Re: 3 Bad Things I've Noticed From Steve's Beta Vids...
I think a lot of people underestimate the actual skill required to make games, it's not something everyone can do and just like it's in every profession, there's people in the industry who are better at it than others. There's decent programmers, there's good programmers and there's the best and the same is true for all other positions in game development. And I can guarantee you that no developing studio only has the very best people and I suppose that's natural, no team has only superstars either. So one has to understand that sometimes it's not so much a question of being willing to fix things but being able to fix things.
What would you do if you realize in April that a flaw in a game is at the very bottom of the code and that to fix you'd have to scrap the entire code and start over and you'd have maybe 3 months time to do that. Of course, there's no guarantee either that there wont be flaws with the new code you created, so what do you do? If you go the complete redeveloping route you may just sit there 4 weeks before the release date without a game really. With a release date looming large you are far more likely to just fix the things that are easy to fix and provisionally put a patch over the more fundamental flaws in the game.
The testing of the game really doesnt matter in this decision process either, testers give recommendations and its up to other people to decide whether its possible and desirable to follow them. And of course there's pressure from the publisher to push the game out as early as possible especially in a competition scenario like you have in sports games these days where for the large majority of gamers its a "EA or ESPN" decision and whichever is out first *may* have a jump on the competition.
For these guys at those studios it's like for guys in every other jobs. You got a boss down your neck who may or may not know what hes talkin about, you got other departments with their own wishes, you got deadlines that you know you cant keep yet still have to pretend you could because otherwise that promotion you hoped for may never happen etc. And we all know that often things get screwed up on a regular basis, be it at General Motors, in a Walmart, a Wall Street brokerage, or a game development studio.
I think a lot of people underestimate the actual skill required to make games, it's not something everyone can do and just like it's in every profession, there's people in the industry who are better at it than others. There's decent programmers, there's good programmers and there's the best and the same is true for all other positions in game development. And I can guarantee you that no developing studio only has the very best people and I suppose that's natural, no team has only superstars either. So one has to understand that sometimes it's not so much a question of being willing to fix things but being able to fix things.
What would you do if you realize in April that a flaw in a game is at the very bottom of the code and that to fix you'd have to scrap the entire code and start over and you'd have maybe 3 months time to do that. Of course, there's no guarantee either that there wont be flaws with the new code you created, so what do you do? If you go the complete redeveloping route you may just sit there 4 weeks before the release date without a game really. With a release date looming large you are far more likely to just fix the things that are easy to fix and provisionally put a patch over the more fundamental flaws in the game.
The testing of the game really doesnt matter in this decision process either, testers give recommendations and its up to other people to decide whether its possible and desirable to follow them. And of course there's pressure from the publisher to push the game out as early as possible especially in a competition scenario like you have in sports games these days where for the large majority of gamers its a "EA or ESPN" decision and whichever is out first *may* have a jump on the competition.
For these guys at those studios it's like for guys in every other jobs. You got a boss down your neck who may or may not know what hes talkin about, you got other departments with their own wishes, you got deadlines that you know you cant keep yet still have to pretend you could because otherwise that promotion you hoped for may never happen etc. And we all know that often things get screwed up on a regular basis, be it at General Motors, in a Walmart, a Wall Street brokerage, or a game development studio.
Comment