Open Source has had a profound impact in our world. It has inspired great ideas to be shaped and also be widely adopted. It has also allowed everyone to have access to affordable technology, be it in the Cloud or on Premise, or on your own hardware device. There is no doubt as to the impact of technologies like Linux and Android. Open Source has been a joy for developers, corporations, and end users.
My particular interest though is to be able to elaborate how Open Source technology can both shape the future of Gaming and Multimedia – from both a technical and also from a business oriented perspective. It is in my belief that we are at that stage in time where we are seeing some major transformations happening in Game Engineering and Game Engineering Technologies also. A good degree of this transformation has seen a number of Game Engines convert to become Open Source and Free. Topics around these Game Engines will be highlighted in more details in coming blog posts. However, the ecosystem shifts are also coinciding with major changes in the market in areas of Console, Mobile and PC Gaming. This NewZoo insights report states that “The World’s 2.7 Billion Gamers Will Spend $159.3 Billion on Games in 2020; The Market Will Surpass $200 Billion by 2023”. So what are some of these major eco-system shifts coming into play?
- For starters, Mobile Devices that are highly capable, with extremely amazing amounts of storage and RAM, as well as CPU and GPU are becoming more and more available for cheaper prices. These Mobile Devices are capable of storing amazing amounts of battery power.
- 4G is being ushered in.
- High speed broadband Internet is becoming more affordable.
- Amazing amount of Cloud Computing Technologies is being made available at cheaper prices to companies and developers. And with major players setting up global data centers (with players like Amazon, Google, and Micrsoft), it has become cheaper and easier to get amazing compute power for lower latency than before.
- More SaaS availability. Game Technology Backends are becoming more available, some even Open Source.
- Game Engines are also becoming cheaper to acquire, and there is amazing technology available that is Open Source.
- A plethora of technologies and platforms to develop on top of is easily available. For instance, developing games for Android can come at no cost at all when it comes to Software you can get access to to make amazing Android Games. And you can literally develop amazing back-ends using Open Source technologies like NodeJS or Python or Lua.
- Not to mention – how really advanced the World Wide Web has become nowadays, and the technology powering access to essentially anything. We have created easier ways for folks to play online games, and have enabled developers to get as productive as possible – by means of affordable tutorials, and free resources that can get anyone up to speed – quickly.
These are just but some of the factors that will lead to drastic changes in Game Engineering Principles and Technologies. The shift has begun, but is still in sequence. There is a lot yet to happen and in the center of all this shall be Open Source technology driving new ways of looking at things. It is an exciting time to be a Game Engineer.
Open Source Game Developer 