In times of economic difficulty or uncertainty, the number of overall jobs decreases because the number of cancellations rises. New studios do start up, but entry level positions are rare since most of the new studios are looking for funding and they n…
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Maybe you can answer this, but if you can’t I’d get why. I’m playing the superb Sin & Punishment 64 and I am aware this game was Japan only for 8 years before Nintendo pushed a localization. But even the Japanese original, from what I could find, the game was fully voiced in English. I’ve noticed a lot of Japanese games do this. I don’t mean to imply it’s a problem but how come many JP titles, even niche stuff that doesn’t make it here, have a lot of English voices/text?
You actually stumbled upon a specific example of a game that was meant to be localized and released in the US, but the localization fell through. Sin and Punishment 64 was developed by Treasure and released in 2000. Treasure already liked using English…
With the announcement of the Switch 2 I was wondering how do games for an older version of a console work on a newer version of the same console? Will they run better from the start or do the devs have to go back and update or unlock something for it to work better?
It depends on how they go to the new platform. There are two main ways of doing this — porting the game project to the new platform or emulating the old game on the new platform.Porting the game basically means taking the old code and assets and making…
Last time we had a global recession, life style games were barely a thing only in the form of subscription based MMO’s. How do you think modern lifestyle games without subscriptions will fare?
I think that, in times of economic hardship, people tend to tighten their belts and retreat to things that are safe, familiar, and comforting to them. There is also often trading from expensive entertainment (e.g. lavish vacations, theme parks, theater…
A common issue with ongoing live service games is that as time progresses, skill designs for new characters necessarily become more complex to differentiate from older characters or to incentivize players to buy them. This sometimes results in things like Fire Emblem Heroes where character skill sheets become page long monstrosities. What are things you can do to maintain the increased complexity without making it seem like a reading assignment?
In times like this, it’s good to look back at other long-running games that still run today and how they solved (or at least pushed back on) complexity and power creep.Magic: The Gathering has been the most popular collectible card game in the world fo…
Do you have any advice for people who are unable to put their experience on their CV because of NDAs?
You can always put your experience on your CV, regardless of NDAs. You shouldn’t talk about the specifics of the setting, characters, copyrighted stuff like that, but you should be able to talk generally about the things you did. Just write about what …
On the topic of horror, how do you make a grim subject matter feel silly spookville experience instead of actually scary? For example, the Luigi Mansion games, the Disney Haunted Mansion ride, the Medevil games, etc?
The counter to anything terrifying, off-putting, or grim is cuteness. This is done by exaggerating certain features that humans typically find endearing and downplaying the features that humans find alarming, while keeping the visual recognizable. This…
Is Gameplay Programmer some form of specialization? I always see people who work as gameplay programmer have some secondary skill, like tools, graphics, etc. In order to create a game you need these guys, but when it comes to layoffs, are they considered high-priority?
Yes, Gameplay Programmer is a specialization. Gameplay Programmers are the engineers who work directly with designers to make the designs actually work in game. This primarily means writing code to make the systems and rules that the designers come up …
Previously, you’ve explained that even with all the high-profile flops recently, lifestyle games with a big investment up-front and ongoing revenue are still the most financially viable projects. Would there be a tipping point in the market where that changes, and smaller and more experimental projects become the more viable strategy?
Sure. If spending on the smaller and experimental projects severely eclipses the spending on the mega franchises, the publishers would take notice and you’d see a lot more of the former. The gaming industry is, unfortunately, very hit-driven. The top 1…
The EU has just banned virtual premium currencies in video games that represent, requiring the games use the actual currency amounts. Thoughts on this new law?
For those who do not understand this change, in the EU any in-game purchase that can be made for paid/premium currency must display the actual cost in local currency to players. Here is my MS Paint mockup of how such a thing would look as required. The…