Game builders

[coderanger]

It seems simple game-maker-ish tools are on the rise again. In the last few days I have seen new ones from both Microsoft and Cartoon Network. While I like that more of this make-your-own-game-experience attitude, I worry many future designers may be overly locked in to these systems, at least at an ideological level. While the simplicity offered

Comments

[arkineux]

Does MS Paint reduce the number of fine artists in the world? There's nothing wrong in simplified tools for beginners, it's just a matter of finding the users who are upset with the limitations of the system and want to move to something more advanced. If you start them with pure C++, many will get overwhelmed and give up before they get anywhere. Small moves.

[coderanger]

I feel very strongly that current education in the field doesn't encourage breaking these boundaries nearly enough. Even here at RPI, the introduction of "winners" into the gamefest pretty specifically punishes people that try to push a boundary and fail, as they will undoubtedly be ranked much lower for it. While hopefully this will reduce the chances of someone pushing a boundary that should remain in place like limiting scope, there are others that should be much more lax. Universities in general seem to be trying to encourage staying 99% in the lines, and only deviating where is it societally acceptable.

[arkineux]

This isn't a traditional liberal arts education. We need to consider what the employer wants, and for the most part, there aren't many studios that are looking for artsy games. That said, we do think it's unfair that the games are judged on marketability, and next year we plan to have a second panel of judges outside of VV that rate for "indie" potential.

[jzig]

I learned to program and design games in a very restrictive environment (MegaZeux rocks!), and I think it HELPED me. I strongly believe that it is easier to be creative in a somehow restricted environment, and tools are one of those.

If you give most people (me included) a completely open canvas with which they can make any game they want to, the end up either copying something else, or just doing nothing. I love restrictive development environments.

[jzig]

And with regard to breaking those limits, I felt an inherent need to get outside of them when I realized I had done all I could. I didn't need to be told that I could do more, I took it as a challenge instead.

There are things that can keep people creatively repressed and not want to reach higher, but I don't think there's any way to force people to do so. If you try, they'll just find some smaller box to crawl into.