#gamedevdiet, the other way

Brenda Brathwaite, a well-known game designer, started this hashtag a few months ago, bringing news about her fight trying to lose weight and achieve what she wants - which is usually fun, and very interesting to see. But this is not what I am talking about now.

For me, just like with food, there's things we "eat" because we need, others because we want, maybe because it's healthful, and others because it's plain taste and fun. This way of thinking is mainly what I use as a reference of what to play, what to buy, what to look for, etc. Example: Uncharted 2 is healthful; Death Rally, not at all.

Mais...

But why am I talking about this? In real-life diet, when the situation favors, we may eat some poorly ballanced food - because we have enough money, or time, or we are comfortable with our health, etc. When it doesn't, we tend to eat only what will really be good to us, as we need to make the cost/benefit relationship the better possible, and make our investments profitable: we start eating the most healthful meals we can afford with the money we have, or change dramatically what we eat in order to achieve the weight/shape we want, etc. At least for me, when talking about what games to taste, I use a similar logic.

Many of you may know that here in Brazil, games costs much more than anywhere else. We use to spend roughly US$100 or more in a game sold for maybe $30 elsewhere; that said, not mentioning the price of the consoles. Moreover, the actual situation of our jobs (the game project we're actually in) may impact in our diet. If we're working on a soccer game, for example, we will tend to play more soccer games, watch more soccer, etc. That's similar to adopt a specific diet in order to be in shape for the next summer, for example. Uncharted 2 will be no less healthful, but surely less necessary in that situation. Cow meat is always healthful, for example, but you will benefit from this only if cow meat is part of the diet you're using to reach what you want.

Because of this (high prices), there are many games I'd like to play, but I can't - so when I have the opportunity of grabbing one, I must select carefully what will be the best, in all that scenarios combined. And just like in real life, sometimes I just want to play that "junk food" game, but have to take that other one who, in fact, will give more substance to my gamedev daily work. So I'm an avid Apple's Appstore/Steam/Indie Humble Bundle's follower, always looking for good piece of games for a good price, sometimes for free.

Of course, the concept of what is junk and what is healthful is very subjective. First, as said, the context could change this definition dramatically. Second, because our tastes varies a lot. Death Rally, for example, is what I consider as being junk food, and I completely love it (and I will write a review about it soon); but I'm pretty sure that, for a lot of people, it's a necessary game (people developing such kind of game, death race games fans). Nevertheless, it's difficult to say it's simply a healthful one. (Important info: a game/genre we like doesn't mean it's necessarily healthful.)

Although I don't put any grade to classify this, there's some obvious distinctions. Milestone games as Uncharted, Mario and Gears of War naturally tend to be healthful by default. Most of the games are just "tasteful" to specific diet menus, ranging from yummy to necessary according to the situation - but not necessarily with much substance on itself. For my tastes, Death Rally is one of those games - a completely yummy game. But if I'm not on a needing of a game like this, it will only "fatten" me: taking a time/effort I not necessarily could expend. That's why I'm talking about this kind of gamedev diet.

The point is: what are you eating nowadays? I'm currently developing my first iPhone game, after a year eating many other iPhone games and trying to understand what make them so tasteful. Not all were exactly healthful (with all the substances I needed), but were all needed. I surely got more robust food in the meantime, but those iPhone games were (and still are) the snacks I eat while working; in a future project, I will probably change it to a different one. You may say it's a pointless subject, and in fact I have not exactly an objective with this. I'm just sharing my experiences regarding choosing new games, how I look at it, and what to play at a given moment. I think many of you do something alike - maybe unconsciously -, and my intention is only to try to make it conscious. Who knows, maybe it could help organizing someone else's gaming habits.