Thoughts on Game Development

Production Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 02:40:00 +0000

After being a producer now for some time for GREE, I figured I'd take some time and divulge some of my lessons that I have learned recently. Hopefully through these lessons, you will learn to not duplicate them.

One of the first things is to not listen to past performance of a person. This has to be weighed a little, but do not listen to past performance rumors or criticism from other employees. Doing this will only set up the other person for failure. What if this person has learned from their past mistakes and is trying to be better? What if this person still stinks? Watch them closely but do not condemn them immediately.

Asking the right questions is important. This skill is a hard one to learn, but is crucial. What do I mean? My old mentor Travis George would say that when you are tasked with something, make sure you know the context. What is the "why"? After understanding the context, then start looking at the unknowns. You do not need to know all of the unknowns, but to understand the most important ones are crucial.

Lastly, empower the team. This one is an easy one to think that you are doing but is an easy one to screw up. When you are facing a team problem, let the team solve it, or at least propose solutions. By letting them drive the problem, they will take ownership. Do not just hand them a compass and say go to "X" location. Give them the context to solve the problem. Why are you trying to solve it? Will it help? Does the team value the change?

More lessons learned coming soon.

Trying to Solve the Company Meeting Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:21:00 +0000

The image on the left is something that we are seeing more of everyday. People are constantly checking their phones and seeing if anyone liked their Facebook post. However, I am starting to see this more and more with company meetings. After talking to some friends that work with other companies, I am finding that this site is also becoming a "norm". The question is how can we improve these meetings and to prevent people from phasing out?

First we have to identify the problems with "all hands" meetings. The first problem is that people generally do not like meetings. Heck, the term "meeting hell", when you are in back to back meetings, further illustrates this point. In order to get pass this initial hump, then the people need to find a purpose to attend it versus the "I have to go". Free snacks or beer can lure people to a meeting. Game developers love free beer.

Most of the time meetings are held by people that do not have a sense of humor. This is not to say that all presenters need a sense of humor, but humor will keep the meeting mood high and keep people interested. For example, Microsoft's annual company meeting in 2010 had a professional comedian for the show and people loved it. Mind you, this meeting is once a year and when catering to 40,000 people, it better be a show. However, most company meetings are below 500. What then? You don't need to hire a comedian, but having a small joke here and there can help.

So after bringing the beer and preparing a couple of one liners, what's next? Well, is the meeting even needed? Is the data that is being shown be condensed into a biweekly meeting? Developer time is expensive. Really expensive. Let's say you have 100 engineers who average $80,000 a year. That boils down to $40 dollars an hour, roughly. So a one hour meeting will cost the company 4 grand. That does not sound like a lot, but if you meet all 52 weeks then it will cost the company, $208,000 dollars annually. That could be another 2.6 engineers that could have been hired.

There are a few more things can be done to make meetings more efficient, but lets start with the basics. First, bride the masses. Second, bring the funny. Lastly, condense the meetings into a bi-weekly meeting. The fewer the better.

Getting Funding

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 20:49:00 +0000

As you may know, I am a huge fan of Extra Credits. They recently announced that they are looking to help fund a game title with their indie publisher. This got me thinking, if I was a game studio looking for funding, how should I go about doing it? In the Extra Credits video they announced that they are looking for groups that already have a demo and are at conferences showcasing their demo. Is that all there is to it?

Margret Wallace is the CEO of the game company Playmatics. Playmatics is a venture funded company that is based in New York City. Margret has led many negotiations with investors to back different companies she has led and different games. In a presentation on slideshare.com titled "Funding Your Game Company: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", she immediately asks the question to the viewer of which funding route is your company going?

This question is something that most people do not think about when trying to sell their game. However, it is one that needs to be asked. She asks, paraphrasing from slides, is your company going to be self funded, funded by friends and family, by an angel investor or by a venture capitalist? (What is the difference between an angel and a venture capitalist?)

The answer to this question will also determine how your game will make money as well. Is it the Free-2-Play or Freemium model where you offer the game for free while selling in game items? Is the game going to follow the standard purchase model? At what price? Why?

Tim Berry is the founder and president of Palo Alto Software and is a featured writer on Huffingtonpost.com and Bplans.com. He points out in his article "Securing Angel Investors" that you should have a business plan finished for two main reasons, "to help you estimate how much money you need, and to communicate with your investors."

Knowing how much money your game/company will need is something key to getting a game published. You can not go into a business meeting and say "Well, I think this game will need 3.5 million dollars." The first question will be "Why do you need this money?". You need to have a clear understanding of the breakdown of the cost. Yes, you are estimating, but having an estimation is better than having nothing at all.

Hopefully this helps put you onto the right path of getting your game closer to release.

Image Source

A Delayed Game is Better

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 21 May 2012 01:50:00 +0000

Over the past two console generations, developers have been delaying games more and more from when they announced that they would launch the title. However, on the other hand we have also been seeing more and more developers rushing games out to market in hopes that they can patch it to save it. Are either of these approaches good or are there other ways to handle it?

