Herr Edgy
Member
Good evening to you guys,
first thread of mine. I thought about creating a thread on this topic since I figured that some people might find it interesting since most people here I figure are neither German nor in the games industry at all.
This OP might also be a bit incoherent or aimless, as I just strive to get all the bad stuff off my chest.
First things first, I'm 23 yo, I'm finishing my master's degree in computer science and am working part time in a company called articy, which is a small German company that provides tools for the international games industry. I'm responsible for the Unreal Engine 4 integration of the tool called articy draft, which is a program that allows for content management and creation of complex, logic driven dialogue. It is being used for games like Dying Light 2 and by various different larger publishers and/or developers who I may not be allowed to name.
I've led a team of 8-14-6 people/students over the course of 1.5 years before; it was my first contact with the Unreal Engine 4 and I've been working with it ever since. The project was supposed to be a large scale (way too ambitious) 3rd person adventure/rpg inspired by more mature JRPG stories, a methodical action combat system, and a world that doesn't try to be big but dense with worldbuilding aspects. It was supposed to be a learning project, and if successful, we'd try and commercialize/professionalize it after finishing with university.
We went to the German Dev Days, which is a conference primarily for German game dev students, where professionals across Germany and some international names like CDPR and Valve hold some talks about various matters.
We got one of the few 'newcomer' slots where we could present our game to the people and I was even contacted by the publisher hosting the event if we were looking for a publisher: big success in my eyes.
However, my focus shifted and I had to cancel the project shortly before the publisher contacted me. It was fine, however. There would be other priorities I had to take care of, and the experience I gained was worth far more than anything else I received. With a couple of good people and the experience gained, the same thing we accomplished would be achievable in a couple months or so I figured, if I were to restart doing a similar project.
Compared to some of you guys, I'm certainly young, yet I feel like I have become an old man over the course of the last couple years. Life has taken its toll, ambitions were had and let go, betrayals of people I thought dear happened and some kind of animosity towards quite a few of the 'young would-be game developers' I have interacted with so far remains.
One impression remains: the German games industry is f*cked. Over the years I've seen many different student teams come and go, and some of those that came and stayed are simply put mediocre. Which would be fine - why would student projects need to be comparable to games made by industry veterans with budgets? Why is it bad then? Because the attitude behind those students, teams and even local professionals and professors acts as if those upcoming games were the holy grail(s) or something. First things first, in case anyone I'm talking about reads this and puts 1 and 1 together: I like most you guys as people. But I just can't act as if the constant celebration of mediocrity somehow merited praise.
There are so many students around me that either are total slackers and therefore won't manage to get into the industry in the first place, and the others are mostly (not all!) a bunch of ego-stroking narcissists. The worst part is that those glorifiying their minor accomplishments just seemingly stop striving to improve. Why would they try and improve if their babysteps into serious game development were admired by many? There are people trying to create a company with a game that has been in development for more than a year that features nothing but running and swinging from a hook, with about 5 different kinds of floors and containers placed seemingly randomly in the air. The last time I saw the game, only the arms in the first person perspective were different.
There is another game that has been in development for 2.5 years now and artistically they have improved a lot. Gameplay wise? There is nothing but walking. No (implemented) story either, so it certainly isn't even a 'walking simulator'. Last I've heard they got a new programmer whose work they might not put into the trash as they've done before again and again.
My ex girlfriend, who is also a German student at another, private university, is the same fame-hungry egomaniac that would do anything for more recognition while dismissing the hard work that actual professionals put into their products or artworks. Talking about producing art books for their game before they even had the first pieces of art, in a team of 20 people who were mostly inexperienced, with a 'creative director' who knew nothing but to talk about games - like we do on here, while at the same time advocating a possible deal with Microsoft of all companies. They even implemented an NDA. The game ended in desaster, as I foresaw. It's a 2D Metroidvania-esque (more 2D platformer than Metroidvania really) game where, as I've heard from team members after the fact, half the levels don't work properly as you can't progress without using debug controls. What they created in half a year by twenty people would have been achievable by actual developers in a couple weeks and by 3-4 people at most.
It's this bubble that they live in, a bubble that I try to pop. I recently measured 'our' success as upcoming German developers with entries and winners of the rookie awards, which were miles upon miles better made than anything I've seen German students produce. Upon mentioning that in the German games industry facebook group, about half of the people responding got defensive and blamed it on the lack of quality docents due to lack of money. Which certainly plays a role, but it's not the end all be all some people there made it out to be.
