Yes, video game loading bars are fake, indie devs admit

rockpapershotgun.com:

Indie game developers decided to shatter one of the worst-kept secrets in gaming this week, after admitting that loading bar progress is faked. But, they insist, you really wouldn’t have it any other way.

The bombshell came in the wake of a jokey tweet from comic Alasdair Beckett-King, who posited - tongue firmly in cheek - that devs should focus on perfecting a smooth-moving loading bar that accurately tracks the time left to load before they move onto other less important stuff like graphics and controls.

Game developers need to invent a loading bar that moves at an even speed, reflecting the amount of time a game will take to load. Once that's done, they can start working on graphics, jumping etc.

In response to Beckett-King’s gag, actual devs decided that now was the time to lift the curtain and reveal that, yes, loading bars have mostly been faked all long. (Thanks, GamesRadar.)

“I have never worked in a game that didn’t sport a fake loading bar. Real ones induce anxiety,” said Raúl Rubio Munárriz of Sexy Brutale and Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story studio Tequila Works.

“Don't think I've ever coded a straight-up correct loading bar,” echoed former Vlambeer-er Rami Ismail, who recalled working on “projects where we faked loading bars, extended loading times, or artificially made loading bars move at uneven speeds”.

I have never worked in a game that didn’t sport a fake loading bar. Real ones induce anxiety. Maybe that’s why I dislike’em so much & always push for smooth streaming or, when reality punches you in the face, a splash screen with an ouroboros-like (usually rotating) loading icon.

A common theme between the devs discussing why loading bars don’t move at a consistent crawl - we’ve all had