words.) But the real issue here is, Do I Last, I think games are growing in regret it? significance to society everyday. Whether this importance is simply their rising Have you ever had your boss come into No. Why? Really, there are a lot of ubiquity, or as issue 59 “Edu-Gaming” your office and give you one week reasons. showed, their expanding usefulness, To the editor: I have to congratulate mandatory vacation? Neither had I ... games are becoming the most important your last issue which detailed a variety of st until this morning. Let’s unpack that I enjoy it. No, I don’t play games all day; form of “entertainment” in the 21 stories revolved around educational statement. My Boss, for whom I that is the myth among journalists century. As such, we try to cover games, approaches to gaming. What a fresh, work, came into my office, covering games, just as it is among and the stories and people behind them, diverse approach to the subject matter. I where I work and told me to those that design games. But I do think in a way that befits this importance, and consistently look to your articles to not work for a week. “The about them most of the time in one way encourage others to do the same. I enlighten, educate and inspire me. So decision’s been made, so we can discuss or another. And I hear about all kinds of believe it’s an important mission, worth often in a gaming genre periodical the it, but it’s gonna happen,” says he. “I’m new games from developers, or games the commitment it demands. not gonna call you, and you are not to I’ve missed in the past from our writers check your email for a week.” or editors. Then, there’s the weird Thinking about my newly-required time pleasure I get when an issue comes off and my work over the past two years, One week not at work. I don’t know together really well and just feels I remember my mom’s advice on labor: what to do for a week not at work. After good. Do what you love and the compensation thinking about it for a few minutes, I will come. This compensation is not realized I haven’t taken off more than Also, and this may seem a stretch to always monetary, though. For some, it’s two days together since starting here some, I feel like I can understand what an amazing game, critically and over two years ago. Then I promptly a developer goes through in making a popularly acclaimed. For some, it’s realize I’m tired. And then I think game. I understand late nights and internal gratification at a project about what I’ve been doing for the last crunch time – it happens pretty much complete. For me, it’s Cyril, Seth and two years. every Monday night ‘round here. I Brandy approaching you after a panel to understand on-demand creativity. I say “thank you” for inspiring them to Launching a magazine is hard work. understand endless development cycles. work harder at writing or games design. Launching a weekly magazine that Heck, we even use a form of Agile averages 8,000 words per issue is Development – something to do with Cheers, bordering on insanity. It causes things clear crystals and burning charts? – like two years of vacation-less-ness. here in the office to aid in project (Hey! I’m an Editor, I can make up management. subject matter only revolves around In Response to “Purchase is almost to the point of phobia. She likes reviews of the art, gameplay or surface Participation” from The Escapist playing Sudoku and word games, and structure of any given game. I Lounge: That’s an interesting way to she does some gaming of that nature on appreciate your approach to stepping think of being a gamer. her iBook, but finds it a little heavy to be outside the box to examine the more as portable as she’d like. I think the DS often overlooked. Hmm, after looking at my own view on Lite with its bright screens and simple the subject I see this philosophy of interface, will hit the spot. Thanks for all the great writing, purchase is participation as purchase puts one foot in the door to a - Ajar - David community. Actually interacting with the community is what puts your other foot In Response to “D&D Therapy” from through the door. So while purchase may The Escapist Forum: This is a in some form be participation that wonderful article. It demonstrates the person is missing out on the community incredible power of the anecdotal he/she is claiming to be apart of. evidence on our side of the debate, which is probably the ideal counter to So to someone who only believed in this the equally anecdotal evidence on the philosophy I would say you have a lot of other side of the debate. More, it does so open doors waiting for you to walk with a balance and a measure that every through. voice on the anti-gaming side sorely lacks. It will be nice, someday, to have - Lex Darko some statistics, but in the meantime it’s as least as good to have talented writers In Response to “Learning the like Ms. Lafferty to encourage us in the Gaming Way” from The Escapist face of gaming’s foes. Thank you, Ms. Forum: After reading this article and the Lafferty. Australian article linked in the text, I bought a DS Lite and copy of Brain Age - TinPeregrinus for my mother. She is forgetful sometimes and is afraid of Alzheimer’s Like any cultural phenom, the game really was on its way out. And don’t even industry waxes and wanes. Its attitude get me started on Chris Crawford. His shifts, it grows older, gets pimples, reiteration of an old schtick about the passes some classes and fails others, death of videogames made me wonder grows, moves on. The past year, for where he was for Katamari Damacy, whatever primal reason lurking in the Trauma Center – or, hell, the entire dark waters of the collective ludological Nintendo DS as a system – or Shadow of unconsciousness, has been one of the Colossus. Was Patton Versus intense cynicism, maybe even despair. Rommel really embodying creative And I have to say I’m getting damned innovation in a way these games tired of it. weren’t? I get a little misty reminiscing on the Zork days of yore once in a while, Some of this is personal. I feel a bit of too, but come on. I respect Crawford as specific onus because my existential wail an original gamemaker, a fine mind and into the ether exposed one of the a skillful game technician from ages industry’s most long-festering and serious past, but he’s wrong. He’s dead wrong. ills, and it seemed that right after developers woke up from the deathmarch The game industry is alive and well, and mindset and started to turn in a new it ain’t going anywhere. Neither, for that direction – a really positive and terrific matter, are many of the developers. thing that’s been a joy to observe – all of Some of the best and brightest people I this gnashing of teeth kicked up again. have ever met work – present tense – in the game industry. The golden lure that There was a gloom at this year’s GDC yanked me away from graduate school that hadn’t shown its face in years. and into games had nothing to do with Rather than being a rallying cry for the “glamour” or any idiotic pipe dream growth and change, the “Game about fame and fortune – it had to do Developers’ Rant” had too much genuine with the people. bitterness, too much fear, to spark drive or any real discussion. I heard veteran But we are bleeding talent at a developers mutter that the industry horrendous rate. This is the real bogeyman for the actual development of hundred pages of crap prose that has to As our audience expands and stabilizes, games, and it is a big problem that be processed out of the mind before the so too does our innovation. We are brilliant, creative students are taking one “real” writing can begin. I think that this approaching the threshold where a game look at industry working conditions and holds true for any creative practice and can have meaning, exhibit social context making a bee line for Microsoft. One of for every new medium. While it’s and be compelling. The fact is that the caps on all of the recent doomsaying certainly true that games of old have had innovation is not as simple as just doing was another blog that hit the shared more than a brush with greatness, they something that’s never been done internet mind: Danc’s “Joyful Life of a also provide a foundation for expansion before. That’s where innovation starts. Lapsed Game Developer.” Man, talk into a true renaissance and awakening of It blooms when the result is art, about a downer. the potential of games as a medium – a immersion and a firing of synapses rarely pixelated enlightenment, if you will. used. Our version of “compelling” is But it pissed me off, too. I’m more than something no other media specializes in: familiar with all of this stuff. Cancelled A few major recent events have laid the We make things fun. Without relying on projects, corporate espionage, vicious groundwork: expanded game audiences, the sawing of heartstrings, games can and psychotic publishers, unrealistic fertile environments for indie convey ideas critical to the human deadlines, nervous breakdowns, development and alternative vectors for condition. This is a unique and powerful milestones squeaked by thanks entirely game delivery. thing! And it is a perfect breeding ground to chemical substances of questionable for innovation – real innovation. toxicity and legality – been there, done Over the past three years, games have that. I have seen shit. And it isn’t made amazing forays into new audiences. Of the shockingly large American acceptable. But despite these crazy (Dude, you mean women can like audience, over 40 percent play games conditions, I’m not going anywhere, and games?) And the primary audience base online. This surge in online play is I’m not alone. Like cinema, democracy is only expanding; games are predicted to scaring Wall Street and invigorating and rock ‘n’ roll, we’re here to stay, reach 61 percent of American households developers. The growth of the because the current age is one of the by 2007. And they can only keep growing mainstream lamented by Greg Costikyan most exciting times for game as the “gamer” generation advances into in 2005 has opened the door for development in all its brief history. adulthood. Asia has already advanced independents. Steam is shaking up the ahead into the stratosphere of game distribution world, and we live in a time Acres and Acres demographic penetration, and cross- where a Flash game can make a really There is a saying in fiction writing that pollination of international development big splash and a game development every would-be author has several continues to increase. university senior thesis can become a cult phenomenon and Game of the Year. The “Lapse” Effect Games are creative. The creative process indeed a scary number. But how many Life is good. Yet, the industry loses talent at a isn’t for everyone. If developers are “lapsed” Hollywood actors are there in completely disgraceful rate. Most of leaving within their first year, how many the U.S.? Could we even count them? Add to all of this research that shows these “lapsed” developers leave within of those are doing so just because the “Lapsed” rock stars? The problem with videogames can suppress pain, inspire their first year. While that’s a testament work isn’t right for them? Everybody’s taking a full headcount on the number of hard work and heal the mind, even to our need to provide greater different, but I’d be willing to bet that people that have left the industry is that promote world peace, and, ladies and preparation and more competitive many of those heading for the hills after many wind up in the game industry with gentlemen, we are in good shape. working conditions, a quick reality check only a single project cycle aren’t doing stars in their eyes and have to go is also helpful. so because of burnout; statistically, through a difficult period when their burnout tends to take somewhere illusions are shattered. No one dreams of around two to three years to kick in. being an insurance salesman, so the disillusionment (though, by the numbers, The game industry also isn’t alone in not the workforce loss) is less. workforce fluidity (or burnout, actually). The U.S. government boasts an average Make no mistake, I’ll be the last one to service length of 17 years, but excuse the industry for its sins, but I’m acknowledges that even this number is also not going to stand for all-out mutiny decreasing in recent times. The private founded on flimsy reasoning. If the sector averages three years spent with a industry is hurting, it’s up to us to heal single company. Part of the point of it, not shrug and start writing bank trying out a new career is seeing if it fits. software for better pay. Sure, I’d love to Sometimes it doesn’t. The U.S. economy, be making the big bucks, and it’s a at least, has adapted to a new standard choice I could have made. Some years where employees don’t stick around for back, I was offered the chance to the long haul. This certainly has its ups apprentice under a stockbroker at a and downs, and, again, games do need major investment firm. I turned it down, to do a much better job of retaining and as my uncle said, you can make talent, but some of this is just normal. money or you can be happy. And if you’re in it for the money, what the hell Speaking to Danc’s article, his 50,000- are you doing attempting something strong army of development ex-pats is creative, anyway? Show me the Money big companies is that it is highly unlikely And it’s rising. We’re slowly but surely But we are a commercial enterprise. A big that they could actually topple anytime starting to discover – you might want to part of what’s purchased the industry its soon. Some suits might lose money, but sit down for this one – management expanded audience and great uplift of mass those monoliths aren’t going anywhere. science. We’re starting to get a glimmer market – leaving those delicious innovation Trust me: They’re big enough to take that we might want to put the same niches beneath to be filled by independent care of themselves. That stability leaves energy into learning people management companies and hobbyists – is the industry’s investors with secondary concerns: that we put into developing cel shaders. transition to a state that attracts the the console gap, the rise of This concept isn’t new. But we’re starting attention of the bulls and bears. downloadable and online games (those to listen at last. Personal Software alternative vectors), and a slowdown in Process, Team Software Process, Agile But all is not well on those gray pages. industry growth. Development, advanced tools and In recent months, economists have automation; the new choir of angels to flooded the collective Wall Street mind Let’s replay that in slow motion: sing us on our way. Game development with gloom and doom for the game Investors are running scared because as a whole is now bringing in techniques industry. of opportunity. They’re getting nervy from other industries, bending and because the big engine of repetitive realizing that we might be special, but I assert that we shouldn’t care. content is slowing down, because even we’re not that special. the big guys are starting to realize that The astute might notice that I am not gaming audiences want something new. We also already have a lot to be thankful what you would call partial to the welfare They want better practices and better for. A good game industry job is one of of the game industry’s respective Wal- games. This might be a bad thing for the most flexible, rewarding, creative, Marts and Targets. However, I am fond Wall Street, but it sure as hell isn’t for efficient and energizing working of that undergrowth region they shade. developers or gamers. And that brings opportunities on the planet. A lot of us Part of the curse and blessing of those us to ... work for the big guys, but just as many work for sleek and agile little companies New Horizons that, when well-piloted, have the Fear not, I’m not going to go all Buddhist flexibility to switch on a dime, employ a on you, but everything exists in a new dev process, try a new idea, actually dualistic balance. Just when you think listen to employees (in fact, we kind of that it can’t get any darker, the sun bridle at being called “employees” – starts to rise. we’re “talent,” thank you very much). Our maverick environment, one that This means that we need to restrain our Bright Futures rewards new ideas and gives quantitative creative id and actually go outside once I understand the cynicism; believe me, I and qualitative feedback for individual in awhile. We need to think, learn, do. The world is becoming an hard work, attracts some of the most absorb, grow. If you can’t do it for your increasingly frightening place. But I brilliant, coppery-idealistic, good- arteries, do it for the games. would argue that it is time for despair to hearted, strong-willed people in the end and for action to begin. We all need world. I can look around my office and In order to maintain innovation, we also a boot to the head every once in awhile, see radical tattoos, Voltron action need to stop treating our veterans so a jolt to wake us up and remind us that figures, Duct Tape and Starbucks coffee poorly. Remember that bit about the pendulum is ready to swing the other cups – try findingthat at IBM. hundreds of pages of crap? It’s critical. way. And baby, it is swinging. The guys and gals who have gotten that In fact, most of our quality of life out of their system are inexpressibly So, buck up, my dears. Fix the problems, problems actually come from the fact more efficient at solving problems and but remember why you’re here. I’ll see that working is generally so much damned substantially more prone to come up you next year at GDC; I’ll be the one fun. This, too, is a double-edged sword. with game designs that haven’t been with the red palm jewel. tried before. (OK, maybe it can be Lifeclocks expressed: The IGDA Quality of Life Erin Hoffman is a professional game We can’t leave the issue of life in the White Paper estimates that a team with designer, freelance writer, and hobbyist game industry without a treatment on two years’ average experience and 10 troublemaker. She moderates quality of life. And it is critical that our percent turnover costs the publisher 50 Gamewatch.org and fights crime on the energy continue to focus there, not for percent more and is 75 percent less streets by night. any flimsy rationale involving, you know, likely to deliver on time than a team with physical longevity and mental stability 10 years’ average experience and 2 for developers – nothing so minor – but percent turnover.) Ageism is a plague in because games need to keep getting this industry, and we need to stop better. Our lifeblood is creativity, and driving out the bearers of hard-won creativity can’t exist in a vacuum. wisdom. This, too, is a problem not limited to the game industry, but it is one we should be smart enough to solve. Game publishers offer an interesting teams. So the execs fire everyone else, incentive plan: “Work like a slave for two until it’s time to ramp up once more. If or three years to ship this game, and as they try to reassemble the same bunch a reward, we’ll fire you.” It’s a morbid later, guess what? Everyone has joke among artists, animators and scattered to other jobs. It’s just one quality assurance testers. The bulk of more way the industry is broken. game production nowadays requires a large team of 90 to 150-plus people, but Yes, this does affect you, the player. It as soon as the game ships – or anyway, isn’t a studio that makes the games you after the first couple of patches – there’s love, it’s a studio team. Whether or not seldom a good business reason to keep the studio stays in business, the practice the team together. Did you break new of “ship and lay off” means the team, ground, maybe help create an instant that irreplaceable combination of talent, classic? Yeah, great job. Buh-bye! is gone. Whether or not you know it, this has already affected you, and will again. Sure, if the company is lucky and foresighted enough to have another But there is another way to make project well-along in development, at games, one not only less disruptive than exactly the stage where it needs bodies, the current cut-and-run model, but also individual employees can move over. cheaper, faster and more efficient: the (That’s assuming they’re a good fit. Wideload way. Maybe the guys who just spent 18 months designing spaceships don’t In-House Design, Outsourced necessarily want to texture orc armor.) Production Alexander Seropian co-founded Bungie But for a small studio, with only enough Software with programmer Jason Jones resources to handle one game at a time, in 1991, during his senior year as a Math “transition” equals “layoffs.” The early major at the University of Chicago. Their stages of a new project – concept art, early releases, the complicated placeholder code, design docs and blue- multiplayer action fantasy game sky brainstorming – work best with small Minotaur and a spin-off called Pathways into Darkness, were modest successes. Number 4 led to the Wideload approach: low overhead gives you lots more time With the Marathon and Myth series, Design the game in-house, then to experiment and prototype (good for Bungie became the leading Macintosh outsource the entire production. In a originality). Additionally, every project game developer, for what that’s worth. Newcity Chicago interview with Mike starts small and ends big. But if you Schramm in November 2005, Seropian think of each project as a cycle of life, Actually, it turned out to be worth a lot: explained: your company goes extinct pretty After starting Halo, the founders sold out quickly when you have 75 people to Microsoft in 2000. Flush with funds, “To make a game these days, if you wrapping a project and then you only Seropian left Microsoft in 2002, returned want to do a console game with some need ten or so to start the next one. to Chicago and soon grew bored. In story and depth to it, it takes a lot of Staying small was the key.” 2003, with half a dozen other Bungie people. And that’s really where all the alumni, he started Wideload Games. expense is.” Most of the idea work (as Wideload’s first project was the comedy- opposed to the production) is done by horror Xbox game Stubbs the Zombie in From day one, from the ground up, “above-the-line” talent. “The big idea Rebel Without a Pulse, released by Aspyr Wideload was built to implement a new with Wideload is that that’s who we Media for Halloween 2005. Production method for producing games. It sprang are,” says Seropian. “We’re the above- took 18 months. Wideload’s own 11- from a set of commandments Seropian the-line talent. We’re the guys who are person staff handled the game code, outlined in a talk at the Game coming up with the idea, fleshing it level design and writing, but everything Developers Conference in March 2006: out, getting the technology that’s else was outsourced. Principal going to drive it, designing, contractors included The Animation Farm 1. Establish your own creative direction. prototyping, getting the project into in Austin, Texas; audio and post- 2. Own your intellectual property. production.” And everyone else production by Post Effects in Chicago; a 3. Be no one’s bitch. necessary to make the game is hired motion capture studio in Chicago’s 4. Keep your overhead low. contractually. “And that’s a very, very Hoffman Estates; and an art production different way of doing a game than house in Bangalore, India. Aspyr created has ever really been done before.” the inventive Stubbs soundtrack, which restyles ‘50s pop standards as acidulous The Wideload method’s strength lies in modern rock. (The game also features a its low burn rate. “If the team is small, malevolent barbershop quartet.) the overhead is low,” Seropian wrote in a Game Developer magazine Seropian tells The Escapist, “We postmortem. “Time equals money, so contracted out character modeling, environment modeling, motion capture outsourced production approach, we and animation, sound effects, music and were able to hit our budget in spite of voiceover, 2-D art for user interface, and the delays. In hindsight, I expect our the shell programming. Some of the model saved us 45 percent on the contractors were individuals that we production budget.” He expects to realize worked with previously at Bungie. Some similar or greater benefits on the were art outsourcing or post-production new project. houses. Most were in the U.S., but two firms were overseas. In total, about 65 But the Wideload way has a learning people [who were] not [full-time curve. Stubbs the Zombie had no employees] of Wideload worked on producer, and that caused trouble. They Stubbs.” had trouble getting accurate bids from contractors, trouble with Does It Work? underperforming workers, trouble Yes. An original and atmospheric game training artists to use the engine. “The built on the Halo engine, Stubbs the big point here is that our model works Zombie received good reviews, though best when the iteration process is as many thought it too short. Stubbs has efficient as possible. That means the sold well enough to fund Wideload’s next cycle of assignment-production- project, as yet unannounced. The submission-review-revision is really company will use the same method for clean and tight. When you start