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Someone missed something... Disney acquires Tapulous

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:50:00 +0000

I find this really strange... Disney acquires Tapulous. I think my favorite quote of the piece is this:

“We will be at the center of Disney’s mobile strategy,”

The reason I find this very odd is that less than 8 months ago I was contacted by their HR requiter for the Executive Producer position at Tapulous. We talked for about 30 minutes and one of her comments stuck in my head:

"We really have no process, and we need someone who can teach us how to make games"

When I asked about the background of my bosses, I was told they were lawyers had had zero game industry experience. I was told what they really needed was someone with lots of experience who could lead the group.

So there you have it... someone with no game industry experience is now the head of the "center of Disney's mobile strategy. This has disaster written all over it. I wish them well in their duel quest of leading the mobile strategy AND learning how to make games.

Amazing...

Mac

Virtual goods and Magic Number Math

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:41:00 +0000

Let's get some things out of the way before we talk about economic problems with virtual goods. There are some bits of information that need to be accepted before you can fully understand the problem.

The first bit is, since these transactions are so small, it's very important that the buy have no real idea of how much they're spending. Remember that the buyer is actually buying nothing. The virtual hat is actually that, virtual. So it's important that the exchange rate be difficult to calculate. The worse position to be in, is where the buyer knows exactly how much they're spending with easy math they can do in their head. You want them always to be thinking in terms of their virtual money, not real money.

Got that? That's why songs in Itunes are 99 cents not 1.00 dollar.

The second piece you need to understand is that there are Magic Numbers. These are the numbers that people feel comfortable using in their head to do simple math. These numbers are 2,10 and 5. Other numbers, such as 3, although small they aren't as easy to multiply in your head, unless of course the other number is one of the magic numbers.

The next bit you need to grasp is that people in general select the first menu item. With all things being equal and a long menu of options, the first is usually the one picked.

If you have all that... take a look at the picture to the left. This is a screen shot from Farmville iPhone. The first option... 5 real dollars, yes it shows 4.99 but for math people will use 5, and 25. We know that 5 is one of the magic numbers and 25 is an easy multiplier.

Just like that the buy knows that for every real dollar, they're getting 5 Farm Cash. What does that leave us with? We still don't know the exchange rate. But the numbers left help, 5 (a magic number) and 1.00 (100 is an easily multiplier of 5)

Just like that... 20 cents for every Farm Cash. This is easy "do it on your head math" using the magic numbers that breaks the number one online retail rule.

This isn't the end of the world. I'm not suggesting that Farmville on the iPhone will fail, but this will be an anchor on the beautiful sailing ship. I will give them credit, the second item listing, is not easy magic math. The downside there is, it's the SECOND item and most won't use the numbers for the math.

Your thoughts?

Mac

Making a Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:41:00 +0000

Scheduling game production is like herding cats, snakes and artists. I'll leave it up to you to determine who is more insulted in that last sentence.

Scheduling comes down to putting the doers with the planners. There are levels of decision makers that must be consulted when you have large teams. I know of few products that shipped exactly according to their initial schedule. While most of my products have shipped on time, I can't say they fit exactly to the first schedule.

Often the higher ups decide that a product must ship at a specific date and that requires you to constrict the features in order to ship. Remembering time for QA, it always takes longer than expected, can be the key to shipping your title with high quality even if you have to trim features.

The best advice I can give you, small or large tam, is to conduct experiments. If you make a schedule that has 15 levels, and each level is scheduled to take 4 weeks, that's 60 weeks just for levels. While your tam is making this first level, monitor their progress closely. If they take 8 weeks to make level 1, level 2 isn't going to take 4 weeks as planned. Even if the entire team tells you that the next levels will go faster now that they've finished one.

Always identify those features that can be removed for time constraints. Better to know a the start that you can remove features that have to kill something you love farther on in development.

Dive head down into the first chucks of development and watch closely the team interactions. If the team is staying weekends or working 14 hour days, you need to remember this when you review the schedule.

Even with SCRUM, reviewing what you are developing as a whole is paramount to shipping with feature complete at the quality the market demands. Remember that with waterfall or SCRUM, you should never bite off more than you can chew.

Making your schedule is as much a team effort as is the game development. Building the schedule with your team gives them a sense of ownership that doesn't happen when you make the schedule and present it to them. While it's fine to put required milestones up, and then work backwards, the teams respond better if they build it with your requirements in mind.

In the future I'll post about part two, maintaining the schedule.

Mac

XCOM and Joystiq, sometimes they just GET IT

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:26:00 +0000

We play games. Games, GAMES. These are meant to be entertaining and FUN. Often I have sat in meetings and listened to big burly men discuss the merits of the brown fluffy bunnies vs. the pink fluffy bunnies. (Side note: one of my favorite industry friends is Scott Rhode, and I will NEVER forget hearing him tell how his game idea was rejected because two previous games that had sand in them had failed therefore a beach volleyball game would fail too)

So when I come along a review or comment that shows the writer is having FUN, I laugh and have to quote it.

...look like no aliens you've ever had to fight off before. Okay, maybe if you're Spider-Man, you'll find yourself on familiar ground. Everyone else is screwed.

This is from a review of the new XCOM trailer that looks very cool too. But DO go read the entire review and watch the video on JOYSTIQ, and dig their new look.

Mac

P.S. And if you're wondering, I have NO idea why Hemingway's picture comes up when Zemanta is looking for pictures based on this post, but that too cracked me up.

Headhunters, what to watch out for...

