Warrior Craess wrote...
The Wumpus wrote...
To be fair, developers don't "allow" publishers to set their deadlines, any more than any other sort of professional craftsman does. Hell, the reason the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book ended so abruptly is because the publishers told Douglas Adams, "We're sending a guy over to pick up whatever you have. Finish the page you're on now."
Now, a lot of publishers do set unreasonable deadlines, and you can sometimes persuade a publisher to push theirs back -- which, in fact, someone did once for ME3, since the release date got pushed back from November to March -- but they're never happy about it, and you can't usually get a publisher to delay the same game twice. (Well, you can if you're 3DRealms, but that ended in tears.)
Actually Blizzard does just that all the time. Not a single game of theirs has been released on the first or even second expected due date.
As someone who has worked in the industry, (note: never for Bioware)
this Quora answer is the best thing written about software deadlines I have ever read.
It's the first answer to the question, the one by Michael Wolfe, about walking from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
It's a beautiful metaphor, it explains why this takes so long... but then, you might ask, why does stuff get pushed out by publishers before it's done?
Here's the dark secret. It's true for writing, it's true for painting, and it's true for game development: nothing is EVER done. Or to be more specific, it always feels like there's more to do, like it could be better. Learning to step back and declare it done is hard. If you tell a developer that they have unlimited time, they will never stop adding features. If left to their own devices, they'd add spaceship combat and a farming sim and ooh, ooh, one of the writers wants to create an entire alien language that directly coincides with sumerian glyphs. It'll take a little longer, but the payoff will be so great, you guys, especially to any linguistic archaeologists in our fanbase.
Deadlines help projects focus on the core experience. Ok, maybe we don't have time for the alien language to have complete grammar and seven distinct regional dialects. Maybe we axe the farming sim part. Do you really need
fifty ways to leave your lover? I say cut it down to a tight five. Look guys, I know Trevor has a great idea for a card battle system, but we're due out in a year; maybe post launch? Put him on combat balance instead.
Now, does this mean games should just keep getting released when their deadline comes up, with the occasional six month reprieve? That's obviously not the solution either: see the walking to LA metaphor above. Here's what needs to happen: publishers need to have a team who know what progress looks like, know what feature complete looks like, and know what
done looks like. That way they can say "bust your ass, we want this out in six months," but when they come back and there's a huge amount of progress but it's still not actually done, they can assess how much longer it's going to take and adjust.
The reason that can't work is... well... there are a few reasons.
One reason is... well... fans who complain about release date delays. Since my first game job, every time I hear a title delayed I think "good for them! Maybe they'll actually be able to finish their {Feature I really liked but nobody else probably cares about} and not have to cut it." I know you guys really really want to play that hot new sequel, I do too, but when the ME3 delay was announced and people were complaining I sat huddled in my chair, clenching and unclenching my hands. "You don't understand. NONE OF YOU UNDERSTAND."
The other reason is business deals. I have a friend who works on titles that are released on consoles. Let's say he's working on a title for the Atari Jaguar (Shut up. This is my hypothetical and I'lll do as I please.) Let's say the Jaguar really needs a 2D platformer to fill a hole in its roster in Q1 of 2012. His company could get money from Atari if they promise Q1, so they do. They also need to book a place to make the manuals and discs, and that needs to be scheduled too. Oh, and then there are retailers and international publishers and that guy who makes the maquettes (love that guy). All of these guys need at least a year's notice before launch, so they can get their ducks in a row, too.
"Ok then," you may ask, "why not just double all your estimates? It worked for Scotty."
Three reasons: technological advancement, the console cycle, and Joey.
Technological advancement is what killed Duke Nukem. They were working slow and steady on a heartbreaking FPS of staggering genius when FPS techonology made a huge leap forward... so they had to convert everything to the next new shiny engine and start over with that. Repeat until Forever.
Ever hear of a little game called Koudelka? Of course you haven't, and that's because of the console cycle. It's one of the last RPGs to be released for the original Playstation, and because of that nobody bought or played it. (Also, it had the clunkiest battle system in the history of time, but
never mind that!) I could name you another hundred Japanese gems that flopped or that we never saw for similar reasons, and there are some american titles that share that fate as well. But if your game is going to take three years to produce, you can't predict whether or not there'll be a new console by the time you release.
And finally there's Joey. Joey wants a game that's like the last one he liked, but better. Joey expects every release to improve on the last one in every way. Joey thinks your graphics look a little... 2010. Joey thinks turn-based combat died in the aughts. Ok... Joey probably doesn't use the word "aughts," but you get my meaning. Joey expects full VO and free multiplayer... and every game that comes out before yours raises these expectations higher and higher.
So that's the conundrum: plan for the lifespan of your engine and your console, and plan for the market expectations by the time you launch, based on what other titles will come out between now and then. You can see why it behooves them to rush, occasionally.
So there you go. There's... all the things. About the stuff. All the problems. It's not an evil conspiracy, it's that our industry is just starting out. Thirty years ago, most games were made by one guy sitting alone coding and doing the animations himself. He was named Jordan Mechner, and we loved him. Since that stopped being how things got done, nobody knows how this is supposed to work. You could see the hunger in their eyes when they stared at Steve Jobs. "This guy" they were thinking "this guy always knows what to do. Why can't I be this guy?"
We have Blizzard with their battle cry of "when it's done," and we have Gabe Newell running his anarcho-cyndiclist utopia up in Washington, but those aren't models we can easily replicate. Everybody wants to make the best game, whether they're coding WB sit-com tie-ins or working on the next Halo. And a lot of good games are coming out. Often a game will come out and you will think "that is absolutely phenomenal." But nobody knows how to make sure that happens in a consistent way.
It's enough to make you want to get a fine arts degree and move to Australia.
Modifié par CulturalGeekGirl, 25 avril 2012 - 07:48 .
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If he can so easily generalize players and make arrogant assumptions about people he doesn't know, then I can also be rudely dismissive of lesser intelligences using poor logic.
