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Developers must become more efficient in how they build assets and integrate them into games on the next generation of consoles, the CEO of Insomniac has said.
Speaking to VG247, Ted Price said development on new platforms would become more complex, and with the bar for visuals constantly being raised, developers would need better tools to help keep costs reasonable.
He stated that while it is difficult to predict the power of new systems, more efficient tools would result in a better game on any platform.
“I think that what we all face in this industry – for those of us in the console business – is the need to get progressively more efficient in terms of how we build our assets and get them into the game,” said Price.
“Because that’s going to get more and more complex. The bar continues to get raised in terms of visuals, so to keep development costs reasonable you have to have better and better tools, which means a constant focus on efficiency in your pipeline.”
He added: “It’s hard to know what’s coming down the pipe. The more efficiently you create assets for your game and the more quickly you can iterate on gameplay, the better the final product’s going to be no matter what platform it is.”
Insomniac is currently working on new FPS Fuse, a brand new IP for the studio. To develop the game, it has also created its own proprietary engine.
Price said using its own engine, rather than trying to license EA’s Frostbite 2 engine through the EA Partners program, would open up more creative opportunities for the studio.
“Frostbite’s a great engine, no question about it, but as a company we have placed a lot of value in developing our own tech, because it gives us more creative opportunities in terms of how we support our games. We’re not locked in to another company’s constraints,” he said.