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:54:00 +0000

I am asked often: "How did you get your job?" or "How can I get a job in games?" or my favorite: "How can I get a job as a tester?".
Years ago I proudly wore my SEGA jacket wherever I went. Often someone woudl stop me and asking about being a tester. I would hand them my card and say: "Go home, play a game you don't like, on a level you don't like and play that level over and over for 8 hours straight. When you can do that, call me". In 4 years, I never got a single call.

Sometimes you need a reality check. Sometimes you need an adviser, but never need a used car salesmen.

Headhunters make their money by placing you in a position. They make no money if they can't place you, and even less if they talk to you on the phone for hours.

I have fired headhunters in the past. I give them hard deadlines. They have to call me and let me know what is going on within 72 hours of sending my resume a potential employer. I won't put up with: "I sent in your resume and I'll call them in a week". If a company wants you, they answer within 3 days. They don't take weeks or months to fill a position.

While it's never a good idea to contact companies directly, a headhunter knows the hiring manager and get a feel for them and if they're considering you, I feel that it's acceptable to send a nice note to a HR email address, saying only that you are very excited about a position that and that you are represented by a specific company or headhunter.

Several times I have been told a resume was sent it, when it was not. Always good to send a "thanks for considering me" email even when you're rejected for a position.

A good headhunter will tell you why you're a perfect fit for a job, or why they won't send you in for it. A bad headhunter will judge you just by your resume and not contact you again. A really really bad headhunter will tell you something like: "You're a programmer, just be happy doing that", when you apply for a position as a manager of programmers.

Watch out for those that don't listen when you tell them something that you think is important. If THEY don't value you, then how can they rperesent you as a quality candidate for the position?

Watch out for those that say they send in a resume, and you never hear from them again. That means that you were rejected and the headhunter doesn't respect you enough to take the time to call and tell you that.

A good headhunter will tell you: "Nope, I don't have anything for you right now. But this is what you need to do...".

Questions? Bring'm on!

Mac

Facebook games are old Play-By-Mail games

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:44:00 +0000

I was sitting in a meeting discussing Facebook games when the person who called the meeting listed some of the important facets of a successful game.

Engagement
Retention
Free and paid optional actions
Economic balance
Player to player social interactivity

Those of you that know ANYTHING about Play-By-Mail (PBM), know that these are the exact same issues. The biggest company in PBM was Schubel & Son. I met Mr Shubel at a Star Trek convention in 1976. It was before he got into PBM and his son was a toddler. He understood the basic principles of engagement, retention, free vs. paid options, economics and social interaction between players. While PBM was never a huge industry, there is no question that Schubel & Sons was a leading company.

This encourages the player to keep going, to come back, to be involved. This engagement, results in retention. The player must always be able to do SOMETHING. This leads to Free and Paid options. The free options are always available, even if they are limited by "energy" that must be regenerated over time. The player must only leave the game because they have other priorities, not because they have run out of options.

Paid options are the difference between a handgun and a M16. They both have devastating affects, but the M16 has greater range and can deliver more bullets faster. While there are many possible examples, this is the one I use as a test with every feature of a PBM game or now, a Facebook game.

There are plenty of examples of the non-player characters, in Shubel & Son games, attacking without reason, and of course ANY battle resulted in a fee to the players account. But as a player, knowing that at any time you could be attacked, you stayed always defensive, but also risky.

Typically turns in PBM games are weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly. The fees were $4.00 or up to $15 a turn and people played these games for YEARS. Because the basic principles were met.

The economy in a game is as important as being true to the theme. If you're in a Sci-Fi game, you might get out of sorts if your character has to wield a colt 45. For the economics, if that colt 45 is 50 game bucks, and the bullets are 500, there is just as much of a problem. While that is an obvious and dramatic problem, most economic problems are much more subtle.

A game designer I admire very much is Sid Meir. One of his basic principles has been adapted by many game designers, including myself. That principle is that the game should be playable as early as possible in the development process. Getting the economy "playable" at the beginning of the process is just as important. You need to know why the players buy a certain weapon, why they buy a spell or seem to gravitate towards a special ability more than the others LONG before the game goes public. To leave these into the players hands without testing, is foolish.

Schubel & son realized very quickly that players wanted much more than to just fight with each other. They wanted to learn from experienced players, they wanted to form alliances and wanted communication avenues that allowed for a meta-game to be created. They wanted to be able to negotiate the terms of surrender on a 1-1 level.

Unlike today with instant communication, in 1980 we had only snail mail. But players used the in game communication systems to their maximum, and then asked to connect directly. It was this direction connection that pushed the games to a higher level, and that's what Facebook does best.

So you think Mafia Wrs is new? You think Farmville was discovered as a great design in Facebook gaming? You think virtual good is new? Think again, think about PBM. Companies like Schubel & Son, Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo, these people created this business and we can learn a lot from them. And if we ignore them as no or low tech, we'll suffer the fate of those companies and games that didn't follow the principles that they created.

What PBM have you played lately? Farmville? That's a good one.

Mac

Community Vision, have it? What is it?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:44:00 +0000

I love the title of this post. I have a hunch that after reading that your first thought was something like; "What's that?" or "What does he mean by that?". Good! All through time, or at least the last 29 years, I have read and it has been said ti me to: "Get the vision" or to "understand my vision". I have actually said that a big part of my job early on is to communicate the vision of the product.

I am a visual guy. I am an awful speller in part because when I imagine things, I see shapes and colors and objects, not letters. It's these shapes and objects that becomes games, or control interfaces, or blog posts. My job is to communicate that vision to people who look at things differently than I do.

Now that we've defined "vision", let's talk about community.

