Game Development Slowdown?

General Discussions
#1

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feel that Java game development has slowed? Maybe it’s not limited to Java? I just get the vibe, that there are not that many new cool independent games being produced? The game showcase has the occasional new game appear, but overall nothing much happening. Looking at the java4k competition; there are currently 15 entries (1 month left). Last year, there were 58 entries. OK, still less a month to go.

Is there a new underground game development forum I don’t know about? ;D

#2

not sure about others, however i am unable to spare the time to make an entry into the 4k comp this year… i do have a prototype, but unfortunately my work load at my job and renovating my house leaves very little time for game dev :frowning:

#3

Actually the activity on this forum has been decreasing a lot over the past year. I’m not sure if this is due to a decline in Java gaming development though, as the forums of Java 3D and jMonkeyEngine are quite active. It seems that the interest in some generic Java gaming community has disappeared.

It’s a shame that Java 3D has been frozen, as it had been around for a very long time and there was a ton of documentation and tutorials for it, making it a very useful entry to Java and 3D.

#4

All sorts of speculation could arise about what’s going on… for one thing Java did rather lose the battle for browser gaming to Flash which probably accounts for rather a lot of interest dropping off; and it also rather lost the battle to get onto a console so it sort of lost out against C# and XNA there too. All of which can add up to less interest.

Cas :slight_smile:

#5

I’ve noticed a general slowing down on all game programming forums over the last year. 2008 was a ridiculously good year for games, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was having an effect.

#6

I bet you meant 2006?

People tend to pay for little console games, large console games, mobile phone games, generally not for sub-AAA indie-games.

C# can be deployed on XBox Marketplace, so there you go.

Further, we, the java-gaming-community, have written little games ourselves, which may be stimulating and motivating for newbies.

#7

I don’t think people mind paying for small PC games, there are just not many out there - at least not new ones. It’s not only Java. I see it as a general problem. There are not that many programmers out there that have the time and skill to create a game. It takes lots of time.

Also, in regards to Java, there isn’t much support from Sun. They pretty much dropped Java3D for the desktop. It’s not that bad though with other frameworks (e.g. JMonkeyEngine) around. One thing that bothers me is their showcase on www.java.com. When did that get updated last time? They add one or two new desktop games a year. It’s hard for developers to market their games. www.java.com is a great platform. It would benefit both the developers and Sun. I tried to get my game on there twice, but seems no one cares. On the other hand there is Apple which has all games for their computers listed online. Why can Apple do it but not Sun? ???

#8

As you said, one indicator of a slowdown is that only 15 games have been submitted into the Java 4K competition. Usually there are 50+ games submitted over a period of 3 months, but it’s 2 months + 5 days already now.

I can’t see that a different format of the competition is to blame, as the new site is very accessible (IMO).

Perhaps Java game development is more mature now, and those who used to be interested in Java2D programming have migrated to libraries such as Slick and jME. For others, such as me, I’m either just too lazy, have too many projects ongoing or school or work occupies my time.

#9

Well, I’m too busy because I’m actually writing Java games :stuck_out_tongue:

Cas :slight_smile:

#10

princec is right. There’s alot of other game programming languages and tools out there. There’s even people selling games made with Game Maker. Remember, Sun didn’t make Java specifically for game programming. It’s something that just sort of happened.

The United States is falling into an economic recession. That may have some effect, though it’s unclear to me exactly how relevant that is. It’s not that much of a recession, and I doubt that the credit, real estate, and stock slump we’re having affects indie game programmers much.

I’ve actually made more money selling games in the past year than in all my life up to now. Of course, that’s only because this is the first time I had a game worth buying for sale. So it means nothing.

I’m about 4 months behind on where I thought I’d be on the game I’m making now. First, we decided to make it into a pack of 3 games instead of just 1 game. Second, I goofed off for 2-3 weeks in November. Third, I spent all of December updating our website.

I haven’t been posted here as much because I just haven’t had the time. I update my website on Monday. I work 4 days a week on my game. I work 5-6 days a week at my real job. Yes, that’s 9-10 days per week. 3 out of the 5 days I’m at work, I’m working on something else too.

Basically, the only time I have off is Saturday morning. I don’t have alot time left. I read the forums, but don’t post much. And, boy, do I need some sleep.

#11

To put a glass-half-full spin on this, when I first started lurking on these forums people were frequently surprised by what could be done using Java. Nowadays it’s pretty much taken for granted that any game you want to make, Java’s up to the task (give or take the odd argument over the interpretation of Java vs C++ performance statistics – and come to think of it it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen one of those).

So maybe there’s not such a need for Java-specific game development forums anymore, in much the same way that you don’t see C+±specific forums.

So, in some sense: Mission Accomplished!

(But don’t turn these forums off just yet because I’m quite fond of them! :wink: )

#12

so, which other game development forums/sites are you guys lurking around?

#13

Only Indiegamer for me but I use that one less and less as it’s sort of becoming overrun with n00bs and the level of useful (to me) posts has dropped off. TIGsource has some lively forums too but I don’t visit often. And as for Gamedev.net don’t make me laugh :slight_smile:

Cas :slight_smile:

#14

Ah, it’s not just me then. I stopped reading indiegamer a while back when 90% of the technical topics were n00bs asking “how do i rite teh codez???”. All the non-technical posts seem to be people writing mediocre clones to sell to soccer moms.

#15

Maybe the whole industry is in the doldrums.

Cas :slight_smile:

#16

I noticed java-gaming.org isn’t indexed by Google, and the JGO register captcha often has broken images in it. Those two combined are probably keeping a lot of new users away from here!

It might be that the JGO attrition rate > JGO new user rate.

#17

Has to be said though that the quality of the posts on this board is probably the best of any public forum I’ve used on any subject.

Cas :slight_smile:

#18

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ajava-gaming.org

Wow… that certainly looks bad. A zillion of error messages and nothing else. How did that happen?

#19

Google’s cache says “An Error Has Occurred! Sorry Guest, you are banned from using this forum!”

#20

The discovery that the person who wrote the book you were using as a student when starting out with game development, is actually a member of the same forum as you is quite interesting. Can I have your autograph :stuck_out_tongue: