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Notes from the Game Focus Germany Conference, 2008

By codemonkey uk (Mon Jan 28, 2008 at 05:50:39 AM EST) (all tags)

Part 1, Thursday, continued. Previously:

Now:

"Zen and the Art of Project Maintanence" - Risa Cohen

To follow:

"Pragmatic game development practices for small (and not so small) companies" - Noel Llopis

"Zen and the Art of Production Maintanence" - Risa Cohen

All production efforts have "time, money, quality and people" to manage, bit it games, films, whatever. Games Industry has a fear of "stars".

Theatre vs Games; Theatre is:

On Time
Budget Estimated from Script
Director as visionary
Producer as Moneyman
Star driven
Success based on sales and critical acclaim

Animation vs Games; Animation is:

Budget Estimated from Script
Director as visionary
Producer as Moneyman
Lead driven
Deadlines change due to needs to Market

Games are:

Budget Estimated from Game Design Document
Visionary is ???
Publisher as Moneyman
Lead driven
Deadlines change due to needs to Development

(some projects have hard deadlines; xmas, film licence, etc)

Audits / Due Diligence : Design / Budget / People <> Quality / Money / Design



 cash flow

 man months

 spend vs ambition

multi project vs single project <> (stability vs focus)
talent access
tech cost
publisher relationship(s)
experience

ceo -> value of people -> decisions -> strategies -> shapes company culture -> team as a company within a company

design as a recipe -> naked team (stars on stage)

Witcher case study -> org chart "classic" game dev org chart tree -> no visionary <-

problems & solutions: design -> fits time and money; features and production values : consider cost benefit per feature / is it worth the money? Budget: Put ot best use.

Team: Does the team have a clear vision of the game? Are they appropriate?

< 2008.01.27: "Er war so exaltiert / Because er hatte Flair" | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >


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