dividing that game. that process among people in different places using different tools, it can get “When I did the budget analysis prior to cumbersome. We gained great efficiency beginning production on Stubbs, I once we got everyone using the same projected a 35 percent cost savings communication tools, production tools compared to staffing up with full-time and previewing tools. positions,” Seropian says. “However, we did have a schedule overrun of four “If you are going to have contributors months. Because of our low-overhead/ spread out in different locations, it’s critical to have communication and MediaWorks, Seropian has helped create production tools optimized for non-face- a multimedia property with the working to-face work flow. That means you need title X Quest. X Quest is a reality TV to be super-organized and over- show produced by Ron Howard’s Imagine communicate. You need tools to preview Entertainment airing next year on Fox and share ideas and direction. The TV, and X Quest is also an MMOG for outsourced model also requires different next-gen consoles and mobile phones skills. For instance, artistic talent alone that ties into the TV show. Players will will not get you good results. Managing interact with cast members, and events contractors takes management and in each medium will affect the other. direction skills you can’t afford to be lazy about.” How does Seropian find time to run two companies? Does the efficiency of the History Doesn’t Quite Repeat Itself, The film industry enjoys a huge, free- submitting) and also a Wiki for Wideload way make it possible? “I am But It Rhymes floating population of highly skilled organizing and sharing ideas. working with some really talented people You know who’s reading this and saying, technicians as well as standardized at Wideload and Spectrum both. That “So what’s new?” Everyone in the movie working arrangements and a common “I think our work flow, process and makes things doable for me personally business. culture. The game industry is still in philosophy can work for both small and on a creative and production level. Yes, early days in these respects, but it has large projects. We’ve used it on a multi- our production method at Wideload is Hollywood makes every theatrical key advantages over film: Few of a million dollar project like Stubbs and also efficient, but what makes it possible for release the way Wideload makes games. game’s creators need be in the same on smaller projects. The biggest hurdle me to be involved in multiple projects is A relatively small production company location, and they are all, pretty much for a developer or publisher to start the outstanding people I have the good conceives a film project, gets a studio to by definition, heavily networked. The working this way is simply culture. fortune to be teamed with.” greenlight it and then assembles a Wideload way requires a broad spectrum Groups with a DIY [do-it-yourself] production team on the instant, a whole of web tools. Seropian says, “We rely on mentality find it difficult to trust and Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA special-purpose company with hundreds IM [instant messaging], source control respect outside contributors.” paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 or even thousands of short-term like Perforce or [Visual] SourceSafe, a edition) and has contributed to computer contractors. The enterprise exists long visually-oriented game engine with easy Now Seropian is trusting contributors games from Sony Online, Origin, enough to complete the one project, previewing capability (i.e. artists can from way outside the gaming field. As a Interplay and Looking Glass. then disbands. preview their work in-engine before partner in the media company Spectrum For some time now, I’ve dwelled on who doesn’t want credit for work and refuses actually makes the games we play. to divulge which games it has worked on. Because, despite being a videogame journalist, I don’t always know who is After sending out explorative tentacles to responsible for them. (The same goes for discover more about their mysterious several of my colleagues and friends.) 1,000 games, I was greeted by an But I’d never really felt so out of touch almost frantic email from another as I did when a colleague pointed out a journalist who requested his name be Gamasutra interview with developers kept secret. “I’ve been doing quite a bit TOSE Software. As Gamasutra put it, of ‘developer research’ over the past they’re “the biggest developer you’ve year. There’s a number of companies never heard of.” It explained a great deal you’ve never heard of (like ISCO and about the fantastic Starfy series (which Aisystem Tokyo) that have created regrettably seems destined to never be numerous games you own.” He then released in the Western hemisphere). My provided links to a Japanese website colleague explained that while he knew listing over 100 games associated with TOSE had been involved, he never TOSE. Translating the list, I discovered realized to what extent, simply assuming they were connected to multiple Final it was “another fun Nintendo game.” Fantasy, Biohazard and Dragon Quest games (including DQVIII), not to TOSE’s websites give little away, mention Metal Gear: Ghost Babel on the cryptically stating, “We’ve worked on Game Boy Color. My source was quick to more than 1,000 console titles for 26 point out, though, the list didn’t state years (TOSE Group). … We had always whether they were responsible for full been in the shadow to support most development or only a section of the main game publisher [sic] worldwide.” game (e.g.: art assets). Admittedly, They also have around 750 staff (more most games were also cross-system than 1,000 when you consider ports; the PAL PS1 versions of Final international studios). Some describe Fantasy IV through VI even list “Porting: them as Japan’s biggest developer and Tose Co., Ltd” in the manual. But this also a “ghost company” which bizarrely doesn’t change the fact that TOSE has left its mark on games everyone has also be noted with bitter irony that for a played. Their clients include Nintendo, medium which is forever debated as Sega, Sony, Capcom, Konami, Square- being “art,” the people behind it seldom Enix and even EA. get the acknowledgement deserved. For example, take a big publisher like It then dawned on me: Few know the Rockstar. The GTA series is actually real truth about who creates videogames. developed in Scotland, by Rockstar North. It is shocking how many people This subject is bigger than and goes you’ll find who think it’s actually an on writing about Square as if they were beyond just TOSE. Not knowing who American-developed series. the developer. makes our games has been (and I emphasize this) a problem since the Such mistakes are constantly made. On There is an antithesis to this, though, in Atari days. Warren Robinett’s easter egg a popular forum for classic games, the form of independent videogames. in Adventure was the only way he could someone posted a poll asking people These are mostly free of constraints and take credit for his work, because who their favorite developers were. After don’t require massive publishers or publishers back then took sole credit for several replies, most people had in fact sections of development to be a game’s creation; later on, he formed been listing the publisher behind their outsourced to anonymous and “cost Activision to combat that mentality. And favorite games; they embarrassingly effective” third parties. I pitched things began changing slowly: admitted to not knowing who the questions on outsourcing and crediting Companies like Electronic Arts originally developers were, and seldom paid to prolific indie figure Greg Costikyan, of championed those behind the games. As attention to such details. Publisher Manifesto Games. “Outsourcing is more Trip Hawkins explained, “One of my names take prominence on box covers, often used for ports, [but] the waters mantras is, ‘Creativity is the rearranging and so unsurprisingly people often get are somewhat muddied in cases when a of the old in a new way.’ My reference confused and misplace their adulation. publisher who owns the right to a points for EA were Hollywood for product Magazines also make appalling errors. I franchise or license goes to a third party development, and the record business recently read a reflective article on with a clear idea of what they want for promotion and distribution. I wanted Bushido Blade, developed by Light developed. Even in such cases, however, to treat developers as artists.” Weight and published by Square. It the point should be that people make was agonizing, since while the statistics games, not corporations. Games, like Over the years, and with more games box clearly stated the developer’s name, film, are created in a collaborative being developed in Japan, this mentality the author of the piece bizarrely insisted fashion by many talents. (Except, of of public recognition dwindled. It must course, in the case of products that are [mostly] one-man operations, like, say, development: lead designer, technical many also know that previously, Hudson but perhaps our journalists should make the original Roller Coaster Tycoon, or, at lead, art director and lead producer.” Soft had been involved with making more of an effort to penetrate the crap the indie fringe, Dan Marshall’s some iterations of Nintendo’s Wars and get to the reality? If nothing else, a Gibbage.) Thus, as with film, we need to A good example of farming out series, including the unreleased N64 developer is less likely to be guarded develop a culture that understands the franchises is Metroid Prime – it wasn’t version? Then, of course, there was the and keen on perpetuating the usual collaborative nature of the form. One of developed by Nintendo, but rather Gamecube version by U.K.-based Kuju wafflespeak that passes for marketing in the things Manifesto will be doing at Texas-based Retro Studios. But speak to Entertainment. This makes for around a this industry, and is therefore likelier to launch is, where we can discover the the uninitiated, and they’ll happily dozen titles with at least four separate make better copy.” Speaking to someone information, including with all listings the proclaim it as one of Nintendo’s best. companies being involved! No wonder who on a daily basis has to wade four talents I view as critical in Another example is Ecco the Dolphin – Joe Public has trouble keeping up. through the swamp that is PR liaising, it’s not a classic Sega game at all! It was Costikyan makes a rousing point. developed by Novotrade International Costikyan continued, “Surely the press (now Appaloosa Interactive), a company has some responsibility in this matter? Having outside companies work with founded in Hungary; clearly listed on the When you go to any random website, are established intellectual property creating title screen, but again, it’s surprising they more likely to credit the developer (or porting) entire games is nothing how many don’t realize this. Finally, how or the publisher? Clearly, publishers have new - TOSE was formed in 1979, and many paid attention to Advance Wars on a common interest in not making ‘stars’ most of its work deals with other the GBA and noticed that it was either of studios or individuals, since that companies’ IP. But the outsourcing of developed by Intelligent Systems? How gives them greater negotiating leverage; separate project sections is relatively but it mystifies me why the game press new, starting around the time when CDs doesn’t try to get behind this more were introduced, and suddenly games often. Attaching people to a story were requiring additional, not to mention humanizes it and makes it more expensive, audio and animation. interesting, and for all the honors we heap on the likes of Wright or Meier or I was fortunate enough to speak with the Miyamoto, there are plenty of interesting always affable Dale DeSharone. Quite and articulate developers everywhere in the pioneer, he not only dealt with the field. Mind you, PR reps certainly try Nintendo franchises when developing the to ‘control the message’ and avoid Link and Zelda games for Philips’ CDi, connecting journalists with actual people but he also dabbled extensively with (other than publisher ‘spokespersons’), outsourcing in Eastern Europe. I asked him to explain the genesis of his Eastern Which was almost finished and then videogames: It’s more affordable to farm connections, which formed in partnership never published. Almost all of that was out development of games, or sections of with a Russian friend and colleague, Igor done in