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[Golds]

What games do you want to be making in 5 years?

Erotic games.

[Alex Vostrov]

Five years from now, though -- I think procedural generation is pretty interesting.  I tried to do some static level-generation stuff for my Assemblee project, but oh man did I get in over my head.  I don't even really think that static level generation is the most interesting thing procedural generation has to offer... I think Canabalt hit upon (maybe stumbled upon) the promise of procedural generation:  level generation that responds to the player, as opposed to some algorithm generating well-put-together but nonresponsive levels.

Interactive content generation...interesting.

My thoughts mostly focused of procedural generation with a "dramatic" bias.  In other words, how to make interesting levels, instead of them feeling bland and homogeneous.

[stolide]

Five years from now... By then I hope I have come up with a new (or at least very rare) way of presenting information in a game. You have side scrollers, first person, over head, over the shoulder, text based, sound based. These are all different ways that the player obtains information about the game world, either through images, words or sounds. I want some way to combine those images words and sound different from the above, different than normally seen.

I have thought about graphic novel style, where one has multiple "rooms" on the screen that one can move through, perhaps with preset events that occur upon entering each "room." Something like that is a very different way of presenting the information. If you make a brawler using the presentation of a graphic novel, it will be far more interesting than if the same brawler was just a side scroller.

Unfortunately, I also want the perspective of the player to reflect the story/mechanics of the game. In a spy game, you flip on thermal vision, and you obtain new information (heat) based on how images are dislplayed. A different game uses the vibration of the controller to indicate how close you are to a hidden item. Now imagine if all of these kinds of things were applied to all gameplay mechanics, and one had a good story.

That is where I would like to be.

[LemonScented]

In 5 years... Well I'll have finished the one I'm working on now. And I will hopefully have finished the one I put on hold to make the one I'm working on now. So I guess I'll be working on the one I put on hold to make the one I put on hold to make the one I'm working on now.

That one is about robots 

[Alec S.]

I'd like to be making 3D action adventure games.  I've been planing out a big post-apocalyptic(x2.5[ie. humanity was almost destroyed, rebuilt itself, then almost destroyed itself again, then rebuilt itself, and now is currently in the middle of another possible catastrophe]) action adventure game.  I'd like to emulate the N64 era of games like Legend of Zelda:  Ocarina of Time as well as the Rareware platformer games of the time.

[Reiss]

Interactive content generation...interesting.

My thoughts mostly focused of procedural generation with a "dramatic" bias.  In other words, how to make interesting levels, instead of them feeling bland and homogeneous.

Yeah, you can think of interactive generation as being a part of that too -- like what Valve did in Left 4 Dead, where they had AI determining the pacing of levels, to make the levels themselves feel more alive.

[Akari]

In five years I hope the amount of big finished games will be up from 0 to at least 3 or 4. And then I'd be working on the next one.

I always wanted to make a survival horror game. Even though they scare me I still play them. In 5 years who knows

Funny thing is I've always thought the same, even though I generally don't like horror games because I'm such a scaredy-cat and too afraid to play them. Yet I've always wanted to make one. The best thing is that it's what I'm working on now

[gunswordfist]

I'm too scared to even pretend like the last paragraph exists.

Anyway, I plan on making platformers/Metroidvanias, shoot em ups and beat em ups. I believe those are the only genres I'll be doing games in. I'll probably try to do simple platformers first then work my way up to the top down/sidescrolling shoot em ups and beat em ups and then to the Metroidvanias.

[Destral]

I keep a very large spreadsheet of games I want to make, linked to design docs in various states of progress for each. Right now, I'm working on the smaller, simpler games, the ones I can realistically complete by myself or with small amounts of external aid. In five years time I hope to have moved on to the heavy hitters on that same list: RPGs, Sandboxes, and the like.

Although heck, I'll be happy to have worked my way to the midsize projects with a modicum of success.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I've been thinking about the future of this indie thing that we've going on here.  Right now there isn't any focused direction or vision to the project, other than making games that we want to make.  There's nothing wrong with this, of course - our creative freedom is one of our strengths.  At the same time disorganization is antithetical to any sort of world-changing effort.  So, a lot depends on how closely people's visions cohere.

i feel that it's totally incorrect to say that disorganization is antithetical to any sort of world-changing effort. have you read the history of videogames any? it was totally disorganized. read how 'space war!' was created some time. for instance, part of the reason he created it was because he said he'd create a program where you are in space. he was inspired to make the game originally because he was a fan of b-grade science fiction, such as doc savage. people kept pushing him to do it, to get started on it, but he delayed forever, he procrastinated; like today's indie game dev, he lacked motivation. he gave an excuse that he didn't know how to use sine or cosine in computers -- he had no routine for them, and that they are absolutely necessary for geometrical movement. so one of his co-workers went and got the sine and cosine routines for him from some other university or database or something, and said: here, now you have no excuse, make this. having no excuse, he did. later, his co-workers improved parts of it, adding a gravity field and stars. totally unorganized. yet it changed the world by making the first videogame (of enough depth to be worthy of that name) in 1961-1962.

disorganization and accident is what usually moves the world, not theory. what if doc savage hadn't existed; what if that guy didn't find the sine and cosine algorithms; what if he wasn't a braggart and didn't tell everyone he wanted to make a space game; what if is co-workers were less pushy and didn't push him into making it? all little accidents.