Before diving into this discussion, I highly recommend watching Extra Credits "The Pre-Production Problem". It is a great episode and covers a lot of the challenges this industry faces. A lot of it falls on to planning. I cover a little about this in "Questions for Being a Producer".

When it comes to producing a game, a lot can go wrong. In my opinion a lot of these failures fall into one of three major categories, technology, scope and/or planning. Technology failure happens when it is taking too long to establish the tech, ramping engineers up on the technology, the technical debt is never addressed, or, my personal favorite, bugs slow everything down. Scope is when the company starts adding more and more features to the point the game will never be completed. Scope creep is one of those monsters that needs to be stomped early. Now don't get me wrong, adding needed functionality is important at times. It just needs to be managed. Lastly, scheduling is a beast in of itself. When companies schedule everything down to the letter, yes I am still hearing reports of this, milestones will be missed and unneeded pressure is added to the team.

Regardless of which of these issues happen, it is in how the company handles it. Some companies are known for delaying the game because they want to rewrite the game engine all over again. Take for example the game Grand Turismo 5. It was announced in 2005 at E3 but then it didn't come out until the end of 2010. It is also well known that Japanese developers love to scrap an engine that was used for their last project to rebuild it from scratch all over again. These practices cost a lot of money and burn a lot of unneeded hours. In these cases, iterate on the tech and push forward.

But the delays are not the issue here. It is all in how the company handles the delay. Some companies like to tout a specific date way before the game/platform is launched. Why they still do this, I do not know. It is better to not even announce a launch date until one can be decided on as the project gets closer to launching. Now sometimes publishers have a say in the matter but the leadership should be able to push back when it makes since to push back.

Simplifying Total Tasks

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:37:00 +0000

In a recent article from the Business Harvard Review, a great website or magazine for leadership articles, posted an article about the how Steve Jobs led his different teams. More specifically, it looks at his keys to successful leadership. The article is a must read for anyone that holds a leadership position as it shows how he rearranged Apple's goals and priorities and to how he treated his employees. However, upon further retrospection I realized that these can be applied to our daily tasks. The question is how?

This article will only discuss "focus" and "simplify".

Two of the principles that stood out to me immediately was "Focus" and "Simplify". So, the image above is probably what most people's desktops look like during their daily grind while at work. Cluttered with tons of windows, a browser full of tabs, Outlook demanding attention due to all of the emails, and etc.

The thing is, do we need all these windows and tabs? Do we need our email up at all times? Simplify and focus. Lifehack.org has many suggestions for handling email like only checking once a day in the morning or twice a day. This way you can stay on your tasks and have one less window.

For me, I love to have 100 tabs open on Chrome for various reasons. Whether it be for music, Reddit links, or who knows what, I love to have tabs opened as a way to remember to visit them. In an ironic turn of events I realized the other day that I do not remember why most of the tabs that I had opened were still open. To make the problem worse, while developing web pages, I will have old versions of the page opened and thus adding to the confusion if I committed the changes that I did earlier.

When Steve Jobs took over Apple for the second time, he focused on getting rid of the clutter within their products and simplified everything Apple was working on by, again, focusing only on a few products instead of many. Taking this same approach with our daily work habits can help us focus on what is really important.

Concerns with Kickstarter Game Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Over the past few months there have been more and more studios turning to Kickstarter (KS) for funding. With more and more studios signing up to use KS as a funding avenue, the more and more I see problems that will plague the KS and the game development community.

As seen with the recent Double Fine success, there have been a lot of studios jumping on ship to get their fair share of the crowd sourced funding. With this new rush to KS, I for see the following possible issues:

A traditional studio that has a publishing deal uses KS for some extra developer money
A KS project is not delivered as it was promised, thus tarnishing the name of KS
KS is viewed as the primary funding with a large asking price

Traditionally, KS has been used for the indie movement. Whether it be for someone's invention, to throwing a party, to making a game on a shoestring budget, KS has mainly served as a way to get past the traditional publisher model. But what is to stop a developer who has a publishing deal from launching a project. Yes it may not get funded but the catch is that it could take away the media presence and support that an indie title could need.

Now the true definition of an indie development studio has been changing lately, but I view this term as a small to medium size team that has not struck it big, has not had/have a publisher deal, and that is commercial product oriented.

Crowd sourcing is built on the principle that the developer promises to release something with the money that is earned. What if the developer makes a really crappy title, pockets the money, and then walks away. Now you may be thinking, "But Nic, that would tarnish their name and reputation within the community. No one would do that". Welcome to the real world. People are almost always willing to do very little for a lot of money. If something like this happens it has the potential of slowing down the KS by quite a bit. Small unknown teams would be even less likely to get funding.

Something that I am seeing more and more, and something that I even did, was start a KS project but have a large price attached to it. The community will only support a large priced title if the developer is recognized or the project had a previous following. For a new developer with a new project, you can not go into a project asking for 30k if it looks like a 3k project. History shows that it doesn't work. Reevaluate and restart.

