Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
It is incredibly difficult to step away from the guts of your project and look at it
objectively from the outside. I
'
ve tried to do this many times, and it is one of the
most difficult things to do, especially in those final days. Anyone who cares about
his game won
t want to leave a bug unfixed or cut a feature.
Ask yourself three serious questions when faced with this kind of decision: Will my
decision sell more copies? Will the players really notice this change? Will it keep
someone from returning the game? If your answer is yes, do what it takes. Otherwise,
move on and get your game shipped.
'
At the end of a project, everyone on the team is usually stretched to the limit. Good-
natured and even-keeled people aren
t immune to the stresses of overtime and the
pressure of a mountain of tasks. Some game developers are far from good natured
and even keeled! Remember always that whatever happens at the end of a project, it
should be taken in the context of the stresses of the day, not necessarily as someone
'
s
habitual behavior. After all, if someone loses his cool at 3 a.m. after having worked
36 hours straight, I think a little slack is in order. If this same person loses his cool
on a normal workday after a calm weekend, perhaps some professional adjustments
are a good idea.
'
Exhaustion
The first and most obvious problem faced by teams is simple exhaustion. Long hours
and missed weekends create pressure at home and a robotic sense of purpose at
work. The team begins to make mistakes, and for every hour they work, the project
slips back three hours. The only solution for this is a few days away from the project.
Hopefully, you and your team won
t let the problem get this bad. Sometimes all it
takes is for someone to stand up and point to the last three days of nonprogress
and notice that the wheels are spinning, but the car isn
'
'
t going anywhere. Everyone
should go home for 48 hours, even if it
'
s Tuesday. You
'
d be surprised how much
energy people will bring back to the office.
One other thing: They may be away from their desks for 48 hours, but their minds
will still have some background processes mulling over what they
ll do when they get
back to work. Oddly enough, these background thoughts can be amazingly produc-
tive, since they tend to concentrate on planning and the big picture rather than every
curly brace. When they get back, the additional thought works to create an amazing
burst of productivity.
'
