Crunching In Gameland

It is 9:00pm on a tuesday night and myself and some 30+ members of my team are crunching. For some tonight is one of the first nights they've had to work overtime on the project so far. For others it is just one more in a long chain of late nights.

Next week I'll take a small team with me to France to meet the executive management of Ubisoft and show them what we've spent the last 22 months working on. The meeting is called an 'FPP' (or First Playable Prototype) and is meant to showcase a 'vertical slice' of the final game. Final graphics, sound, gameplay, etc. It is the single most important intermediary milestone in a project's production (second only to the Gold Master) and has consumed my team for months.

I know I'm supposed to look at the fact that we're still here so late as a failure of planning or of improper management. There is an increasing number of developers who will say that making a AAA game doesn't require overtime crunch but rather an intelligent management of internal and external expectations coupled with smart (agile) project management at every level. I don't debate the truth of this, and yet when I look out at my team, joking together while they sprint towards the 'final' finish line of this important milestone, I can't help but feel pride. Pride in them and pride in what we're working towards.

I honestly feel like the demo we'll take to France next week will make us all proud, rekindle some waining passions within the team and serve to maintain the respect that my team and my studio have worked so hard to earn within the company and the industry as a whole.

Is that wrong?

Focus Groups

So I'm back from Brazil and must apologize for not posting sooner. Things are pretty busy at work right now as we're pushing towards a major project milestone.

Right now I'm sitting behind a 2-way mirror in Cincinnati assisting in a round of focus group testing for our marketing team. I've done this a couple of times before and will never get tired of hearing consumer feedback - a group of six guys walk into the room, sit down and all describe themselves as little more then 'Madden' fans, but within a few minutes of poking and prodding by the moderator they open up and give some really surprising feedback.

I wish I could write more about the types of questions we're asking them but, of course, I can't until the game is announced. I'm sure we'll do at least a few more of these tests post-announcement and I'll write a follow-up then.

Focus Groups

So I'm back from Brazil and must apologize for not posting sooner. Things are pretty busy at work right now as we're pushing towards a major project milestone.

Right now I'm sitting behind a 2-way mirror in Cincinnati assisting in a round of focus group testing for our marketing team. I've done this a couple of times before and will never get tired of hearing consumer feedback - a group of six guys walk into the room, sit down and all describe themselves as little more then 'Madden' fans, but within a few minutes of poking and prodding by the moderator they open up and give some really surprising feedback.

I wish I could write more about the types of questions we're asking them but, of course, I can't until the game is announced. I'm sure we'll do at least a few more of these tests post-announcement and I'll write a follow-up then.