Image via WikipediaApparently not!
I'm glad that the boys at Joystiq caught this, but frankly its very obvious that eiher there was a major distraction going on, or the guy thought he was answering a different question.
Mac
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Joystiq does it again (link)
July 28, 2009Image via WikipediaApparently not!
I'm glad that the boys at Joystiq caught this, but frankly its very obvious that eiher there was a major distraction going on, or the guy thought he was answering a different question.
Mac
I want this, but I have no idea what I'll do with it... (Amazon link)
July 23, 2009
Image by Jayeb333 via FlickrBut in this case, the toy isn't a toy. I think with this on, I can finally avoid stepping on the cat's tail when I stumble to the bathroom at 2am...
How would you use it?
Mac
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We all owe Nintendo a big THANK YOU
July 15, 2009
Where would we all be if it wasn't for Nintendo, for two very big reasons.
Let me take you back to yesteryear... It was 1983 and Atari had just buried E.T in landfill in Texas. I was out of work as the start-up I was working for had to shut down because the company that was going to buy them was about to file chapter 11. Thank you HES and Childware.
Out of nowhere, a small company that started out selling playing cards, released a game system and a game starring a little plumber with a red hat. It turned the world on to games and made it a must-have toy for Christmas.
But more subtly, those 9-12 year old kids... are now 32 years old and playing games ever since. And of course when I say playing, I really mean buying. And they grew up playing the Nintendo games, and then the SEGA games and now Playstation and XBOX. Which makes them the core gamers we always try to target.
But it gets better... Nintendo didn't stop bringing kids into the market. As a matter of fact, they bring in more every day. As those kids get older they buy more serious games. And Nintendo has even tried their best to bring girls into the market, but something happens about age 12 where most girls move out of games into something else... and as a man, I have no concept of what that is.
So thank you Nintendo for re-creating the games industry, and giving me a career. I'm sure I'm not alone as someone who can trace back their sales to Nintendo inspired love for gaming.
Now, what are girls doing?
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READ MORE - We all owe Nintendo a big THANK YOU
Let me take you back to yesteryear... It was 1983 and Atari had just buried E.T in landfill in Texas. I was out of work as the start-up I was working for had to shut down because the company that was going to buy them was about to file chapter 11. Thank you HES and Childware.
Image via CrunchBase
Out of nowhere, a small company that started out selling playing cards, released a game system and a game starring a little plumber with a red hat. It turned the world on to games and made it a must-have toy for Christmas.
But more subtly, those 9-12 year old kids... are now 32 years old and playing games ever since. And of course when I say playing, I really mean buying. And they grew up playing the Nintendo games, and then the SEGA games and now Playstation and XBOX. Which makes them the core gamers we always try to target.
But it gets better... Nintendo didn't stop bringing kids into the market. As a matter of fact, they bring in more every day. As those kids get older they buy more serious games. And Nintendo has even tried their best to bring girls into the market, but something happens about age 12 where most girls move out of games into something else... and as a man, I have no concept of what that is.
So thank you Nintendo for re-creating the games industry, and giving me a career. I'm sure I'm not alone as someone who can trace back their sales to Nintendo inspired love for gaming.
Now, what are girls doing?
Mac
So why is there a picture of Mr. Bernanke in my last post?
July 02, 2009
Well, the post was all about failure... and if you don't live under a rock, you can make the connection that the banks in the US are failing at a record rate. So sorry Mr. Bernanke, your pic came up with the keyword "failure". I'll make it up to you by telling a funny story...
A headhunter called me once and asked me if I was interested in a producer position at a major Japanese game publisher. Their office in San Jose was 10
He called back the next day to tell me that they had passed. Just for the fun of it I asked if they had given a reason. It went something like this:
me: So what was their reason?
headhunter: They want a specific person, they want the producer of [XBOX title]
me: That project was 2 years late and a million and a half dollars over budget.... I can do that.
headhunter: (laughing) Let me call them and see what they say to that.
2 hours drift by... when the headhunter called me back...
headhunter: I told'm, they know that... but they want him anyway
It boggles the mind that they were using a headhunter when they wanted ONE specific person. I have no idea if they ever got him, but I do know the office has completely changed staff twice since then.
I love this industry!
Mac
READ MORE - So why is there a picture of Mr. Bernanke in my last post?
