Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Dealing with changes
Throughout the development of a game there will be many changes - big
and small - which occur for all kinds of reasons. Dealing with such changes
will become a regular part of the tasks you undertake and you should make
allowances for this work in any schedules you are asked to produce.Without
doing so, it is probable that you will end up with a serious miscalculation of
the work involved, which will lead to delays as you attempt to find slots in
your busy diary into which you can fit the work.You will find yourself in a
situation where you desperately struggle to meet the project's deadlines.
Though it is difficult to foresee the nature and extent of any changes in
advance, when estimating the writing time required you should always allow
extra time for any possible changes. It is usually better to class this as a task
in its own right rather than to add ten percent, say, onto every estimate you
give. Simply adding time onto each task will give you additional time in the
wrong places in the project.
Because an expectation of change can come across as a little negative, you
should be diplomatic in your approach and call the task something like
'Editing and Polishing Based on Feedback'. For a game with a small amount
of writer input, accommodating changes is probably something that you are
going to be able to fit in easily, but a large project will mean a lot of change
time, particularly if the finer points of gameplay or interface are still in flux.
There will be games that undergo such fundamental changes of style or
gameplay that whatever time you estimated will not be enough and you will
have to re-negotiate for additional time to accommodate everything that is
being requested.
When the changes are directly connected with the work you have done
on the project you must resist the temptation to see it as personal criticism
and refrain from condemning those requesting the modifications. They are
professional people, too, who have to think of the game as a whole and of
how the game fits into the larger context of the retail marketplace. Major
alterations to your story, say, can be very frustrating and it may seem that the
magic you are trying to weave has been misunderstood. Yes, you should
explain and defend your work if you believe in it strongly (and if you don't
then you should be questioning why this is so), but you should also be
