July 2003
- Hackers Put 'Bane' in Shadowbane vladimir cole
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] Phillip Lenhardt
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] Owen Matt
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] Thomas Tomiczek
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] ceo
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Display Cheats [Was MMO Launch issues...] Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Corba + pvm for servers? + UML + case tools Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Material state transformations Yuri Bazhukov
- Material state transformations Chris "Diamonds" Stewart
- Material state transformations Zach Collins {Siege}
- Material state transformations Yuri Bazhukov
- Material state transformations Nicolai Hansen
- Material state transformations Jason Murdick
- Material state transformations Travis Casey
- Material state transformations McDonald, Stephen
- Material state transformations Zach Collins {Siege}
- Material state transformations Richard A. Bartle
- Material state transformations Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Programming Languages. Matthew Estes
- Programming Languages. Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Programming Languages. Matthew Estes
- Programming Languages. J C Lawrence
- Programming Languages. Christopher Kohnert
- Programming Languages. J C Lawrence
- Programming Languages. Christopher Kohnert
- Programming Languages. Bruce Mitchener
- Programming Languages. Roy Trubshaw
- Programming Languages. Richard A. Bartle
- Programming Languages. Roy Trubshaw
- Programming Languages. Richard A. Bartle
- Programming Languages. Roy Trubshaw
- Programming Languages. Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Programming Languages. MIKE MacMartin
- Programming Languages. Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Programming Languages. Mike Shaver
- Programming Languages. MIKE MacMartin
- Programming Languages. Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Programming Languages. Bruce Mitchener
- Programming Languages. F. Randall Farmer
- Programming Languages. Kwon J. Ekstrom
- Programming Languages. J C Lawrence
- Geographical space paritioning ceo
- Geographical space paritioning Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- R: The Price of Being Male Ghilardi Filippo
- Autumn books ceo
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) J C Lawrence
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Michael Tresca
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Michael Tresca
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Marc Bowden
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Michael Tresca
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Paul Schwanz
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Jeff Cole
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Michael Tresca
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Jeff Cole
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Michael Tresca
- [NEC] 2.8: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy (fwd) Crosbie Fitch
- Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) - working-sets ceo
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtual societes Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtual societes Michael Chui
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtual societes Ghovs
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes David Kennerly
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtual societes Shu-yu Guo {Laptop}
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes Amanda Walker
- Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Daniel Anderson
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? David Kennerly
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get originalwiththe gameplay? Derek Licciardi
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Paul Schwanz
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Matt Mihaly
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Matt Mihaly
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Sasha Hart
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? kennerly@sfsu.edu
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Sasha Hart
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Daniel James
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get originalwiththe gameplay? David Kennerly
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Michael Tresca
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Martin Bassie
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Daniel James
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get originalwith the gameplay? Daniel Anderson
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? J C Lawrence
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get origi nal with the gameplay? Christer Enfors XW {KS/EIN}
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Snicker Furfoot
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get origi nal with the gameplay? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Jason Smith
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Matt Mihaly
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get origi nal with the gameplay? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? J C Lawrence
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original withthe gameplay? Christopher Allen
- R: Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues in virtualsocietes Ghilardi Filippo
- Can "non-twitch" ranged-combat be fun in a MMORPG? Daniel Anderson
- Can "non-twitch" ranged-combat be fun in a MMORPG? Paolo Piselli
- Can "non-twitch" ranged-combat be fun in a MMORPG? Zach Collins {Siege}
- Can "non-twitch" ranged-combat be fun in a MMORPG? John Buehler
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death Eamonn O'Brien
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death Kyuss
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death Sasha Hart
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma de ath Smith, David {Lynchburg}
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death David H. Loeser Jr.
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death Sasha Hart
- A system for lives, death, old age, PK and perma death Eamonn O'Brien
- RE:When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay? Mike Mormando
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World Rayzam
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World J C Lawrence
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World Peter Tyson
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World Vincent Archer
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World Travis Nixon
- Online Gamers become enemies in the Real World Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Multithreading/accept? MIKE MacMartin
- Multithreading/accept? MIKE MacMartin
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with gameplay? Daniel Anderson
- Java servers and hacking ceo
- Understanding MMOGs ceo
- R: Internationalisation: The effect of Tongues invirtualsocietes Ghilardi Filippo
- A proposed new law of online world design buddy@riseup.net
- A proposed new law of online world design Marc Bowden
- Inside eGenesis: The Simulation of Power and Politics J C Lawrence
- Inside eGenesis: The Simulation of Power and Politics Chris Holko
- Inside eGenesis: The Simulation of Power and Politics Matt Mihaly
- Inside eGenesis: The Simulation of Power and Politics Andrew L. Tepper
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Castronova, Edward
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Tess Snider
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Castronova, Edward
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Richard A. Bartle
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Castronova, Edward
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Richard A. Bartle
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Marian Griffith
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Amanda Walker
- Academic rejection of male/female paper Ren Reynolds
- Alternate Business Models Ben Tolputt
- To Kill an Avatar kennerly@sfsu.edu
- To Kill an Avatar Ren Reynolds
- To Kill an Avatar David Kennerly
- To Kill an Avatar Ren Reynolds
- To Kill an Avatar Castronova, Edward
- To Kill an Avatar Daniel Anderson
- To Kill an Avatar Matt Mihaly
- To Kill an Avatar David Kennerly
- Natalia? Richard A. Bartle
- When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with gameplay? Daniel Anderson
- Thailand curfew Richard A. Bartle
- Counting Massive Multi Players David Kennerly
- Counting Massive Multi Players Koster, Raph
- Counting Massive Multi Players Castronova, Edward
- Counting Massive Multi Players Jeremy Gaffney
- Counting Massive Multi Players Madrona Tree
- Counting Massive Multi Players Jeremy Gaffney
- Counting Massive Multi Players Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Counting Massive Multi Players Lars Duening
- Counting Massive Multi Players Jeremy Gaffney
- Counting Massive Multi Players Jeremy Gaffney
- Counting Massive Multi Players David Kennerly
- Metrics for assessing game design [was: When will new MMORPGs that are coming out get original with the gameplay?] ceo
- Looking for Paul Schwanz Richard A. Bartle
- Does anyone know the subscription numbers on SWG? Daniel Anderson
- Does anyone know the subscription numbers on SWG? Jason Murdick
- Does anyone know the subscription numbers on SWG? Chris "Diamonds" Stewart
- R: Counting Massive Multi Players Ghilardi Filippo
- Metrics for assessing game design hart.s@comcast.net
- Metrics for assessing game design Matt Mihaly
- Metrics for assessing game design Ron Gabbard
- Metrics for assessing game design Jeremy Gaffney
- Metrics for assessing game design Ron Gabbard
- Metrics for assessing game design ceo
- Metrics for assessing game design katie@stickydata.com
- Metrics for assessing game design Damion Schubert
- Metrics for assessing game design katie@stickydata.com
- Metrics for assessing game design ceo
- Metrics for assessing game design Paul Schwanz
- Wanted: Lead Designer and Lead Technical Artist Matt Mihaly
- BBG's a link to the past Corpheous Andrakin
- BBG's a link to the past Edward Glowacki
- BBG's a link to the past Paul Schwanz
- BBG's a link to the past ceo
- BBG's a link to the past DomQ
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Castronova, Edward
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Robert Lemos
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Richard A. Bartle
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Rob Lemos
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) katie@stickydata.com
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Amanda Walker
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Marian Griffith
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Boyle, Paul
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Paul Schwanz
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Paul Schwanz
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Brendan O'Brien
- Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar) Ron Gabbard
