Chapter 4.0: Introduction

Securing a contract to have your game published is great. Delivering a game you are proud of, and doing so after a smooth and pleasant production, is even better.

Managing a game development business is hard work—much harder than most outsiders realize. It involves herding an ever-larger group of fiercely independent creative types toward a common goal (seemingly forever), resolving cultural conflicts between artists, designers, and programmers, and constantly adjusting the design to the shifting technological and competitive landscape—all the while dealing with financial constraints that would bring most companies in other fields to their knees.

Much has been written about the game industry's idiosyncratic problems: lack of management acumen, leading to developers signing horrible contracts, then to endless unpaid overtime to ship the games anyway, then to burnouts, then to the hiring of a new crop of bright-eyed youngsters so that the cycle can begin all over again. Less has been said about the companies that have managed to break this vicious cycle. The articles in this section of the book attempt to remedy that situation, by looking at the tricks and techniques elaborated by successful developers to make their jobs easier, smoother, and more predictable:

• Mike Sellers, veteran designer of Meridian 59 and founder of Online Alchemy, describes the stages of development and how to prepare for each.

• Veteran producer Tom Sloper explains how he has managed his 50+ productions over the years.

• Anarchy Online's Terri Perkins explores the delicate topic of customer service in the game industry, specifically in the difficult context of anytime, anywhere massively multiplayer online worlds.

• Javier Otaegui, president of Argentine independent developer Sabarasa Entertainment, looks at the financial and logistical implications of outsourcing parts of the development process to companies in other parts of the world.

• Heather Maxwell, associate producer at Red Storm Entertainment, discusses ways to make the process of localizing the game for international markets as smooth as possible.

• Game industry recruiter Melanie Cambron describes why development companies should strive to keep their teams happy, and how successful leaders have achieved this goal.

• And finally, Chris Campbell, quality assurance lead on such titles as Age of Empires, explains how to implement effective quality control throughout the production process, thus minimizing the need for crunch time at the end of the cycle.