St. Petersburg.” them, to other smaller companies. This Razboff. “Igor and I got together and isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and talked about what type of business we With the setback of having a completed companies like TOSE and Boston could start in St. Petersburg. I had seen title go unreleased, DeSharone explained Animation are successful, but that numerous animated films coming out of how he eventually moved on to creating doesn’t mean consumers should be lax Eastern Europe and the former Soviet solely art assets for other games. “The when it comes to knowing who is Union. So I thought, ‘Well, we could old studio in St. Petersburg was sold to responsible for games. probably do animation over there.’” At the Blizzard guys, and I decided to start first, they simply brought half a dozen a new company by myself, without a If the videogame medium is ever to be Russian animators over to Massachusetts partner, in 1997. So that’s when I went taken seriously, to evolve and develop to in the U.S., put them up in an apartment to Kiev and started Boston Animation. its full potential, to move beyond the and had them create the animated The current studio is over in Kiev, and “production line” image it has, it is cinemas for the Link and Zelda games. right now we’re mostly creating artwork imperative that people start taking an This helped with the limited budget and for other [companies’] games. We’ve interest in who is actually responsible for worked so well, they expanded done quite a bit of artwork for Sony the games they like. So, the next time operations. “We formed Animation Online, for their EverQuest I and II, and you play one, look past the splash screen Magic. That was both U.S. and the studio Star Wars games. And … we’re doing a lot and read the credits, because someone, in St. Petersburg, [which] grew to about of work which I can’t really talk about.” often anonymous, invested a huge chunk 150 people. And we had not only of their life into something you enjoy. animators, but engineers and 2-D game Behind such events, though, make for artists. We were also starting to get into melancholy reading. “Games are just 3-D animation. It worked out [to be] a getting huge, and I think that’s part of John Szczepaniak is a South African pretty smooth process. Igor, of course, why our transition is concentrating freelance videogame writer with a spoke Russian and would talk to them on mostly on artwork, in terms of our preference for retro games. He is also a the phone everyday. He and I would both offshore studio. To put an entire triple-A staff member on the Retro Survival travel over there once every two months. game together … requires so much project, which contains articles on retro With that studio, we were working on money and such a huge team these gaming and is well worth investigating. Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clan. days.” A common and sad tale in Television ads tell people they can make “Seriously, I’m usually [too] buried in money playing videogames. Sounds like Excel sheets, product quality reports, a dream job, right? The truth is, making poll results, team lead reports, emails games is a job like any other. It takes a and document writing of my own to even lot of work and probably won’t make look at the game at work.” you rich. The computer science department of any “Just because you talk about elves all university is chock-full of kids who say day doesn’t mean you aren’t working - they would love to program games. Once negotiating, documenting, planning and again, the reality is not that different researching,” said Sanya Weathers, the from any other job. Director of Community Relations for Fairfax, Virginia’s EA Mythic. “A game company runs exactly the same as any software company,” said Steve In recent years, the price of creating a Pope, a Software Engineer at EA in videogame has skyrocketed. Like many Burnaby, British Columbia. He explained industries, what was once a one-man job how only the end product differs. The now requires dozens of full-time work that goes in is much the same in developers, the backing of major any software field. corporations and, according to a recent report on GameDaily BIZ, as much as a Sometimes, the role of producer is $25 million budget. promoted as a good target for those who are not artists or programmers. The “Designer” is the most sought-after producers run the ship, keep things position. These are the people who invent balanced and, while they may not be the games. At their core, designers are masters of any aspect of gaming, they responsible for making things fun. Yet, are often veterans who fully understand getting there requires a lot of tedium. the realities and interplay of them all.

“I don’t play the game all day long while “I manage project senior staff to ensure I’m at work,” said Jen Ortiz, a designer high-level teamwork and effectiveness,” on EA Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot. explained Daron Stinnett, the Executive Producer of Perpetual Entertainment’s upcoming Star Trek Online. “I set overall project direction and, when necessary, make decisions between conflicting goals.” Stinnett also explained how the producer must be aware of the market as a whole to make sure that the vision of his team stays in line with what the fair, no doubt, but I turned down money average gamer wants. to be here.”

Despite the growth of the game industry The average entry-level programmer in over the last few years, paychecks are 2005 was paid $52,989. According to a also not quite what people expect. similar report on the mainstream from Computerworld, a low-level mainstream “People also think we’re all rich. In system programmer started at $59,658 reality, we make less money than we in 2001. would [by] doing the same job anywhere else,” said Weathers. She went on to Programming is also far and away the explain how the sheer popularity of the highest paid entry-level position in the industry means that game companies game industry. New artists can expect a can offer candidates less money than salary of $45,675. competitors – such as the government – who have less desirable job descriptions. Game developers also have to deal with Most game industry professionals across the reality of deadlines and large all job categories echoed Weathers. overtime demands.