- Designing Virtual Worlds Richard A. Bartle
- Designing Virtual Worlds Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Designing Virtual Worlds Jacob Cord
- Designing Virtual Worlds Richard A. Bartle
- R: Counting Massive Multi Players Ghilardi Filippo
- Thinking outside of the room . . . ur . . . box Nolan J. Darilek
- Thinking outside of the room . . . ur . . . box MIKE MacMartin
- Thinking outside of the room . . . ur . . . box Zach Collins {Siege}
- Thinking outside of the room . . . ur . . . box Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
- Thinking outside of the room . . . ur . . . box T. Alexander Popiel
- Crunch time Yannick Jean
- Crunch time J C Lawrence
- Crunch time Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
- Crunch time ceo
- Crunch time Derek Licciardi
- Crunch time Amanda Walker
- Crunch time Ben Tolputt
- Crunch time ceo
- Crunch time Amanda Walker
- Crunch time Derek Licciardi
- Crunch time Damion Schubert
- Crunch time Derek Licciardi
- Crunch time Matt Mihaly
- Crunch time Miroslav Silovic
- Crunch time Sean Kelly
- Crunch time Travis Nixon
- Crunch time Lars Duening
- Crunch time Scott Jennings
- Crunch time Matt Mihaly
- Crunch time Hartsman, Scott
- Crunch time Amanda Walker
- Crunch time Paul Schwanz
- Crunch time Jason Salem
- Crunch time Amanda Walker
- Crunch time katie@stickydata.com
- Crunch time John Buehler
- Crunch time Tamzen Cannoy
- Crunch time Mark Terrano {XBOX}
Let me take a second to give Crunch Time a little bit of credit
where it is due. (I come not to bury crunch time, but to praise
him! It's a long post, I started with a couple comments but ended up
with a soapbox)
Yannick Jean wrote:
> within the expected time frame and without any kind of "crunch
> time". In my humble opinion, as blunt as it may sound, crunch
> time is an excuse for sloppy planning and should never be
> tolerated (some overtime is fine, sleeping at the office is
> not)....
The major difference between large IT projects and games has not
been mentioned in the discussion so far. Games -must- be fun to be
successful. IT projects 'only' have to meet their specifications
and be tolerably bug-free. There are shop cultures and methods and
skills that can get you a game a fun game faster - but nobody can
pick a date on the calendar 6 months in advance and say "July 31,
Today the game is 100% fun". You iterate toward fun, you polish
towards fun, and hopefully you started out form a prototype that
already had a spark of fun.
I have a 20 year background in IT development and have my name in
the credits of 10 million sold games so I've seen both industries;
while there are many similarities between applications development
and games it is the -differences- that drive much or most of the
crunch time. I'll concede that there are still too many shops that
have basic management problems that lead to disasters, but
entertainment software development is not just a quirky subset of
IT/applications programming.
Not all crunch is from 'bad management, geeks, cowboy programmers'
either: Crunch time comes from people being passionate about their
game and wanting to make the best possible product they can, or have
a killer E3 showing (just a little more polish on that level will do
it) or crank out just a few more screenshots for the fansites.
Having an artistic, creative, or quality standard that doesn't just
stop at 'meets the spec, move on to next task'. Making a game the
best it can be is sometimes having to take a gamble on a feature
just a month before code complete - and that usually means crunch.
We are a hit-driven industry and the tiny minority of games are
keeping publishers profitable while they publish way too many 'met
the spec, shipped in the fiscal year' not-fun crappy titles.
Amanda Walker wrote:
> The marketplace is littered with the dessicated corpses of games
> produced on crunch time.
The marketplace is also crowned by products that are very
successful, high quality, and still involved serious crunch time.
Ben Tolputt wrote:
> the Starcraft game has been widely acclaimed as a pretty
> successful game (both as a game & as a marketed product). I think
> many people would agree that the "technology" of that game was not
> 'up-to-date' when it was released. It is still a very popular game
> and I
Games like Starcraft and Diablo *by necesity* are not cutting edge
technology because they get more than 50% of their sales outside of
the US. If you need a Geforce4 card minimum, what happens to your
title in Japan where 75% of the gamers are using Laptops? If you
want your title to have broad adoption in Europe you'd better target
'last year's machine as your spec. If your gameplay is good enough,
people will upgrade their hardware to play (I'm thinking SWG's
responsible for the recent demand in memory chips :). In the
console space where 'all things are held equal' on the technology
side - there is more sensitivity to content quality and
aesthetics...but gameplay still rules over technology on all
platforms.
