Blog: "Embracing Hardness"

[Thomas]

Why hard work is a good thing.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2011...dness.html

[Sel]

I designed some of the maps to be maze-like and have roaming enemies, thinking it would be an easy way of adding engaging parts to the game.

Oh so you're the reason I quit and uninstalled it after getting fed up 2 hours in :v

Then it suddenly occurred to me that I should not feel bad about having work that is hard to make. Instead I should feel proud and embrace it.

...

I should actively strive for it and discard anything that is too easy.

If more of the games industry had this viewpoint, and wasn't motivated almost exclusively by greedy publishers forcing studios to make uninspired dross followed by countless equally unoriginal sequels to no end, or running the legacy of older games/movies that are still popular into the ground with terrible remakes it'd be a significantly better place.

Either way I've shared that viewpoint for a while now, and after around 4 years of modding for various games it's pretty safe to say there aren't nearly enough people who share it :S

[Lorkas]

If only other developers had your point of view then there wouldn't be wars and children wouldn't starve in Africa. I guess what scares most people away from hard work in game development is the possibility of all the effort and time invested going to waste. Plus there are many ways to go around it but as you said most of the times that just turns into a disaster which could've been avoided.

[Bek]

Nice blog post, insightful and interesting as always.

This reminds me that I'm meant to be following a schedule to remake a deus ex level in the UDK.. I use steam sales as a pitiful excuse D: