How much can you turn off in a game? | Gamedev Dairy #55
Hacks for learning, productivity, having work-life-passion balance and finally game development!
TL;DR
Reflections for the end of the year
How much can you turn off in a game?
Recommendations
Reflections for the end of the year
The end of the year is coming and I looked at some achievements of this year. Although I did not create any games (which I planned for this year). I did manage to make some research...
@konradkokosa If gamedev plays then its a reaserch
Four years ago, when I became a father I was told that this is the end. Not only for ambitions but also for hobbies. I gotta admit there is some truth to it. But year over yÂear I become more and more effective in consuming culture.
Seriously, I think I should organize my thoughts into a book, title it "How to remain a gamer when you're becoming a dad?" and sell it on Gumroad or something ;-)
Still, while I could just consider this a success (should I? I mean, I could've been pushing my sorry butt to learn game development at the same time, instead of fighting depression with video games ;-) ), I don't think this was achieved without any compromises.
And the biggest loss was audio.
How much can you turn off in a game?
Usually, I play with half of the headphones on my head. Why? Well, when you have a kid, you gotta be vigilant. So I cannot immerse myself in a game fully. Sometimes, when commuting (hip hip hooray for handhelds! they deserve an ode) or waiting for something I don't even play with music, even on headphones. Sure, if a cutscene would appear that would be sad, but some games, and even with the best music, I sometimes play without listening to the music!
I rarely turn off the music entirely in a game. I did it once playing Arcanum because the music was irritating me (wasn't worse than the main theme for Dragon Quest, though).Â
But let's think about it from a game designer's perspective!
If you're an indie you always think about making a whole game without any additional costs. Why not start cost-cutting with music? Sure, music builds the game's atmosphere. But so can the lack of music. And I don't think that can be specific to horror games only.Â
Also, do you know that the first musical track playing in the genius movie No Country For Old Men is actually on the ending credits?
Recommendations
Thomas Brush (probably my favorite game dev whos games I have never played, so far) shared his thoughts on making games alone. As you imagine, it rang with me :-)Â
A little while ago I finished the most underappreciated polish game - an X-Com clone about Cold War Spy Games. And although I could say a lot about this game, I might as well leave with a presentation about someone who was working on it. Enjoy!