How Dead Island Missed Its Mark

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:10:00 +0000

For those that don't follow the game industry that closely, last year a video game trailer shook the gaming world. The trailer, linked below, for "Dead Island" depicts how this little girl died but in reverse order. From being chased by zombies, to becoming a zombie, to trying to kill her father as a zombie. What was great about this trailer was that you were following a family who was on vacation and then watching in horror how they were overtaken by the zombie horde.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqz-ggWnsV4&feature=related

People were blown away by this. It looked as if you had to save this family from a zombie outbreak and get them to safety. How you had to save your daughter, protect your wife, and for you to continue to live so that the whole family can get to safety. Think about it, you are trying to get to a boat dock, but how do you get the family there alive? Let's see what options we have. You could carry your daughter on your back, but it will slow you down and make it harder to fend the zombies off. The wife would cover your back but she can only fend off one or two. You could send each member down a stealthy path but you have to do it in the right time or one of them could get snatched. Or you run as a distraction and attract the zombie horde to you and let your wife and daughter run to the dock. (It would be neat if you did this option that you would play through the dad and mother. Once you got dad to a safe zone, it would reload the scene but now you’re the mom. As the player, you see that dad is doing everything you just did so now you can run your daughter to safety) The possibilities are endless.

Shortly after the trailer came out this article came out.

http://kotaku.com/#!5775798/that-heartbreaking-dead-island-family-theyre-not-in-the-game

What? Now you're telling me I'm essentially playing Resident Evil but on an island? How is this any different from any other zombie game? I'm ammo starved, must use what's around me, and you are trying to find out how this outbreak started. I'm sorry Techland, the developer, you missed a golden opportunity here.

In the article they do mention that you will see small stories, side missions, about how people are affected by the zombie apocalypse. Those stories won't latch the player as much. It is like watching a daytime talk show and learning about someone who has this problem and seeing how they are now better. At the end of the day, you won't remember their story. I'd rather see one story, one family, and follow that them throughout the game.

Then the game came out and did ok. Metacritic reviews came in at an 80 and people who played it seemed happy but said that they felt the game was lacking.

My two cents.

An Deeper Look Into IP Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:32:00 +0000

There has been a lot of talk within the game industry regarding IP rights and if it is ok to directly copy a game's gameplay mechanics. Currently it is a moral dilemma versus legal. A company is that directly copies a game without innovating on it is considered evil. This year at the Game Developers Conference, famed game developer Ian Bogost was handing out "Don't copy my indie game bro" ribbons.

As seen with the latest debacle, Tiny Towers vs Dream Heights, a games mechanics can be copied without concern of lawsuit. Currently, the rules are that a developer can take another games mechanics as long as they do not directly copy any of the assets within the game. The assets have to be original. What other IP rights are there? Take the jump to find some great lessons on IP Law, starting from the beginning.

A quick forewarning, these videos are longer than 30 minutes.

Starting with an introduction to IP, I give you "Intellectual Property Law 101". This video takes a great approach at understanding the very basics of how to protect your business. For example, "when should I trademark the company name and product names?" They do talk about pharmaceutical products as their main example but the information is transferable. The video does have a little lag built into it but for the most part some great information.

Next up is a UVA Law Class where "Professor Chris Sprigman Discusses Intellectual Property Law". This video does reiterate on some of the topics that were briefly covered in the previous video but does go in more depth on how it is used and purposes. Professor Springman is pretty entertaining as a lecturer and can hold your attention throughout the video.

Last video is titled "An Economist's Look at IP Law". This video does not take the approach of explaining what the laws are but more on how IP laws are helping and hurting the different sectors. More specifically how really tough IP laws actually hurting the music industry rather than helping it. He goes about his explanation in a round about way but is entertaining and great to watch.

At the end of the day when you are making a company, it is important for you to register and trademark all of your properties for your company. Even if you are an indie video game company, due the due diligence, get a lawyer, and protect your assets as much as possible. This is something that my lawyer has been very adamant about and after watching all of these videos, I finally see why after watching them.

Know that if your game is copied and improved upon, that this is a form of flattery but if it is directly copied with no innovation, that company is evil.

How the Vita Should Have Been Released

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:23:00 +0000

Later this month, February, Sony will be releasing a new mobile gaming device to the market, the PlayStation Vita. With sales of the Vita in Japan really low, one has to ask why Sony has not jumped on board with making a handheld console that is also a phone? Consumers have shown that they want this as the Mobile gaming market is going strong. Developers from major publishers to indie developers are also jumping board. "What about the Xperia Play", you may be thinking. Well, here's the thing. The Play was built with one major idea in mind, gaming. What have gamers wanted with their phones? Controls. However, reviews of the Xperia Play, like this one, say that the "gaming controls are unresponsive".

So the main goal of the Play failed horribly. How should a true gaming phone be made, announced and released then?

If Sony wants to take over the handheld market and gain a percentage of market share, they need to make a Vita phone, or hand held phone. However, the current market of smart phones are controlled by Android and iPhone, with a 89% market share between the two of them. Should they make a custom OS or run on Android? Then you have to contend with the users having contracts for their current phones.

Before development, there should make an announcement, something short, that they are making a handheld phone. This will get the hardcore market talking, i.e. starting early buzz. During this time, they should work with the major and indie developers to determine the three levels of needs, "love to have", "should have", and the "bare essentials". With this list, find happy medium point that delivers as much as possible while maintaining a solid market price.

Next, start lining up the all star developer team and have them start developing games for the device, similar to Uncharted for the Vita. Even surprise the consumer by including a free AAA mobile phone game, like the Gameboy did back in the 80's. Yes this will be a money sink at first but it is time to show the consumer some love, especially from Sony. The more attractive we can make this product, the more likely the consumer will come to it.

Once they are about a year out from release, announce the date to the consumer market so they can start getting prepared, i.e. not re-up their contract. Also, start to have press events where the press can play with the device and get feedback from the consumers. What are they liking about it and not liking? Why?

As far as platform is concerned, in order to play nicely with more developers, it would be wise to have the Android platform installed with not wonky custom shops. Have everything built in natively and work with the Android market place for releasing games. By simplifying the purchase process will ease consumer annoyance with multiple shops and programs. This would be nice if Sony and Google can work out a deal that splits the royalties from the 30% that the Android market place takes. If not, then a custom shop. (The publisher has to make their money somehow.)

Finally, showcase the product in more locations and cities than just LA and New York. Do a nationwide tour that hits all of the major cities in every state. An aggressive campaign will help drive the product. Then release the phone.

Well, this would be an ideal plan but building a gaming device that is a phone does raise some concerns. If a developer is trying to make an immersive game for the platform that could be interpreted at anytime, it causes some interesting design constraints. That is why Angry Birds is a great game. It can take a phone call at anytime and have the player comeback and not ask "where was I".

P.S. Why hasn't Google incorporated spell check from google.com into their browser's spell check? We have the bandwidth. Do it!

Resources for Game Development

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:47:00 +0000

Below are links to resources for the major disciplines in game development. Each one provides a unique community, resource, or tutorials to help you get started in game development.

Programmers - Great communities and resources for coders:

http://www.gamedev.net/ - Good community for coders.

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/ - Great resource for developing games and apps

https://www.dreamspark.com/ - A solid resource for students. Lots of free software here.

http://altdevblogaday.com/

reddit.com/r/gamedev
tigsource.com
ludumdare.com
http://projecteuler.net/
http://www.codechef.com/
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html
http://www.3dkingdoms.com/weekly/weekly.php

Thanks to Kristopher Velez for more programming resources.

Artists - 3D to Concept:

http://www.cgsociety.org/ - Great for seeing how professionals from the movie and game industry make their art. Also a solid community.

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/ - An awesome community of developers and people who are learning how to be a 3d modeler. Great support.

http://forums.sijun.com/ - Wonderful community for 2D artists.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/ - This community has great challenges for 3d modelers. Want to push yourself? Then compete against professionals.

http://cg.tutsplus.com/ - Great website for learning how to model. Pick up some neat tricks here.

Designer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/ - For the reviews. Why are the reviewers saying this?

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits - Great website for designers

http://www.yoyogames.com/ - Game designers need to be able to build games and script at a minimum. Also, they have a great community of new developers here. http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/

Business - This is something that designers and the other disciplines need to watch. More for designers as games are starting to incorporate money making strategies as part of the gameplay.

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits - Great website business people. Need to know what is going on in the design community. They also talk about core issues that are happening in the industry.

http://www.industrygamers.com/ - This site provides a solid business look to the game industry. A must read.

http://venturebeat.com/ - This site provides a look into which companies are being funded, by who, and their impact. Great for the all around business, but also has a site designated to games, "Gamesbeat".

Negotiations With Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:00:00 +0000

Negotiations happen all the time in the entertainment industry. However most of them do not end with a fire fight, unless fought in game. (That would be amazing) To get a little more inside detail on how negotiations play out, I sat down and spoke with Will Stoneham about negotiations that he goes through on a daily basis. Will is the New Media Director at Hickory Grove Baptist Church where he works alongside contractors and companies to build apps, websites, and media. Make the jump to read our conversation.

Me: "How would you describe your experience with negotiating contracts with different companies?"

WS: "Most of the negotiations are positive. When working with companies, as an organization, I find that they are well established. For the most part, they have preset contracts that come with a little wiggle room. Most of these companies are forthright, truthful, and try to offer the best price at first glance."

Me: "So, I take it you have had some negative experiences?"

WS: "You bet. Once we hammer out the deal, sometimes I find that what we meant is not what they meant. For example, on one project we were going to have an add on put on after it's launch. After following up with said company, did we find that there had been no communication with the rest of the team who built it. On another project, we had a company promise X product would be delivered with free updates every six months. Once the contract was signed, we found that the updates did not come to us. After contacting this company, we found out that they were bought out. Once they heard that we did not get what was owed, the new company said that they would provide extra items on top of the current agreement. After a few months, they still had not delivered what they promised. Currently, we are in contract negotiations with this company. We are not going to sign a new contract until they deliver what they still owe us. To be fair, this company has been purchased two more additional times."

