The Game Developers Conference (GDC) has polled more than 2,500 North American game developers who attended the conference in 2012 or plan to attend GDC 2013 in March about their development practices, revealing several notable trends with regards to platforms, money, team sizes and more.
The GDC intends to field a similar survey each winter, in advance of the conference in San Francisco. Organized by the UBM Tech Game Network, GDC 2013 will take place March 25-29 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.
The Rise Of The Indie
A key finding of the GDC 2013 State Of The Industry survey is that independent game development and smaller teams are on the rise like never before. In fact, 53 percent of the respondents identified themselves as 'indie developers', and of those, 51 percent have been indie developers for less than two years.
In addition, 46 percent of the survey's respondents work within companies of ten people or less. Further proving the move to indie, only 24 percent of those surveyed worked with a publisher on their last game, while an even smaller 20 percent are doing so on their current projects.
Smartphones, Tablets, PC Dominate Dev Platforms
Another major focus of the survey was the platform preferences and interests of the development community, an important topic in a year when next-gen consoles are anticipated to come to market - alongside a slew of new types of consoles such as PC-based TV consoles and Android consoles.
The survey found that more of the respondents are developing for smartphones and tablets than for any other platform. 38 percent of the survey's developers released their last game for smartphones and tablets collectively, but 55 percent are making their current games there. Even more impressive, a whopping 58 percent plan to release their next games on these platforms.
PCs and Macs are the next strongest platforms, with 34.6 percent of developers releasing their last games for PCs/Macs, 48 percent developing their current games for the platform, and 49 percent planning their next games on PCs/Macs.
Console Development Stable At A Lower Base
In terms of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the survey found Microsoft at the top, albeit from lower numbers, with 13.2 percent currently developing for the Xbox 360, and close to 14 percent planning their next game on the 360. For the PlayStation 3, 13 percent are releasing their current game for the console, and 12.4 percent their next game.
In terms of the Nintendo Wii U, only 4.6 percent of developers are currently making a Wii U game, and just 6.4 percent of our surveyed developers are making their next game for the console. (Finally, an identical 11 percent of respondents are making their next game for upcoming Sony and Microsoft platforms.)
Dedicated Gaming Handhelds Showing Minimal Support
Sony's PlayStation Vita handheld showed a slight uptrend in support, but from extremely low percentages. While less than two percent of respondents made their last game for the console, 4.2 percent are making their current game for Vita, and just over five percent plan to release their next game there. And North American developers are unconvinced of the Nintendo 3DS's potential. Two percent are currently making a 3DS game, and only 2.8 percent of developers plan to release their next game on the 3DS.
Smartphones, Tablets, PC/Android 'Consoles' Top Developer Interest Charts
The survey also asked developers about their levels of interest in developing for the variety of platforms on the market or coming soon, and received a very different response from what they said about current and future projects.
Tablets and smartphones are still way out ahead in terms of interest, with 58 percent and 56 percent respectively interested in the platforms. PC-based TV consoles, such as Valve's Steam Box, have a very high 45 percent level of interest for developers. Android home consoles, like the OUYA and GameStick, are also high up the interest curve at 37 percent.
Interestingly, when asked simply about expressions of interest, next-gen Microsoft and Sony consoles shoot up the relative graph ranking to 29 percent and 27 percent respectively. And Nintendo platforms continue to lag in developer interest, with a relatively small 13 percent and five percent interest respectively for the Wii U and 3DS.
Self-Funding Goes Big, Crowdfunding Interest Blooms
Finally, the GDC survey looked into how developers are funding their projects. The vast majority of games are being funded from the company's existing war chest (37 percent) or an individual's personal funds (35 percent).
Only nine percent of survey respondents were primarily venture capital funded. Ten percent are still primarily publisher-funded, and four percent are primarily crowdfunded. With regards to crowdfunding, eight percent of surveyed developers have worked on a project that was crowdfunded, while 44 percent plan to do so in the future.
