Modding an existing game is rarely comparable to the complexity of creating the game from scratch.
Adding assets and changing dialigue in and existing dialoge framework are accessible to a lot of people who are not up to designing physics and hitboxes. AAA titles require vast teams of people to get the skeleton and muscles of the game right, and mods are generally the hair coloring and nail polish.
That isn’t to say creating mods is inherently easy or anything, but it is tweaking an existing thing and not comparable to building it from scratch.
Sure, but some game engines out there do give you quite a bit to work with, too.
And well, I was talking specifically about the guy enjoying the coding without necessarily caring about the end result (like he’d do, if he patched up Starfield without enjoying the game).
If that were the case, even designing the physics can be a fun riddle.
That is a teensy-tiny problem compared to what has to be done to make a game like Starfield. Go look at the credits. Now understand that each of those teams had weeks or even months where they worked 60-80 hours to solve problems or design things or write or rewrite the story to fit a problem that the programmers can’t solve. Now, imagine putting all that work on one dev or even a tiny dev team. And now you know why the market isn’t flooded by indie dev games of this size and complexity. There is a reason why so many people involved in games burn out quickly - they are often ground down by the grueling work.
You are also conflating ability to do one thing really well with being able to do all things really well.
Modding an existing game is rarely comparable to the complexity of creating the game from scratch.
Adding assets and changing dialigue in and existing dialoge framework are accessible to a lot of people who are not up to designing physics and hitboxes. AAA titles require vast teams of people to get the skeleton and muscles of the game right, and mods are generally the hair coloring and nail polish.
That isn’t to say creating mods is inherently easy or anything, but it is tweaking an existing thing and not comparable to building it from scratch.
Sure, but some game engines out there do give you quite a bit to work with, too.
And well, I was talking specifically about the guy enjoying the coding without necessarily caring about the end result (like he’d do, if he patched up Starfield without enjoying the game).
If that were the case, even designing the physics can be a fun riddle.
That is a teensy-tiny problem compared to what has to be done to make a game like Starfield. Go look at the credits. Now understand that each of those teams had weeks or even months where they worked 60-80 hours to solve problems or design things or write or rewrite the story to fit a problem that the programmers can’t solve. Now, imagine putting all that work on one dev or even a tiny dev team. And now you know why the market isn’t flooded by indie dev games of this size and complexity. There is a reason why so many people involved in games burn out quickly - they are often ground down by the grueling work.
You are also conflating ability to do one thing really well with being able to do all things really well.