Back in the old days, the community was JUST those people who bought your game. The question was, how do we keep them involved. Side note here: companies that only care about getting the product purchased, and then ignore the customer, often go bankrupt or are just a flash in the pan.

Community is the made up of first, people who bought your game. It then splits into factions. There will be those who tell their friends about it, those that only play it on their lunch hour, those that only play it when their friend is over to play multi-player, those that use your in-game tools to create content, those that blog or create fan sites about it, and those that will follow yur around like puppies at game conventions.

That's a lot of different needs that need to be met for "community". Most companies fail to meet all of these factions needs. Actually, most just meet one or two, and hope that's enough to encourage people to buy the downloadable content, DLC, or at least the sequel.

But let me through another wrench in the mix, Facebook and Twitter. Facebook IS a community for your game all by itself. Their needs are communication directly with YOU. The twitter folks are a offshoot of Facebook and there is huge crossover between them. We've been known to call these groups Twitbookers or the Twitbook community.

Your vision of your community must include all of these factions and your priorities must be on the amount of impact these groups have on your sales. Obviously the Twitbookers are about immediate communication. Gone are the days where a product was a "fire and forget" proposition. I suggest also that the days of complete secret development are gone as well. We want the consumers to know what we're working on, we NEED them to know. And furthermore, we HAVE to let them know so they'll talk about it.

At board game conventions I always say, "Draw a crowd, because crowds breed crowds. And crowds mean buzz, and buzz means sales". Your job as a developer or publisher is to create a community vision, which are your major groups and how will you meet their needs, BEFORE the product is launched and suggest you do it as the game is being designed.

Feed the community by creating the vision. The more you feed them, the more they're talk about your game.

So let me ask you this, what is the vision of your community?

Mac

Optimist? Pessimist? Which are you?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:42:00 +0000

I have been on a LOT of job interviews. I can almost regurgitate both the questions and the answers to pin point accuracy. rarely am I asked a question that is unexpected. I am asked about AAA titles I have produced, what games I currently play and where I see myself in 5 years.

I am also asked about dealing with other departments, internal or external development groups and which I prefer, how will I handle a situation where I'm not responsible for XXX where most producers are. My favorite question: "What do you do in your off time?" My answer: "I'm a Producer, my off time is when I'm dead".

But one question threw me and I wish I had revised my answer.

The question was: Are you an optimist, a pessimist or somewhere in between?

The answer I gave at the time was: "Mostly Optimist". But in hindsight, I should have said simply: "Yes". Because as a Producer I have to be all of those.

Optimist: "Yes the project will be great, yes we're working hard for a good reason, yes the public will love it"

Pessimist: "No you're not giving enough time for that feature, no we need more QA time, no that's just not good enough compared to the rest of the team, no I'm not satisfied because I know we/you/I can do better"

Somewhere in between: "I think if I sleep on this, I'll have a better solution. Let's not wait instead let's be proactive"

And I am sure there are flavors that I am missing here since none of these three has a clear dividing line. The point here is that when you are on a team, no matter the role, make sure that you look at what you are doing from all three of the above angles.

So here is my question... which of these are you?

Mac

The Game Pitch part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Way back in 1990 I was a pitch man for a small, read two, group of developers. I had just finished my time as a Army cadet and I was sure the training I was given would make a great video game. I pitched my idea to Accolade and to Electronic Arts.

When I spoke to Electronic Arts, specifically Rich Hilleman, he had no idea who I was... until I mentioned that my pitch came ina black envelop. His reaction was exactly what I wanted: "Oh yeah, I have it right here". And then he said no...

I had done the first step correctly, I had given my presentation something to make it stand out. I had failed at the second part, making my game concept attractive. I should point out that a year later EA published a title almost exactly my concept, but that's another story.

So Part I of our talk is about the presentation itself. Part II will be about the meat of the presentation. It must be said that every company and person is a little different, so if you follow exactly what I say, it is still very possible to be rejected.

First, let's remember that you're trying to communicate a visual experience through the limitations of text. The example I like to use its Baseball. If I say that my game is played on a baseball field, you know, or more than likely know, what I'm talking about, You can close your eyes and see the field. But if I say my game is played on a Cruxlioid field, no one has any idea what that is... and truthfully, neither do I.

So paint me a picture with your text, set the scene. Are there 9 men, are there 9 armadillos? What is my view point, and then add on what happens. Don't tell me what happens, and then tell me what it looks like. I need to close my eyes, and see your game... and the action that unfolds. Do whatever you can to paint that picture on my eyelids, even use pictures from other games.

The next step is to tell me why I would keep playing your game. What makes it more compelling than playing with my dog, watching TV, or playing some other game. I want to know your hook. That special combination of elements that I have not seen or played before.

If I look back on the sea of submissions, one thing that stands out in the pool of rejections... the design didn't go far enough.

Part II in a couple of months...

Mac

Value of a license

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:11:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Tiger Woods or Mac Senour golf from EA?

Recently as a iPhone game development networking talk, that's where a few hundred people get together under the excuse of a "talk" when really they're there to network with people and steal them from their current employers, the newish head of a large social network proposed that a license on a game means nothing.

The room burst into laughter and answered him with a collective: "You're kidding right?" But sadly, he wasn't. I could grab the microphone faster enough for my question to be relevant, but I really wanted to say: "Hi I'm Mac Senour, I play a little golf. With Tiger Woods recent problems, do you think EA could put me on the cover and sales would be exactly the same?". The answer is, no of course not. But this persons answer, I'm presuming, would be yes.

Clearly he and I think very differently.

