What Do Industry-Wide Layoffs Mean For You?

I've noticed a fairly steady flow of layoff and studio-closure announcements over the past six months, and very little in the way of promising startups or studio expansions. Electronic Arts (EA) recently announced another round of layoffs, leading to the expected speculation about studio closures around the world (especially in Montreal). In a market where video games continue to gain traction with new and old players alike, how can we interpret this counter-intuitive news? And what does it mean for professionals in the industry looking for work?

Lean Business vs. Bloated Payrolls
One constant in the layoff announcements is the focus on "leaning up" organizational structures in the industry. Let's face it, tech talent is not cheap, and the best software engineers come at a hefty price. Perhaps the expanding and saturated video game market is slowing down on it's support for multi-million dollar cash-cow franchises, and companies with huge payrolls are no longer seeing the payoff they once could.

Consider Blizzard's new development project, "Hearthstone," which I believe currently has a 15-person development team committed to it. Blizzard mentions in their sneak-peek trailer that they believe small, lean teams developing niche games is the way of the future. I've also heard this kind of language in numerous Kickstarter campaigns run by industry veterans (think Project Eternity). The concepts of lean business seem to be making their way into our industry (a bit late compared to others), and layoffs are an inevitable result of this.

In a nutshell, the concept of lean business is about employing as few people as possible, and owning as few assets as possible, while outsourcing all nonessential functions. This concept lends itself extremely well to a game-development studio or publisher. Think about things like community relations, customer support, tools programming, audio production, and testing -- all of these things can bloat a company's payroll, taxes, and insurance liability, when these functions could easily be performed by outside contractors.

Lean business models can provide a pathway to financial success for game companies. Unfortunately, when a bloated company tries to become lean, people are going to be hurt in the process.

Opportunities for Professionals
This trend may seem scary at first for industry professionals, but there is a ray of light in all this. At the end of the day, it doesn't take fewer people to make games in 2013 than it did in 2012. Therefore, a leaner payroll means that companies will need to hire more contractors than ever before. Let's say, hypothetically, that a AAA project at EA requires a 200-person team. Perhaps 175 of those people would traditionally be employees, and 25 would be contractors (arbitrary figures). If so, then perhaps their next 200-person project will include 100 employees and 100 contractors, or more realistically, 100 employees and three contractor companies that each put 33 people on the project. So, the opportunities for work are still there for experienced professionals, but the opportunities for "employment" are dwindling. Those laid-off professionals who look for entrepreneurial opportunities to leverage their skills as contractors may find more success than those who seek employment elsewhere.

I'm willing to bet that we'll see many more opportunities for independent professionals to find good work in the future, and at a higher price than they could fetch as an employee. The drawbacks, of course, are the absence of the corporate safety net -- the insurance, benefits, paid days off, bonuses and other employee perks. These are some of the very things that large companies are looking to save money on.

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Gamasutra: New, Significant Layoffs Hit Electronic Arts

What Makes a Solid eSports Game?

The ESL is one of many popular eSports event franchises around the world.

eSports is on the rise in a wide range of genres, with the support of outlets such as Twitch.tv and dedicated casting organizations such as the North American Star League (NASL) and Major League Gaming (MLG). Growing numbers of viewers watch live events from aroudn the world, and big-name sponsors like Alienware and Intel are taking notice and backing events, players, and teams.

Developers and publishers of eSports games find themselves in a new world of opportunities, where suddenly their entertainment products become a way of life for professional competitors around the world, and an obsession for legions of eSports fans. Owning the intellectual property of an eSports-centered franchise brings a new level of sustained revenue and interest that basic multiplayer games, and even most MMO's, cannot achieve. Up to now, it would seem that the games that become successful in the eSports world have been flukes, gaining popularity over similar titles through a combination of great design, compelling visuals and loyal playerbases. Based on what we've seen in successful franchises such as Starcraft 2, League of Legends, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, we can now begin to analyze the things that all of these games have in common, allowing us as developers to understand exactly what our games need to have to gain popularity in the world of eSports.

Balance
Let's start with the basics; the obvious elements. Balance is key, and is never taken for granted by serious players. Balancing different races, weapons, abilities and stats is a constant exercise for developers of eSports games. Players must always feel that they have an equal chance at victory, and that their opponents do not have an unfair advantage. Balance becomes even more of a challenge in games with asymmetric factions (different races with different units and structures, for example). Constant play-testing is key in the delicate act of balance. Play-testers should include the widest range of gamers possible: from in-house testers to beta testers; from veterans to casual players; from young players to older.

Control
Controls have to be tight, logical, and above all, customizable. The mechanics of controls are of paramount importance to veteran players, and each player has slightly different preferences for control schemes. The player must feel like he is in full control in an eSports title. Any lag between commands and execution can ruin a competitive experience, as can randomly unresponsive controls. Players should be able to quickly perform any action that logically fits within the framework of the game, and they should be able to do it without looking at their keyboards. Again, bringing in the widest range of play-testers possible can help greatly here. Never make assumptions about controls. Always seek feedback from players and testers.

Skill
Skill-based competition is the only type embraced in the eSports world, and for good reason. MMORPG PvP has never broken into the world of eSports due to its heavy reliance on gear and character attributes, for example, while first-person shooters have always had a presence. Skill-based competition goes back to the issue of balance. Each player should feel that the only thing that can lead him to victory is his own personal skill, not the contents of a character inventory or a collection of hard-earned perks. The most popular eSports games build in achievements and vanity rewards to make players feel as if they are accumulating goodies, but these rewards do nothing to provide an unfair advantage.

Emergent Strategy
The possibility of emergent strategy may be the most important design factor that rockets games to eSports stardom. Emergence, an elusive yet well-studied concept in game design, can be simply defined as a simple framework of rules and systems, out of which can emerge countless variations of play. Minecraft is today's shining example of emergent design; think about how simple Minecraft's mechanics and controls are, and how vast the number of different creations have come from it (everything from a 10,000 foot tall portrait of Barack Obama to a fully functional MMORPG).

This is the essential element in an eSports game: the players' ability to create, refine, and evolve their strategic options within a deceptively simple framework. Consider how the four ability slots and 6 item slots in League of Legends allow players an unlimited number of character builds, or how a defined set of structures and units in Starcraft 2 can be used in an unlimited number of ways. Even first-person shooters like CoD:BO2 provide emergent possibilities, since players can deploy such a wide range of tactics all around a map.