The other day, I stumbled across this article titled “The ‘deprofessionalization of video games’ was on full display at PAX East” by Bryant Francis, Senior Editor at GameDeveloper.com… and it had me a bit stumped. Is this satire? No, of course not… and yet…
Why does it ring so shallow? Why does it sound so absolutely stupid? I’m quite shocked that someone decided to look at the past few years of layoffs and cancellations, only to come out on top of it all with a take such as “indie dev is at fault for so many jobs being lost”.
Obviously, they’re not saying that. I’m exaggerating here after all.
I still find it almost impressive that they got to a result that sounds very much like they’re blaming indie game success stories for the failings of AAA devs.
Francis makes a few key points in this article:
- Rise of Small Teams: Smaller teams (like the ones behind Balatro, Schedule I, and R.E.P.O.) have attained success and outperformed larger, more experienced projects despite being developed by very small teams or solo devs.
- Deprofessionalisation: There’s a trend that fewer developers are needed to create successful games, leading to “deprofessionalisation” – a reduction in specialised roles and a shift towards generalist skills.
- Industry Implications: While it’s good that indie devs are thriving, there’s a concern for the wider industry as this shift may undervalue contributions of specialised professionals, potentially impacting the quality and diversity of future games.
- Pax East: The article then talks about Pax East which supposedly highlights this trend, showcasing numerous successful indie games developed by small teams, reinforcing the industry’s move towards “deprofessionalisation”.
I think those are the main points, really, that I wanted to talk about today. Sorry if I’m overanalyzing and overly simplifying the article at hand. The article probably has some merit in that…
- Acknowledges risks to specialists
- raises concerns about structures in the industry that are failing
There very much is a world in which an overemphasis on solo/indie success stories could lead to an undervaluation of narrative designers, QA testers, and other specialists, especially in big dev… AAA dev… Similarly, industry leaders and investors (read “the suits”) might justify shrinking teams or cutting jobs due to fewer people being able to do more… theoretically…
But the issue here isn’t the “what if investors use this as a reason to cut jobs” but rather the fact that it already happens without said justification. There have been so many layoffs in the industry while more and more games fail in an economy where buying games (priced at 60-80 bucks + DLC + special editions) is just not everyone’s priority, given how incredibly expensive living has become.
People are being laid off. People do lose their jobs. Why does the article read as if Francis lived in seclusion for the past few years, removing their worldly desires to attain enlightenment as some type of modern-day hermit? After years spent in isolation, they came back to write this incredibly misguided and short-sighted article.
The Rise of Small Teams
I don’t want to insult the author of the article in any way, shape or form when I say this but… It’s a bit silly how they conflate innovation with devaluation. The whole article is framing the rise of indie/solo success as a threat rather than a complementary force to AAA development.
The cool thing about indie development is that they are able to take on larger risks due to the (comparatively) tiny size of the teams, the smaller budget, and the lower stakes. Being able to take these risks means innovation. Indie developers are able to take on these risks BECAUSE THEY’RE INDEPENDENT.
In contrast to that stands AAA development, where each project means A LOT of money being used to develop a HUGE game that needs to make that money back. Because of the scale of things, the teams are much bigger, and you need specialised people somewhere in there to direct the narratives, design the levels, and make sure that the game reaches as much of an audience as feasible.
AAA development is anything but independent. They’re very reliant on investors and since so many jobs are at risk, they have to play it safer… resulting in yet another live-service extraction-shooter hitting the market… or not doing so because the genre is oversaturated.
There are a ton of games that fail… and yet most AAA games will make far, far more than most indie games do.
Picking out a few success stories is easy. Look at Larian Studios’ Baldurs Gate series and Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (loving that game at the moment, btw)… or Concerned Ape’s Stardew Valley, LocalThunk’s Balatro or Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight. No matter where you go, you see these success stories… but how many indie devs really do make it through?
The article doesn’t look at that, at all. Rather than celebrating the success stories that exist in indie dev and empowering creativity, the article assumes a zero-sum industry where indie devs being successful means that AAA devs are not successful.