The value of a license is that split second that the consumer takes to give your game a second look. Once they have purchased a game, I agree that the license means nothing. It then all depends on the game itself. After the consumer has bought the game there is no difference between Mac Senour Golf and Tiger Woods Golf.

The reason a publisher buys a license is to buy that split second look from the consumer. It would make no sense to spend $50,000 to get the rights to use my likeness in a golf game if you didn't know for a fact that it would increase sales to offset that expense. And for the record, I'm a little cheaper than that.

What licenses have you seen for a game that DIDN'T make you take the second look?

While you're pondering that, keep in mind this story... a board game designer who is considered legendary noted that he made more money off the contract for the American Idol card game, than he did in 7 years of running his game company.

Mac

How to make games from movies

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:39:00 +0000

We've all played them... hated most of them, games based on movies. I recently wrote a post about The Lovely BOnes and how you CAN make a game from any TV or movie. But the real question is, should you?

Lets take a look at this interview: Ubisoft CEO Guillemot

Having been though this many times, I'm sure the CEO of Ubisoft made a great deal for the rights to Avatar. Het sent a meno to his head of production informing him of the great rights he has secured, and that the game must come out the same day as the movie. His next act was to order lunch.

I have seen these deals done correctly, and I have seem them down stupidly. I worked on "Sahara" at TKO Software. The CEO signed a contract to publish the game in 9 months, with no engine written. The script had almost weekly changes and that made it impossible to put a serious schedule together. We took the wrong route with the game.

When I was at SEGA I was the producer on Taz for the Game Gear. I was lucky to be under the guidance of the producer of the Genesis version, Scott Berfield. Scott realized that to make a good Taz game, he had to use the art and themes of the show, but not the exact scenes. This may have come about due to the fact that Taz was a weekly show, at the time, and there were just too many scenes and they weren't all connected anyway. For whatever reason, this worked out well.

Games from movies fall into two categories:

   1 - Follow the movies exactly (Sahara)
   2 - Use the characters and theme's from the movie (Taz)

Given the usual shortness of the time between contract signing and movie release, option 2 is usually the best route. The obstacles are the upper management who think games have to follow the movie exactly, and the original licensor who doesn't want you messing with their characters. You have to get past them. If you don't, you'll end up with games like Avatar, or The Hulk, or Iron Man... or... I could go on and on.

Here's the secret:

Design a game using the characters and themes that has a development time significantly less than the time alloted. With additional features listed as "Time Allowed".   I have been in these meetings, showing the product plan to upper management. When theysee what they can get IF they give you time, they'll give you the time. If they're happy with the original design, you're making a game thats fun and will hit the dates. Either way its a win-win.

Can you name a game based on a movie that you liked?

Mac

The Chart of Game Elements

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:52:00 +0000

I'm sure you've seen it, the chart of the elements. Some studied them in school, others swore to never grow up to be called Boron. If you studied chemistry at all, you've seen this chart. But for games, its new.

I started it because I wanted to be able to clarify the games I was reviewing and judging as submissions. I wanted to spot trends and use the chart to see what areas of game deisgn were being neglected.

As I said above, "I started it", and its not close to complete. But Rome wasn't built in a day and this chart will take some time. So please, add to the, or argue with where I put the various elements.

Please visit the site, and offer new elements.

Go for it... Chart of Game Elements

What movie or TV show can't you make a game out of?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:33:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

None

No such thing

Through the history of time there hasn't been a movie, book, TV show that wouldn't lend itself to a video game. Now lets keep in mind that these might not be GOOD games, but its easy really... but lets define our terms.

The game needs to fit into a genre other than just "based on a movie". You know they give Oscars to movies that are based on stories in other media. Lets adapt something from a TV show and see what we get... (being older myself, I'll go for some really old shows)

"Car 54 where are you?" So easy... GTA IV style game that you wander around a huge town trying to find a specific car.

"The Prisoner" You nee to escape the island without giving up any information.

"The Brady Bunch" The dog, Tiger, is missing and the player must help the family find him. Since this is based on an existing episode, (yeah odd that I remember that huh?), there's plenty of VO material we can use.

If you need more proof, please read my previous post about The Lovely Bones. I have not seen it yet, as of this writing it opens tonight, but I know when I do that there's a game in there.

So dear reader... think of every media assault on your mind and heart in game terms. Although it is possible to turn a tragedy of the Haitian earthquake, search and rescue, but since the topic is not happy and mostly not a happy ending, the game would end on a sad note. Games that end without a happy ending, often care that feeling on through to the review and players overall feeling about the game.

An old boss of mine feels that movies have to end on a happy or at least empowering note, and that's true for games as well.

Lets start a list... of sources of game ideas.... movies, TV, newspapers, recent events... what comes to mind next?

Mac

The Lovely Bones... as a game

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:14:00 +0000

What makes a game? If you list the qualities you like or dislike about a game, I'll bet there is a lot of crossover with movies and music. Since there is so UCH crossover its highly likely that a movie can be made into a game. We've seen it go the other way with games becoming movies, but that's rare compared to the other way around.

We've all seen them, all played them... movies that have action scenes are almost automatically licensed for video game,,, I was going to say production but maybe trashing is a better word.

This brings me to "The Lovely Bones". Is this an action movie? Nope. Is it a love story with a tragic ending? Nope. Is there anything in it that would make a good game... yes! Of course lets keep in mind that I'm under the impression that I can make a game out of anything, even beansprouts. But there's more to it than that.

The Lovely Bones is a murder mystery where we all know who did it, its a matter of capturing him with the right evidence. And that's where the game is. Movies, TV and games revolve around conflict. Where there is conflict there is drama, suspense and the essence of a good game.

