As consoles get more powerful, game development gets more resource and time intensive too, meaning higher costs, and unsustainable AAA development models, leading to studio closures. This is something we have seen a lot happening over the last decade.
But what does the added power of a console like the Xbox One X mean for an indie game developer, who doesn’t have to worry about having their game be on the bleeding edge of graphics and tech? As it turns out, for them, having a powerful system like the Xbox One X makes development easier– since they don’t have to worry about optimizing around hardware constraints as much, they can focus more on mechanics and polish more.
That’s what Alejandro González of Milkstone Studios, developers of White Noise 2, told GamingBolt in an exclusive interview. “For indies, [having] more powerful consoles means games are easier to develop. Time spent on performance optimization is time not spent on polishing other game aspects.”
Speaking of powerful consoles, he also confirmed that, much like the Xbox One X, the PS4 Pro enhanced version of White Noise 2 will also push for 60 frames per second- since he doesn’t like 30fps.
“We always aim for 60fps if possible, whichever the target platform is (no, we don’t like 30fps). We’ll tune the settings as high as possible as long as the target framerate is maintained,” he said.
So that’s that- it makes sense that having more powerful hardware makes development easier for smaller developers not as worried about pushing photorealism. In an ideal world, that’s how it would be for all developers- sadly, we live in a world where the unsustainable AAA model of game development is the most prominent one of them all, and that’s what has led to the current state of the western AAA development scene.
Stay tuned for our full interview with Alejandro in the coming days.