Me: "Is this company offering anything in compensation on its bad promises?"

WS: "Yes. They are offering software and hardware now, but they want us to sign first before delivering. We are currently at a stalemate until one side gives. Our terms are that we are not going to sign until the original promises are in good standings."

Me: "Does working for a church affect your approach to negotiations?"

WS: "Most certainly. When dealing with a client that is behind a due date, we do not get angry. However, this does not mean that we cut all of our clients slack. We have to be firm sometimes."

Me: "To do this, do you get personal?"

WS: "No. I remove my emotions from the equation. If I have to be firm I will. As much as I want them to like me, sometimes I have to be a little tough. When I do get tough, I make sure that I am respectful."

Me: "My last question for you, do you have any tips or tricks for negotiations?"

WS: "Yes. Know everything that you are going to receive. That is, spell it out on paper. Do not be afraid to walk away from a company, when needed. Sometimes a company will never deliver. My reply to them is that "You are not the right solution for us." Always stay on top of the clients to follow progress. Lastly, get everything in writing. If you have a phone conversation with a client, email them the results of the email. Also, email, email, email, email and email. This will leave you written documentation of everything. It will help in the long run."

Me: "Will, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me. I appreciate it. Some great information here."

WS: "No problem."

Video Game Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:11:00 +0000

Last night was the Video Game Awards, hosted by Spike TV. If the name does not give away what the show is about, it is an award show for video games. Although, one could argue it is more of a marketing show geared towards cars, CES Live 2012, and video games, they do cover the basics of awarding developers for making great games. Hit the jump to take a look at what categories the awards are missing and if they are doing the "Hall of Fame"right.

As of this blog posting, the VGA's has a total of 25 categories for awards. These awards are the bare bones, in my opinion, that a show needs to have. Basically it covers the "Best of [Console]", "Best of [Genre]", and "Best Graphics/Sound" gambit.

However, there is a lot more that goes into making a game. What about "Best Writing/Narrative/Story"? As we have hit the graphical limit of the consoles so users are demanding cinematic stories. Why not reward the writers behind this?

Another category, "Best Motion Capture". Many games now have actors go through and portray what we see on the screen. Andy Serkis is by far one of the best actors in today's time, but he does not receive traditional screen time, as he is the one doing the motion capture. Here is a video showing Andy working on "Heavenly Sword". A great game with a phenomenal story. The thing is that most people do not know that it is Andy behind the scenes. What about the ones that we do not hear about?

Now, the VGA's started a new tradition, the "Video Game Hall of Fame". This year's inductee was "The Legend of Zelda" as this game started a whole new genre of games. At first, I was happy for the choice but then as they continued talking about other games in the franchise. Instead of adding one game to the hall, they added the whole franchise. I find this troublesome. Yes Zelda is a great franchise, but the thing is is that not all of their games have been ground breaking. Look at the second game in the franchise, for example. Many fans were disappointed and let down by the new direction.

By adding a franchise, they are also limiting themselves in scope of other future inductees. What about Psychonauts? This game is amazing and does a lot of things extremely well, but it is not a franchise. Will this be excluded because of this?

Just some food for thought.

PS Spike..... try showing more behind the scenes in addition to trailers. Might get the audience to enjoy/hype the show more.

Questions for Being Producer

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:40:00 +0000

I have always been a fan of Extra Credits. If you are not familiar with this web series then you should spend the next few minutes watching some of their videos. Each video takes a deep look into the issues the plague the video game industry or things that you have not thought about. A few weeks ago they did one about being a video game producer. There are some great bits of information and even with my short time as a producer, I can vouch for it all. Below are some questions that should help you onto your path of being a producer.

How comfortable are you with shades of grey? That is to say, how comfortable are you with nebulous situations? For example, how do you measure a coder's efficiency? Compared to 3D Modelers, who have more visual results, it is rather hard to figure out how coders are doing, aside from asking other coders.

How are your comprehension and context skills? When your team is going through a hard time of development, you will have to be able to look at the symptoms and piece together a solution. The higher ups are not interested in the symptoms as much as they are interested in knowing the root cause and the solution.

How are you with teams? Are you a great motivator? Team management skills are important. Being able to boost their moral is important. For example, lets say your team has been failing sprints/development cycles (will explain later) for quite a while. The team will be start to loose cohesion and motivation will fall to the wayside. As a producer, you will need to find ways of bringing them back together. If this happens, set up small goals that the team can accomplish. It will take time but the team will come back full force.

Can you be firm? When something needs to get done, can you firmly tell your team that it needs to be done and still get team buy in? Different times during development, the higher ups may pass down some policies that the team will need to start following. In these times you will have to explain that this is the new way of doing it but more importantly explain why they are doing it.

What about when you want to test a theory with your team? For example, you want them to try doing something before another thing. The best solution for this is to explain to the team your observations, explain the proposed solution and ask their opinion. The key to this is to explain your ideas and answer the why. If the team does not understand the why it won't be ask effective.

