John Romero: By 2025, global revenues of the video game industry will reach $300 billion

The computer game development industry is continuously growing, both globally and in Croatia, where we today gather an exceptional number of young talents and knowledge for further development of creative projects, emphasized in his speech the legendary designer and producer of video games John Alfonso Romero, at the Future Perspectives of Game Development conference held yesterday at the premises of Algebra University in Zagreb.

The global video game development industry achieved revenues of around $185 billion in 2022, and by 2025, this figure will exceed $300 billion, making it one of the most lucrative and fastest-growing sectors of the global economy.

The future of video games is in AI

Romero began his keynote speech with a story about his difficult childhood full of relocations, unfortunate accidents, and very tough life circumstances. Born in Colorado, as an American of Cherokee and Mexican descent, he experienced horrors worse than those present in most of his games by the age of ten, and it was this unfortunate life story that motivated him to develop a career marked by extreme efforts and exemplary work ethic. By the end of the 1980s, he had already developed numerous games, while in the early 1990s he turned to 3D graphics and FPS genre games that brought a revolution to the video game market. The first game developed within his own company id Software was Wolfenstein 3D, based on a popular game from the 1980s, developed in just four months, but the most demanding game he worked on for the longest time was certainly Quake, from which many other successful games were later developed. Romero is still best known for Doom, which he played yesterday at Algebra with his biggest fans without losing a single match.

– This country is full of passion and players, but also those who develop video games. You have here an excellent team, Croteam, who have been present in this industry for 30 years. They are probably one of the most experienced teams in video game development in the world. The future of video games lies in artificial intelligence, and VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) will also have a significant impact. This is the future of both creation and playing video games and a great help, but also a challenge for designers in the future period, emphasized Romero, particularly reflecting on the opportunities that exist today in the aspect of education for the field of game development.

– At the time we started, there were neither studios nor education for game development; most of us were self-taught, which is why today faculties and universities like Algebra are gems not only for Croatia but for the entire region, added Romero.

In October 2013, the University of California-Santa Cruz hired Romero as the creative director of its master’s program in games and media, where he built the curriculum together with the legend of game design and his wife Brenda Romero.

– Education is important, but it must combine practice and real work on games with learning the latest trends and technologies. Trends are constantly changing; today they are AI, VR, and AR as dominant technologies, along with engines like Unreal that are constantly being upgraded to new versions. My advice to young people is to start working on games as early as possible if they want to enter this industry, because every minute they do not use is an opportunity that someone else will gladly take for themselves, emphasized John.

Development teams under pressure

Davor Hunski, Chief Creative Officer of the domestic studio Croteam, who, along with Serious Sam, are the authors of the extremely popular puzzle games Talos Principle I and II, published by Devolver Digital, agrees with him.

– There is interest in our companies, and I don’t think that will stop in the future. On the contrary, especially with the development of artificial intelligence. Therefore, I would encourage young people to dive into it; of course, it requires a lot of work and love, and nothing will come overnight, but the potential is enormous, said Hunski.

Alongside Romero, many well-known faces from the domestic computer and video game development industry were present at the conference, and during the panel on new technologies and AI, opportunities and possible turbulences that creatives in teams who do not adapt to technology quickly enough will face were discussed.

Currently, game development is facing numerous challenges; there are increasing demands for realistic experiences, and development teams are under pressure to deliver even more creative innovations, reveals Hunski, adding that despite these challenges, the future of game development is extremely exciting.

– The increasing use of advanced technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and the controversial but enticing artificial intelligence (AI) will enable players to have even deeper and more realistic experiences. Advanced technologies will also allow players to participate in shaping the story and environment according to their own decisions. Collaborations and multiplayer experiences will become increasingly complex, creating virtual worlds where players can explore, cooperate, and compete in new and unique ways, said Hunski.

The panel also touched on the topic of copyright infringement. Mihajlo Džaril, founder and director of Fortune Esports, says they do not use AI in development until the situation regarding copyright is clarified. Helder Lopes from the Slovenian-Cypriot multinational company Outfit7, which develops video games, the most popular of which is Talking Tom & Friends, commented that AI tools are used in their studio, but not in the games themselves, rather as inspiration for creating creative works and similar. Miro Antonijević, Tech Lead at Nanobit, explained using the example of the company he works for why AI is used in game development and applied in various areas, from storytelling to analytics.

It has been shown that artificial intelligence can provide good new ideas, perform repetitive tasks, create visuals, backgrounds for games, dialogues between characters, and similar. AI is not perfect, and a particular problem is that it is not consistent, especially when creating dialogues and complex conversations in games, said Antonijević.

Predrag Šuka, head of the multimedia production professional study at Algebra, emphasized that Algebra readily accepts all new technologies and that the point is not to focus on tools and their potential misuse that is possible in the case of generative AI, but to teach students to find solutions themselves and develop ideas in innovative ways. Every semester, some novelties are introduced in the courses as tools are constantly changing, emphasizes Šuka.

Tomislav Gojević from Fury (RawFury), Boris Barbir from Pine Studio, and Darijan Kosić from Today’s Game Studios discussed strategies for financing game dev projects and what is the best way to attract and retain investors in a time when competition among projects is increasing. Darijan Kosić had a somewhat different approach from the others; he is the owner of a company that first secured financing for the project through a client with whom they previously established a good collaboration, and then they started developing the game. RawFury, as a publisher, goes through one hundred to three hundred pitches weekly with a special team that analyzes where to invest. Pine Studio has achieved financial independence after turbulent beginnings and today finances the development of its games independently. Noah Maričak from the Croatian Audiovisual Center said he hopes that HAVC for games will become what it is now for the film industry.

Encouragement for the youth

The Global Game Jam organized by Algebra University will take place for all registered participants from Monday, January 22, to Wednesday, January 24, when the winners will be selected by a professional jury consisting of representatives from the game dev industry and the company White Shark.

The Global Game Jam is an opportunity for all young enthusiasts to not only play but also try their hand at the demanding skill of creating their own game by working in diverse teams. White Shark proudly supports GGJ and the esports competition organized by Algebra University, which we believe will be even better than last year. Our mission is focused on promoting responsible and sustainable gaming and developing games that are a quality incentive for young people to build an entrepreneurial spirit while considering safety in an increasingly challenging online environment, said Stjepan Šmit, founder and owner of the White Shark brand, which has secured rich prizes for Algebra’s esports tournament and Global Game Jam this year.

Last year we held our first Global Game Jam and launched an undergraduate professional study of computer game development, all in the spirit of celebrating 25 years, which we crowned with university status. We are pleased that we are slowly but strongly building the game dev and gaming community at Algebra – our students also held the first esports tournament entirely organized by our University yesterday, with the support of our partners Telemach Croatia and White Shark, and today after the conference we are opening the Global Game Jam, which will again gather a bunch of young enthusiasts and creatives ready to create their first games. Croatia can certainly become a place where the computer and video game development industry will develop and grow, especially now that the new S3 Strategy has turned the entire ICT community towards greater productivity in the sector, stated Mislav Balković, rector of Algebra University.