The annual GDC Survey is out now and it's an interesting look into what developers are up to and how the industry is changing, and some of the info this time around is pretty eyebrow raising.
Firstly, to note, this survey ran between Oct. 11 to Oct. 29, 2023 and contains answers polled from over 3,000 developers working in the games industry. As with all surveys, a pinch of salt is needed but it's a great overall look at the state of things.
Scanning through the PDF with my Mark I Eyeball, the first real interesting result is on what platform the developers are developing for with 66% of responses for PC. This is a good showing, and clearly PC gaming is stronger than it ever has been before when you take into account the growth of Steam as well. Remember Valve even said Steam had 83,000 new customers every day in 2022, but we haven't seen a 2023 overview yet.
For Linux specifically, only 7% said they were developing for it.
Image credit: GDC, click to enlarge.
The really interesting bit though is when it comes to generative AI. The AI flood gates have been opened by Valve for Steam with their new rules, and no doubt many developers will be looking into using it, and some already are. According to the survey 49% of developers overall are using it or they have colleagues using it. That's split across many departments though from finance to programming and all sorts. But AI generation is clearly already popular.
Image credit: GDC, click to enlarge.
Image credit: GDC, click to enlarge.
The survey also showed that indie developers were more likely to be the ones using AI at 37%, and not the bigger AAA lot at 21%. Although no doubt this will change over time as AI generation continues improving. When asked about how developers think the impact of generative AI will be only 21% were positive about it, with 57% feeling mixed and 18% having a negative opinion of it. Only 1% thought it would have no impact and another 3% didn't know.
You can register to see the survey on the GDC website.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Arehandoro Jan 22
Fester_Mudd Jan 22
QuoteFor Linux specifically, only 7% said they were developing for it.I saw the charts posted on another site beforehand, and honestly I found this to be quite positive - has it ever been this high before?
Quoting: PenglingQuoteFor Linux specifically, only 7% said they were developing for it.I saw the charts posted on another site beforehand, and honestly I found this to be quite positive - has it ever been this high before?
Maybe. Historically, the number of devs saying it has been a fair bit higher than the number actually doing it.
Quoting: Fester_MuddOn the positive note, possibly AI will help reach Linux port initially for the devs to start with. AI could help towards total platform freedom? Exclusiveness is not of this day and age at all.I dunno. Do you think that's the kind of thing it would be good at? I can see that kind of thing getting automated, at least partially, with normal software*, but I'm not sure that the stuff we've been calling "AI" would do it well. Because, like, porting strikes me as one of these fiddly things where the details all have to be done right, whereas "AI" seems to be better at broad strokes, "mushy" kind of output.
*Arguably it already is--SDL2, for instance.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 22 January 2024 at 5:20 pm UTC
eridanired123 Jan 22
And creative stuff at the bottom, that's what we always have been good at and doesn't seem to be changing soon, I'm smelling a drastic shift in our education systems in the near future, to accommodate people away from the jobs that will be overtaken by "AIs".
Last edited by eridanired123 on 22 January 2024 at 5:43 pm UTC
Fester_Mudd Jan 22
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: Fester_MuddOn the positive note, possibly AI will help reach Linux port initially for the devs to start with. AI could help towards total platform freedom? Exclusiveness is not of this day and age at all.I dunno. Do you think that's the kind of thing it would be good at? I can see that kind of thing getting automated, at least partially, with normal software*, but I'm not sure that the stuff we've been calling "AI" would do it well. Because, like, porting strikes me as one of these fiddly things where the details all have to be done right, whereas "AI" seems to be better at broad strokes, "mushy" kind of output.
*Arguably it already is--SDL2, for instance.
Yeah, to start with. Then the devs could process with little less work to fix the parts that the AI didn't quite interpret so well. It's possible that many times devs don't think to do a Linux port as they assume it would be very, very difficult. Using AI as a tool to show those kind of devs it's not by pushing a button in the very beginning, then taking a look at it and "finishing it"... This just immediately popped to my mind out of nowhere. AI sure CAN BE a great tool. Here, maybe, maybe not! We'll see!
TheRiddick Jan 22
If AI generated material is used correctly then it can be a asset to a game studio but if its being used because everyone is just too lazy and trying to skip over work, well then it typically shows and the game suffers for it!
Generative AI is really not meant to be a 100% do-it-all thing, more like 70% of work, 30% fixed up and enhanced by humans. IMO
If money is tight and I want to have voiced lines of text, am I gonna spend a lot of money on a voice actor or drastically less money on AI voicing, which has significantly improved recently?
I think pretty much everyone would like to give money to fellow humans, but "would like" is a luxury if money is a limiting factor.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 23 January 2024 at 6:17 am UTC
fenglengshun Jan 24
I, for one, find creative fulfilment in writing a story - I don't find creative fulfilment in proof reading them for grammatical error. I don't mind some prose suggestions either, even if I am the final arbiter of what I want to convey. Now, apply that to every creative endeavour, and you find that there's a lot of room for AI, especially when time and money are involved. You just need to make sure that it doesn't become a large issue or infringe on what you actually are passionate about, which isn't hard to do.
Last edited by fenglengshun on 24 January 2024 at 2:44 am UTC
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