Some of the best games on the market hit a large demographic footprint. A game based on this movie does exactly that. If you have ever played, and loved like the rest of us, games like Myst or Monkey Island then you know exactly what I am talking about.

Which character do you play? Most likely the father, but certainly the detective comes to mind as well. Or maybe you play the dead daughter, trying to invluence the actions of your family to find the killer? That last one hits the mark with me.

With today's advances in AI and the love that the gaming audience has of watching "what happens when I do this"... leads me to believe that a game where I am a ghost, but able to communicate with the living, to find my killer, hits all of the marks we like to see in a hit and innovative game.

The setup is simple, your object is to make sure that the killer is captured, and you lose the game if he gets away. There can be degrees of success, does he get the maximum penalty or a slap on the wrist.

A big thing to keep in mind is, I have not yet seen the movie. I am creating this concept on the fly and that's exactly how it should be. If my assumptions are wrong about the basic story of the movie, then that misconception will carry on to the general public. The game buyng public will have the same wrong idea... assuming I am wrong.

Lets make a deal. After reading this post, go see the movie. See it twice if you need to. Then lets meet back here and see what e think o my basic game idea. Does it work? Is it nonsense? We'll judge together.

As I write this, its January 6th. Lets see the movie, at least once, and meet back here Monday the 18th. Feel free to make comments or email any time. For you facebook people, please make your comments in the blog.

Thanks and save me some popcorn,
Mac

Common submission mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I'm not sure what it is about me, but several times in my career I have been given the task of reviewing and responding to game submissions.

It all started with Sludge Master at Broderbund. I'm not sure if I was plucked from the crowd or maybe I raised my hand to volunteer, something I was later reprimanded for doing too often, but somehow I got a pile of submissions on my desk.

The first one, was SludgeMaster. A nice gentleman who worked at a water treatment plant thought his job would make a great game. You take sludge in, and pure water comes out the other end. That's if you did everything right... if you did something wrong, other less tasteful liquids were produced. When asked about it, I said I could only reccomend the game if it came with a scratch N sniff card.

So over the last 28 years I have seen many many titles. Some were prototypes, others were crayon written letters. But they all had some failings in common.

1) Poor presentation - They all start with "This is the best game". Trust me, its not the best game, it might not even be a good game. And really, you send it to me so I can make up MY mind and that statement doesn't help either way. Rarely am I given real graphics to look at before I am told what it WILL look like. I'd rather see stick figures than read about a game screen. Show me with pictures, don't tell me with words.

2) Stops short. Usually the game is related to an existing product. This is actually a good thing. My habit is to explain the game in two sentences. The best example I have is from TV: "Star Trek Voyager is a mix between the original Star Trek and Gilligan's Island". Where most fail, is that they don't take it far enough. They recognize the competition, but only out do it by a little, not a LOT. If the other product has 10 levels, don't think I'll be impressed with 15. I'll be impressed with 50 or 100. Does your game expand on the premise?

3) Nothing new. This is the same game only now its sci-fi instead of fantasy. When the boys came to me with Majesty I knew it was a hit when they changed SimCity to a fantasy setting AND gave you clear reason to build a city. How is your game different?

4) Bad controls. The only real prototype that I want to play involves the controls. If it doesn't FEEL right, then all the good graphics are lost. The great level design is gone too, right down the drain. the controls have to be easy to use, without reading the instructions. If your mom can't play the game right out of the box, then most likely the target audience won't either. Is your game easy to play and understand?

OK, that's 4 big ones that most of the submissions I see fail on. There are others, but if you get past these 4 then you're well on your way to getting my suggestions which leads to acceptance. And really, that's what you're going for isn't it?

Your thoughts?

Mac

Feeling the Force or is it just starch?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Its not often that I criticize other Producers. I'm not perfect and I certainly wouldn't want to be accused of living in a glass house and throwing stones. But sometimes, we're just lazy. There are a mission things to keep track of, and ever exec in the industry is a frustrated game designer. I've lost track of the number of times I've had to pull an accountant aside and point out that I don't tell them how to handle the companies money, even as I encourage their input I can't take it as a directive.

So now that brings us to starch, One of the oddities, one of many, about the iPhone is the requirement that the name of the game when displayed on the iPhone is short. I spend a fair amount of brain power coming up with names for games that already have great names but are too long for the few characters that Apple gives us. (Side note, I was the original producer and designer on Golf Magazine presents: Fred Coupled best 100 golf holes, good luck with that title Apple)

I recently purchased Star Wars Trench Run from THQ. As I write this it has 2 1/2 stars with lots of crashes. Its clear from the reviews, and my own experience that there is a lot of work left to be done on this game but... one of the small things I see is that the game name on the iPhone is Starch Run. To be fair, its Star...ch run but you get the idea.

Never heard of the Millennium Falcon? It did the Kessel run to the cleaners in under 12 parsecs

If one of you would like to make the argument that there are other reasons besides producer laziness that forces a company to release a title too soon, I would have to agree. I've been in many situations where I had to fight for my title to be held back because it wasn't ready.

But wait... there's more.

I love Batman. He's nuts... but I love his sheer power and the images he creates. Some of the best storylines and art have come from Batman comics and movies. And I am a HUGE fan of the recent game and I strongly recommend that you go pick up a copy. I played it on the XBOX 360 and loved it.

But...

The opening scene is a movie made from game assets. Good call really. The art is beautiful and well used in the opening. But while I'm watching the movie, enthralled by the amazing art, control of Batman is suddenly returned to me. The Joker is in stapped in his bed, being rolled into Arkham and since I didn't know I was moving Batman now... they go rolling on down the road without me.

I hit the controller almost by accident and noticed that Batman moved. I quickly walked Batman, that's all he can do at this point, back to where he should hav been all along. Now what was the intent here? Tos how off that Batman can walk? Of all of the great art, him walking is my least favorite. Its very stilted and poor, so why show it off? If there's no action going on, only walking, why do I as the player have to do it? Why was there NO indication that I was now in control other than the scene moving away from me?

Producer got lazy. That's exactly the kind of things a Producer is supposed to catch and not fixing these two small things says the Producer was too busy doing other things to catch the small stuff. We want you to catch these small things, they make for a better game experience. Remember that these are tough times and my 99 cents or 60 dollars will be hard to get.

For now, I'm hoping for a massive update from THQ to fix the Starch Run Problems. Batman, only thing I can say is: Walk on.

Mac

Pick a child - Which of my products am I most proud of... and why that's a non-question

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Image by [[ Philip Rood ]] via Flickr

Recently in an interview I was asked to pick the game I love the most and the one I love the least. There are so many factors that play into this, its almost impossible to actually pick one. Its very much like a parent picking one child over another.

They all have their strengths, their great memories, but also their down side. How tough the development was, or long development took... or how hard I had to fight with management. To say it simply, there are highs and lows to every development so picking one over the other is akint o picking apples over oranges.

Which leads me to the second point, this is really an awful interview question. Producers generally aren't given the privilege to pick the products they work on. I was once given a claymation fighting volleyball game as my first product. This was, of course, a castoff from another producer who wanted to get it off of their plate and saw a "new guy" as a chance to do that.

Given that products are assigned, its hard to claim any great acclaim to having a AA title on my resume, or a slew of also rans. As a producer you pout the same amount of effort into the bad games as the good games, the same about of work and passion. If you don't then I don't want to work with you.

Which leads to my answer to this interview question:

I put the same amount of effort into all of the games that I'm assigned, and I don't play favorites. I can't pick between all of them because they all got the exact same treatment, 100% of my producer ability.

Which some take as their answer, but other insist that I must pick one. I always then name GunStar Heroes because it received the most press. I've found that if I name a game no one has heard of, they wonder why I picked it.

Your thoughts?

Mac

Something new

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:53:00 +0000

So here are a few facts about me that I'll bet you didn't know...

I wrote a one page document about how "we" need to expand our thoughts on first person games, I wrote about how characters don't all have to be men... a few months later Tomb Raider appeared on my desk at US Gold, which became EIDOS. I have NO doubt that it was a coincidence, and in no way am I implying that the game was my idea or came from that document.

In 1984 I was programming in BASIC on an Apple II+. I was using a third party language extension that had a limit on the number of variables, 256. I passed that in just the first few weeks of development so I needed a solution. I devised an idea of having a text file that had various values in it and I loaded them in order that they were saved in the file. Quickly I forgot the order and decided that it was best to label them IN the file itself. I used a slash to start and end the variable names. Some of you might recognize this as XML.

In 1983 I was working for Broderbund and I had just finished writing a conversion of Serpentine for the C64 and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. I wrote a short letter to my boss about a job I thought I would be good at. In this position I would help the programmers with their titles. I would coordinate with the artists and guide the team to a better product. I didn't use the title but I was describing what EA would later call "Producer". (Side note, my boss said: "Why would we ever need anyone to do this job?" They're out of business now, btw)

In 1982 some friends of mine and I were at a game convention and we were running people through a "live" dungeon. We used the hallways of the hotel and various rooms as our dungeon for the adventure. A couple of people stopped me in the hallway and asked me what we were doing. I explained the basic premise of the game. They mentioned that they run a big convention in Houston and wanted to run the game there. They asked me what I call it... I made it up on the spot but it sounded good: "I call it... Live Action Role Playing". Yep, I coined the term LARP.

I have no doubt that you dear readers have many such insights as well. And you might be asking yourself, why I am bringing all this up now. The truth is, I have something else in mind and I want to announce it here now.

I have what I believe to be a new genre of video games.

I call it the combo game. All combo games are multiple player, co-op games. The combo game is a game where all the players have a common goal but they use different established game genres to achieve that goal. Lets use the example of a car racing game. One player is the driver... this is more of a twitch game. The second player is the crew chief. His version of the game is more of a puzzle game that involves the fuel mix, the foil design and shape, and when to pit stop to change the tires.

This example combines two genres, racing twitch game and puzzle. Both players win or lose together but what they do to win is completely different. You want mom to play a game with you but you can never get her to drive a race car? Not a problem, she can do a puzzle game and help you win the racing game.

Of course, I have a game in development for the iPhone that fits this combo model. It can be played with 2 players, but best with 6. Think I'm crazy to design and develop a 6 player game? I’ll just refer you to my bosses comment above and please do look for my game in App Store sooner than later.

And while I’m at it… in 2007 I suggested that a future MMOG will embrace distributed processing. While the company would have the main servers, users would have sub-servers that they control. These servers are like small “neighborhoods” that players can play on and control. They can take the same characters and play on the main company servers, but they can also enjoy the intimate gaming of a smaller area that might be limited to just people they know.

These are not shards of one big server, but together they make up the entire huge world.

More to come…

Mac

Who REALLY says your product is done? Not who you think

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:12:00 +0000

When I was at SEGA, I sat in a "release" meeting with my boss, the head of all of development and the QA manager. I listened as the head of development lectured me on the strength of our titles and how we have set the bar very high and so we can't possibly release a title with bugs.

His Director of Development took over and pontificated on how he and his boss have years of experience and know when a game is ready for the market and would be happy to teach me these skills if I was willing to listen.

Who'd say no? I said something that sounded like: "Yeah sure, can you sign the release papers now?"

They both looked at the QA manager and with no further prompting said: "QA has signed off on it". With that, the two big guys signed. It was at that moment I realized, the ultimate judge of a titles worthiness for manufacturing had nothing to do with these two big wigs.

Make no mistake, I learned a TON from both of them and I highly respect them. But they really had nothing to do with the release of my title. Even the QA manager was really just reporting the results from the testers. These are the very same testers that we paid only 12 dollars an hour... we used to say: "Want to test a game? Wait, are you breathing? Yes? OK, you're qualified". Now that was 1992, games are a lot more complicated but the attitude towards testers has not evolved.

"Want to test a game? Wait, are you breathing? Yes? OK, you're qualified"

I have two stories to relate to you about testers.

In 1992 I was the Producer on Evander Hollyfield Boxing on the Game Gear. One of the features I really pressed for was multiplayer. I really thought this was the killer part of the Game Gear and we didn't use it enough. But, it did require a LOT of testing, so did a lot of other titles that released about the same time.

At one point I'm sitting in my cube and I noticed a lot of new faces in and around the test department. They had opened the flood gates and were trying to get all of the titles tested. I wandered into what was our main conference room to make sure they testers were really... testing. Of course, the new testers needed some pointers. While I was helping them connect multiplayer, I had the following exchange with one of them:

Me: "Like boxing games?"

Tester: "Si"

Me: "Every play any boxing games before?"

Tester: "No"

Me: "What were you doing yesterday?"

He turned to another tester and said a few words in Spanish and then did a pantomime that resembled digging, and said: "Ditch".

Yes, they had hired ditch diggers to test games.

Here's a bit of trivial: Evander Hollyfield Boxing was the first SEGA game, Game Gear or Genesis, that included a list of the testers in the documentation. I insisted, that was a lesson learned.

The second story is sad. I worked for SSI for a short time, long story short, it wasn't a good fit both in project and management. Some of my lifelong friends that I made there were testers. They were amazing, They could find bugs like all other testers, but they were also history buffs. They could tell you that the tank in "that game", has the wrong muzzle velocity for that era in winter. I can't tell you to this day how they could even SEE that on screen.

I firmly believe that one of the downfalls of SSI was when they moved the company from their location in Sunnyvale, to be in the same building as all of Mindscape. They didn't move the testers and that cost them years of experience that could not be easily replaced. Those testers were the heart and soul, and I don't know if it was the ego of the manager, which I suspect given the poor managers, or the costs... but not moving the testers I believe was the steak to the heart of the company.

So if you take nothing else away from this post... VALUE YOUR TESTERS.

Your thoughts?

P.S. OK, one more. In 4 years at SEGA I was asked hundreds of times if they were looking for game testers. I would always hand them my card and say: "Sure, go home... play a game you don't like, the same level over and over for 8 hours straight, then call me and I'll help you get a job". I never got a call.

Never look in the bargin bin

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I read on Gamasutra once that a large percentage of programmers feel that Producers aren't really part of the development team. Of course, they wrote that comment on PCs that were acquired by the Producer... sitting on chairs that the Producer made sure they had... etc.

I could go on a long rant about how producing really is the shit job, not much accolade and all of the blame, but then that would only serve to discourage those of you who aspire to the position and I really don't want to do that.

I have lots of first hand experience to pass on, and in fact I have a new site/blog to do exactly that, but I would like to pass on one very important lesson.

Never EVER look in the bargain bin at GameStop

While the job of "Producer" varies greatly from company to company, the duties are rarely what most sane people would call "fun". There are brief moments where you are smiling at the latest build, or maybe reading a eview of your "baby". But those are far and few between.

There just isn't anything like the pain of seeing the game you worked on day and night for months or even years, at $1.99. The box is beat up, it was a return or traded in for a new game so maybe the documentation, the only proof you actually worked on it, is gone. Worse yet, like lemon or salt the clerk might see you holding it lovingly and say: "I hate that game, if you want something to play that's cool I suggest...". (BTW, that guy now walks with a pronounced limp and his nickname is "lefty")

So take heart, there are good things about being a Producer... there are always new games to be produced, and dinners to buy.

Your producing thoughts?

Mac

What is SONY thinking with the PSP and PSP GO(AWAY)?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

While trolling through the usual news and blog sites, I came across this story, from Industry Gamers. Let me get this straight, the PSP has basically failed and now SONY has figured out a way to really piss off new customers by charging $249 for a device that actually does less than the $200 model.

But to make things even more interesting, they want you to buy this new higher priced unit so you can download games that are really knockoffs of games made for the iPhone/iPod Touch?

Image via Wikipedia

So there's no trade in program, who'd do it? Who has a PSP now and loves it so much he'll go out and buy the PSP GO, and then throw away his old unit that runs his $35 games because of the 99 cent games he can download?
Sir Howard Stringer, you are clearly neither a gamer or a consumer. I am making the grand assumption that the normal PSP can not download games, but since I don't have a PSP GO(AWAY), I can't confirm this.

But further, also at Industry Gamers, it seems that EB is not going to carry the PSP GO(AWAY) in Australia. Shocking! (At least it seems to be to Sir Howard) That a retail hard goods store wouldn't want to sell a game unit, that will put them out of business!

Maybe the good folks over at Blockbuster can exmplain to SONY that stores that sell the hard goods are not interested in selling hardware that they don't or can't share in the profits. A few years ago I was involved with "MovieBeam" from Disney. At one point a marketing person suggested that Blockbuster might carry the unit... that allows people to rent movies without leaving their house. I have no idea how that guy kept his job for so long...

Your thoughts?

Mac

Shot gun vs. patience

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:04:00 +0000

What kind of development group do you want to be? Do you want to see how many re-skins of a game you can churn out in a week, or do you want to see how high can you set the quality bar.

The problem with games for small platforms is how quickly games can be produced. Some developers look at platforms like the iPhone and see 50 tip calculators, and unknown number of flashlights. It welcomes the easy hit, and once that hit is made... reskinning.

Whenever I play a reskinned game it always takes me a moment or two to realized that I have played this game before... many times.

If you need an iPhone example, lets look at the "RPG" section of the game catalog. How many of those games are Mafia Wars with a new skin? Don't get me wrong, I love the business model but eventually the buying public will see that they're doing the same missions over and over. Changing it from Mafia to World War II to some Sci-Fi these won't hide that is the same game play repeated.

WHen talking about game design I always talk about the circle. Imagine that the center of the circle is the top selling game int that genre. I like to use Tomb Raider since most people know the game and I had a hand in its birth. So if Tomb Raider is the center, a game that is close to that center point is most likely a clone. If the game you're making is FAR outside the circle, then its to far from what the buying public understands, so its to much to learn and won't sell.

What you want to aim for is the line of the circle. That game invents new layers to teh genre, but doesn't go to far from what the public knows and love. If your game can hit that line, the circle will move to include your game.

Simple huh? But not the shotgun approach to games...

Mac

What am I missing here?

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I'll admit to being a fan of both The Beatles and of Conan O'Brien, but I think there's something amiss in this clip. Conan Plays Rockband

The problem I have starts when they start playing the game. By my count there are four people on stage... each has some instrument in their hands. But I only see 3 tracks of people playing. Conan does make a comment about one of the guys is there to help with vocals, but if that's all he's doing why does he need anything in his hands but the microphone?

There's some giggling at some point when its clear that Conan has no idea what he's doing, but is that really that much worse than a guy who is playing but isn't connected?

What am I missing here?

Mac

Internal or external? CHOOSE!

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Which is "better" or can you have skills that work for one and not the other?

Often in interviews, or by headhunters, I am asked which I prefer... to work with internal dev groups or external. Working with internal teams means you can have minute by minute updates as well as make spot changes quickly and somewhat easily.

With external teams you run the risk of having to take their word for the current state. More than once at SEGA a developer said to me: "We have it in part on various dev kits", to which I answered: "Send me all teh parts to look at". Rarely did that every happen. Usually I got a build with all the parts that actually worked, on one dev cart. Those other parts, I would say that they didn't meet the deadline.

With internal teams is much easier to cut through any BS you're being fed. Since I started as a programmer its a little easier for me to look at code and spot that what I am looking at is just repeated code over and over, and not a listing of code that has a bug. Yes, a developer actually tried that.

With external teams you can shield them from the every day BS that a publisher puts their producers through. When the boss asks if a external team will be motivated to make a shorter deadline, its up to the producer to represent the developer. This also comes into play when talking about contract changes or additions. The boss often asks if the "developer will do X for Y amount of money?". Its up to the producer to judge the stance of the external group and accurately voice either their concerns or their agreement.

A couple of times I have been in this position, only to have the developer agree to something I know they shouldn't!

A contract took such a long time, that the dates for the first milestones had passed. When I told my boss that we'd have to adjust the schedule he said: "Why? It means they're already late which gives you something to yell at them about the second they sign the contract". Obvious my reaction was less than happy.

There are pluses and minuses to both... what works best for you? How about from the developer side?

Mac

Marvel not doing 'crappy' movie games anymore, says exec

noreply@blogger.com (Mac) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:44:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Marvel Executive Vice President of Global Digital Media Group (wow, long title) Ira Rubenstein tells Joystiq that Marvel is done making "crappy" movie-based games.

I'm amazed at these kinds of quotes. I've heard them a few times over the years and the same questions come to mind. I'm sure that Mr. Rubenstein wouldn't mind answering them... well, with my help anyway.

AMG: So does that imply that you intended to make all of those crappy games before?

IR: Well... umm... no one wants to make crappy games

AMG: So you knew they were crappy but released them anyway. Is it your policy to release games you know are crap?

IR: Crap is bad um...

AMG: What exactly are you going to do to make the new games not crappy that you couldn't or wouldn't do before?

IR: Umm... is it warm in here?

AMG: Do you have some magic juice that's poured on "good" games that you forgot to pour on the crappy games?

IR: Juice... can I have a glass of water? A Twix maybe?

AMG: Did you not pour this magic juice on the crappy games because you figure that the gaming public is so dumb that they'll buy any game with "Marvel" on it so it doesn't really matter what you do?

IR: Love gamers.... they... have.... money....

AMG: Has it occurred to you sir, that the buying public has figured out that you make crappy games, and now they don't just automatically buy your games so this is just some PR stunt that's an attempt to fool these same game buying people into buying more of your crappy games?

IR: Is this 60 Minutes? Where's Andy Rooney?

AMG: Please remain seated sir, calling "uncle" or for your "mommy" will not get you out of answering these simple questions. Can you tell me exactly when the crappy games initiative started and who started it?

IR: I think it was someone else and before I came to the company.... are we done yet?

AMG: Almost. What's your favorite color?

IR: Red... no, green... no...

With that he flew out the window... I think its up to us to cross this bridge on our own.

Mac

P.S. No Ira Rubenstein did not actually answer these questions, but I wish he would!