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Communication, ideas, listening to the public, all of these things have been a part of the games industry for a long while. We used to have coders sitting in bedrooms, in converted garages (perhaps making computer equipment out of the parts they find, a little like something from the A-team, or maybe not) plus the beginnings of large companies such as Ocean and Imagine that would take on the big name film licences, from the dire to the delightful.
The larger companies would conduct market research, find out what the public wanted, then perhaps hire small time software coders and artists to do their work, gaining knowledge and bringing the important imagination and creativity in to a stifled office environment. Smaller companies and those coders who went it alone, to hand their final work to the larger software houses for marketing, came up with original and interesting work, not always the best games, but quite often very playable and fresh, always fresh.
Bedroom coders is a phrase I do not sit to comfortably with, as it encompasses much more than just one programmer in their bedroom, Codemasters for instance started life as two brothers who created games for the 8-bit computers and then gained experience of the earlier consoles before their company really took off. The main source of small time programming came from dedicated individuals who often found themselves on the end of a freelance account with larger firms who would sell their software for them, that was where the quality control came in to play.
Looking at the development of these games coders, we see a sharp increase in larger companies taking over the smaller fledgling ones during the late 80’s and early 90’s boom in software and console sales. These smaller companies often disappeared, with the coders who worked in their offices becoming part of the larger company instead. With this came the increase in budget for games and profit from sales due partly to advertising. This spawned many games with flashy FMV intros and little else, it also made licensing of films a very important aspect of games sales as deals were now done for much greater sums of money. The programmers had more time to work on their software, larger resources and more return, but there was also something missing.
While the companies had a positive effect on gaming in the amount of public awareness and the resources they could now afford, the bedroom gamer element became extinct from the retail gaming arena. Their previous entry in to games design, the small companies, had disappeared and any future they might want in gaming came from computing degrees or job interviews, tying them to projects for one particular firm. They turned their attention to the public domain, creating many famous PD titles that are fondly remembered by Atari ST and Amiga owners today, a few even becoming games in their own right when the few number of chancing games companies took them on after being shown the code.
Man cannot live on code alone though and even shareware titles started to fade as the small time programmers found less and less money for their favourite subject. They faced the reality of getting a ‘real’ job instead and the industry lost some of the best talent it could have had. These programmers, like the early bedroom pioneers, had the imagination and could work on projects of their own, often relying on the games companies to provide art work and other finishing touches once their pet project had been coded.
We still see a few original titles, many of them from smaller branches of larger companies, but only market research seems to drive the forces of games ideas these days, with all too much emphasis on what makes the most money and ideas that sit well in the boardroom. Perhaps this is how games are meant to be made, but some of us still sigh at the thought of those elusive coders and their fantastic creations.
The larger companies would conduct market research, find out what the public wanted, then perhaps hire small time software coders and artists to do their work, gaining knowledge and bringing the important imagination and creativity in to a stifled office environment. Smaller companies and those coders who went it alone, to hand their final work to the larger software houses for marketing, came up with original and interesting work, not always the best games, but quite often very playable and fresh, always fresh.
Bedroom coders is a phrase I do not sit to comfortably with, as it encompasses much more than just one programmer in their bedroom, Codemasters for instance started life as two brothers who created games for the 8-bit computers and then gained experience of the earlier consoles before their company really took off. The main source of small time programming came from dedicated individuals who often found themselves on the end of a freelance account with larger firms who would sell their software for them, that was where the quality control came in to play.
Looking at the development of these games coders, we see a sharp increase in larger companies taking over the smaller fledgling ones during the late 80’s and early 90’s boom in software and console sales. These smaller companies often disappeared, with the coders who worked in their offices becoming part of the larger company instead. With this came the increase in budget for games and profit from sales due partly to advertising. This spawned many games with flashy FMV intros and little else, it also made licensing of films a very important aspect of games sales as deals were now done for much greater sums of money. The programmers had more time to work on their software, larger resources and more return, but there was also something missing.
While the companies had a positive effect on gaming in the amount of public awareness and the resources they could now afford, the bedroom gamer element became extinct from the retail gaming arena. Their previous entry in to games design, the small companies, had disappeared and any future they might want in gaming came from computing degrees or job interviews, tying them to projects for one particular firm. They turned their attention to the public domain, creating many famous PD titles that are fondly remembered by Atari ST and Amiga owners today, a few even becoming games in their own right when the few number of chancing games companies took them on after being shown the code.
Man cannot live on code alone though and even shareware titles started to fade as the small time programmers found less and less money for their favourite subject. They faced the reality of getting a ‘real’ job instead and the industry lost some of the best talent it could have had. These programmers, like the early bedroom pioneers, had the imagination and could work on projects of their own, often relying on the games companies to provide art work and other finishing touches once their pet project had been coded.
We still see a few original titles, many of them from smaller branches of larger companies, but only market research seems to drive the forces of games ideas these days, with all too much emphasis on what makes the most money and ideas that sit well in the boardroom. Perhaps this is how games are meant to be made, but some of us still sigh at the thought of those elusive coders and their fantastic creations.
alas, why must this world be built on money alone?
