The main events of 2013 through the eyes of Chris Graft (Kris Graft), editor in chief of Gamasutra
We like to call 2013 the transition year - mainly because two new game consoles from leading manufacturers were released. But although their appearance was the impetus for the formation of a number of general trends in the gaming industry, there were other turning points.
In 2013, we learned about new ways to share content, attract users and get impressions of the game on various platforms and systems. Here are some of the leading video game trends of the year that will influence their development and gaming industry in the coming years.
Transferred to Alconost .
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Broadcasting of games and publishing videos with gameplay on the network existed until 2013, but only last year this game voyeurism gained full speed and received recognition from the community as something useful.
Service Twitch.tv rules ball. Game developers, from Sony Online Entertainment and Mojang to CCP and many others, have added Twitch integration to their games for easy gameplay translation. For the first time, the Share button appeared on the PlayStation 4 controller, which makes it easy and simple to share gameplay videos. Xbox One is a bit behind Twitch in broadcasting, but the Upload Studio service and the ability to record a game, then share it, shouting at the Xbox, record that console (Xbox, write it down!) Are still perceived as wonders of the new generation of consoles.
In the future, the integration of support for the basic functions of broadcasts and video publications will become the standard for games and platforms. The next step for developers should be to create games with the convenience of observers from the very beginning.
A new wave of enthusiasm about virtual reality began to grow in the summer of 2012, due to the huge success of the Oculus Rift crowdfunding project. But it was in 2013 that thousands of Rift kits were sent to developers , and the potential of this device began to materialize.
Earlier, manufacturers of Oculus Rift argued that it was independent companies that would be able to unlock the capabilities of the virtual reality helmet , experimenting with new interaction options, which happened last year. Here are just a few examples: developers are going to inject into Rift the function of creating holograms modeled after the “holodeck” from the Star Trek universe; they want to give players the opportunity to feel how their heads are cut off , and they create “ horror films inside horror films ”. And the power continues to grow - the already brilliant Oculus VR team has recently expanded its ranks with former technical director of Id Software, John Carmack.
The union of virtual reality and video games is not limited to Oculus VR. According to rumors, Sony is currently working on a virtual reality project for PlayStation, and other young companies, including the startup of Technical Illusions created by former Valve engineers with their own augmented / virtual reality system CastAR, will explore the possibilities of its mass commercial use in the coming years.
This year, major console manufacturers have become interested in independent developers more than ever. The launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the market last year particularly strongly influenced the game publishing policy and the general attitude towards small developers - this time not game developers begged to let them into holy gardens surrounded by a barbed fence, and console manufacturers lured independent developers into collaboration, to promote the line of its software.
One of the most important areas was the ability to independently publish games for consoles. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s strategies for self-publishing differ (as you know, Microsoft heeded the complaints of game developers and changed the policy of independent publications for the better), but most importantly, none of the companies require a partnership agreement in order to gain access to advertised consoles controlling a decent part of the video game market. This is good for gamers and developers.
This year, alpha financing - that is, the ability to buy an early version of the game while it is still under development - has become more widespread.
Mojang's Minecraft is one of the earliest examples, but in 2013, the fact that Valve introduced an early access system to games on Steam played a significant role. Kerbal Space Program, Planetary Annihilation, Natural Selection 2, Project Zomboid - the list of games with alpha financing can go on and on. Developers are beginning to realize that gamers are willing to pay to try out a “raw” product if the developer honestly admits that the creation of the game has not yet been completed. Alpha financing is another way to attract fans of their products to game development, and this trend will continue to influence how modern video games are created.
Last year, independent developers achieved great success, but as the gaming market became more mature, it became even more difficult to achieve enviable financial results.
I could talk for a long time that the market for certain platforms (primarily mobile) is overflowing; that a small number of large companies occupy "the first lines of the charts"; that paid games have given way to performance-oriented “free-to-play” games; that on platforms that work with independent developers, the quality of the product and, consequently, its cost, increases. I can say that in mid-December, dozens of games have already been released on Steam, and this is just the beginning.
But instead, I'll give you a link to a great comment posted on Gamasutra by Dan Cook (Dan Cook), the lead game designer at Spry Fox , who created the game Triple Town. It summarizes some of the results of 2013, and also discusses the real prospects for the coming year.
From the translator: in 2014, we wish the developers to see only high-quality translation in games. Blunders like that should be a thing of the past. A simple 5 rules will help send the shoals of translation to the forefathers:
1. Do not translate into Google Translate or any other machine translation service.
2. do not trust the translation to programmers, designers, managers, any other colleagues,
3. do not trust the translation of non-native speakers,
4. contact localization professionals with gaming experience,
5. test the translation.
If you already have problems with localization in your game - contact us at info@alconost.com , we are always ready to help, for example, to look at Lokkit or screenshots of the game for free in order to assess the quality of the translation and the need to correct it.
About the translator
The article is translated in Alconost.
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
In 2013, we learned about new ways to share content, attract users and get impressions of the game on various platforms and systems. Here are some of the leading video game trends of the year that will influence their development and gaming industry in the coming years.
Transferred to Alconost .
')
Voyeurism in video games
Broadcasting of games and publishing videos with gameplay on the network existed until 2013, but only last year this game voyeurism gained full speed and received recognition from the community as something useful.
Service Twitch.tv rules ball. Game developers, from Sony Online Entertainment and Mojang to CCP and many others, have added Twitch integration to their games for easy gameplay translation. For the first time, the Share button appeared on the PlayStation 4 controller, which makes it easy and simple to share gameplay videos. Xbox One is a bit behind Twitch in broadcasting, but the Upload Studio service and the ability to record a game, then share it, shouting at the Xbox, record that console (Xbox, write it down!) Are still perceived as wonders of the new generation of consoles.
In the future, the integration of support for the basic functions of broadcasts and video publications will become the standard for games and platforms. The next step for developers should be to create games with the convenience of observers from the very beginning.
Virtual reality is becoming more real
A new wave of enthusiasm about virtual reality began to grow in the summer of 2012, due to the huge success of the Oculus Rift crowdfunding project. But it was in 2013 that thousands of Rift kits were sent to developers , and the potential of this device began to materialize.
Earlier, manufacturers of Oculus Rift argued that it was independent companies that would be able to unlock the capabilities of the virtual reality helmet , experimenting with new interaction options, which happened last year. Here are just a few examples: developers are going to inject into Rift the function of creating holograms modeled after the “holodeck” from the Star Trek universe; they want to give players the opportunity to feel how their heads are cut off , and they create “ horror films inside horror films ”. And the power continues to grow - the already brilliant Oculus VR team has recently expanded its ranks with former technical director of Id Software, John Carmack.
The union of virtual reality and video games is not limited to Oculus VR. According to rumors, Sony is currently working on a virtual reality project for PlayStation, and other young companies, including the startup of Technical Illusions created by former Valve engineers with their own augmented / virtual reality system CastAR, will explore the possibilities of its mass commercial use in the coming years.
Large console manufacturers lure independent developers
This year, major console manufacturers have become interested in independent developers more than ever. The launch of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on the market last year particularly strongly influenced the game publishing policy and the general attitude towards small developers - this time not game developers begged to let them into holy gardens surrounded by a barbed fence, and console manufacturers lured independent developers into collaboration, to promote the line of its software.
One of the most important areas was the ability to independently publish games for consoles. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo’s strategies for self-publishing differ (as you know, Microsoft heeded the complaints of game developers and changed the policy of independent publications for the better), but most importantly, none of the companies require a partnership agreement in order to gain access to advertised consoles controlling a decent part of the video game market. This is good for gamers and developers.
Sale of games before the end of their development
This year, alpha financing - that is, the ability to buy an early version of the game while it is still under development - has become more widespread.
Mojang's Minecraft is one of the earliest examples, but in 2013, the fact that Valve introduced an early access system to games on Steam played a significant role. Kerbal Space Program, Planetary Annihilation, Natural Selection 2, Project Zomboid - the list of games with alpha financing can go on and on. Developers are beginning to realize that gamers are willing to pay to try out a “raw” product if the developer honestly admits that the creation of the game has not yet been completed. Alpha financing is another way to attract fans of their products to game development, and this trend will continue to influence how modern video games are created.
Independent Developers Status
Last year, independent developers achieved great success, but as the gaming market became more mature, it became even more difficult to achieve enviable financial results.
I could talk for a long time that the market for certain platforms (primarily mobile) is overflowing; that a small number of large companies occupy "the first lines of the charts"; that paid games have given way to performance-oriented “free-to-play” games; that on platforms that work with independent developers, the quality of the product and, consequently, its cost, increases. I can say that in mid-December, dozens of games have already been released on Steam, and this is just the beginning.
But instead, I'll give you a link to a great comment posted on Gamasutra by Dan Cook (Dan Cook), the lead game designer at Spry Fox , who created the game Triple Town. It summarizes some of the results of 2013, and also discusses the real prospects for the coming year.
From the translator: in 2014, we wish the developers to see only high-quality translation in games. Blunders like that should be a thing of the past. A simple 5 rules will help send the shoals of translation to the forefathers:
1. Do not translate into Google Translate or any other machine translation service.
2. do not trust the translation to programmers, designers, managers, any other colleagues,
3. do not trust the translation of non-native speakers,
4. contact localization professionals with gaming experience,
5. test the translation.
If you already have problems with localization in your game - contact us at info@alconost.com , we are always ready to help, for example, to look at Lokkit or screenshots of the game for free in order to assess the quality of the translation and the need to correct it.
About the translator
The article is translated in Alconost.
Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 60 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/209928/
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