How good are you in asking questions? This may seem silly at first but a great questions can get the team on the right track/frame of mind. If I was to ask you "why is the sky blue", what would your answer be? Now, what about if I asked you "what color is the sky?" What is your answer now? Do you see the difference between the two questions?

As a side note, you will get asked the "what should I do" question. It will show up in different variations but it it will show up. The best answer, although it seems like a jerk move, is "what do you think?" Pay attention to their response as this person is usually the subject matter expert. They will know better on how to solve the problem than you will, most of the time.

Lastly, how well can you be involved in a conversation while not being involved? One of the things that producers will need to do is to be able to hold, direct and coordinate meetings. While in meetings, your team might wonder off the main point onto another subject. It is your responsibility to get the team back on track.If you get too involved with the conversation, you may not notice it going off track. FYI, programmers love to debug code while in meetings.

These questions should start you down your path of being a producer.

Presentation Preperation

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:56:00 +0000

As a public speaker I always look for great presentations to use as inspiration. One of my favorite places to visit for great presentations is TED Talks. TED houses some of the worlds greatest minds who show how they are changing the world. One of my favorit presentations is by Benjamin Zander who talks about "On music and Passion", as seen to the left. Watch the video first and then let's take a look at what makes his presentation so engaging.

One of the first things Benjamin does is by opening with a story/joke about the shoes. This joke, gets the audiences attention and is related to one of the sub topics, which is how the right attitude can sell anything. He leads this main topic directly into his main selling point of you don't know that you love classical music yet.

After leading in with a joke, he introduces the audience to their current take on classical music. He demonstrates this live and again in a humorous manner. Note that his humor is maintained throughout the whole presentation. This provides a nice energy through the presentation.

After a small jump from the main topic, even though it kind of backs up his main topics, he goes into explanation of the statistics of who listens to classical music. He breaks down the numbers in such a comical and passionate manner the audience follows his every move. Notice, though, that as he breaks the numbers down he makes the data personal. He brings the audience into the numbers making them feel apart of it. Wonderful!

At the 7 minute mark, roughly, he demonstrates how society looks at classical music. How it is easy for people to start thinking about their normal day life. How they get distracted. Then he asks the important question, "What if it is the musician who is putting you to sleep?" With this question, he is asking the audience to pay more attention to what the composer is doing. What is the composer trying to get across.

Fast forward a little bit into the video to where he explains Chopin's piece. He explains how the different cords are used to create emotion and to drive a particular thought. Benjamin then follows this up by saying "think of someone who is no longer here". Again, note that he is making this personal. The more that you can apply your presentation on a personal level, the more likely the audience will pay attention. Make it relatable.

Then Benjamin makes his final point, "whose eyes are you lighting up?" The beauty of this question is that it is giving the audience something to do. An actionable item, if you will. By elaborating on this bit, he explains that his goal is to light up everyone's eyes. His goal is to show people that they do love classical music, they just don't know it yet.

Benjamin is a wonderful presenter and an inspiration to watch. Watch some other presenters and see what they do right or wrong. Maybe this help will make you a better presenter.

The ESA

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:57:00 +0000

If you have been following the news in the video game industry over the past year, you have probably heard about the Supreme Court case “Brown vs. EMA/Entertainment Software Association”. This case prevented a California law that prohibited selling violent video games to youth, signed by the govenator, from going into effect. Regardless of where you sit on this topic, something important took place during this case. The video game industry started to take Washington seriously.

Take Hollywood or the steal manufactures for example. Each group has a group of lobbyist that are in Washington, talking to senators and representatives each day to help ensure that any law that is passed has is within their favor. The video game industry, for the longest time, has never truly had any representation like this. Not until 2008 was there a call for lobbyist.

Currently the video game industry is being represented by the Entertainment Software Association. This group is “dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet.” -(http://www.theesa.com/about/index.asp) Along with representing this industry, they also offer a variety of services. Some of these services involve representing the industry in court cases, providing annual numbers about the industry, to educating the public how videos are helping society.

The Brown vs. EMA/Entertainment Software Association was not the only court case that they have been involved with. Dating back to 2001, the ESA has been defending the right to publish content with as little restrictions as possible. This helps to ensure that games are able to reach the intended market in as many locations as possible.

The real bread and butter of the ESA are their annual numbers of the game industry. These numbers breakdown every possible detail one would like to know about the video game industry, who the consumers are, and current trends. Take, for example, why is there an annual release of Madden NFL? Well, it sold the second most titles in 2010 with Call of Duty taking the number one slot.

Currently, there is a lot of public miss information with video games. The ESA provides great literature from “Games and Art”, “Games and Families”, to “Games and Health”. Each article takes a closer look and provides great examples at how this industry is helping to promote a better lifestyle. Mind you, some people will think this data is loaded, but it is good to see that someone is trying.

Game Journalists & Batman

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:32:00 +0000

There is an unwritten rule with video game journalism and spoilers for games, be courteous to your reader by not directly spoiling a plot point. This can be seen in Game Trailers' review of the game. Most of the time this rule is followed, but recently the famous video game news website Kotaku and other video game news websites broke this rule with a post about the highly anticipated game "Batman: Arkham City". Make the jump to get a more detailed account on what was happened, a discussion of potential fault, and suggestions on how it should have been handled. To prevent further spoiling, please do not continue reading this article if you have interest in this game and have not heard the news. I do not want to be one of the people who could ruin an otherwise awesome plot point. Otherwise, enjoy.

In late September, Rocksteady Studios released a one hour demo of Batman: Arkham City to video game journalists. With this demo, Rocksteady informed the press that they can talk about anything that is on the demo (22:19). To most journalists, this is like being given a giant golden nugget. They will covet this nugget, they will cherish this nugget, and they want to be the first to show this nugget to the world.

What happened next was a huge backlash from the gaming community as the news of the Joker's death was blasted on front page of their favorite news websites. Below are two screenshots of what readers saw when visiting each respective website.

From Now Gamer & Kotaku.(Click to enlarge)

Upon first glance, the fans were told what had happened and there was no warning of the spoiler. The fans were outraged with this blatant disregard of the unwritten rule. However, the rage was solely directed at these websites, as seen in the article's comments, but was it only their fault or does Rocksteady have a hand in this as well? Rocksteady knew that the Joker was going to die in the demo and gave the journalists the go ahead to talk about it. Could they not have released something else from the game that did not have as much of a plot point? Would it still have generated the same amount of press? It was almost like Rocksteady & the journalists were going off the old adage of "no such thing as bad press".

Although Rocksteady is at fault, it was ultimately the journalists responsibility to stick to this rule. It was up to the journalists to deliver the news in a fashion that would still get the attention that it got while being nice to the community. A title of "Here Is the First Hour of Batman (Spoilers)" would have sufficed.

At the end of the day though, this will probably not deter anyone from buying the game. If we look at the movie industry, we will see that this is something that has been done for years. Take for example this clip.

It has been speculated that this crash was used to get more people interested in Eddie's new movie and to see if he would crash another one. Although it is a different circumstance, it was still trying to yield a similar effect, more press.

Do We Own All Content on the Disc?

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:41:00 +0000

When talking to my students about Piracy and the ethics behind it, a student asked me "if I purchase a game, do I own all of the content on that disc". Come to find out he was referencing Resident Evil 5 and the DLC that came on the disc. After a huge uproar from my class, "Yeah I payed for that disc..." and "I bought it I own it", I thought I should research the validity of their claim.

Downloadable Content is extra content, usually that a user can purchase, to extend the replay value of a game. For example, Assassin Creed's DLC usually adds on 4-5 hours of content and game to an already great game. Most of the time, however, DLC is usually made available after a few months the original game had launched. Then Resident Evil 5 came along.

Resident Evil 5, being the first HD experience in the franchise, was released on to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009. DLC at this point had become a regular part of the game industry but when it was leaked that the DLC was released onto the disc, players were in an outrage as they are paying a lot of money for the game. The complaints got so bad that Capcom had to respond to it.

Here is the thing though, for commercial software this is not that out there of an idea. When a person buys software, take for example Unity 3D, you are buying rights to access certain features. A user can buy a basic licence of Unity, but they will not have all of the features. This system has been used for many years within commercial software.

Where Capcom went wrong is that they did not tell the users that their 60 dollars used to buy the game would only pay for the game and not all of the content on the disc. Basically they did not educate the consumer that the their money was paying for the licence for the game and not the extra content. Other suggestions, per Epic Battle Axe, was to wait a month before releasing. "This is a basic disregard to your consumers". Now another fault of Capcom was their response to the consumer but that is another story.

5 Things To Help With Your Kickstarter Project

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:48:00 +0000

Kickstarter is a great website that allows for small projects to get off the ground and not have to takeout small business loans. My team recently went through a Kickstarter funding phase but did not get funded. Through our mistakes and successes, hopefully you can learn what not to do and have a funded project.

What is Kickstarter? In short, a community funding website. This is not a micro loans website. Basically, people will fund your project and in return they get a non-monetary gift in return. Each reward is a based on the amount given. The neat thing about Kickstarter is that almost any project idea could be approved for funding.

1) Keep the monetary goal low.

You want to try and stay near the 3k-6k mark as much as possible. This isn't to say that you could be successful with a 10k mark, but it is less likely.

When we submitted our idea for approval, our first budget was 80k. We were approved to launch the project but were warned to lower to goal to as low as possible. After doing some reorganizing of our project, we got our goal to 35k. Again this was too much, but we didn't see that about mid-way through our project.

2) Double check your project

Is your project as simple as it can be? Are you reaching farther than your budget would allow?

One of our goals with Sixth was to release it on the mobile platform. We wanted to jump on the mobile platform. However, our goal should have been for the PC/Mac. By doing this, we don't have to raise as much and we are opened to a broader market.

3) Have Awesome Rewards

Rewards are Kickstarter's backbone for supporting projects. With awesome rewards and reasonable entry points for these rewards, users are more likely to support it.

