KEEPING GAMERS IN TUNE WITH LEADING TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS AUTHORED BY ANASTASIIA SHCHUKINA Art Director of Innovecs Gaming
About author ANASTASIIA SHCHUKINA Art Director of Innovecs Gaming Anastasiia has over 10 years of expertise in the field of game style development from the stage of pre-production to the final polishing. And 7+ years of Art department management. She is responsible for coordination the work of artists, 3D modelers and animators, direct production of graphics from sketches to postprocessing model renders. The area of Anastasiia s expertise covers any type of graphics style, from the core games to cartoons. As an inspiring and creative leader, she has essential skills in crisis management, project management (up to five projects at the same time), teaching and mentoring junior and mid-level artists. 2017 2
Introduction and statistics Can you remember your first time playing a video game? Maybe it was on Sega or Playstation from Sony. With trembling hands and blazing eyes, a 10-minute game could easily turn into a 5-hour contest which stopped only after your mom s final, shouted warning. Video games, even the simplest pixel ones, have changed our world once and for good. Nowadays, the gaming industry is one of the most actively erupting and growing spheres in the world. Game development technologies have changed quite dramatically since the time when the first console appeared on the market. Although there are still plenty of awesome, powerful consoles out there, mobile devices have started capturing a bigger segment in the industry. The quarterly update on the gaming industry by Newzoo Global Games Market Report shows that experts anticipate the global games market reaching revenues of $108.9 billion in 2017. Mobile should occupy 42% of that tremendous sum. The same source reminds us that a year ago the industry market revenue was 7.8% less. Alongside the overall gaming art popularity, the popularity of smartphones and tablets as gaming consoles also has grown rapidly. This is very obvious from the chart below that shows the Newzoo analysis of the global games market development in 2017: 2017 GLOBAL GAMES MARKET PER DEVICE & SEGMENT WITH YEAR-ON-YEAR GROWTH RATER MOBILE $46.1Bn $29.4Bn PC +19,3% YoY TABLET GAMES $10.8Bn +11,4% YoY (SMART)PHONE GAMES $35.3Bn +22,0% YoY 42% 32% 10% 4% 23% 2017 TOTAL $108.9Bn +7.8% YoY 31% 27% +2,6% YoY BROWSER PC GAMES $4.5Bn +0.3% YoY BOXED/DOWNLOADED PC GAMES $24.8Bn +1.3% YoY 31% CONSOLE $33.5Bn +3,6% YoY Virtual Reality (VR) is another contemporary gaming art trend that drives everybody wild with the capabilities it offers. Although VR games are not cheap to develop, the popularity of VR technologies in gaming is growing steadily. That is due to the fact that VR games not only let you experience emotions, they also dramatically broaden the boundaries of your imagination by generating the new experiences. This presence of a player in the game is an entirely different level of gaming which greatly interests the world s top game industry publishers and developers. You can get really surprised by how far VR scientists and developers have gotten through these years. bhaptics TrackSuit, for example, enables a player to have a real haptical experience due to 27 face actuators together 2017 3
with 20 actuators placed on the front and back vests and on every sleeve. So you can physically feel the cut from a sword or a snake slithering around your leg, etc. At the same time, ThermoReal makes a player feel both heat and cold, but also...pain! In thiis chart, you can see the statistics for cumulative and quarterly downloads of different VR featuring games worldwide from 2015 to the beginning of 2017. From this chart, we can see the close connections among these three: gaming, mobile, and VR. When these three components intersect and are implemented correctly and seamlessly, a fantastic, elaborate product appears. Obviously, with such an impressive start, the VR industry promises a lot of opportunities to gaming industry entrepreneurs in the near future. Experts broadcast the further rise of VR mobile gaming popularity, and those who are already up on things will soon dominate the market. 2017 4
Quarterly Mobile VR App Downloads - App Store and Google Play, Worldwide 400M 350M 300M 250M 200M 150M 100M 50M 0 1Q15 2Q15 3Q15 4Q15 1Q16 2Q16 3Q16 4Q16 1Q16 Note: Does not include downloads of apps from the Oculus store for Gear VR. Quarterly Downloads Cumulative Downloads Top 5 Mobile VR App Categories by Downloads App Store and Google Play, Worldwide, 2015-17 Games 56% Entertainment 17% Photo & Video 10% Utilities 4% Travel 3% All Others 10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Note: Does not include downloads of apps from the Oculus store for Gear VR. 2017 5
Modern Game Development Technologies Along with multifunctional hardware, the gaming industry development also changes allowing more complex manipulations. There are many game platforms and engines on the market to choose from. Marmalade is one of the most famous development platforms known for the development of Talisman Prologue, Draw Something, Plants vs. Zombies, and others. Another powerful game production platform is Unreal Engine. Being a well-known sprinter in the market, Unreal offers game developers numerous packages and opportunities. The Unreal made it possible to create Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, Injustice, and others. Unity Let s also talk about Unity. It would, actually, be easier to list the things this engine cannot offer due to its extensive capabilities and multi purposeness. It is capable of creating almost any possible type of videogame from 2D puzzles to a complex 3D games. Unity allows porting to major mobile platforms as well as to the web and in the near future, to PlayStation Mobile and Tizen. This platform has an active and enthusiastic community and provides a very convenient Multiplatform Solution Framework that makes it easier for developers to store files on the server, integrate different social media, etc. Of course, VR is one of Unity s major advantages. More than 91% of the content for HoloLens was made on Unity. Its highly effective 3D rendering pipe and smart tools that can help you further optimize your content. The following chart demonstrates the popularity of this engine among game developers on the global game market. Global game engine market share 45% 17% 38% Unity Closes competitor Others Gaming Art Visual Trends Gaming art tends to favor some major visual trends at different periods of time. Some examples of modern visual trends in gaming among others include: open world design - enables players to observe & explore landscapes and interact with many other characters and objects; minimalistic HUD The fewer details there are on the screen blocking the view, the better. It can be either minimalistic or absent (viewed by the respective commands). As a whole, creators are more likely to trea visuals as not just an implementation tool but as a separate piece of art. That notion paves the way for great innovations and common progress of visual solutions. 2017 6