Whenever I receive contact requests by people on linkedIn I do not know, that didn't send me a message and that have 500+ contacts listed (it stops giving accurate numbers when reaching 500 and just says 500+), I just decline the request, no matter if working at Nintendo (this happened recently) or any other big shot company. This certainly isn't specific to the games industry, but it's behavior that I despise nowadays. People play their games of who claps the hardest, who has the 'most friends' and they believe that having a large number of contacts on linkedIn means that they have good chances at becoming a rockstar. And all of that while not advancing their own abilities to the degree they should.
Recently, I got my very own Unreal Engine 4 workshop I created with a guy (I was the primary initiator and host though) stolen by that very same guy. The workshop was hosted in anticipation of the game jam that is done every 6 months here for a week, where people come together to create a game. Seeing as I am one of the few competent people when it comes to using the Unreal Engine at our university and I enjoy teaching people, I was looking forward to making use of the feedback we received the last time the workshop was held, just to find out that my 'team mate' (who originally also was in my team of the game I showed you above for 1.5 years) signed up to specifically do this alone, which the organization of the event (which is just some other students really) simply accepted without even informing me. I found out by accident, basically, and no one cares about this enough to do anything about it. It made me feel very rejected and ostracized not just by the guy who stole the workshop, but also by the representative of the very community that I tried to help out and teach. I can not guess as to why my previous team mate did this other than him asking very non-chalant for my source code of my own commercial project and then ditching me (I didn't comply with his wishes because of this) made him realize that he was being a dick - and rather than clearing things up, he'd just one up his previous foolery, because that's easier.
TL;DR
I'm salty af because I feel like I'm surrounded by people who don't share the passion for games themselves but rather the passion for glory and fame, obstructing people who actually want to get things done because it hurts their perception of them being the creme de la creme, which results in me not being able to follow my goals since game dev is primarily a team effort and the fake glorification of very average work is hindering my ability to find like minded individuals whom I can properly work and talk with.
Of course, there are exceptions to this and it's not like I'm 100% alone in my surroundings: it is frustrating nonetheless.
Thanks for reading, no matter if the full version or just the TL;DR.
first thread of mine. I thought about creating a thread on this topic since I figured that some people might find it interesting since most people here I figure are neither German nor in the games industry at all.
This OP might also be a bit incoherent or aimless, as I just strive to get all the bad stuff off my chest.
First things first, I'm 23 yo, I'm finishing my master's degree in computer science and am working part time in a company called articy, which is a small German company that provides tools for the international games industry. I'm responsible for the Unreal Engine 4 integration of the tool called articy draft, which is a program that allows for content management and creation of complex, logic driven dialogue. It is being used for games like Dying Light 2 and by various different larger publishers and/or developers who I may not be allowed to name.
I've led a team of 8-14-6 people/students over the course of 1.5 years before; it was my first contact with the Unreal Engine 4 and I've been working with it ever since. The project was supposed to be a large scale (way too ambitious) 3rd person adventure/rpg inspired by more mature JRPG stories, a methodical action combat system, and a world that doesn't try to be big but dense with worldbuilding aspects. It was supposed to be a learning project, and if successful, we'd try and commercialize/professionalize it after finishing with university.
We went to the German Dev Days, which is a conference primarily for German game dev students, where professionals across Germany and some international names like CDPR and Valve hold some talks about various matters.
We got one of the few 'newcomer' slots where we could present our game to the people and I was even contacted by the publisher hosting the event if we were looking for a publisher: big success in my eyes.
However, my focus shifted and I had to cancel the project shortly before the publisher contacted me. It was fine, however. There would be other priorities I had to take care of, and the experience I gained was worth far more than anything else I received. With a couple of good people and the experience gained, the same thing we accomplished would be achievable in a couple months or so I figured, if I were to restart doing a similar project.
One impression remains: the German games industry is f*cked. Over the years I've seen many different student teams come and go, and some of those that came and stayed are simply put mediocre. Which would be fine - why would student projects need to be comparable to games made by industry veterans with budgets? Why is it bad then? Because the attitude behind those students, teams and even local professionals and professors acts as if those upcoming games were the holy grail(s) or something. First things first, in case anyone I'm talking about reads this and puts 1 and 1 together: I like most you guys as people. But I just can't act as if the constant celebration of mediocrity somehow merited praise.