[fraxcell]

I hope I can get a firmer grasp of 3d modelling and animation. I've started working with stuff like unity and zbrush, and in five years I hope I'll be able to make some actual games with them.
My dream would be a game with the same lvel of emergence and procedural generation of Spelunky, but in 3d (totally different aesthetics obviously, but similar gameplay goals).

[BlueSweatshirt]

Four score and a year ago I would always draw inspiration to make a game based on other games. I've learned again, recently, and flip-flopped my policy.

Now I figure if I'm getting inspiration to make a game from another game, it's not worth my time-- Because that game's already been made before, and my attempt to replicate it's mechanics would probably fall short of the original's capacity.

I see myself making 3D games mainly after this project of mine-- I believe it's much more effective creating an impacting experience.

Really I'm going where the wind takes me. I want to make games that reflect things more than battle tactics and competition-- things like the beauty of the world and the state of society and economy. Such and such.
I might just expand upon and make sequels upon the new concept I'm developing, or I might take this experience and scrap it again and again and keep making totally fresh games.

My only two solid statements for what I want to be doing in 5 years are:
3D
'make more than mock'

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

forgot to answer this part:

I thought that taking a sample of people's plans and hopes would be a good barometer of future progress.  I see a lot of people making platformers, shmups and puzzle games.  Is this a permanent interest or do you plan to work on other things as time passes?  Where do people see themselves in 5 years?

i have a list of games i'd like to make, most are at least half-designed on paper; some require resources and time and skills i don't have available currently. most are pretty good designs i think. it's a pity i won't have time to make them all.

also:

 A lot of the time I start by challenging the existing conventions of a genre - "What would a strategy game look like if the units couldn't move?"

...tower defense?

[Ashkin]

What games do you want to be making in five years?

Good ones.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

another example from game history to add to my previous point which i just remembered: remember how nolan bushnell was sort of a narcissist and a liar? remember how he told al alcorn that he had a contract with g.e. and wanted him to make a game with two paddles, a ball, and a score, and nothing else? he did that because he wanted to teach al alcorn how to make games, he really had no contract and had no intention of marketing the game. what if nolan bushnell wasn't so deceptive? what if he didn't think of the simplest idea for a game he possibly could in order to play a trick on al alcorn in order to teach him how to make games? since bushnell had previously ported a much more complicated and nerdy game, space war, to arcades, he felt the idea of a game as simple as pong was easy and could never work in the market. none of that was planned out, they didn't plan to make a successful game, but it worked out that way and changed the industry. he planned to just throw it away when it was done, it was something to keep al alcorn occupied. he felt that the next hit game would be even more complex than the already very complex space wars.

i think pretty much all advances to the industry necessarily happen the same way, accidents that you can't plan for or theorize about until they happen. the best you can do is recognize them after they happen and watch in awe.

[iPope]

In 5 years I would like to making the same games I make now, just earning money for it and running my own games company.

Well that's the dream.

[BoxedLunch]

in five years i want to be making awsum gaems. 

[Triplefox]

Today:

I'm primarily questing to find/make/learn better tools, improve my abilities as a solo developer, and my business skills. I'm mostly focusing on variants of known concepts; I don't subscribe to "Game Jam" mentality, though, because I feel like I'm kind of past that stage - I've made plenty of little projects since I was a kid. I recognize most of the major pitfalls and can make decent prototypes, but to go to the next level I have to continue grappling with the problems that come up when you start expanding scope and try to make everything really polished and playtested. I set some limits - 2D, Flash, all the typical commercial hooks I can think of(why not make some money?) - but even given those the territory is huge. I see the next five years as a period where, as I learn more of the in's and out's, I can really come into my own and make some awesome work.

In five years:

I'll have sufficient mastery of everything - and financial resources - to take on really, really ambitious stuff. I'll still probably be working in 2D and in the browser. I might start working with teams again somewhere along the way just to avoid taking years in between new releases. I want to investigate interactive storytelling and characterization more, but I want to avoid conventional formats for doing so. I also want to do something with deeper simulation. I might already be taking on that latter goal with my next major project.


I see myself mostly as a "medium" person, rather than a "message" person. If I were the latter I would probably be content with smaller scopes and more conventional mechanics, but my interest lies in the techniques of good game design, rather than the purpose. Maybe I'll change my tune in 5 years; 2015 is quite a while away, and I'll be entering my 30's that year.

[RabTom]

In 5 years.. I'd like to be working with a small passionate team of other indies. Doesn't really matter on what, as long as it's something new and innovative. Preferably something RPG'ish though.

[DuoX10]

Five years is a lot of time, so I hope to be a way better than I am now about 3D modeling, and finally, learn something more about physics to implement in my games. Going into a job about game development could be great, but yet developing my own projects.

I want to develop RPG (japanese system style), and action games, more than the others.
Just need to be away of my lazy side.