Something new

So here are a few facts about me that I'll bet you didn't know...


I wrote a one page document about how "we" need to expand our thoughts on first person games, I wrote about how characters don't all have to be men... a few months later Tomb Raider appeared on my desk at US Gold, which became EIDOS. I have NO doubt that it was a coincidence, and in no way am I implying that the game was my idea or came from that document.


In 1984 I was programming in BASIC on an Apple II+.  I was using a third party language extension that had a limit on the number of variables, 256.  I passed that in just the first few weeks of development so I needed a solution. I devised an idea of having a text file that had various values in it and I loaded them in order that they were saved in the file.  Quickly I forgot the order and decided that it was best to label them IN the file itself.  I used a slash to start and end the variable names.  Some of you might recognize this as XML.


In 1983 I was working for Broderbund and I had just finished writing a conversion of Serpentine for the C64 and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next. I wrote a short letter to my boss about a job I thought I would be good at.  In this position I would help the programmers with their titles.  I would coordinate with the artists and guide the team to a better product.  I didn't use the title but I was describing what EA would later call "Producer".  (Side note, my boss said: "Why would we ever need anyone to do this job?"  They're out of business now, btw)


In 1982 some friends of mine and I were at a game convention and we were running people through a "live" dungeon. We used the hallways of the hotel and various rooms as our dungeon for the adventure.  A couple of people stopped me in the hallway and asked me what we were doing.  I explained the basic premise of the game.  They mentioned that they run a big convention in Houston and wanted to run the game there.  They asked  me what I call it...  I made it up on the spot but it sounded good: "I call it... Live Action Role Playing". Yep, I coined the term LARP.


I have no doubt that you dear readers have many such insights as well.  And you might be asking yourself, why I am bringing all this up now.  The truth is, I have something else in mind and I want to announce it here now.

    I have what I believe to be a new genre of video games.

I call it the combo game.  All combo games are multiple player, co-op games. The combo game is a game where all the players have a common goal but they use different established game genres to achieve that goal.  Lets use the example of a car racing game. One player is the driver... this is more of a twitch game.  The second player is the crew chief. His version of the game is more of a puzzle game that involves the fuel mix, the foil design and shape, and when to pit stop to change the tires.


This example combines two genres, racing twitch game and puzzle.  Both players win or lose together but what they do to win is completely different.  You want mom to play a game with you but you can never get her to drive a race car?  Not a problem, she can do a puzzle game and help you win the racing game.


Of course, I have a game in development for the iPhone that fits this combo model.  It can be played with 2 players, but best with 6.  Think I'm crazy to design and develop a 6 player game? I’ll just refer you to my bosses comment above and please do look for my game in App Store sooner than later.

And while I’m at it… in 2007 I suggested that a future MMOG will embrace distributed processing.  While the company would have the main servers, users would have sub-servers that they control.  These servers are like small “neighborhoods” that players can play on and control.  They can take the same characters and play on the main company servers, but they can also enjoy the intimate gaming of a smaller area that might be limited to just people they know.

These are note shards of one big server, but together they make up the entire huge world. 

More to come…

Mac

Who REALLY says your product is done? Not who you think

When I was at SEGA, I sat in a "release" meeting with my boss, the head of all of development and the QA manager.  I listened as the head of development lectured me on the strength of our titles and how we have set the bar very high and so we can't possibly release a title with bugs.

His Director of Development took over and pontificated on how he and his boss have years of experience and know when a game is ready for the market and would be happy to teach me these skills if I was willing to listen.

Who'd say no? I said something that sounded like: "Yeah sure, can you sign the release papers now?"

They both looked at the QA manager and with no further prompting said: "QA has signed off on it".  With that, the two big guys signed.  It was at that moment I realized, the ultimate judge of a titles worthiness for manufacturing had nothing to do with these two big wigs.