That is simply not the case, though. Triple-A and Indie Dev coexist with very different goals, budgets and audiences. There’s a lot of overlap between genres, and a cool indie game existing that does something AAA is also doing doesn’t mean that people will not spend their time and money in either.
I think the author doesn’t understand that indie devs are not shackled by greedy CEOs at the top and as a result have much more leeway with what they can get away with. You cannot create a game like this or this or maybe even like this one underneath the greedy thumb of some corporate overlord… right?
Deprofessionalisation? What?
The whole article uses this term (after linking to this article to explain it) as if it was the author’s new favourite word. Francis is so obsessed with this idea that Balatro’s developer is at fault for some marketing guy losing his job that he doesn’t begin to fathom the possibility that that marketing guy’s job might just have been cut because the studio went bankrupt…
Look, after losing 400 million dollars on Concord, it wasn’t the CEOs and investors who suddenly had to update their CVs and send out job applications again. I mean, definitely not the investors at the least.
It’s the employees who get laid off.
There is definitely a need for specialists and that need is not going to go away, no matter how unsuccessful some studios are. I mean, just look at the Game of the Year that won in two consecutive years, Elden Ring: At this scale of a production, you need specialists. It’s crucial. You cannot make such an elaborate and intricate game without specialists. What are you talking about?
At the same time, AI has a much bigger chance of threatening the dev industry than indie developers who work three jobs while working on a game in their free time do. AI is a tool that helps development, and tools like Unity, Godot and Unreal (as in, game engines) or PhotoShop, Asprite, etc. (for Art) lower the barriers for entry considerably. I still do not think that “deprofessionalization” is an issue in this case though. Rather, these tools existing means that they redefine professionalism to include versatility rather than job titles.
Btw, I don’t think AI will threaten game dev, at all. It’s useful for some stuff but if you can only program using ChatGPT (which is very much not “AI” but an “LLM”, I know), you’re probably not gonna have a great time. AI will most likely just help with scams and stuff (I mean… it already does but yeah). Who knows? Maybe leaks happen in the future by some guy at a company falling for a phishing scam while logged into their work computer, lol.
Industry, Baby
I think the biggest pet peeve I have with the article is that it’s painting indie devs as the new enemy and the big boogieman because those developers chose small teams or to work alone not because they have to but rather to escape bureaucracy, retain creative control and to build more meaningful games.
Games are an art form. Being able to express yourself freely? That sounds very rad, doesn’t it?
We wouldn’t have games like Journey or GRIS if we’d have to play it safe. I wonder what a AAA-version of Journey or GRIS would look like… they’d probably be riddled with consumer-unfriendly and obtuse gacha mechanics.
The industry is failing because big companies are getting greedier and greedier while not offering more innovation and more cool things. They’re so used to re-selling the same formula and the same game, sometimes even quite literally by remaking a game that holds up perfectly fine in this day and age to come out as something not exactly new… They’ve completely forgotten why they joined the industry in the first place.
Many of these people probably could make more money if they worked somewhere else, so money is probably not the reason behind their entry. Rather, they had a dream, probably, and at some point, they forgot to renew the subscription service for said dream and ended up bending the knee to whoever owns their company now.
It’s sad.
Back to the article, though: It seems like an incredibly misguided and ill-informed attempt at a hit piece that feels almost self-indulgent. The author is shouting, “Look at me, idiots, I learned a new word”, and then pretends to know what they’re talking about when they criticise one part of the industry while completely ignoring the other parts of the industry that are on fire at the moment. Francis has this desire to throw out “deprofessionalization” as much as possible.
And I don’t fault them for it. It is a pretty cool word. That’s a lot of syllables! Wow. How did they all fit in there?
But this whole article doesn’t do much beyond misrepresenting the current state of game dev and blaming indie developers for the layoffs that happened due to the effects of late-stage capitalism and corporate greed.
Or it’s rage bait, in which case… fair… you got me a bit confused about what your intentions are and made me question whether you know what you’re talking about but if that brings you joy (and a fat paycheck), power to you.
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere other than Indiecator.org then this article has been scraped. Please let me know about this via E-Mail.
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