Darius D Hansley - 2024-02-2
How To Support The Unknown Developers
Darius D Hansley - 2024-02-2
Often times when a game gets praised, the director of the company usually excepts thanks for the game being tremendously well.But what about the other team members that worked on it? What about those hundreds of developers who crunch away at the things that make the game have it's overall success.Look,I know the director is the top of the pyramid that keeps the team motivated and focused on their work. However almost more then often the developers who are paired in cubicles and and large tables with little arm, room are the ones who never get the credit or recognition that they deserve.
A simple way to put it is like this...when you think of Amazon you think of Jeff Bezos. Not the team of staff that are in call centers,not the people who manage refunds, not the people who work in the Amazon warehouse for ten to twelve hours straight or even the vendors who are selling on the site itself,you only think of the person at the top who has a reputable name for themselves.Again,If someone has done allot of hard work to make a company then by all means,they should be at the top.But let's be honest the only reward that Jeff's staff might get is an office christmas party and some slight pay raises over the next few months if they are not laid off. The same can be said for the game companies that we know of. Usually the director is the one who accepts the award and praise on behalf of the staff. But it would be nice once in awhile to see some of the developers atleast having a nice smile or a reaction to seeing thier hard work pay off
Seeing popular faces like Hideo Kojima being praised for their vision knowing that there are other smart people on his staff that work just as hard.
How can we support developers who have no real say in what the final outcome of the game will be? We have all heard terrible stories about being over worked and having to do "crunch time" in order to get the game ready for it's initial launch date.Supporting video game developers who may not be widely recognized can make a significant impact on their morale and career satisfaction.Just like my other blog post about supporting small streamers we need to also support individual developers who are under the ranks of directors and don't receive any credit.With that here are five ways in which you can reach out and give some support to those staff members WITHOUT buying thier game.Remember, buying the game doesn't directly go into thier pockets and gives them vacation days.Most of the time a budget is set in place and no one is able to get a huge raise or bonus check regardless of how many copies are sold.The 2023 Game Of The Year winner was Elden Ring. Elden Ring sold millions of copies,but who gets all of the money from those copies...Bandai Namco,not From Software.
This one is obvious but the first way to support developers would be through social media platforms.Every game company has a social media presence of some kind and more then likely have more then just a twitter account.If you can somehow manage to find the social media accounts for the game company your a fan of, please send a tweet to them and let them know how much you love their game.Or even better say exactly what you like about the game specifically so that the person who worked hard on that one thing knows your talking about them and not just the company as a whole.
"Shout out to the person on the design team that took the time to add the minor detail that most video games never do"
Even if there is a chance that an entire team of developers worked together to make that feature or detail rather then one sole individual this is critical in helping developers know how much you appreciate their efforts made.Also regardless of how bad Twitter (X) may be when it comes to opinions it's a great place to start since their is a chance that you might find an individual developer who works there and is willing to let the world know their job title at the company.
Please do not send hate tweets or inappropriate messages like "your game is trash".Phrases like that don't actually help with improving the game itself and honestly just hurts the person in charge of running the social media and makes the staff not want to do thier job.
Reddit is a good place to have full conversations with people you wouldn't expect to meet.There are professionals in every area that spend their free time responding to questions that get asked from the public.Since Reddit is also a social media platform I would say the same rules apply as far as making a statement or positive comment about what you like about that game.Not only that but there are subreddits that can go even further to the specific things you wish to discuss with other people.Don't let people tell you that Reddit is a bad place to interact with since everything in the world today can be taken at the same level.I've found that the best way to support developers is to come together as a group.Now.would be a great time to dicuss things you dont like about the game or any balance changes you think are needed.Just make sure.you present your opinions as actual options rather then angry rants ,otherwise be ready to face against other opinions from people just like you who also enjoy the game.
This one can be very hit or miss considering almost everyone has a YouTube channel in which they play a game and give their review of it. Personally to.me this is the least effective since most reviews in video games try hard to make the viewer laugh with some meme related jokes or have an emotional response that leads to them typing comments that don't help the developer team at at all.
However if you make small video shorts detailing something in the game you like rather then an hour long video you can get your point across and get decent viewership ( if that is also your goal). I promise you,unless you are working at IGN or a reputable company that does reviews,no developer is going to listen for a complete hour straight about what you like.or.dislike about the game especially if your just some random youtube personality.Personally again, I think that hour long reviews are just long rambles that no one wants to.listen to even if you paid them.to.watch it.Its really easy to get your point across with just a few words in under 2 minutes.
I cannot express how much this goes above and beyond in terms of showing support. If there is a favorite character that you like you should draw them and show how much you like the overall design of the character. I know some.of you are saying "But what if I can't draw?" Guess what.It doesn't matter either way! You don't have to be an amazing artist with incredible detail in order to draw something you like.Drawing a doodle of your favorite character and showing the image to the Internet on whichever social platform you choose is still a fantastic way of showing how much you care.Just be sure to mention that you don't draw allot but liked the character so much that you were willing to try.
This is not an impossible task but it is still very hard considering most developers aren't really known to have the free time to do an interview unless they are applying for a job. The first thing you should try is making sure you can get a hold of a developer based on their social media. If you can't find a single developers social then maybe you can message the companies social networks and ask if anyone on their team is willing to have an interview with you.
This last one is a bit hard to do considering most developers don't have their email included in their social profiles for a good reason. Ultimately you may be able to get away with sending a message to them on Twitter or Facebook (if you find them).Most developers will probably keep their main email for things like resumes,so if you happen to get the opportunity to find someones email you may get a good opportunity to communicate with them.Maybe you can use the email as a way to ask for an interview like we mentioned earlier.
By doing these following actions you can better help support unknown developers.Remember the objective is not to get the person's name in the spotlight or to make them known to the public but instead to show appreciation to those who work hard without any recognition.As I've said before most developers are undervalued at the company they work for and sometimes need to hear appreciation from fans to keep them motivated and happy.