June 2005
- Development and Live Team Dynamics Chris Richards
- Development and Live Team Dynamics Koster, Raph
Chris Richards wrote:
> What are the dynamics between the development and live teams
> post-launch with respect to team cross-over, designer influence,
> maintenance, content updates, and architecture.
Alas, the answer is "depends" to most of the below, in all the shops
I have knowledge of.
> For instance, in a medium to large-scale production,
> - How long after post-launch do the core developers support the
> release?
Usually, the core developers BECOME the live team. Then you set up a
gradual transition plan and backfill over time.
> - How much of the live team consists of the core developers?
Depends on company finances.
> - Do members of the live team transition to core developers?
There is no distinction between core developers and live team, once
the game is launched.
> - Does the designer hand over the world with guidelines to a
> "live designer" or does the core designer stay tight within the
> loop?
The transition works just like any other transition. The core
designer gets tired or burned out, gets an opportunity on another
team, and needs to be backfilled.
> - What level of new content requires development support as
> opposed to live team support? For example, in games with
> content patches that have new game dynamics (e.g., Castle Sieges
> of Lineage II, Battlegrounds of World of Warcraft), which team
> designs/implements these features? If the development team
> implements it, how long do they support this new feature?
Generally, you take your team of people and split some off to do
parallel development on the larger feature in a branch, while
everyone else continues the day to day live development. This is why
live team updates typically slow down a bit in the run up to an
expansion release.
> - If the support or game architecture need to be revamped
> post-launch, who has that responsibility? Do business
> necessities often require developers to be pulled from new
> titles or expansions?
The live team does it all.
> I expect the answers are much like those if asked of the
> non-gaming, corporate world, but I'm curious to see where they
> differ, if at all.
I wouldn't know what the answers are for the corporate world, but
your assumptions embedded in the question make me think that it's
different. :)
-Raph
- Development and Live Team Dynamics Koster, Raph
- (no subject) Unknown
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- DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - Re: [MUD-Dev]SOC:Willcompany sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity? Michael Hartman
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