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Goblins Of The Game Industry

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FaeryShivers:
Thank you Sto, you've beautifully covered the other side of the issue.

To add to your "We're in the business to make money " point; while many game companies start off only caring about the games, in order to stay in business and make better games they need more money. Then suddenly some of them make a
ton of money off of one project and it gets addictive. They want to  make more money and become bigger and bigger.
Unless the company started off with tons of capital, the company probably had "good" intentions to begin with.
Just please keep in mind,"Corporate America" (or wherever you live) started off with people like you and I who are just doing
what they love to do. Things just never end up like you want them too, eventually if you want to stay in business you pretty much HAVE to start caring about money. If you don't you'll probably be swallowed up by someone that does.

One thing that really gets me is games that are made from movies and/or TV shows, they are usually not top quality games
and it seems to me that this is because people are going to buy it anyway because of the name on it. But as sto says, thats the way the business work. People jump on the chance to work on a game made after a movie or show without realizing what type of projects these are. Just once I'd like to see a game that was given even more time than the movie or show to get it right.

janus:
Great thread! Haven't had a chance to read over all of st0ven's stuff yet, but one comment for FaeryShivers:

I don't think that the person with the design vision should necessarily be the project leader. Project leadership requires a lot of extra effort and leadership skills that a good designer isn't always going to have, and requiring them to both design, do their normal work, and lead, could be a pretty significant hindrance to your project - I've heard stories of this being a real problem in both large-scale commercial development and indie development.

FaeryShivers:

--- Quote from: janus on October 11, 2005, 04:35:45 pm ---Great thread! Haven't had a chance to read over all of st0ven's stuff yet, but one comment for FaeryShivers:

I don't think that the person with the design vision should necessarily be the project leader. Project leadership requires a lot of extra effort and leadership skills that a good designer isn't always going to have, and requiring them to both design, do their normal work, and lead, could be a pretty significant hindrance to your project - I've heard stories of this being a real problem in both large-scale commercial development and indie development.

--- End quote ---

You're right, but its an easy way to ensure the game vision stays in tact on a smaller team where there is not much money
to influence people to follow the game design and not try to "overthrow" the project with their own beliefs so to speak.
If you know someone who is a great leader and is dedicated to keeping the original game idea intact thats great. Its just really hard to find  that on a smaller team especially one without anything to keep peoples minds focused, IE an income. As sad as it is, almost everyone has a price at which they will accept money in exchange for their time without question as to what they are doing.
It is harder to keep volunteers from wanting more control of the project as they do not always feel they are getting something for their time.

On more than one occassion I've had people quit just because they assumed that because we did not change the game the way they wanted to every time they made a suggestion, we were not listening to them. People will often also quit a free project if they cannot do as they please as once again they feel they are not getting anything for their time. Its more common with programmers than artists in my experience but it does happen. Beware of the person that assumes that because you do not do exactly as they say all the time, you are not listening to them. Especially if their ideas are usually ones that would completely change the way several systems work.

Please don't get me wrong here, volunteers are to be appreciated but, there are some people who get onto a game team with an agenda that was not disclosed immediately

AdamTierney:
A lot of good points. The only thing I disagree with is the constant 'get rid of them immediately' sentiments. In hobby work (and even in pro work) sometimes you have to put up with egos or quirks to get the job done. Casting aside talent at first sign of any problems is not always the way to go. If someone's a danger to the project then yes, they need to go away. But as a director I'd be more than willing to work with someone who's a handful, so long as they're producing top notch work. Because that's essentially what a project lead needs to excel at - keeping people going. Getting rid of someone from a project temporarily kills the project momentum, so it's often better to work with a talented but problematic person rather than trying to replace them.

- Adam

Helm:
I'm with Darion in that all this stuff ( and my very fringe rub against it ) have made me be very sceptical about getting work in the industry anymore. I'm more interested in the c64-type one-person-does-almost-everything of game-making, even if it's 'amateur'. That's the type of games I like to play too. Two people teams are the best for my type of stuff since I'm not a very strong coder, but that's it. I do my music, I do my design, I do my art, I do my writing.

Obviously, for people really wanting to break into the actual industry and live off of this stuff, good luck, and read this thread thoroughly. Stoven particularily has been through the gamut, I remember since he started making his first steps in the industry, and he doesn't paint a pretty picture.

One additional point: Learn to sever emotional ties with the game you're working on. Especially if you're hired help and aren't spearheading the project, if you're just doing tileage or sprites or animation, when the time comes and industry demands and shipping mean the game starts getting cut down, even sucking, keep your head on what you're supposed to do to get paid. It's a bum-out, but there's no other way. Sever emotional attachments, do what you're supposed to do, ship, get paid, move on to bigger and better things. 90% of the projects you see looking for artists are usually 'baby dream' projects. They person who is team leader and lead designer probably has thought of his first game more than anything, it's his prize accomplishment and will do anything to get it done as we wants. When and if it starts sucking due to time demands or talent issues or incompetent programming, he's going to freak out. Make sure you don't. It's not 'we either make this PERFECT, or we don't make it at ALL!'. Not under contract. Do what you have to do, don't falter, put the work in, finish, ship, move on.

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