Print Story Notes from the Game Focus Germany Conference, 2008
Diary
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?

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