Make no mistake, I learned a TON from both of them and I highly respect them.  But they really had nothing to do with the release of my title.  Even the QA manager was really just reporting the results from the testers. These are the very same testers that we paid only 12 dollars an hour... we used to say: "Want to test a game?  Wait, are you breathing?  Yes?  OK, you're qualified". Now that was 1992, games are a lot more complicated but the attitude towards testers has not evolved.

"Want to test a game?  Wait, are you breathing?  Yes?  OK, you're qualified"

 I have two stories to relate to you about testers.

In 1992 I was the Producer on Evander Hollyfield Boxing on the Game Gear.  One of the features I really pressed for was multiplayer.  I really thought this was the killer part of the Game Gear and we didn't use it enough.  But, it did require a LOT of testing, so did a lot of other titles that released about the same time.

At one point I'm sitting in my cube and I noticed a lot of new faces in and around the test department.  They had opened the flood gates and were trying to get all of the titles tested.  I wandered into what was our main conference room to make sure they testers were really... testing.  Of course,  the new testers needed some pointers.  While I was helping them connect multiplayer,  I had the following exchange with one of them:

Me:  "Like boxing games?"

Tester: "Si"

Me: "Every play any boxing games before?"

Tester: "No"

Me:  "What were you doing yesterday?"

He turned to another tester and said a few words in Spanish and then did a pantomime that resembled digging, and said: "Ditch".

Yes, they had hired ditch diggers to test games.

Here's a bit of trivial: Evander Hollyfield Boxing was the first SEGA game, Game Gear or Genesis, that included a list of the testers in the documentation. I insisted, that was a lesson learned.

The second story is sad.  I worked for SSI for a short time, long story short, it wasn't a good fit both in project and management. Some of my lifelong friends that I made there were testers.  They were amazing,  They could find bugs like all other testers, but they were also history buffs.  They could tell you that the tank in "that game", has the wrong muzzle velocity for that era in winter.  I can't tell you to this day how they could even SEE that on screen.

I firmly believe that one of the downfalls of SSI was when they moved the company from their location in Sunnyvale, to be in the same building as all of Mindscape.  They didn't move the testers and that cost them years of experience that could not be easily replaced.  Those testers were the heart and soul, and I don't know if it was the ego of the manager, which I suspect given the poor managers, or the costs... but not moving the testers I believe was the steak to the heart of the company.

So if you take nothing else away from this post... VALUE YOUR TESTERS.

Your thoughts?

P.S.  OK, one more. In 4 years at SEGA I was asked hundreds of times if they were looking for game testers. I would always hand them my card and say: "Sure, go home... play a game you don't like, the same level over and over for 8 hours straight, then call me and I'll help you get a job".  I never got a call.

Never look in the bargin bin

I read on Gamasutra once that a large percentage of programmers feel that Producers aren't really part of the development team.  Of course, they wrote that comment on PCs that were acquired by the Producer... sitting on chairs that the Producer made sure they had... etc.

I could go on a long rant about how producing really is the shit job, not much accolade and all of the blame, but then that would only serve to discourage those of you who aspire to the position and I really don't want to do that.

 I have lots of first hand experience to pass on, and in fact I have a new site/blog to do exactly that, but I would like to pass on one very important lesson.

Never EVER look in the bargain bin at GameStop

While the job of "Producer" varies greatly from company to company, the duties are rarely what most sane people would call "fun". There are brief moments where you are smiling at the latest build, or maybe reading a eview of your "baby".  But those are far and few between.

There just isn't anything like the pain of seeing the game you worked on day and night for months or even years, at $1.99. The box is beat up, it was a return or traded in for a new game so maybe the documentation, the only proof you actually worked on it, is gone. Worse yet, like lemon or salt the clerk might see you holding it lovingly and say: "I hate that game, if you want something to play that's cool I suggest...". (BTW, that guy now walks with a pronounced limp and his nickname is "lefty")

So take heart, there are good things about being a Producer... there are always new games to be produced, and dinners to buy.

Your producing thoughts?

Mac