old.Tohtori
FH is my second home
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
- Messages
- 45,210
Everytime a game gets pushed back, even by two days, people get whiny about it like little children in a candy store. The developers of the game are the target and the boards, emails and sides of busses are the weapon. Now what the gamers don't know is, what happens inside a game developer studio. I'm working in one, been working for four years, and at the moment working as an internal quality assurance lead on a huge project again so i decided to give a peek inside the actor....developers studio.
First, everyone gets annoyed as hell. Even the gamers don't want the game out as much as the devs when we've worked on a title for one, two, three or god forbid, four years. If doom III was an example, i bet the developers there wouldn't want to see another flaming zombie at the moment as they enjoy their mai-tai's on the beach. Oh wait, yeah, game developers don't get the ultimate rest till you die after a game is done 'cause the gamehouse needs to live and breathe, so, we start to work on the next title. Most often the developement of the next title is allready under way when the other is in the stores.
Second, the next deadline to push the game out is probably the next possible, in other words, next monday. This means no weekend and ridicilous days of grind and more grind to get the game out. Have you ever worked for a boss who's been in the office for 40 days straight? I mean straight as in, no full rest days in between. I have. Have you ever worked tthose same 40 days also? I can raise a hand and i bet atleast a few of you can too. So how come it becomes different for a worker at an IT-company and someone at a gamehouse? Never really could figure that one out. Maybe it's because, working with games is still not considered a job. Countless times i've been asked "When are you gonna get a real job?" Though maybe it's easier to hear inside a ferrari...muahaha! (Honestly i'm piss broke
)
Third, the stress of "omagawd! i cant play teh "killer extreme megaslaughter 3000" right now!" gamer is nothing compared to the stress put to the developers by the producers and the public. Ofcourse if the game company is the developer itself, the stress is twice...and so is the whip. Bosses become tight-a'd about the office fax use, coders drink 20 gallons of energy drinks an HOUR and as such, become almost like labmice, running around trying to find the cheese and making clear statements about it and the graphic artists color the bathrooms with prints of, how to say, stranger and stranger things. I swear to Molyneux, the unholy god of coders, that i saw an asparagus hanging like a mistletoe in the graphics department.
Fourth point, lastly but most certainly the biggest point. When a game is out of a developement studio, it's not straight in the shops. When we release a game, it takes, depending on the game, two weeks to even a month for it to be released. There's PR, adverts, hype, bribing..-cough-...sending a game to the game mags and a hole lot of hulabaloo to mess a little mans mind. Somtimes the adverts for a game cost more then making it. And when a game is gold, it's out of our hands. If the producers decide to even cancel the project, we can't say a thing. Well we can and mostly will, but it will make as good as an impact on them as someone standing infront of a landing 747 with a little sign saying "Please stop."
So. What can i say. Next time another title like Half-Life Doomed -Armageddon 3000 gets pushed back a few days, don't go gunho on the boards and write 'till you're red in the face. It's not so easy with peaches and roses on the other side. It's more like ninjas and samurais over the last cookie in the caffeteria....with bombs...and chainsaws...
First, everyone gets annoyed as hell. Even the gamers don't want the game out as much as the devs when we've worked on a title for one, two, three or god forbid, four years. If doom III was an example, i bet the developers there wouldn't want to see another flaming zombie at the moment as they enjoy their mai-tai's on the beach. Oh wait, yeah, game developers don't get the ultimate rest till you die after a game is done 'cause the gamehouse needs to live and breathe, so, we start to work on the next title. Most often the developement of the next title is allready under way when the other is in the stores.
Second, the next deadline to push the game out is probably the next possible, in other words, next monday. This means no weekend and ridicilous days of grind and more grind to get the game out. Have you ever worked for a boss who's been in the office for 40 days straight? I mean straight as in, no full rest days in between. I have. Have you ever worked tthose same 40 days also? I can raise a hand and i bet atleast a few of you can too. So how come it becomes different for a worker at an IT-company and someone at a gamehouse? Never really could figure that one out. Maybe it's because, working with games is still not considered a job. Countless times i've been asked "When are you gonna get a real job?" Though maybe it's easier to hear inside a ferrari...muahaha! (Honestly i'm piss broke
)Third, the stress of "omagawd! i cant play teh "killer extreme megaslaughter 3000" right now!" gamer is nothing compared to the stress put to the developers by the producers and the public. Ofcourse if the game company is the developer itself, the stress is twice...and so is the whip. Bosses become tight-a'd about the office fax use, coders drink 20 gallons of energy drinks an HOUR and as such, become almost like labmice, running around trying to find the cheese and making clear statements about it and the graphic artists color the bathrooms with prints of, how to say, stranger and stranger things. I swear to Molyneux, the unholy god of coders, that i saw an asparagus hanging like a mistletoe in the graphics department.
Fourth point, lastly but most certainly the biggest point. When a game is out of a developement studio, it's not straight in the shops. When we release a game, it takes, depending on the game, two weeks to even a month for it to be released. There's PR, adverts, hype, bribing..-cough-...sending a game to the game mags and a hole lot of hulabaloo to mess a little mans mind. Somtimes the adverts for a game cost more then making it. And when a game is gold, it's out of our hands. If the producers decide to even cancel the project, we can't say a thing. Well we can and mostly will, but it will make as good as an impact on them as someone standing infront of a landing 747 with a little sign saying "Please stop."
So. What can i say. Next time another title like Half-Life Doomed -Armageddon 3000 gets pushed back a few days, don't go gunho on the boards and write 'till you're red in the face. It's not so easy with peaches and roses on the other side. It's more like ninjas and samurais over the last cookie in the caffeteria....with bombs...and chainsaws...
which was an original title, you dont get the same freedom when your doing licenses 
