Hey all. Between wanting to see more activity on this board, and the conversations I've had with industry friends lately, I figured I'd open this up for discussion and see how we feel.
I'm not sure what role Graphic Design plays in video game development and publishing on a professional level for the back half of this decade.
I can see needs, use cases, _things_ we can _do_ all over the place--there is no shortage of opportunities for us to do good work. But the vast majority of those needs are not being met, work is not being distributed or completed, and everyone is underemployed. Studios don't reach out to freelancers like they used to, etc. But weirdly enough, it has next to nothing to do with AI. Of course there are going to be bosses dumb enough to think that AI can do a bunch of things that it can't--our jobs included--but that's not drying up the work and driving the constant stream of layoffs.
The various factors that caused the current collapse of the larger video games market have been well documented, I'm not interested in re-litigating them here; I do not have the energy. The important thing is that studios are suffering, sputtering, and shuttering across the board, all the money people are burning it all, and I just don't know where we can even go anymore. Is there still a place for us here? I've always been obsessed with Jon Machin's work for PlayStation in the 2000s, and at this point I don't think that's a goal I can ever achieve at any studio.
I've pivoted to UI for indies because that's where the work is, and I work with people who I enjoy and admire a great deal! But as soon as unemployment checks run out, I'm screwed again because indies also don't have enough money to pay each other or ourselves a livable salary. So again, there's no shortage of work to be done, I see places in games and marketing of said games for designers to live and thrive everywhere I look, but no one wants to hire them.
As we enter the post-gaming era, the landscape is going to continue shifting and changing dramatically.
I just hope that whoever makes it out to the other side learns some lessons on the way.
What does Graphic Design in Video Games look like now?
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andrewelmore
- FC-ID: KON-RC821
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- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicresonance
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malyzar
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Here to offer support. But to answer your actual question: I have no idea!
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andrewelmore
- FC-ID: KON-RC821
- Pronouns: he/him/his
- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicresonance
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Fruitality
- FC-ID: FMC-NMJ
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- Location: Brisbane, AUS
- Link: https://williamhackworth.com
I've had this one rolling around in my head since you posted it, in an attempt to try to reply with something more than 'hey, I dunno!'.
(fyi I'm probably just gonna write 'hey, I dunno!' but using more words)
It sure looks like an unpleasant time to be seeking work / working in the games industry at the moment. I'm removed from the actual industry so I suppose my analysis from the outside can only be so helpful.
Platforms are consolidating and becoming more boring and steadfastly brand focused. Mainstream games are largely becoming brand focused platforms themselves, and seem to be mushing together to have identical looks and feels (becoming fortnite-ified). Even if a game can do something novel with mechanics or gameplay, is it just going to end up shoved into a live service format with a home screen that shows your character and friends together with your Ninja Turtles crossover skins and Emotes with a Battle Pass button and a Store and a big button that says 'Drop In!'? And if there's a chance the game is either a booming success out of pure luck, or shuts down after 1 month because it didn't make 1 Billion Dollars immediately, what's the point in investing in something like graphic design during development?
As more studios are sucked up into ownership by one of the 3 corporations that own everything, do they have an incentive to (or freedom to) invest in creativity and experimentation?
Anyway, graphic design: I would hope that as we weather this dark period of consolidation and blandness from larger studios and mainstream games, we will begin to see a community pushback that will reward games and studios that have fresh, interesting, and bold designs, and offer an alternative to the fortnite-ification and assassins creed-ification of games. Hopefully, this would be also accompanied by a resurgence of mid-tier games (AA, B-Games, whatever) that may look to push budget towards creative graphic design to cut through.
At this time, though, supporting indies that have the right attitude (but may not yet have the budget) might be the best way to start to facilitate change and reinvigorate graphic design in games - whether that's through UI or marketing.
but hey, I dunno.
(fyi I'm probably just gonna write 'hey, I dunno!' but using more words)
It sure looks like an unpleasant time to be seeking work / working in the games industry at the moment. I'm removed from the actual industry so I suppose my analysis from the outside can only be so helpful.
Platforms are consolidating and becoming more boring and steadfastly brand focused. Mainstream games are largely becoming brand focused platforms themselves, and seem to be mushing together to have identical looks and feels (becoming fortnite-ified). Even if a game can do something novel with mechanics or gameplay, is it just going to end up shoved into a live service format with a home screen that shows your character and friends together with your Ninja Turtles crossover skins and Emotes with a Battle Pass button and a Store and a big button that says 'Drop In!'? And if there's a chance the game is either a booming success out of pure luck, or shuts down after 1 month because it didn't make 1 Billion Dollars immediately, what's the point in investing in something like graphic design during development?
As more studios are sucked up into ownership by one of the 3 corporations that own everything, do they have an incentive to (or freedom to) invest in creativity and experimentation?
Anyway, graphic design: I would hope that as we weather this dark period of consolidation and blandness from larger studios and mainstream games, we will begin to see a community pushback that will reward games and studios that have fresh, interesting, and bold designs, and offer an alternative to the fortnite-ification and assassins creed-ification of games. Hopefully, this would be also accompanied by a resurgence of mid-tier games (AA, B-Games, whatever) that may look to push budget towards creative graphic design to cut through.
At this time, though, supporting indies that have the right attitude (but may not yet have the budget) might be the best way to start to facilitate change and reinvigorate graphic design in games - whether that's through UI or marketing.
but hey, I dunno.
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andrewelmore
- FC-ID: KON-RC821
- Pronouns: he/him/his
- Location: Seattle, WA
- Link: https://www.youtube.com/@mythicresonance
Man, the market's always been rough but I have never felt this professionally unwanted for this long.
