In this talk, I will present my research findings.
The research findings will align with my game. I will include references from the research findings.
What I have found:
The meaning of democratization:
"The accessibility and freedom to use and then create or consume the media itself. The process behind is political and mundane.
Unity is the software that tackles democratization.
In democratization, I searched up why game companies tend to create their own game engine. According to this Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/41gmre/why_do_a_lot_of_games_companies_make_their_own/ The user 'ScrimpyCat' writes: "There's several reasons some of which may include:
Licensing - as an indie developer accepting that you might have to pay a small percentage of your revenue for licensing the engine might not be as much of an issue seeing as the amount you need to breakeven is unlikely going to be very high and chances are you're already making when your revenue is at the levels needed to pay a %, and your total revenue from a game isn't likely going to be huge anyway so the amount in licensing fees you need to pay may seem very reasonable. Meanwhile, a AAA game will have a much higher break-even target and their expected revenue is most definitely in the tens to hundreds of millions, which now means they're paying a large amount in licensing fees. Now it should be said they usually get much better licensing deals, to begin with than the indie dev gets, but still, they're paying huge amounts.
Additional revenue stream - as they're now able to license their own engine out, this gives them the option for an additional revenue stream and the possibility for the engine to just pay for itself.
The highest degree of support and understanding - as they built it all, they understand all of its internals and can offer complete support. E.g. A game that needs X feature, they'll easily know if they can implement it or not. Another benefit of this is not having to wait on external entities, if there's a game-breaking bug in the engine they can get right on it, while a third party engine depending on the licensing agreement this might not be possible (though they would typically license the source code anyway).
As for the timeframe, it can take years to fully develop an engine of their scale. Often why you'll see them using the same version of the engine for a good cycle of games whilst working on the next version of the engine. And as for what's involved, a LOT. They need to handle every platform they'll be targeting, the rendering, the physics, the AI, the audio, the input, the file system access, the asset management pipeline, the tools, etc.
How are they better than current popular engines? They aren't necessarily (to other developers), but to them with their own reasoning for doing it, they are. The simplest answer for how can they be better is that when you're creating your own engine from scratch you can do whatever you want.
Edit: It should also be said that developing your own engine isn't just limited to large game companies, some smaller developers also do this. The more popular reasons for this are typical because they enjoy it, and have some functionality they want that isn't available in existing options. E.g. While you can create many games with Unity or Unreal, there's plenty of things that just aren't feasible or might take considerable work to even make possible anyway. This can be a reason for a smaller dev to make their own engine"
Here are the game engines that certain game companies use for their own games: - Electronic Arts (EA) - Engine: Frostbite 3. The game's code is written in C++ and C# Games used with Frostbite 3
- Rockstar Games - Engine R.A.G.E (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) Games used with R.A.G.E:
The game engine's code is rather vague, according to the 'snfo' they implied that "The game engine is most likely C++. C++ is the defacto language when it comes to the video game industry." https://www.reddit.com/r/rockstar/comments/ct6uen/which_coding_language_did_rockstar_use_when/
- Bethesda Studios - Gamebryo engine (aka Creation Engine) The game's codes are written in C++
- Square Enix - Luminous Engine (2012-2018)
- Capcom - 7th generation: MT Framework. The game's code is written in C++ - 8th generation: Panta Rhei. The game's code is written in C#
The game engines listed above are the developer's respective game engines and it is a way for them to create the game for themselves. It is a way of them having their own way of creating their own games. Trying to make the game engine unique and different compared to the rest. It is a way of creative freedom for game developers. Other times, game developers will use Unity and Unreal Engine to create their games. Games made with Unity:
Rust, Cities: Skylines, Hearthstone, Ori and the Blind Forest and Cuphead Games made with Unreal Engine:
Ark: Survival Evolved, Borderlands 3, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Tetris Effect, Street Fighter V and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Survey results: I have gathered 18 responses from individuals of the focus group. This focus group being friends of mine who play games regularly. From casuals to hardcore gamers.
Based on my findings, the survey implies that the majority of players play on PC with a follow-up of the Nintendo Switch being the second.
The majority vote for favorite game genre goes to RPG/Role Playing Games with a follow-up of shooters and adventure.
These are the results of their favorite video games:
The answers were definitely interesting and diverse. There is a lack of platformers in this but most of their favorite games based on the genre are role-playing games.
For Question 4, the majority's answer is that '"they like platformers" following behind a neutral opinion itself.
For Question 5, the majority's answer is that '"they like action games" following behind a love for the action game genre.
Regarding mobile platforms, I asked them their opinions on the platform itself. The reason why I ask this is that my game will be on mobile and PC platforms (in which PC is the next question I asked them.) overall the average comments to this seem to hold a neutral opinion towards Mobile platforms.
Regarding the PC platform, I asked them their opinions on the platform itself. overall the average comments hold a good and strong opinion towards the PC platform.
And for the final question, it ties everything together. The reason why I structured the survey to this final question was to find out what genres they liked, what platforms they would play. On a scale 1-5, how likely would it be you would play my game? The majority score is a 4 which in this case it's likely.
As I did this on google forms, I tried to label each scale although I couldn't seem to do that.
UPDATE:
My survey results double in responses going from 18 to 36, statistics are still the same although the answers for the favorite games and genres, however, varied much more.
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