Communication, ideas, listening to the public, all of these things have been a part of the games industry for a long while. We used to have coders sitting in bedrooms, in converted garages (perhaps making computer equipment out of the parts they find, a little like something from the A-team, or maybe not) plus the beginnings of large companies such as Ocean and Imagine that would take on the big name film licences, from the dire to the delightful.
The larger companies would conduct market research, find out what the public wanted, then perhaps hire small time software coders and artists to do their work, gaining knowledge and bringing the important imagination and creativity in to a stifled office environment. Smaller companies and those coders who went it alone, to hand their final work to the larger software houses for marketing, came up with original and interesting work, not always the best games, but quite often very playable and fresh, always fresh.
Bedroom coders is a phrase I do not sit to comfortably with, as it encompasses much more than just one programmer in their bedroom, Codemasters for instance started life as two brothers who created games for the 8-bit computers and then gained experience of the earlier consoles before their company really took off. The main source of small time programming came from dedicated individuals who often found themselves on the end of a freelance account with larger firms who would sell their software for them, that was where the quality control came in to play.
Looking at the development of these games coders, we see a sharp increase in larger companies taking over the smaller fledgling ones during the late 80’s and early 90’s boom in software and console sales. These smaller companies often disappeared, with the coders who worked in their offices becoming part of the larger company instead. With this came the increase in budget for games and profit from sales due partly to advertising. This spawned many games with flashy FMV intros and little else, it also made licensing of films a very important aspect of games sales as deals were now done for much greater sums of money. The programmers had more time to work on their software, larger resources and more return, but there was also something missing.
While the companies had a positive effect on gaming in the amount of public awareness and the resources they could now afford, the bedroom gamer element became extinct from the retail gaming arena. Their previous entry in to games design, the small companies, had disappeared and any future they might want in gaming came from computing degrees or job interviews, tying them to projects for one particular firm. They turned their attention to the public domain, creating many famous PD titles that are fondly remembered by Atari ST and Amiga owners today, a few even becoming games in their own right when the few number of chancing games companies took them on after being shown the code.
Man cannot live on code alone though and even shareware titles started to fade as the small time programmers found less and less money for their favourite subject. They faced the reality of getting a ‘real’ job instead and the industry lost some of the best talent it could have had. These programmers, like the early bedroom pioneers, had the imagination and could work on projects of their own, often relying on the games companies to provide art work and other finishing touches once their pet project had been coded.
We still see a few original titles, many of them from smaller branches of larger companies, but only market research seems to drive the forces of games ideas these days, with all too much emphasis on what makes the most money and ideas that sit well in the boardroom. Perhaps this is how games are meant to be made, but some of us still sigh at the thought of those elusive coders and their fantastic creations.
The larger companies would conduct market research, find out what the public wanted, then perhaps hire small time software coders and artists to do their work, gaining knowledge and bringing the important imagination and creativity in to a stifled office environment. Smaller companies and those coders who went it alone, to hand their final work to the larger software houses for marketing, came up with original and interesting work, not always the best games, but quite often very playable and fresh, always fresh.
Bedroom coders is a phrase I do not sit to comfortably with, as it encompasses much more than just one programmer in their bedroom, Codemasters for instance started life as two brothers who created games for the 8-bit computers and then gained experience of the earlier consoles before their company really took off. The main source of small time programming came from dedicated individuals who often found themselves on the end of a freelance account with larger firms who would sell their software for them, that was where the quality control came in to play.
Looking at the development of these games coders, we see a sharp increase in larger companies taking over the smaller fledgling ones during the late 80’s and early 90’s boom in software and console sales. These smaller companies often disappeared, with the coders who worked in their offices becoming part of the larger company instead. With this came the increase in budget for games and profit from sales due partly to advertising. This spawned many games with flashy FMV intros and little else, it also made licensing of films a very important aspect of games sales as deals were now done for much greater sums of money. The programmers had more time to work on their software, larger resources and more return, but there was also something missing.
While the companies had a positive effect on gaming in the amount of public awareness and the resources they could now afford, the bedroom gamer element became extinct from the retail gaming arena. Their previous entry in to games design, the small companies, had disappeared and any future they might want in gaming came from computing degrees or job interviews, tying them to projects for one particular firm. They turned their attention to the public domain, creating many famous PD titles that are fondly remembered by Atari ST and Amiga owners today, a few even becoming games in their own right when the few number of chancing games companies took them on after being shown the code.
Man cannot live on code alone though and even shareware titles started to fade as the small time programmers found less and less money for their favourite subject. They faced the reality of getting a ‘real’ job instead and the industry lost some of the best talent it could have had. These programmers, like the early bedroom pioneers, had the imagination and could work on projects of their own, often relying on the games companies to provide art work and other finishing touches once their pet project had been coded.
We still see a few original titles, many of them from smaller branches of larger companies, but only market research seems to drive the forces of games ideas these days, with all too much emphasis on what makes the most money and ideas that sit well in the boardroom. Perhaps this is how games are meant to be made, but some of us still sigh at the thought of those elusive coders and their fantastic creations.