Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
if your brain has checked out, and the highest thinking you are doing is working a
few muscle groups. You refuse food and water, believing you don
'
t need it. Then
things really start to go wrong. You
ll be lucky to cross the finish line.
The same thing happens to game development teams after a long stretch of overtime.
Tired minds can
'
t even
recognize them when they happen, and they attempt to solve the entire mess with
even more mandatory overtime. This death march is not only damaging for the
team and their families, but it is also a choice doomed to fail.
Getting a project over the finish line is tough, and you
'
ll be called upon to solve some
sticky problems along the way. Some of these problems will happen fast, too fast for
you to have a solution in your back pocket. You
'
t think, and not only do they make mistakes, but they don
'
not
unlike someone who happens upon an emergency situation. When you learn first aid,
you are taught that you must be able to recognize a problem when you see it, have
the skills to do something about it, and most importantly, you must decide to act.
I can give you the first two. The final one is up to you.
'
ll have to think on your feet
—
If your project is going well, you
'
ll likely only need a few tweaks here and there to
make sure you
so to speak. You can recognize this on your proj-
ect by looking for a few telltale signs:
“
stick the landing,
”
n
Your bug count is under control.
Your developers have fewer than four
active bugs to fix per day until the
“
zero bugs
”
date.
n
Everyone is in good spirits.
n
Bugs are easy to find and fix.
This is likely due to a lot of work on your
game engine at the beginning of the project. Nice job!
n
The game is fun to play, performs well, and has only polishing issues remaining.
If this describes your project, congratulations! But don
t get too cocky, because there
are some easy missteps you can make, even at this late stage.
'
Perhaps the two biggest questions you and everyone else on the team asks at this
point are likely to be:
“
Is the game good enough? Is it fun?
”
If a bug comes out of
the testing group, it
s because they want something changed to make the game better.
Anyone on the development team can motivate a change as well, and they should do
so if they think the game will become better because of it.
'
