Game Developer's 2023 Wrap-Up: 10 Must-Read Featured Blogs
This year the blog section was our litmus test for industry sentiment on accessibility, generative AI, climate change, and the shift away from Unity in light of its Runtime Fee disaster.
In 2023, our featured blogs gave professional game development advice you can’t find anywhere else. But they also acted as a litmus test for industry sentiment on current events, be it accessibility, generative AI, climate change, or, perhaps the year’s most heated topic, the massive shift away from Unity in light of the Runtime Fee disaster. What were your colleagues and peers thinking about some of the conflicts of the past year? And how did those conversations affect the scope and shape of the resulting discourse?
For that answer, you’ll have to take a look at some of the featured blogs we published in 2023. Here are some of our must-read favorites from this year.
Game Preservation: Saving digital worlds for future generations of gamers
By Marcin Paczyński | Read More
“Preserving video games is not just about saving entertainment, it's about safeguarding our cultural and historical identity.”
One of the big topics in game development this year was the issue of game preservation; a study from Video Game History Foundation released in July stated that a whopping 87% of games from before 2010 are no longer readily available on the market.
In this post from GOG’s Marcin Paczyński, the author discusses why the platform feels their DRM-free approach is a vital aspect of game preservation, giving us an inside look at how tracking down and proving IP ownership, and polishing the final product, is a part of the process. He also gives several tips for what you can do to help the state of game preservation.
GamerGPT: What to Consider When Considering Generative AI in Gaming
By Andrew Tibbetts, David I. Schulman, Stephanie Perron | Read More
“Generative AI will play an important role in many industries in coming years, including in gaming. Game studios, if they aren’t already, will look at how to build this tech into their workflows and weigh how best to leverage it. In doing so, they should account for the legal and commercial risks that will arise, to avoid an opportunity turning into a problem down the line.”
What is legal and ethical within the burgeoning field of generative AI? Providing some insight into that are three lawyers from the firm of Greenberg Traurig, who give us a “snapshot of the issues in the current U.S. landscape, based on terms of service for several generative AI tools frequently used in gaming and on legal circumstances in the U.S.,” a primer that begins to explore those implications.
Evolving a studio from single to multi product, learnings from Super Evil Megacorp
By Ian Fielding | Read More
“One saying I’ve aimed to evangelize in this process is to turn stumbles (and sometimes frustration) into opportunities. As an example, when we’ve realized we really only have 1-2 people who have the skill set to solve a problem it's also presented an opportunity for us to recognize we need to train up more individuals (or hire in) more folks to be able to also become subject matter experts over time in that area. Or when we’ve had challenges prioritizing bespoke tech needs, we’ve taken a step back and looked at if there is a way we can extend existing tech or find a way to build systems that benefit all of our products saving us time in the long run..
…Evolving into a multi-product studio is an enormously challenging effort, and it’s one that many studios often struggle for years with, and sometimes never make it to the goal of multi-product. However, the benefits are significant if done well as it offers an opportunity to provide more player value, more opportunities for talent growth, de-risks being reliant fully on a single product's success, and more.”
Studio head Ian Fielding writes about the evolution of Super Evil Megacorp, telling our readers about the pitfalls of sudden growth and giving five tips for how to avoid some of the issues he and his company encountered during their own growth phase.
40 years and I'm still here
By Warren Spector | Read More