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There's a difference between a conscious choice to maintain a certain style or level of detail, and a lack of willingness to improve said style. The whole artic

There's a difference between a conscious choice to maintain a certain style or level of detail, and a lack of willingness to improve said style. The whole article reads to me less like "I don't want to upgrade to 3D or higher detail" and more like "I'm too comfortable to want to improve the current art by putting in 10% more detail". Disclaimer: I'm not a business owner and don't work in the games industry. My opinions are that of a layman from the (sometimes similar) maze of the development agency sector. Lesson 1 is correct. Perfectionism will always be there. Lesson 2 has a false premise that the amount of effort and cost to increase art quality is more than the value gained in sales and profit. It's not wrong that hiring more people will be a bit of a gamble, but also putting more time in it to iron out kinks is an alternative step. If you're a business owner then long hours are the norm, no? Lesson 3 is just putting the blame on the freelancers. Yes it's hard to find talent and yes it's hard to afford it, but that shouldn't be an excuse to just give up on trying to strive for better. Lesson 4 I agree with. One should follow their strengths. However that doesn't mean stagnating at one level.

jplayer01 7y ago
> There's a difference between a conscious choice to maintain a certain style or level of detail, and a lack of willingness to improve said style. The whole article reads to me less like "I don't want to upgrade to 3D or higher detail" and more like "I'm too comfortable to want to improve the current art by putting in 10% more detail". He has an entire section dedicated to this issue though. Which boils down to the fact that improving the graphics sufficiently for enough people to not say "this looks like crap" far outstrips the budget and team he has available. His take: > I have had games where I worked very hard to improve the graphics, spending a lot of time and money, and they really did look better! But when I released those games, the vast majority of people who had said, "Your games look bad." STILL said, "Your games look bad." I get his position and I don't see a problem here. Gamers are incredibly fickle and I wouldn't want to be subject to the whims of the gaming community's opinions on graphics. Of course, he's choosing to limit his audience to an extent but ... that's fine. He wants to focus on everything else that can make a game good and valuable and it seems that's something that his business has continued to survive on.
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  I think he doesn't understand why people say the games look bad (and people may have trouble articulating the real reasons too); I believe 'meheleventyone captured the root issue elsewhere[0] - the game he presented has inconsistent, crappy style. Which can be contrasted to other simple games he uses as a justification - these games look well because they have a particular style. The solution isn't to go 3D, or add more details - it's to get one artist responsible for the overall style and refactor art relentlessly so that it all fits together. It should be entirely within his budget. -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766174
  - gtirloni 7y ago
    He explains why he doesn't want to get a single permanent artist in the article. A few times.
    - jplayer01 7y ago
      ... it's like nobody's reading the article. And it's a good article.
      - CathedralBorrow 7y ago
        It's an interesting pattern to notice; well written articles that pre-emptively address common questions, and then a pile of comments that ask those exact same questions.
        TeMPOraL 7y ago
        Some articles (like this) don't address common questions, they brush them aside, possibly not realizing that actually addressing them would remove the point behind the article.
        vidarh 7y ago
x0to1 7y ago
> Lesson 3 is just putting the blame on the freelancers. Yes it's hard to find talent and yes it's hard to afford it, but that shouldn't be an excuse to just give up on trying to strive for better. As a business owner, you have to do some kind of de-risking to your production process. If that includes not relying on freelancers so you can hit deadlines, that's fine. It's a completely valid excuse.
Beltiras 7y ago
Lesson 3 is not about blaming anyone but acknowledging the nature of the relationships in the space.

jplayer01 7y ago

> There's a difference between a conscious choice to maintain a certain style or level of detail, and a lack of willingness to improve said style. The whole article reads to me less like "I don't want to upgrade to 3D or higher detail" and more like "I'm too comfortable to want to improve the current art by putting in 10% more detail". He has an entire section dedicated to this issue though. Which boils down to the fact that improving the graphics sufficiently for enough people to not say "this looks like crap" far outstrips the budget and team he has available. His take: > I have had games where I worked very hard to improve the graphics, spending a lot of time and money, and they really did look better! But when I released those games, the vast majority of people who had said, "Your games look bad." STILL said, "Your games look bad." I get his position and I don't see a problem here. Gamers are incredibly fickle and I wouldn't want to be subject to the whims of the gaming community's opinions on graphics. Of course, he's choosing to limit his audience to an extent but ... that's fine. He wants to focus on everything else that can make a game good and valuable and it seems that's something that his business has continued to survive on.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
I think he doesn't understand why people say the games look bad (and people may have trouble articulating the real reasons too); I believe 'meheleventyone captured the root issue elsewhere[0] - the game he presented has inconsistent, crappy style. Which can be contrasted to other simple games he uses as a justification - these games look well because they have a particular style. The solution isn't to go 3D, or add more details - it's to get one artist responsible for the overall style and refactor art relentlessly so that it all fits together. It should be entirely within his budget. -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20766174
- gtirloni 7y ago
  He explains why he doesn't want to get a single permanent artist in the article. A few times.
  - jplayer01 7y ago
    ... it's like nobody's reading the article. And it's a good article.
    - CathedralBorrow 7y ago
      It's an interesting pattern to notice; well written articles that pre-emptively address common questions, and then a pile of comments that ask those exact same questions.
      - TeMPOraL 7y ago
        Some articles (like this) don't address common questions, they brush them aside, possibly not realizing that actually addressing them would remove the point behind the article.
        vidarh 7y ago

x0to1 7y ago

> Lesson 3 is just putting the blame on the freelancers. Yes it's hard to find talent and yes it's hard to afford it, but that shouldn't be an excuse to just give up on trying to strive for better. As a business owner, you have to do some kind of de-risking to your production process. If that includes not relying on freelancers so you can hit deadlines, that's fine. It's a completely valid excuse.

Beltiras 7y ago

Lesson 3 is not about blaming anyone but acknowledging the nature of the relationships in the space.