It’s with this in mind that I, along with my friends here at Gametextures, are going to spend some time going over the software and service options that are out there for freelancers, small independent studios, and hobbyists alike. There are more software choices, service providers, game engines, and platforms out there than ever before, and more are launching every year. Now, 4 years after the walls were broken down, nearly anyone can become a developer. Before, it took thousands just to rent or buy a copy of Maya. 2014 became the year that anyone with a few hundred dollars to spend could become a full time developer. Autodesk introduced this new LT version of Maya that, while cut down, had more than enough tools for me to use it as my daily modeling software at a fraction of the price of what I continue to dub “Big Boy Maya”. Epic Games had announced a subscription model for the latest Unreal Engine, meaning that the entire toolset and source code was available to all. Quixel, a fairly new company as well, was out pushing their new tool called DDO. There was this new texturing tool called Substance that was wowing artists all over the place. What I saw in 2014 was nothing short of astounding. After I sat down and did some quick math and looked over my options, I solidified my decision to go freelance. While I was at GDC in 2014, I saw amazing changes in the industry at large. Two things pushed me in the direction of freelance: The beginning of the democratization of tools, and losing out on a position at Funcom (we’ll be ignoring the second point today). I was weighing my options at the time go full time freelance or continue to (seemingly) push against the river of life at the time and to try and land a full time staff job somewhere. GDC 2014 was the last GDC I attended prior to this year, 2018. Many of these changes debuted at GDC 2014. These changes meant the companies that create tools for developers had to change as well. Developers now had dreams about the AAA large studio job AND the day they would leave that job with enough cash in their bank accounts to fund development for a Kickstarter project that would become the next big indie darling. Developers no long dreamed solely about getting a job at EA to work on Battlefield. Multiple indie games started finding mainstream successes in 2013. Gone Home, a first person exploration game that had a moving and personal plot that the player uncovered while exploring a seemingly abandoned house was released too. The first iteration of Papers, Please was available. The Stanely Parable released to critical acclaim. Over on PC, indies made big splashes, often through Steam. Sony in particular pushed indies hard, touting the ease of publishing on PlayStation Network with PlayStation 4. Neither company had the usual crowd of heavy hitting first party exclusives available at launch, and to make up for it, both companies had an array of smaller independent developers make up a large potion of their launch line ups. The PS4 especially hit the right nerve with the gaming public and proceeded to sell at a pace Sony hadn’t seen since the PlayStation 2. The PS4 and Xbox One had launched the end 2013 and both consoles were received well. We were entering the year of “Peak Kickstarter Success” when almost everyone who launched a Kickstarter with promises of “bringing back the old days” was funded when their 30 day fundraising time frame was up.
At the time, the gaming industry was undergoing a seismic shift. I started working as a full time freelance artist at the end of 2013, almost a full five years ago. The Game Art Software Landscape of 2018 Part 1 Breaking Down The Walls of Digital Content Creation
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