Our rewards were good, but they could have been better. The link below will take you to our page where you can see them. Some of our best rewards, from my perspective, were the "Developer Insight Blog" (which technically you're on) and the "Free Game". The free game was our most popular option.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/niccolley/sixth-a-game-where-legend-of-zelda-meets-national

4) Make a Great Video

There is no question that you need to have a video that grabs users' attention. Videos allow the users to see who you are and what you are about. It puts a face to the project and personalizes it. Few warnings with the video. Don't go over 2-3 minutes. If you have to, 4 is the max. Internet viewers have a short attention span. Incredibly short. (You're still reading?)

First, grab their attention. You have about 15-30 seconds to grab the viewers attention before they move on. After grabbing their attention, describe what your project is about and what rewards the viewer will get in supporting your project. Keep it fun and have fun. Lastly, include any information that is very important and that the viewer should know.

Below are some videos that I have listed that did a good job.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

There is also a good guide from Kickstarter.

5) Provide consistent updates

The Kickstarter community likes updates, but don't over do it. Introduce your team, if there is a team, individually by having them give brief bio's. Talk about the project's progression and show that you aren't waiting for their money to start. Having a website that provides more information about the project can't hurt either.

As a side note, personally thank each pledger. This adds a nice touch and shows that you care about the project and the pledger.

Why are video game companies turning to the Free to Play model?

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:47:00 +0000

Over the past decade there have been many games that were once pay to play, where consumers would pay a monthly subscription to play the game, that have now converted the game to the free to play model, where consumers get access to the game but pay with in game purchases. Why are video game companies turning to the Free to Play model now?

There are several advantages with the free to play model that the subscription model is unable to do. One of the main benefits is that it presents to the player a no risk situation, meaning that they are not spending money a bad game. The only thing that is lost with a free to play title is time. Time, for free products, is incredibly cheap for the consumer so there is low risk for trying the game. If a paid to play game converts itself to a free to play, players who were once interested but did not want to pay for it are the first to play. No risk means no money spent. No money spent means no harm done to the player. So the player will now dive into this game and give it a shot.

Now it is up to the game to keep the player. The player will be judging the game with a couple things in mind, is it fun and is it fair? If the game is fun, the player will continue to play the game. If not, the game is simply deleted and they proceed on to the next game. If they do find it fun, the player will be looking to see if the game is fair. Gamasutra, a leading video game news website, has done an in-depth look into the free to play model and its perceived fairness to the player. This article looks at how players will analyze the game and see if each other player is treated with the same experience and that no one player can purchase their strength or rank.

“Status symbols are valuable specifically because they are difficult to obtain. If you could go online and buy a knighthood for $15, the title "Sir" would no longer be a status symbol.” - Gamasutra

The game is fun and the player is continuing to play it, how does the company make money? Micro transactions or in game purchases, the player will pay small amounts for extra content. For example, purchasing buying extra game content that would be otherwise locked, or changing the way the player’s avatar looks. MMO Hut, a website that specializes in play free to play games, takes a look into what the player thinks about in game purchases.

“I love it when a game gives me the option of being able to buy really cool stuff and accessorize my avatar, or buy XP potions to reduce to horrendous grind to max level so I can start participating in end-game content and PVP” – MMO Hut

To the player, making small purchases is cheaper than paying for an annual subscription. Companies, with the free to play model, now have more players, although are paying less money each money, are making more money than with the free to play model.

10 Hour Game

noreply@blogger.com (Nic) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:50:00 +0000

At our meeting the last week I had asked a question that only now I realized the repercussions. "Are we making a ten hour game?" After posing this question, Twiggy became uncomfortable and started to fidget. I paused and asked myself why was Twiggy doing this. Then I realized that this question, though intended for good, started to put limitations on the team.
At first, everyone was estatic in wanting to make a 10 hour game. I could see the gears turning with ideas and the excitement in their faces. We want this game to be great. By meeting this 10 hour quota we would be following the footsteps of many AAA titles (triple A). But by asking this question, did it do more harm than good? Was it a good requirement?
Today's standard in the video game industry is for AAA to achieve 10 hours of campaign gameplay, minimum. This 10 hours is based on the average gamers play through. Many gamers won't purchase a game unless it has 10 hours of playtime. Even if it receives awesome reviews, if it clocks at 8 hours, many will let it sit on the store shelves.
A lot of this reason comes down to the price/time investment. Back in the days of the PS2 and Xbox, the standard was around 15-20 hours. With the jump to next generation, production times stayed the same but player expectations went up. Players demanded better looking, physics driven, and realistic titles. With every demand there is a trade off. The trade off was less playtime. Some games are extending this with a multiplayer component, but I am not considering this feature as I am focusing on the campaign.
By asking this question, I put more requirement on completing a 10 hour game than focusing on gameplay. One of the questions that Will asks whenever he sees a feature of a game is "What does this do for the player?" Nothing except for a 10 hour game. Given that we are releasing a free game, we don't have to worry as much about meeting this requirement. We just want a good game.