actually you might be surprised at how many companies develop their own engines. A lot more than those that actualy use Unreal, Doom or renderware. It's just that we get to hear about these engines the most because they are marketed as a product.
Most games dev companies actually develop their own engines, tools and libs. Part of the reason that popular FPS games are so simple is that they are built from the ground up with MODing in mind, as well as MP. Which can often lead to simplistic games and tools for the masses to be able to play with.
When it comes to dev teams, in my experience most devs have a core group of 3-5 coders, some code monkeys to fill in the gaps, and a huge art team. If they hired more coders to develop other areas other than graphics and effects related tech, I imagine games could move on and become a lot more exciting.
Truth is graphics can still look awesome, the problem lies in how much of it there is. I kind of agree with Picklesworth on that front. It would be better to have smaller more detailed worlds where the focus lies more in how you interact with the world and your surroundings, than blast through 10 hours of pretty graphics doom fashioned.
For me the most boring thing as an artist, is to duplicate reality, running around with your digital camera and playing with photoshop retouching photos and going for realism is ok as an exercise. But gets old really quick when you have a few dozen hours of content ahead of you. And all people are going to do is run through it fast, guns blazing, following a mostly set route in a linear fashion.
Where's the fun in that, in some ways modern FPS games aren't really all that much removed from operation Wolf or quick draw mcgraw still. The only real difference is that they give you the impression of freedom with a few moves and being able to move the camera. The gameplay itself is almost the same, and the enemies havent really become all that much more intelligent.
Most games dev companies actually develop their own engines, tools and libs. Part of the reason that popular FPS games are so simple is that they are built from the ground up with MODing in mind, as well as MP. Which can often lead to simplistic games and tools for the masses to be able to play with.
When it comes to dev teams, in my experience most devs have a core group of 3-5 coders, some code monkeys to fill in the gaps, and a huge art team. If they hired more coders to develop other areas other than graphics and effects related tech, I imagine games could move on and become a lot more exciting.
Truth is graphics can still look awesome, the problem lies in how much of it there is. I kind of agree with Picklesworth on that front. It would be better to have smaller more detailed worlds where the focus lies more in how you interact with the world and your surroundings, than blast through 10 hours of pretty graphics doom fashioned.
For me the most boring thing as an artist, is to duplicate reality, running around with your digital camera and playing with photoshop retouching photos and going for realism is ok as an exercise. But gets old really quick when you have a few dozen hours of content ahead of you. And all people are going to do is run through it fast, guns blazing, following a mostly set route in a linear fashion.
Where's the fun in that, in some ways modern FPS games aren't really all that much removed from operation Wolf or quick draw mcgraw still. The only real difference is that they give you the impression of freedom with a few moves and being able to move the camera. The gameplay itself is almost the same, and the enemies havent really become all that much more intelligent.