In the end, I think companies saw DLC and later live service as a way to have their cake and eat it, too...to retain large teams. But I think the whole industry needs to learn how to be more modular and use our digital format to our advantage over physical based industries.

I think adoption of engines is slowly addressing this, and I feel like some companies are recognizing this as we see companies with their own tech move to platforms like Unreal. I've worked on all types and can tell you which one has less ramp time. But I still see companies cling to proprietary.

So it takes the same amount of time to ramp up on a new company's tech than it would take Hollywood to wrap a shoot in a distant location. Even without the tech, the tribal knowledge across projects is a huge load that no one wants to smooth over. Companies expect people to come in fully baked.

One of the other things games aren't ready for but Hollywood is: standardization. The ramp up for movies doesn't involve learning how cables, lights, cameras, storyboards, and scripts work from project to project. But in games, there's months of ramp up time when you jump into proprietary tech.

And, ironically, in some ways, companies are learning the WFH a little *too* well...because now they see they can access people for 40% of the cost in other parts of the world.

Games have also been weakening what used to be our hubs as they disperse across the country/world. There's not much left to bounce *to* even in a large market.

This could be solved with remote work, and looked like it would, but we still see RTO pushes everywhere...forcing those BS relocations.

Yes, productions crop up on location around the world, but they are mostly temp and far shorter term than a typical game production (weeks-to-months VS years).

Meanwhile, games love to pull you from one end of the country to another and drop you on day 1, all for a meager relocation fund?

Been thinking the same for some time. Unfortunately, the industry doesn't want to come to grips with various realities.

For one, we keep losing/ignoring the advantage that Hollywood has which is a consolidated hub where you can bounce from project to project from one location.

Got around to playing with a shader for some standing water. Juiced up the settings to make it more visible than it needs to be and to test some settings I added for when it's used in other conditions. Vis dev is chugging along!
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Pixel art scene of an idyllic, cherry blossomed forest path environment

Screenshot of another part of the level with some additional assets in play (still need to make some new rocks, though)

Some very early Vis Dev on another biome as I try to complete pre-production on 3 to 4 different levels. Jump started with assets from my other level, but the custom pieces are coming along with a few more yet to do!
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Prior post where I was about 35% into this vis dev push
bsky.app/profile/tale...

Pixel art of mountain path in side scroller

Pixel art of mountain path in side scroller

Vis Dev on one of my first level art sets is effectively complete. A few individual assets to polish later, but art pieces, lighting, and process is in a good spot to prototype the next biome more efficiently. Progress!
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Link to prior posting when I was about 35% of the way into figuring everything out
bsky.app/profile/tale...

I guess there's the repetitiveness and randomness that extraction games require that makes them what they are. So no, can't think of anything current that plays like what was asked

Trying to think of how old games, like the 1st Final Fantasy, don't actually fit this. Anything where there were no saves in the dungeon. You get in, get as deep as you can, get out...or you die and lose it all.

Some game today are merely resurrecting structures we had and "polished away".

Saw a streamer actually mention an analogy I've been using for a while now, which is that, for 10-15 yrs now, the industry keeps treating each game as a new sport that needs inventing...but they all come off like the XFL trying to tweak a couple NFL rules and hope they'll become the Next Big Thing™

Yeah, those with the purse strings are the main culprits. Sad to see so many talented SP devs enter the GaaS fray only to flame out <Highguard enters the chat>.

(Stupid auto correct)
...at least on PC...
...in-roads on closing the gap...

The other unfortunate development is that Fortnite and others adopted the mobile trend of "racing to the bottom" as pricing goes, effectively offering FtP products which has now trained customers to not bother with anything they _have_ to pay for.

Indies, at least one PC, appear to be making some in-roads on profiling the gap, trying to efficiently create that which AAA forgot how to do. Still more work to do, but I'm encouraged by early trends.

I think that far too many AAA projects went and chased the GaaS tiger, forgot about making SP games. They followed mobile models by prioritizing attention/retention instead asking what was fun. Games turned into full-time jobs to play...and streamer culture and tech further supported it.

Pixel art scene of a mountain path with pine trees and snowy mountains in the background

A little WIP of foreground and background foliage. Need to loop back around and do a real pass on the ground and fix some of my colors before I lock them in.
#ScreenshotSaturday #IndieDev #IndieGame #Unity2D

Same thing, but posting the MP4 to test side-by-side with the GIF version

Working on a cool dissolve shader for enemies to use on death (yeah, I'm testing it on a player character, though). Getting to know Unity's Shader Graph a bit. All hooked up and triggering on cue.
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Him: walks back and forth, visible strain on his face, his brain refusing to comply as he's obviously forcing himself to walk same hand/foot at a time, pacing through the living room like some broken robot. We all died laughing.

Interesting to hear that someone was actually doing that "naturally"!

Hehe, reminds me of a similar experience in college. I was with some eng friends and told them we were learning basic stuff in anim class about opposite hand/foot when one of them declares, "That's not how humans walk!"

Me: "Oh? Care to show us?"

Definitely don't want that for PC/console gaming. So my hope is that the bottom you've stated is where the market can stabilize and allow devs to target and budget appropriately and give us the multitude of experiences that we all know to be possible.

Agree with what you're saying. My only fear is that bottom hasn't been hit yet. Race to the bottom is what happened 15 years ago in mobile where bottom became FtP. Premium mobile games, even at 1.99, effectively went extinct. And we all know and see how FtP affects the design of those products