Videogames by the Masses?

February 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

Oh good god no. Mark DeLoura wrote a nice piece in The Escapist asking “What if Everyone Could Make Videogames?” It’s a nice, lofty thinktank piece, but it never really answers its own question.

The question is “What if” but is written in the aspect of “How Can We Make it So…” Two completely different questions, really. He does a decent enough job of answering the “How” part. XNA is a start, Flash is certainly catching on nicely, and mod communities for Steam and id and Unreal have been around for what seems like decades. But while he argues for lowering the bar for entry into game development, I think it’s set just about right where it’s at.

Let’s just explore the “What if” side of the question for a minute. What would happen if everyone could make videogames? Let’s take a look at a few other media in which the bar has recently been lowered.

Music. Hey, MySpace anyone? While it’s hard to argue against the site’s popularity, one of the only reasons to even poke your head in there is for the music sharing capability. Anyone with a band can start a band page there and host some .mp3s. While I believe in freedom of expression, I don’t believe that there’s even 1% worth of artists on that site I really want to listen to. How many of us know “that guy” who learned how to play guitar and is dying to show you this new awesome riff he just learned? Do you want that guy constantly showing you his uninspired level hopper he just made? Oh hey, here’s another derivative fighter! That’s just great, dude. Really great. I uh, I gotta run.

TV. Once the cable explosion in the 80’s took off, there’s now 161 channels and there’s nothing on. That’s how many TV channels I have, and typically, there isn’t a single channel I care to watch. Are we really in a better place than we were when there were just 3 major networks? The amount of content I TiVo in a week typically does not surpass what could easily be watched in a 3 hour sitting. The signal to noise ratio is out of control. Let’s not even mention the writer’s strike. Wait, yes, let’s go there for a moment. Network television loses all of its writers and we suddenly lose all competent television? Putting picket lines and writer’s rights aside for the moment (I side with the writers, thanks for asking), this situation should be ripe with opportunity here, and yet we haven’t seen anyone stepping up with new content that’s worth a damn. If we can’t get decent replacement writers that weren’t already under contract or willing to cross picket lines, what makes you think there are game designers out there not already gainfully employed or already making indie games?

Internet. YouTube is by far one of my favorite passtimes, but even I can recognize the vast wasteland of content that exists there. I’d guess that less than 1% of the content on YouTube is actually worth watching, and even then, it’s rare that it’s even noteworthy or more than a chuckle. If you just started trolling the “recently posted” page you’d be bored flat within 10 minutes. Furthermore, while YouTube is kinda awesome at least once per day, all it involves is aiming a camera at a subject and editing. Making games takes a bit more involvement, and a much broader skillset.

And before anyone attempts to call me a bastard for saying that film-making is easy, consider that I’ve done film-making, and I’ve made videogames, and I’m here to tell you that making films is vastly easier.

Like I said above, I think the bar has been set at just about the right height for entry into game development. There’s plenty of tools out there for people to use already. Besides there being free FPS mod tools out there, there’s even a free fighting game engine, and at one point the mythical rpg maker, and that’s not even going into the Flash tools available. If you want to make your first game and you can’t make it with those tools, chances are you might be aiming too high for your first time out.

If anything, I’d like to see game developers put more tools in their existing games for players to create their own content within the game, as that’s an entry point most people would be willing to take up, and is a nice “gateway drug” into actual game development.

Making a game is making a work of art, and if you’ve ever painted (remotely successfully), you’d know that you have to learn how to draw before you can paint. You’ve got to learn how to play your scales before you can nail the solo. You really need to learn how to make baby steps in game development before you can just go and make a game from scratch, and the tools to make those steps are already out there. If you’re one of those folks who has been wanting to make a game yourself, go out there and grab the tools and get busy.

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