PC Game Development

Hey,

I read an interesting article over at Gamasutra and wanted to write a bit about it. You can find the article here. The article covers 3 different issues facing PC games: accepting the differences between consoles and the PC, team size and returns, and myths about big budgets.

Each point hits key issues facing PC gaming and need to start being taken into account. Large NPD driven publishers put out AAA title after AAA title and churn out iterations for each console and the PC. Games like this barely ever fulfill expectations and often give the company a bad reputation. All of the consoles and the PC have something that they are better at than the others. This fact should be embraced by developers rather than fought with.

When a developer decides to put a game onto the PC they should look at all of the strengths of the PC and decide if it really is the appropriate place to develop. If you're a game that has a really complex interface and lots of differnt commands the PC is a great place to play it. There are other instances where developing for one or more of the consoles might be the best choice.

I think a lot of people underestimates the amount of people that play or even prefer playing computer games. Obviously the price stops a lot of peoplebut it does not stop everyone. The combined benefits of the PC being easy to develop on and the ability to have smaller teams makes the lack of as large an audience okay. As the article states some of the largest PC developers have the smallest teams.

One of the largest points thae article missed but was mentioned in the comments was personalization. The consoles are starting to realize that people love personalizing their space. The new interfaces for the Xb0x 360 and the PS3 are proof of this. Even with all that personalization the PC trumps them. The PC is an intimate experienceand gives you almost limitless options. Most PC games allow the player to edit the UI and customize it to their liking. This personalization is something unique to the PC and should be added to developer's lists when deciding to develop on the PC.

Cyaz