Comments on: A Tour of the Games Studio

By: Tiago

Tiago — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:48:53 +0000

I have the same conclusion as Steve Jobs and it kinda explain what you say Nargol:
“people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Most of gamers think certain features would be “cool” in a game. And as such, gamedev make the game exactly like they wanted but in the end what they get is “hmmm, not what i wanted”.
So, one conclusion: A game designer, is a gamer, a gamer isn’t a game designer.

By: steffenj

steffenj — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:29:49 +0000

“very few game changes will be done once a game is in beta” – this should be quoted in any beta forum for any game released as public beta.

No, it won’t change, we just want to make sure the bugs get fixed and we ship a stable product. If it is successful, or an MMO, then we can talk about new features AFTER the release. That’s where the community can have some influence on the game’s design, not before.

Which is also why many games fail so utterly because while in production, they don’t know squat about what gamers want but they do impress them with screenshots and videos, raising expectation. Sometimes to unbelievable levels.

Fortunately, gamers are a critical folk and hard to please which makes it possible for quality products even coming from indies to have an impact.

One thing about changing teams: how does this affect team ownership if members switch between projects frequently? You do have a core team for each project for most of pre- and production, right?

By: Nargol

Nargol — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:31:16 +0000

Thought I’d pop in here healerdude. It’s been said already, but does bear repeating: interesting read.

The only rule there is amongst gamers is that we are childish. Some more than others, some less so, but we’re all childish. So a game comes out, people set high expectations, they get disappointed. Not because the game was bad or anything, but simply because it wasn’t what they hoped for. As an example, say you’ve bought your kid a toy, a toy he’s wanted for soo long. It breaks after 10 minutes, and he starts crying.

That’s exactly how it is with gamers, except nothing is really broken. It’s just not what they wanted out of it.

They still cry though. A lot.

By: slicedlime

slicedlime — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:07:30 +0000

That one is nice, yeah. And the one that we’re spreading our resources thin by making more games at once. More people on one project wouldn’t mean a game finished quicker or even better.

By: Demize99

Demize99 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:16:19 +0000

My #1 favorite misconception: games get made in a matter of a few weeks. I always get reminded of this from Heroes vs TF2 art arguments on forums.

By: Feral6

Feral6 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:16:02 +0000

I hope devs don’t get to upset with every negative comment and get a little discouraged, you have to remember that a lot of ignorant and negative comments come from the sort of mentality of smacktards that shoot team mates very often to get planes, they only care about there own little universe in there little heads and are yet to mature into wiser and more life experienced people (if ever). Dev teams are mostly young themselves and perhaps they should insulate themselves a little, so their creativity isn’t impacted in a negative way, as gamers you know what you want and what is cool and how a game should be made, translate your wonderful imaginations into a gaming reality for us all to enjoy as well and perhaps not be influenced by the hundreds of wishes of every smacktard. If they don’t like the game then they shoudn’t buy it, but I bet you they will and so will the rest of us. As a 44yo I remember in the 60’s 70’s playing with plastic soldiers and planes and tanks in my bedroom using my imagination to create the battles and tactics and explosions. I never imagined that game devs would one day take those imaginings and make them a reality on my LCD wide screen. Thank god for you guys and no whinging from me

By: Chael

Chael — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:49:04 +0000

I was kinda hoping to see more pics of the DICE offices, but I mostly forgot about that as I read the article. Good read.

By: Ben / NiveouS

Ben / NiveouS — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:29:26 +0000

Great read & article, and though I’m not part of a game studio or working yet – I have to agree that the players almost always take a negative stance that the developers are out to get them. Though this happens mostly in MMOs. There is no doubt the developers are only trying to improve the game that they have worked on, to bring it to perfection. Always drives me mad when I read any form of hate speech towards the developers of a game.

Hopefully plan to enter the game development industry eventually – what you wrote does clear a good few things up. Thanks =)