A headhunter called me once and asked me if I was interested in a producer position at a major Japanese game publisher. Their office in San Jose was 10
Image via CrunchBase
He called back the next day to tell me that they had passed. Just for the fun of it I asked if they had given a reason. It went something like this:
me: So what was their reason?
headhunter: They want a specific person, they want the producer of [XBOX title]
me: That project was 2 years late and a million and a half dollars over budget.... I can do that.
headhunter: (laughing) Let me call them and see what they say to that.
2 hours drift by... when the headhunter called me back...
headhunter: I told'm, they know that... but they want him anyway
It boggles the mind that they were using a headhunter when they wanted ONE specific person. I have no idea if they ever got him, but I do know the office has completely changed staff twice since then.
I love this industry!
Mac
Crunch time = Producer failure
July 01, 2009
What does "crunch time" mean?? In standard terms it means that the entire team is working insane hours. Some are sleeping at their desks and there is no weekend. Crunch time can happen any time in the project cycle but usually it occurs near the end, where the big milestones live.
I say it now, and I say it loud... if there is crunch time in a project THE PRODUCER HAS FAILED.
Really, I'm not kidding.
What does the producer actually MAKE during development, he or she makes the schedule. It’s tough to make these schedules because, as we all know, producers aren't: artists, programmers, designers or even QA. Don't get me wrong, the producer may fill these roles but it’s just because of some dire need, not because he or she's the best on the team at that job.
And having made a few hundred of these schedules, I can tell you... it’s next to impossible to accurately predict what crazy artist #4 is going to do 16 months from now. But we do our best to estimate based on an 8-hour day, with weekends off. Sometimes we're smart and we skip known holidays like... Christmas, 4th of July and MY birthday. (I usually give everyone a half day on my birthday, in case they want to gang up for a "pie in the face" type event.)
So the question that is maybe rambling around in your head is: How do you void this failure?
Great question!
The answer is, YOU don't. You have a TEAM, the schedule is not ALL ABOUT YOU. It’s all about making everything MESH. You really don't know how much crazy programmer #3 is going to produce in a day, but his or her boss better know!
At one company we tried the pre-production test cycle. We made one level of the planned twenty-seven level game. I joined the project later in the cycle, near the end of the test. I examined the result, time taken, shortcuts learned, and pronounced: "Your 27 levels have to be reduced to 6, to make the schedule." I was instantly popular with the team, and the object of scorn from management. The sad truth was, I wasn't conservative enough... should have been only 4 levels.
I could go on and on about how to make a schedule, but that's another post. What I can tell you about crunch time, is... you as the Producer should see it coming, and do whatever it takes to avoid it. Crunch time in hindsight burns the team out, gives you a bad rep, and really... do you like it? No one does.
So don't be proud of surviving crunch time, be proud that your team worked together and you never had to crunch!
Your turn...
Mac
READ MORE - Crunch time = Producer failure
I say it now, and I say it loud... if there is crunch time in a project THE PRODUCER HAS FAILED.
Really, I'm not kidding.
What does the producer actually MAKE during development, he or she makes the schedule. It’s tough to make these schedules because, as we all know, producers aren't: artists, programmers, designers or even QA. Don't get me wrong, the producer may fill these roles but it’s just because of some dire need, not because he or she's the best on the team at that job.
And having made a few hundred of these schedules, I can tell you... it’s next to impossible to accurately predict what crazy artist #4 is going to do 16 months from now. But we do our best to estimate based on an 8-hour day, with weekends off. Sometimes we're smart and we skip known holidays like... Christmas, 4th of July and MY birthday. (I usually give everyone a half day on my birthday, in case they want to gang up for a "pie in the face" type event.)
So the question that is maybe rambling around in your head is: How do you void this failure?
Great question!
The answer is, YOU don't. You have a TEAM, the schedule is not ALL ABOUT YOU. It’s all about making everything MESH. You really don't know how much crazy programmer #3 is going to produce in a day, but his or her boss better know!
At one company we tried the pre-production test cycle. We made one level of the planned twenty-seven level game. I joined the project later in the cycle, near the end of the test. I examined the result, time taken, shortcuts learned, and pronounced: "Your 27 levels have to be reduced to 6, to make the schedule." I was instantly popular with the team, and the object of scorn from management. The sad truth was, I wasn't conservative enough... should have been only 4 levels.
I could go on and on about how to make a schedule, but that's another post. What I can tell you about crunch time, is... you as the Producer should see it coming, and do whatever it takes to avoid it. Crunch time in hindsight burns the team out, gives you a bad rep, and really... do you like it? No one does.
So don't be proud of surviving crunch time, be proud that your team worked together and you never had to crunch!
Your turn...
Mac
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