There are so many students around me that either are total slackers and therefore won't manage to get into the industry in the first place, and the others are mostly (not all!) a bunch of ego-stroking narcissists. The worst part is that those glorifiying their minor accomplishments just seemingly stop striving to improve. Why would they try and improve if their babysteps into serious game development were admired by many? There are people trying to create a company with a game that has been in development for more than a year that features nothing but running and swinging from a hook, with about 5 different kinds of floors and containers placed seemingly randomly in the air. The last time I saw the game, only the arms in the first person perspective were different.
There is another game that has been in development for 2.5 years now and artistically they have improved a lot. Gameplay wise? There is nothing but walking. No (implemented) story either, so it certainly isn't even a 'walking simulator'. Last I've heard they got a new programmer whose work they might not put into the trash as they've done before again and again.
My ex girlfriend, who is also a German student at another, private university, is the same fame-hungry egomaniac that would do anything for more recognition while dismissing the hard work that actual professionals put into their products or artworks. Talking about producing art books for their game before they even had the first pieces of art, in a team of 20 people who were mostly inexperienced, with a 'creative director' who knew nothing but to talk about games - like we do on here, while at the same time advocating a possible deal with Microsoft of all companies. They even implemented an NDA. The game ended in desaster, as I foresaw. It's a 2D Metroidvania-esque (more 2D platformer than Metroidvania really) game where, as I've heard from team members after the fact, half the levels don't work properly as you can't progress without using debug controls. What they created in half a year by twenty people would have been achievable by actual developers in a couple weeks and by 3-4 people at most.
It's this bubble that they live in, a bubble that I try to pop. I recently measured 'our' success as upcoming German developers with entries and winners of the rookie awards, which were miles upon miles better made than anything I've seen German students produce. Upon mentioning that in the German games industry facebook group, about half of the people responding got defensive and blamed it on the lack of quality docents due to lack of money. Which certainly plays a role, but it's not the end all be all some people there made it out to be.
Whenever I receive contact requests by people on linkedIn I do not know, that didn't send me a message and that have 500+ contacts listed (it stops giving accurate numbers when reaching 500 and just says 500+), I just decline the request, no matter if working at Nintendo (this happened recently) or any other big shot company. This certainly isn't specific to the games industry, but it's behavior that I despise nowadays. People play their games of who claps the hardest, who has the 'most friends' and they believe that having a large number of contacts on linkedIn means that they have good chances at becoming a rockstar. And all of that while not advancing their own abilities to the degree they should.
Recently, I got my very own Unreal Engine 4 workshop I created with a guy (I was the primary initiator and host though) stolen by that very same guy. The workshop was hosted in anticipation of the game jam that is done every 6 months here for a week, where people come together to create a game. Seeing as I am one of the few competent people when it comes to using the Unreal Engine at our university and I enjoy teaching people, I was looking forward to making use of the feedback we received the last time the workshop was held, just to find out that my 'team mate' (who originally also was in my team of the game I showed you above for 1.5 years) signed up to specifically do this alone, which the organization of the event (which is just some other students really) simply accepted without even informing me. I found out by accident, basically, and no one cares about this enough to do anything about it. It made me feel very rejected and ostracized not just by the guy who stole the workshop, but also by the representative of the very community that I tried to help out and teach. I can not guess as to why my previous team mate did this other than him asking very non-chalant for my source code of my own commercial project and then ditching me (I didn't comply with his wishes because of this) made him realize that he was being a dick - and rather than clearing things up, he'd just one up his previous foolery, because that's easier.
TL;DR
I'm salty af because I feel like I'm surrounded by people who don't share the passion for games themselves but rather the passion for glory and fame, obstructing people who actually want to get things done because it hurts their perception of them being the creme de la creme, which results in me not being able to follow my goals since game dev is primarily a team effort and the fake glorification of very average work is hindering my ability to find like minded individuals whom I can properly work and talk with.
Of course, there are exceptions to this and it's not like I'm 100% alone in my surroundings: it is frustrating nonetheless.
Thanks for reading, no matter if the full version or just the TL;DR.
