Re:Why decline in generalists leads to disjointed games and ...
by somenameforme on Monday October 16, 2023 @01:45AM
(#37896272)
Valheim [1] is one of an ever-increasing number of amazing games made by extremely small teams. It was initially made by one guy in his spare time, who later picked up a former coworker to come join him after getting quite far along. That game is arguably the single most technically challenging type of game to make: seamless and dynamic (time/weather/seasons) open world, player crafting/construction in a pseudo-voxel type system, multiplayer, dynamic skill based combat, and more. Even though I'm sure they've probably grown a bit since then, the overwhelming majority of everything was done by primarily 1 guy. So yeah, it's very possible to be a generalist.
Going in the other direction, the increasingly absurd size of companies is one thing I really just can't wrap my head around at all. The final output just doesn't seem to justify these massive teams and budgets when contrasted against vastly smaller projects, like Valheim.
Going in the other direction, the increasingly absurd size of companies is one thing I really just can't wrap my head around at all. The final output just doesn't seem to justify these massive teams and budgets when contrasted against vastly smaller projects, like Valheim.
[1] - https://store.steampowered.com/app/892970/Valheim/