Yes, yes, I understand comparing one of the worst atrocities that humanity is willing to commit, to the work necessary to create simple entertainment seems like an utterly crazy idea, but, with this article, I hope to show that these unrelated things do actually hold similar points with the necessary work they require. First and foremost, we need to set meaning to what “game development” is here. The game development I am talking about is both independent work funded by people who have expressed interest in the potential game, as well as the huge AAA game studios that pump out games through their own acquired funds, depending on what is most relevant for the point at hand. Now that we have the baseline, we get to discuss what war shares with it. The biggest similarity is that both war and game development is most defined by how well one can manage the necessary parts, as without this, it is an uphill battle to get anything done. In war, this is through managing the resources people require, as well as the workforce and the army itself, meanwhile, for independent developers, resource management is mostly the management of time, as making code, assets, licenses and everything else requires a heavy investment of one’s free time. Another thing both types of developers need to look out for is the price of the work, as quality programs needed to create what games need are never cheap. Another thing that war and game development share is the need to keep a good public profile to retain the support of people whom you need the support of. If the developers lack the necessary communication, they will lose any and all support from fans, as without any news on how the work is going, the people will assume this has been a scam due to the general past experiences within the game development circles, although there have been several false alarms such as during the developments of Omori and Friday Night Funkin’, and many, many false negatives. In the end, both either end with the people in charge taking the profits of the labor, furthering their capabilities, or it fails, leaving those who have put their blood, sweat, and tears with less than what they started with.
