Jared Lewin GDC 2018

Post date: Apr 06, 2018 2:22:55 AM

    Hello all my name is Jared Lewin and I've noticed some very particular trends at this years GDC. I will start with the realizations that I gathered from Ninja Theories presentation on their new release Hellblade. Ninja Theory is not a new studio and they've released popular games before. What they are doing which is new to me though is using multiple teams within a studio to create more than one game. Only a small portion of Ninja Theory worked on Hellblade while the rest of the studio worked on other things. This is an extremely smart strategy that helps avert larger risks and create multiple sources of income for one company as I understand it. After hearing Ninja Theory explain this I noticed that many other studios are heading in this direction. This might not come as a huge surprise seeing as how larger studios like Blizzard already use this workflow but what's interesting is to see how smaller studios are now also doing this. Why does this matter? Well it makes me believe as studios look for smaller more independent teams they will be looking for team members who can accomplish many roles and so we will be seeing a sort of renaissance of games being made by smaller teams. I think then that it is interesting that we are also now seeing at this years GDC less focus on big companies but on programs that allow smaller companies to make big games. 

    What I mean by this is that where once large companies had booths on the expo floor we know have companies making tools for smaller companies who need to complete big tasks. A good example would be the true sky booth which has become a constant or the speed tree booth. Both of these booths are selling programs that if utilized correctly could help bring a task traditionally split by a whole team down to one or two people essentially helping create the sort of environment where a game like Hellblade could be created. A huge example of this would be the Epic booths. I say booths because Epic practically owned half of the expo floor. It is extremely interesting how the largest company being represented isn't a company that is big necessarily for it's games, sorry Fortnite and rest in peace Paragon, but for how it helps small teams make big games. Not only that but many of the exhibits being displayed at the Epic booths were from smaller teams. As I understand the two halls were split in to essentially the triple A side and the indie side but this year the bleeding between the two was enormous. The triple A representation in the main expo hall was surprisingly small.

    Another example of this would be the Vermintide 2 booth. Vermintide 2 was being used as an prime example of new game tech and how it could be used. Vermintide 2 is no massive triple A effort. It was made by a team that has only just recently broken into a number that would be considered double A. I could on and on about that point but I think it's simple enough. A smaller team got the spotlight because they were able to create a game that felt just as good as any triple A game. And they were able to do that because of the newer and better tools that are available to us as developers.