Notes from the Game Focus Germany Conference, 2008
By
codemonkey uk (Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 05:50:39 AM EST) (
all tags)
Part 1, Thursday,
continued. Previously:
Now:
- "Zen and the Art of Project Maintanence" - Risa Cohen
To follow:
- "Pragmatic game development practices for small (and not so small) companies" - Noel Llopis
"Zen and the Art of Production Maintanence" - Risa Cohen
All production efforts have "time, money, quality and people" to manage, bit it games, films, whatever. Games Industry has a fear of "stars".
Theatre vs Games; Theatre is:
- On Time
- Budget Estimated from Script
- Director as visionary
- Producer as Moneyman
- Star driven
- Success based on sales and critical acclaim
Animation vs Games; Animation is:
- Budget Estimated from Script
- Director as visionary
- Producer as Moneyman
- Lead driven
- Deadlines change due to needs to Market
Games are:
- Budget Estimated from Game Design Document
- Visionary is ???
- Publisher as Moneyman
- Lead driven
- Deadlines change due to needs to Development
(some projects have hard deadlines; xmas, film licence, etc)
Audits / Due Diligence : Design / Budget / People <> Quality / Money / Design
- cash flow
- man months
- spend vs ambition
- multi project vs single project <
> (stability vs focus)
talent access
tech cost
publisher relationship(s)
experience
ceo -> value of people -> decisions -> strategies -> shapes company culture -> team as a company within a company
design as a recipe -> naked team (stars on stage)
Witcher case study -> org chart "classic" game dev org chart tree -> no visionary <-
problems & solutions: design -> fits time and money; features and production values : consider cost benefit per feature / is it worth the money? Budget: Put ot best use.
Team: Does the team have a clear vision of the game? Are they appropriate?