--In Defense of Crunch--
For Age of Empires II - we had planned crunch times (12hr days, 6
days/wk meals provided - 2 or 3 weeks at a time max)at milestones,
E3, etc - and a month of crunch to push the baby out of the door.
There is a certain excitement involved with crunch that you don't
see at any other point in the project, when a ton of new art, music,
animation, and gameplay comes together all at once - the game
practically leaps forward and each playtest is like unwrapping a
great present. People are invigorated and excited when they see the
game starting to come together and get more fun with each build.
Crunch time can be a bonding experience when you rely on and work
closely with your teammates, and even a path of self discovery (like
a climber or endurnace runner I know what my real coding performance
limit is - and it was much higher than I would have guessed). And
yes, Crunch time can also be a hellish grinding waste of human life,
health, and relationships - but so much depends on the project, the
attitudes of the team, and how long that crunch goes.
For Age of Empires we crunched for nearly a solid year - it was our
first title and we were never asked once to stay extra time. As a
team we knew we had to make the best possible game that we could -
in a crowded field of 43 RTS games announced in 1997 we exceeded all
expectations. Did I write some embarassing 3:00am code that took
extra days to debug - of course. Did I make some mistakes I might
not have made - yes. Did we work out subtle, artistic, and sometimes
beautiful solutions to problems after a midnight playtest - many
times.
Would AoE have been a success, built a company and one of the
strongest franchises in PC games without a lot of sacrifice by a
very dedicated team...not a chance. That probably falls under your
'geeks just want to work all nite and code' observation.
Are those experiences typical? Possibly not - but they are much
more common at successful companies (ES, Blizzard and a few others)
than at the shops that shut down or don't ship games.
--So why all the 'bad crunch time' then?--
The thing I always hope will get better but doesn't show any sign of
doing so is the strange lying dance that happens between every
publisher and 3rd party shop. If you actually bid how long it will
take to do the title with 'Acceptable and Reasonable IT Management'
comfort padding for contingencies and 8-to-5 days and vacations -
the publishers cry "too expensive", "takes too long!" you will have
no funding and will fold. Or tell them that a great game needs 3-6
months of polish *after* it is fun and they look at you like there
are lobsters dancing on your head. So developers always bid far too
optimistically and publishers go in trying to get the real schedule
while always expecting some slip - and the difference between those
two disparate equations is made up with crunch time and killed
projects. The few bold attempts at correcting this problem (G.O.D
among others) have fallen by the wayside. [Note-these comments
assume AAA games and publisher deals, I know you can have no crunch,
live free, and be quite profitable making card games, cell phone
titles, Java find-a-word games or whatever too]
--Moving past crunch--
There is hope for a 'less crunch' future for the industry as it (and
we) mature.
The companies that are still doing high quality products while
keeping good control of their schedules are typically innovating
between games - and reducing the risk to their shipping titles by
using known gameplay features and proven technologies.
Progressive organization and management (such as Matrix management,
etc) is allowing better cross-team application of resources and
talent and making more effective development teams.
Development on dedicated gaming platforms (consoles) is removing the
hardware compatability risk (believe me, having to test on those
3000 combinations and make allowances for the annoying differences
in video cards takes its toll) and improving the overall quality and
stability of game software.
And the rise of quality middleware is splitting the risk of engine
technology devleopment and gameplay/content devleopment (innovating
between games) - so every shop does not now have to be masters of
both the science and the art but can play to their strenghts. So
there is even hope for the small shops.
Improvements in tools (and a smaller number of standard tools),
better content pipelines, and better asset management (another area
where game development is significantly different from IT
development) are improving productivity for game development. - Crunch time Brian 'Psychochild' Green
- Crunch time Amanda Walker
- Crunch time Damion Schubert
- Crunch time Sean Kelly
- Crunch time Mark Terrano {XBOX}
- Crunch time Eamonn O'Brien
- Crunch time Alex Chacha
- Identifying Players (was Counting Massive Multi Players) Crosbie Fitch