“I could make more money, live in areas Michael Kimball, an Emmy- and with a better cost of living, and work Academy Award-winning sound editor, less in another industry,” says Stephen currently serves as the Studio Audio House, a Software Engineer who works Director for Midway Games Los Angeles. for game titan EA in Los Angeles. “It’s He explained how typically people at his studio work 45-hour weeks, at least until spouse of an EA employee posted an “crunch time.” anonymous online blog that explained exactly what was expected of her husband. Crunch time is an industry term for the [Read “EA Spouse” Erin Hoffman’s followup last few weeks, or months, before a on working in the industry in this week’s product ships to stores. This is when the Escapist] title has to be completed by a certain date no matter what. To ship an incomplete “The current mandatory hours are 9am or bug-ridden product could sink a game. to 10pm -- seven days a week -- with In an industry where many smaller studios the occasional Saturday evening off for rely on success to fund the next project, good behavior (at 6:30pm),” wrote the crunch time means job security. blogger who went by the pen-name “ea_spouse”. “It takes what it takes to get it done,” Kimball said simply. A few weeks before, EA had been accused of similar abuses in a class action lawsuit While most developers would not say filed by some of its employees. The suit exactly how much extra time is typically was eventually settled. required, Sanya Weathers summed it up. “Everyone puts in overtime. Sometimes Despite the drawbacks, no one a lot of overtime.” interviewed was unhappy with the career path they’d taken. The amount of time the typical videogame production demands can be a “It’s work, and a lot of it, but Jesus, I major hurdle for new recruits. What’s talk about elves all day,” laughed more, almost all industry jobs are Weathers. “I’m surrounded by people salaried, with no extra dollars for those who like all of the stuff I like.” who stay late. All they earn is their continued employment. Dana “Lepidus” Massey is the Lead In 2004, the issue of extreme work Content Editor for MMORPG.com and hours became national news when the former Co-Lead Game Designer for Wish. My first exposure to a computer was an modem and 1541 disk drive, I was soon 8-bit micro called a Commodore 64. At calling into computers and intermingling 14, I owned what was considered a state among phone phreaks, hackers, crackers of the art computer. This was no mere and pirates. Suddenly, I knew people collection of wire, silicon and plastic; it with names like The Improper Bostonian, was a gateway to another world. My Dr. Atomic and The Toxic Avenger. Just magic box had sound, graphics and like the CB users of a decade before, communication abilities that set it apart BBS users went by handles. from the green-screened data terminals of its time. Handles served a double purpose. By assuming another name, hackers Of course, you could write small afforded themselves a level of programs in BASIC, buy a videogame anonymity. After all, many of them from Child World or even animate a participated in activities that fell into rudimentary movie. However, it was the legal gray areas. Secondly, the prestige unit’s RS232 port that made computing a cool alias could bring was better than come alive; by attaching a modem to the anything Charles Atlas could offer in RS232, I was able to connect to the rest comic book ads. of the world. The BBS of the 1980s was a primitive The online world of the early 1980s was beast. It could handle just one user’s phone nothing like the internet of today. There call at a time! A relatively active BBS were no web pages, streaming video received 40 or more calls a day and had sites, instant messenger clients or peer- message boards and a download section. to-peer file sharing. Instead, if you had a friend in the know, you could find your The download section of many BBSes way to what was called an electronic contained two areas: One for bulletin board system, more commonly commoners, people who hadn’t yet known as a BBS. established themselves; the other for those users considered “elite” (cool) by A BBS was where those in the know the SYSOP, the proprietor of the BBS. came to play. Armed with a 300 baud This second area had all the latest pirated the more valuable it was as a hacks from my BBS days to retrieve tech companies, looking for hardware commodity. It was actually possible to passwords on the campus mainframe! they’d discarded. He and I found all obtain one- or two-day-old software that kinds of stuff: floppy disks (which were had already been stripped of its copy In no time, I was using my new toys to like gold), discarded hard drives and protection; we called breaking through a re-enact scenes from the movie copies of Lotus 1,2,3. The Culprit ended program’s security “cracking.” A person WarGames. I wasn’t hacking into top up turning his dumpster-diving hobby earned his “elite” status by becoming military defense systems; I was dialing into a thriving business reselling the purveyor of the latest pirated software. phone numbers in sequence, looking for computer parts at trade shows. other computers with modems in my Information could turn a humble BBS area. Before long, I had found the When my fellow BBS-scene hackers and citizen into a member of the elite. This computers for the local donut shop, the I turned 18, we gave up our outlaw information included instructions on how supermarket and a rival high school’s ways. However, the skills I developed to hack programs and computer heating system. As a power-hungry 14- got me hired by an independent game systems, guidelines on how to break year-old, I naturally cranked up the other studio. The company was staffed with copy protection schemes, or lists of school’s temperature to a balmy 110 the crackers, phone phreaks and phone numbers and access codes to degrees Fahrenheit. I couldn’t imagine hackers who had also learned to apply other systems. The crown jewels of why the phone number had been their skills to design the very games we many download sections were special disconnected the next day. used to steal. Nearly 15 years later, I text files, called “G-Files,” that were was again among my own kind. occasionally available for download, Even back then, though, the most provided you knew where to look. thrilling aspect of online life was meeting your friends in person for the first time. Guy Stevens, author of College 101: The G-Files were little text files that taught One hacker I met, who called himself Book Your College Does Not Want You To you how to create bombs from The Culprit, was an extremely talented Read, is a working industry professional. household chemicals, hack UNIX guy. He was a jack-of-all-trades type of He has a degree in computer games, utilities for hacking computer systems and make free long distance person, good at pretty much anything he engineering from a top gun engineering systems and text files describing how to calls. Little did I know that these files set his mind to. college. He has developed software for break into all sorts of mainframes. were often written by fellow adolescents the following industries: publishing, who probably didn’t even have a driver’s In the wee hours of the morning, The telecommunications, mobile gaming, The BBS scene had two major license. However, the information Culprit and I would head into his car, casual gaming and casino gaming. commodities: pirated software (warez) contained in G-Files was occasionally crank up his favorite Bangles tune and and information. The newer the warez, legit. In fact, in college, I used UNIX seek out the trash dumpsters of high EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Russ Pitts Gregory Lincoln Lead Web Developer Contributing Editor Whitney Butts Director of Advertising JR Sutich Susan Briglia Web Developer Research Manager Erik Jacobson Chairman of Themis Group Nova Barlow Tim Turner Thomas S. Kurz

Contributors IT Director Erin Hoffman Jason Smith Dana Massey Guy Stevens John Szczepaniak Allen Varney

Issue 61, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com