together. Just as, in the general commercial world, a VB, Java or C++ programmer often just needs to know how to use existing libraries and classes to build a product or tool. At present, anyone with a bit of programming knowledge can get a job as a VB, C++ or Java programmer in the general commercial market, and be very well paid for it. But it is getting very difficult to get into the games industry as a programmer unless you have a brain the size of a planet. And the remuneration only begins to match what a bog-standard VB guy will get, once you have two or three published games under your belt. Phil