Creating games is challenging as it involves knowledge of many different disciplines. However, it is not as hard as some might say. It has become easier over the last few years and a lot less daunting than you might think.
There are many reasons why creating games is becoming easier but some of the major reasons include.
- Advancement in Game Engines
- Less Coding Required
- Ever-Expanding Market Places
- Advancements in Technology
- More Affordable Software
- More Tutorials
- Less Technical Knowledge Required
- More Communities
- Lots of Free Content
In this article we will discuss what exactly is making it easier to create games whether you are a hobbyist or an aspiring game developer.
1. Advancement in Game Engines
Game Engines are constantly improving. They are evolving and becoming more user-friendly. They are streamlining tasks that would typically take hours and reducing them to mere minutes.
A good example of this is the introduction of the Nanite System in Unreal Engine 5.
Historically when creating games you have been required to as much as possible reduce the number of polygons each of the models have. The more polygons they have the more computational power that is required. This can lead to hours of work manually placing polygons and using workarounds to display fine details of models.
With the Nanite System you can use any model without the need to reduce the number of polygons the model has.
No longer are you required to reduce the poly count. You can simply use any model and get it working efficiently with the click of a button. Nanite automatically reduces the poly count using its own algorithm saving hours of work.
2. Less Coding
Some game engines have tried to steer away from requiring people to physically code. Instead approaching the task with a node-based approach. With this approach the entirety of a game can be created without typing a single line of code.
Probably the best example of this is Unreal Engines Blueprints. With Blueprints you simply connect nodes together using lines to create the game logic.
Best of all this makes it really easy to error check as you can visually see how the logic is executing. It’s extremely useful and approachable to beginners with no experience in coding.
3. Ever-Expanding Market Places
Unity and Unreal Engine have huge marketplaces with content created by users who sell their hard work so you don’t have to do it.
This content ranges from adding functions to your game, models, animations and sound.
With these Marketplaces you can more or less create an entire game using what other people have created and are selling.
This is great because it means you don’t need to be a professional at everything. If you can’t code you can pay to solve your problem. If you can’t create 3d models you can simply purchase what you need.
It’s an extremely valuable ever-growing resource.
4. Advancement in Technology
Technology is always evolving making things quicker and easier. This is no different when it comes to creating games.
A great example of this is the release of RTX Graphics cards. These cards allow you to dynamically light your game in real-time. This is probably more well known as real-time ray tracing.
Previous to this advancement game developers would have to create all kinds of workarounds to mimic the way light reacts in a scene. With real-time ray tracing this is much more easily achieved.
Not only does it make it easier, but it also looks vastly better as it results in lights reacting with different materials more realistically.
5. More Affordable Software
Probably one of the biggest barriers to entry to creating games in the past has been the software required to make them.
To create games you aren’t only required to rely on Game Engines (which in the case of Unreal Engine and Unity are free). There is different 3d software required to create models, along with software to create sound and music.
Thankfully there are free options available for all these aspects of game design.
For instance, for 3d models Blender has been the standard if you wanted to do it for free. Blender over the last few years has seen huge updates making it even more accessible to everyone.
Along with this Quixel Mixer, which is a texturing software has also become free further adding to game developer’s toolset.
I have written in-depth articles on both using Blender for Games and Creating Textures in Quixel Mixer. I highly encourage you to check them out especially if you have an interest in 3d game art.
6. More Tutorials
With the increased accessibility for anyone to be able to make games, it means there are a lot more people out there with expertise which they are willing to share.
You can find a tutorial for almost anything you might be stuck on. Learning from scratch is really easy as there are tonnes of free tutorials on Youtube and some really good paid ones as well.
You will never be short of content to absorb to further develop your skills.
7. Less Technical Knowledge Required
Games are complex pieces of software, as such in the past creating one has involved knowing how to code, model, animate and create sound.
Content from Marketplaces helps with this, but the game engines themselves certainly help as well. You don’t need knowledge of complex mathematics or programming the Game Engine does the heavy lifting for you.
Alternatively, you don’t need to be the best artist in the world. Software has come far allowing you to create, customize and animate characters for free using such software as Daz Studio for Characters and Mixamo for Animation.
8. More Communities
Despite the fact there are countless tutorials there are huge communities of people on Facebook or discord groups that are willing to help out.
Not all problems are covered in tutorials so access to this wealth of knowledge people have is a huge advantage. Not to mention it is inspiring seeing what people like yourself are capable of.
9. Lots of Free Content
There is a large amount of free content available to help aspiring game developers. Particularly when it comes to the bigger games Engines like Unity and Unreal Engine.
Unreal Engine has a library of free assets both permanent and assets they release for free each month. It’s always handy to keep an eye out and snap these up each month.
Further to this Unreal Engine also gives everyone access to the Quixel Megascans library. This is a huge library of high-quality scanned models and textures. Believe me when I say this is a hugely helpful library especially for creating environments.
Conclusion
Never has there been a better time to jump in and create games and it’s only getting easier. It is challenging but you would be surprised just how easy it is to pick up. Its not as daunting as you might think.
If you are interested I encourage you to give game development a try. It is a fun and rewarding hobby to learn. The stigma of it being all code and mathematics simply isn’t true, there is so much more assistance available allowing anyone to pick it up.