Content or Code?
by Bryan "daerid" Ross · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 02/03/2003 (8:44 pm) · 3 replies
Which should be done first in a game development scenario: Content or Code/Gameplay?
By content, I mean textures/skins/models, etc. It seems to me that gameplay really should be the first priority, but I'd like to get other people's opinions on the subject.
By content, I mean textures/skins/models, etc. It seems to me that gameplay really should be the first priority, but I'd like to get other people's opinions on the subject.
#2
If you are starting a project and a team from scratch, however, there is a real chicken and egg problem. You need to attract talent in order to produce the content, but you need content in order to attract talent. Solving this chicken and egg problem is one of the reasons we started to produce content packs. By making high quality art available to people at an inexpensive price, we are hoping that it will become easier to put together great teams to produce high quality games.
One might also explore filling your game world with some of the free art options that are available. If you search the forums for Open Art, Open Conent, etc., you will find several threads on the topic. This may be enough to attract team members and allow you to upgrade the quality at your leisure.
I hope you find this helpful.
02/03/2003 (9:04 pm)
For ThinkTanks we concentrated on gameplay first and content second. For the first few months of production we had a box for a tank, box projectiles, and a box for explosions (an expanding white box does a pretty good job for a stand-in explosion). My opinion is that this is the way to go. At this point, code is pretty much done (except feature creep items) and we are now spending the last month or so filling in the content.If you are starting a project and a team from scratch, however, there is a real chicken and egg problem. You need to attract talent in order to produce the content, but you need content in order to attract talent. Solving this chicken and egg problem is one of the reasons we started to produce content packs. By making high quality art available to people at an inexpensive price, we are hoping that it will become easier to put together great teams to produce high quality games.
One might also explore filling your game world with some of the free art options that are available. If you search the forums for Open Art, Open Conent, etc., you will find several threads on the topic. This may be enough to attract team members and allow you to upgrade the quality at your leisure.
I hope you find this helpful.
#3
Well, if I would say something on this topic, I would say Code is quite important especially for newer developers. I've seen too many game development projects fail because the game design has decided to put to much emphasis on the game system, architecture, and contents without balancing the team's capability on their coding. Its easier to find supporting casts such as artists/musicians/designers and etc, but its hard to find qualified programmers. I've seen projects with hundred pages of scripts, design notes, and content fail because the programmers were unable to deliver the code.
Not that I'm discounting the importance of content, but I'm just mentioning I do feel that code is the basic to start with. Without code means there would be no game.
Once the coding has been adequate, the game can be created, but it won't be a commercial quality without good content.
That is why content kicks in but quite later.
Just a short rant on this issue. Seen too many too ambitious plans fail, so may be a little too cautious.
03/06/2003 (6:45 pm)
Code or Content?Well, if I would say something on this topic, I would say Code is quite important especially for newer developers. I've seen too many game development projects fail because the game design has decided to put to much emphasis on the game system, architecture, and contents without balancing the team's capability on their coding. Its easier to find supporting casts such as artists/musicians/designers and etc, but its hard to find qualified programmers. I've seen projects with hundred pages of scripts, design notes, and content fail because the programmers were unable to deliver the code.
Not that I'm discounting the importance of content, but I'm just mentioning I do feel that code is the basic to start with. Without code means there would be no game.
Once the coding has been adequate, the game can be created, but it won't be a commercial quality without good content.
That is why content kicks in but quite later.
Just a short rant on this issue. Seen too many too ambitious plans fail, so may be a little too cautious.
Torque Owner Ben Swanson