John UM
After a game is released, the player has a natural judgment. Good games will be acclaimed, and bad games will be raging. But no matter whether it is a good game or a bad game, the developer has to go through many hardships in the production process, which is the saying that “no credit and hard work”
Today we will take a look at what developers will experience in the game production process
Publisher and Management.
After the studio has reached a certain size, it is very unrealistic to want to pay for it or to raise it through crowdfunding. So, if you want to be a big project, where does the money come from? At this time, it is the turn of the publisher to appear. (Unless you are working on a publisher’s internal development studio).
It’s time to look at your drawing technique. If the painting is good and the publisher is satisfied, then naturally there will be money. But this money is not white, when the publisher helps you bear the cost, it will also set a deadline, which is the date of the game
The publisher’s rules for the date are very determined, and your responsibility is to sell the game as scheduled. In addition to the listing date, you have to take care of the various exhibitions, do some real-life demonstrations and trailers
After the pie is finished, the next thing is to make the pie
Working hours.
For most developers, the average weekly work time is between 36-50 hours. This is not too much to calculate, this is calculated according to the standard full-time working hours, some work time is a little more, some are less, some have a double break, and some have a single break. However, 8% of practitioners in the industry say they work an average of more than 50 hours per week
It will feel pretty moist at first, but the situation is different when some big nodes and the final listing date are approaching. For example, E3 is near, publishers come to ask for a real machine demonstration to promote, but your game actually only made a LOGO. At this time, you can only say that there is still a little bug that needs to be adjusted, and then close the door and let go of the thing all the time. Otherwise, wait for the publisher to cut the game project together with your studio
Overtime.
When investigating the maximum working hours per week, 16% of practitioners said they worked more than 70 hours a week (and 2% said they worked more than 100 hours a week). Some developers will work overtime as they wish, and they think this will make the game better, but the survey shows that at least a quarter of developers say they are forced to work overtime. 26% of developers said that managers are asking them to lengthen their working hours
Listing date.
Let’s push the time before the game goes on the market. The developer is satisfied that the game can be completed and delivered to the player before the deadline. But the developers themselves are not satisfied, the game has a lot of bugs, the animation is very rough, and the plots are all traces of work, which have been made in the past few months
At this time, you have to go online and explain to the player that there may be some problems. The publisher is not very happy at this time, because there are many players on the Internet who are smashing the game, and the sales figures are also very difficult to see. Who will the publisher and management lose their temper? If your answer is the development team, then you are really right. After all, they are directly responsible, and the pot has to come back
Now developers are going to be squirted by players because they don’t get a pre-promotional game experience, and publishers want the team to fix the game in the first place. So, the developer once again has to race against time and try to fix it before all players give up the game
Ending.
Remember the situation after the listing of “Rainbow Six: Siege”? When it was first released, the game attracted criticism from all sides. The development team was under a lot of pressure, adding a lot of content to their best efforts, balancing the gameplay and finally pulling the player back. This is now a game with a huge player base
So when the “Glyph” and “Radiation 76” went on the market, the developers would not be too happy, they themselves understood that the game’s performance did not meet expectations. So the next step is to see what they are going to do, and whether they can reverse the word-of-mouth through the addition of subsequent content
(the developer’s working hours data is based on the GDC 2019 US game industry survey, covering 4,000 practitioners of various sizes in the industry)