3D Graphics and Pixel Art Games Some gaming industry tendencies may seem a bit illogical having all these amazing VR technologies at hand. For instance, the rising interest in pixel art games popular back in the 90 s, is a cutting-edge trend in game design. But pixel art now does not mean it is nostalgic or old-fashioned. It is rather a bold mixture of simple 2D graphics with extensive functionality and concise structure. Clean and beautiful 2D graphics still require a lot of graphic mastery no matter how simple the results may look. In such pixel art games as Sword & Sworcery, the ethereal world is created by talented artists and immerses players in a magical universe. Unity Game Development From 2D pixel art games to VR games supported by different devices, Unity can make them all. Unity3d is a cross-platform engine created by Unity Technologies and favored by many game developers for its unrivaled features: 1. Due to this integrated game engine, you can build your game and test it immediately in the editor; 2. Unity is capable of porting files in a variety of formats; 3. Scripts are written in C# and JavaScript. Unity3d is a powerful engine which also provides numerous, built-in tools and software for game development like landscapes, ragdoll, animation, sounds, and many more. Such famous games as Assassin s Creed: Identity and Deus Ex: The Fall were both built in Unity. This technology is the choice of millions of game developers worldwide and you can find Unity offices in numerous countries around the globe. 2017 7
Unity Offices World Wide Copenhagen Montreal Vancouver Seattle San Francisco Austin Pittsburg Pereira London Statford-Upon-Avon Bristol Brighton Stockholm Helsinki Moscow Odessa Seoul Tokyo Shanghai Singapore Vilnius Kaunas Berlin Paris Outsourcing in Game Development With constantly growing consumer demand in the gaming art sphere, game development outsourcing will remain one of the most potentially rich niches in the overall outsourcing software engineering spectrum. Game development is a complex sphere with its own peculiarities. For example, game developers should not only have certain engineering or designing skills but also be aware of cultural affinities and creativity. Thus, it is necessary to build a team of specialists that are able to provide both: clean code lines and authentic ideas. So, we can say that the main reasons for the game development outsourcing are: time: Outsourcing means accelerated development. You get more time to work on other development stages or to submit changes. money: Outsourcing companies can be 99% less costly than even your in-house developers. value: Agreat outsourcing company can implement the craziest of your ideas and the processes can be fully controlled and corrected in house. Of course, there are some difficulties in game development outsourcing that cannot be omitted. For example, transportation of numerous objects inone whole piece. Some management tasks can get more complicated, but nevertheless, outsourcing remains very beneficial and in demand. 2017 8
Innovecs on the Game Development Outsourcing Market To help you out with the right game development outsourcing company, let us introduce Innovecs. Innovecs is a software development company that provides a wide range of IT services. The offices of the company are located around the globe from the United States to Israel. Innovecs is a top provider of custom-made web and mobile development, animation, blockchain, QA services, and much more. Businesses from such areas as Gaming & Entertainment, FinTech, ecommerce and others cooperate with our company by outsourcing different software development services. The company has extensive experience in Unity coding/development and strives to grow in the aspect of 3D development. Innovecs has actively performed in the global game market for more than 5 years. To anyone searching for a game development outsourcing company we offer: A. animation development services; B. visual effects development; С. art development; D. Unity game building; E. virtual reality app development. We believe that such technologies as 3D graphics and VR are going to be the leading concepts in game production of the future. That is why we have put together a squad of Unity ninjas - smart and creative developers and designers ready to help create remarkable solutions. There is something you should know about Innovecs: We are perfectionists by nature and never stop looking for the most optimal solutions. We passionately select color palettes for each and every scene. We work on the plot s structure to interest a player from the get-go. But, what we certainly do best is taking the client s idea and converting it into an elegant, engrossing game. 2017 9
Ukraine USA UK Israel Europe Innovecs is a technology software development company that lives in the cloud. A global company with offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Tel-Aviv with R&D facilities in Ukraine the company specializes in serving Adtech, Gaming, Fintech, E-commerce, Transportation, Telecom and Healthcare markets. We focus on mobile and web development, blockchain, ad tech technologies, animation and art assets creation. WHY INNOVECS Highly skilled & Talented Engineers Fast Hiring Processes Flexible partnership models Deep Domain Knowledge Multiple Service Offerings Inspirational Working Environment HAVE SOME QUESTIONS? CONTACT US AT SALES@INNOVECS.COM FOR MORE INFO www.innovecs.com Innovecs 2011-2017. All rights reserved. Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office