Where have all the promising projects gone?!
polycounter lvl 6
I'm confused here, and I need to hear the perspective of people that have been steadily watching things change around here over the past decade.
I had dropped this hobby (3D modeling) a little over 10 years ago, but back then there where always interesting and promising projects popping up, so much so I got to participate (even if only briefly) to the creation of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Warstride Challenges, both sold on Steam.
Fastforward today, I've recently decided to come back to 3D and I'm desperately in search of a group making a somewhat realistic RPG (something like the recent Gothic remake so to speak), but noone is - far from that, I check the RevenueShare and Collaboration sections often, and they just feel mostly dead...
I had dropped this hobby (3D modeling) a little over 10 years ago, but back then there where always interesting and promising projects popping up, so much so I got to participate (even if only briefly) to the creation of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and Warstride Challenges, both sold on Steam.
Fastforward today, I've recently decided to come back to 3D and I'm desperately in search of a group making a somewhat realistic RPG (something like the recent Gothic remake so to speak), but noone is - far from that, I check the RevenueShare and Collaboration sections often, and they just feel mostly dead...
Maybe you get the occasional post blatantly written by generative AI, something retarded like "looking for a Product & Growth Lead" (whatever the f*ck that is) while they probably don't even have a game to grow - and then, why looking for such position here... forgive my French, by the way.
I don't know, is my view tinted with nostalgia, or there really was a major shift on things?
And can someone explain it to me?
I've hazarded a guess:
maybe it's almost entirely Unreal Engine's fault.
Because think about it, why did people come together back then? For how I see it, it was because we where all so much "on our own", you had to find other individuals if you wanted to get anything done and see a glimpse of your game realized, *you had to*!
I don't know, is my view tinted with nostalgia, or there really was a major shift on things?
And can someone explain it to me?
I've hazarded a guess:
maybe it's almost entirely Unreal Engine's fault.
Because think about it, why did people come together back then? For how I see it, it was because we where all so much "on our own", you had to find other individuals if you wanted to get anything done and see a glimpse of your game realized, *you had to*!
But nowadays? Beginners can download Unreal Engine, start the Third Person Blueprint project, and get satisfied with the result and move to some other hobby before they even have the chance to do their homework - to look for other people and learn some real and valuable skills together in the process, and maybe develop a passion that would have lead to the completion of a successful project.
Same for Metahuman, and other similar tools, they've made games creation so accessible that they've indirectly killed it.
But also beyond that, beginners can go and buy 20 Udemy's "dummies guide to make a game" courses, shot them straight into their veins and burn-out the same day, developing an intense disgust for making games, no team required!
Something that used to be a fun and relaxed passion & team-work learning and discovery act, transfigured into "do what I do step by step following along this contrived and uninspired trivial project you cannot possibly be passioned about and won't teach you anything of substance, and also will be gone from your brain the same instant this course is over, simply because that's not how people actually learn".
Because if you ask me, people truly learn out of necessity, because *they* have a problem *they need to see solved*, and not because they've systematically watched a video playlist.
Same for Metahuman, and other similar tools, they've made games creation so accessible that they've indirectly killed it.
But also beyond that, beginners can go and buy 20 Udemy's "dummies guide to make a game" courses, shot them straight into their veins and burn-out the same day, developing an intense disgust for making games, no team required!
Something that used to be a fun and relaxed passion & team-work learning and discovery act, transfigured into "do what I do step by step following along this contrived and uninspired trivial project you cannot possibly be passioned about and won't teach you anything of substance, and also will be gone from your brain the same instant this course is over, simply because that's not how people actually learn".
Because if you ask me, people truly learn out of necessity, because *they* have a problem *they need to see solved*, and not because they've systematically watched a video playlist.
It's just depressing, I want to participate to a hobby project like Gothic or Arx Fatalis (an RPG completely set underground), and some people tell you "do it alone, it's so easy with Unreal" ...simply depressing. And... I'm not sure it is worth returning to this anymore, for me at least. I cannot see it leading to anything (again, speaking for me only)
Anyway, that's what I'm thinking, but let me hear what *you* think truly happened, if anything at all.
Replies
Also maybe there has been multiple shifts occuring that led our industry to this kind-of lack of cool project.
Covid, where we stupidly increased recruitement hopping to solve a sudden, yet temporary peak of players.
Layoffs then destroyed lots of studios, lots of good studios, some being around for a decade or two. This has an impact on how you dream about the game you'd like to play, because instead you dream of the job you'd like to have/keep. Devs are more anxious than ever, and investors are also much, much less comfident and supportive if the game doesn't meet stupid expectation on first release week. Some games, if not all, require time to establish a good revenue on the long run. Maybe they apply too hard the rule of avoiding sinking costs.
Mobile games also flooded the market. We've had a breath of time during covid ironicaly, but even back then we couldn't find enough time to play all the games that already exists. For folks who knew the good old PS1/N64 era, where you could have a good overview of the banket and pick your favourite meal, maybe the actual one offers too much food. Maybe food, well, games, also have an increaded portion of bad taste. I remember that in 2017 two of my colleagues aimed to make a cut in the mobile part of the gaming industry ; and back then, they told me each day near 3000 games were published. We're 10 years later now. And there's AI plague trying to speed up everything including climate change, all at bad costs and for wrong reasons. Things have gone so crazy that finding a good game is a game itself, soooo maybe devs of solid games are more careful on showing it.
Tamriel Rebuilt is still going strong last I checked. I think there's a team making Skywind(?)
I think the biggest shift wasn't Unreal Engine—it was rising development costs, the collapse of rev-share trust, and experienced developers moving to Discord or professional networks, making public hobby collaborations far less common than they were 10–15 years ago.
Also the story of how the they guys of VOID Interactive (READY OR NOT) met on PUBG during Covid.
Star Citizen polycount thread
Steam Machine polycount thread
Thats my two cents
How does something like that collapse?? Sounds like something that should be the same always across time...