Do most developers actually care about game design?

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Yeah, it's probably a bit of a silly question I know, but I've been watching a lot of videos by Mark Brown on games like the Zelda series, Mario 3D World and Mario Odyssey and it's really got me wondering. How common is this sort of attitude in game development? How many companies spend their time carefully thinking about level structure and mechanics in the way Nintendo do?

Does the average licensed game developer carefully plan out the levels in their cartoon show adaptation? Do the companies making say, Wii shovelware have a bunch of people plotting out ideas beforehand and watching game design videos on YouTube?

Or do they just go with whatever because they don't give a toss?

Just wondering...
 
Some games obviously have effort put into them and others obviously don't That being said You never know if some bad games actually have effort put into them. Most games development stories aren't exactly well known. For example, did the creators of El Tigre: Make my Mule for the NDS just do a quick cash grab or did they try and happened to be bad at making games? I think most games you simply don't know the story behind them. Only what the end result is. Then of course some games obviously have effort and other games obviously don't Like how Super Mario Galaxy was a carefully crafted game where as Garfield Kart is just using the Garfield IP with the success of Mario Kart to sell. But games like that are easy to tell what category they fit into and you don't need me to tell you which is which.
 
I remember reading the linkedin profile of people who worked on the star wars revenge of the sith licensed game (which granted, ism uch better than your average tie-in) and the game designer going really deep into game design concepts like player motivation and etc.

I think most people working in the game industry do have some idea of what they're doing and truly want to make good games, but stuff like deadlines, budget and corproate apathy are always factors. Nintendo is in an unique position because it has massive cash reserves, popular decade-established franchises and always have at least one successful platform to rely on, so theyre not hurting for cashflow and can afford to really polish every aspects of its games.
 
In the old days, the quality of a licensed game sometimes depended on the developers' attitude on the source material. Some software houses would put out a shoddy product for one franchise, then a decent product for another.

Over the years I've read recounts from old British developers about having to work for a living with licenses they hated. Sooo many creative ideas in their heads, but they were stuck creating endless products based on subjects they had no interest in, just to pay the bills... like popular superhero comics, kids tv shows, etc. It's sad, because everybody loses... The developers get miserable work >>> the consumer gets a gimcrack game >>> the game publisher(s) gets a bad rep!
 
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Depends on the company. If a company is passionate about releasing a quality product, then yes. If a company just wants to make easy money by exploiting a popular IP or trend, then no.
 
Koopaul said:
Depends on the company. If a company is passionate about releasing a quality product, then yes. If a company just wants to make easy money by exploiting a popular IP or trend, then no.
Click to expand...

Depends on a company's circumstances, as well. For example, RARE put out their share of stinkers when it came to licensed games, and they are regarded as one of the most passionate firms in the history of western developers.
Former employees have said that during the 80's and early 90's, RARE's main mission was to churn out as many licensed products as possible in order to fill their pockets.
 
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