GDC State of the Industry research exposes major trends ahead of March show
In order to paint a picture of the games business as it looks right before GDC 2013, the Game Developers Conference has polled more than 2,500 North American game developers who attended the conference in 2012 or plan to attend GDC 2013 in March about their development practices, revealing several notable trends with regards to platforms, money, team sizes and more.
The GDC intends to field a similar survey each winter, in advance of the conference in San Francisco.
Organized by the UBM Tech Game Network, GDC 2013 will take place March 25-29 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.
The Rise Of The Indie
A key finding of the GDC 2013 State Of The Industry survey is that independent game development and smaller teams are on the rise like never before. In fact, 53% of the respondents identified themselves as 'indie developers,' and of those, 51% have been indie developers for less than two years.
In addition, 46% of the survey's respondents work within companies of ten people or less. Further proving the move to indie, only 24% of those surveyed worked with a publisher on their last game, while an even smaller 20% are doing so on their current projects.
Smartphones, Tablets, PC Dominate Dev Platforms
Another major focus of the survey was the platform preferences and interests of the development community, an important topic in a year when next-gen consoles are anticipated to come to market - alongside a slew of new types of consoles such as PC-based TV consoles and Android consoles.
The survey found that more of the respondents are developing for smartphones and tablets than for any other platform. 38% of the survey's developers released their last game for smartphones and tablets collectively, but 55% are making their current games there. Even more impressive, a whopping 58% plan to release their next games on these platforms.
PCs and Macs are the next strongest platforms, with 34.6% of developers releasing their last games for PCs/Macs, 48% developing their current games for the platform, and 49% planning their next games on PCs/Macs.
Console Development Stable At A Lower Base
In terms of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the survey found Microsoft at the top, albeit from lower numbers, with 13.2% currently developing for the Xbox 360 and close to 14% planning their next game on the 360. For the PlayStation 3, 13% are releasing their current game for the console, and 12.4% their next game.
In terms of the Nintendo Wii U, only 4.6% of developers are currently making a Wii U game, and just 6.4% of our surveyed developers are making their next game for the console. (Finally, an identical 11% of respondents are making their next game for upcoming Sony and Microsoft platforms.)
Dedicated Gaming Handhelds Showing Minimal Support
Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld showed a slight uptrend in support, but from extremely low percentages. While less than 2% of respondents made their last game for the console, 4.2% are making their current game for Vita, and just over 5% plan to release their next game there. And North American developers are unconvinced of the Nintendo 3DS's potential. 2% are currently making a 3DS game, and only 2.8% of developers plan to release their next game on the 3DS.
Smartphones, Tablets, PC/Android 'Consoles' Top Developer Interest Charts
The survey also asked developers about their levels of interest in developing for the variety of platforms on the market or coming soon, and received a very different response from what they said about current and future projects.
Tablets and smartphones are still way out ahead in terms of interest, with 58% and 56% respectively interested in the platforms. PC-based TV consoles, such as Valve's Steam Box, have a very high 45% level of interest for developers. Android home consoles, like the OUYA and GameStick, are also high up the interest curve at 37%.
Interestingly, when asked simply about expressions of interest, next-gen Microsoft and Sony consoles shoot up the relative graph ranking to 29% and 27% respectively. And Nintendo platforms continue to lag in developer interest, with a relatively small 13% and 5% interest respectively for the Wii U and 3DS.
Self-Funding Goes Big, Crowdfunding Interest Blooms
Finally, the GDC survey looked into how developers are funding their projects. The vast majority of games are being funded from the company's existing war chest (37%) or an individual's personal funds (35%).
Only 9% of our survey respondents were primarily venture capital funded. 10% are still primarily publisher-funded, and 4% are actually primarily crowdfunded. With regards to crowdfunding, 8% of surveyed developers have worked on a project that was crowdfunded, while a surprisingly sizable 44% plan to do so in the future.
--------------------------------------------------
GDC对2500名北美游戏开发者进行了问卷调查，来了解业界对目前市场上各种平台的支持情况。下面是主要趋势的总结：
1、“独立开发者”大量增加。
事实上，超过53%的回应者表示他们自己是“独立开发者”。这其中又有51%的表示他们是在过去两年之内转变成独立开发者的。46%的回应者表示他们在规模小于10人的开发公司中工作。仅有24%的开发者表示他们前一个游戏开发项目是与某发行商合作进行的。而在目前正在进行中的开发项目里，仅有20%的人表示他们正在和发行商合作。
2、手机、平板电脑和PC是主导开发平台。
本次调研发现手机和平板电脑是目前开发者们的首选平台。38%的回应者表示他们的上一个游戏是发行在手机或是平板电脑平台上的。55%的开发者则表示他们现在开发手机或者平板电脑游戏。更有58%的开发者表示他们打算在未来为手机/平板电脑开发游戏。PC/Mac排名第二，有34.6%的开发者上一个游戏是在PC/Mac上发行，目前整有48%的开发者在开发PC/Mac游戏，49%的开发者表示计划在未来开发PC/Mac游戏。
3、家用机平台开发趋势稳定，但整体走低。
在三大家用机平台之间，调研发现微软平台最流行，13.2%的开发者目前正为微软平台开发游戏，而大约14%的开发者表示正计划为微软平台开发游戏。PS3方面有13%的开发者表示正在为该平台开发游戏，12.4%的开发者表示正计划为PS3开发游戏。
在任天堂的WiiU上，仅有4.6%的开发者表示目前正为其开发游戏，6.4%的开发者表示他们下一款游戏会是给WiiU开发的。
4、专用游戏掌机的支持度极低。
开发者对PS Vita的支持度比以前极低的情况稍有提升。仅有2%的开发者表示他们上一款游戏是给Vita开发的，而目前有4.2%的开发者正在为Vita开发游戏，5%的开发者表示他们下一款游戏打算为Vita开发。北美的开发者们似乎对于3DS的前景并不看好。仅有2%的开发者上一款游戏是为3DS开发的。也仅有2.8%的开发者表示他们计划在未来给3DS开发游戏。
5、手机、平板、PC和Android平台最为吸引开发者的兴趣
开发者感兴趣的平台排名方面，手机和平板电脑仍然遥遥领先于其他平台，分别获得了58%和56%的开发者肯定。基于PC的游戏平台，例如Valve的Steam Box也吸引了大量开发者(45%)的兴趣。基于Android的家用平台(OUYA，GameStick等)也获得了37%的开发者的关注。
有趣的是，在开发者兴趣方面，微软和索尼的次世代主机也获得了相当高的关注(XBOX720 29%;PS4 27%)。任天堂的平台则还是有些落后。仅有13%和5%的开发者表示对WiiU和3DS感兴趣。
