Game development and life.
Creation is the state of art.
PingMag recently posted an interview with Parissa Haghirian about working in Japan as a design professional.
Although not specifically game related, from my experience what Parissa said rings very true. If you are interested in the Japanese creative work environment, give it a read.
Some of the big players in the Montreal game industry are accused of colluding to create across the board lower salaries for employees to save on costs. If one company decides they want to pay employees less then that is their choice. Widespread collusion, instead of letting the market and employee’s skills set salary value, is a big problem and will just end up driving the talented developers away from the area. Epic fail.
According to the article it sounds like this plan has been scuttled. Hopefully that is the case.
EA recently announced that the title “Tiberium” has been canceled. It was a shooter in the Command & Conquer universe that was in development at EALA. It’s never good to hear about a canceled project when peoples’ careers are at stake as it is likely there were multiple lost jobs. Best of luck to anyone who was laid off.
GamaSutra recently made a post about the cancellation to announce the news. What’s unusual is the comments that have been posted in that article. Many insiders at EALA are posting about their frustrations and there is plenty of mud slinging going on. You have to take everything with a grain of salt but I find the politics of the situation fascinating.
Anonymous writes:
This is how the new management team brokered their own team, and at the same time quietly took Tiberium out back and put it down, so they would not be known as the owners. They got field promoted to captains, then sunk their damaged ship, so they could take their new titles on to a fresh vessel, and killed all the witnesses.
No need to be upset… it’s just business.
If you’re interested in seeing some behind the scenes information on internal game development politics give the comments a read.
An article I wrote for Game Career Guide on my experience getting the job I have in Japan has been posted. If you are reading this blog for the first time, that’s probably why you are here. Welcome!
Since it is something that many developers have expressed interest in I wanted to share my experience and try to help other people on their path if at all possible. Like I said in the article, contact me anytime and I will try to offer advice if I can. You can find my e-mail address in the article or on the about page of my personal site.
Today GamaSutra published a list of what they see as 20 companies that have done something interesting enough to catapult them into “breakthough” status in 2008. A company I’m currently working with, Grasshopper Manufacture, is on that list likely due to No More Heroes. The action game was very well reviewed and was released earlier this year (I didn’t work on it). So congratulations to Grasshopper! I’m still fascinated at how Suda51 – we just call him Suda-san – has created his celebrity game designer persona. It’s more than just leading the creation of interesting games. He’s a smart guy and there are some important lessons to be learned from him.
Another company on the list is 2D Boy, the creators of World of Goo. I judged that game for the Independent Game Festival last year and gave it high marks. I recently had the opportunity to have dinner with Ron Carmel, one of 2D Boy’s founders, in Tokyo. We ate delicious tempura in Shinjuku then drank in the shanty bars of Golden Gai. Good times. Anyways, speaking to him and hearing about what he and his partner has been up to was inspirational. Two talented developers took a fun idea – with proven success in a simple demo that became popular on the internet – and took a big risk in creating it. They quit their jobs at EA leaving behind cushy salaries to work for very little money. Their reward was working to develop exactly what they wanted to make – their project.
World of Goo is now scheduled to be released on Wii Ware and PC in multiple countries so I have to say in this case the risk they took has turned to fortune. Congratulations, 2D Boy!
Recently I read a Gamasutra article by the founders of GRIN, a large Sweden based independent game developer. They employ something like 250 people The upper management speak extremely candidly in this article. If you are interested in the business side of running an independent developer I highly recommend reading this.
Independence – a reality check. We hear it quite often: it’s great to be independent. You know, screw the publisher, be independent, be in full control over everything. It’s not always good. Independence requires stamina, endurance, and stupidness.
It takes a certain kind of person to be able to pull off running a small business in any industry. A certain level of risk taking is absolutely necessary. And that is not for everyone.
On presenting an independent development company to a publisher:
He stressed professionalism and efficiency. “What they care about is that you have process,” Bo explained. “That you have structure, that you have the organization, that you have the track record. Then they start thinking about the IP and the technology behind it. You have to understand that you are a service provider. Nothing else. When you realize that, you can sell yourself as the service provider, and not a rock star, because you’re not. Sorry. But you have to understand our role. And once you communicate that to them, the conversation will be so much smoother.”
I highly recommend reading this if you have any dreams of one day running your own business. Even if you’re more interested in a non game related business I think you can still appreciate something about the business motivations presenented in this article.
I recently had an opportunity to see Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s business card. It’s literally a credit card. Hard plastic with embossed letters on it and a picture of Solid Snake. A coworker told me that each one costs about $5. Pretty epic!
It gets better though – that card has zero contact information on it. People who receive it aren’t at a high enough level to actually get his phone number and e-mail address, which come on a rare but normal business card (no, it’s not gold plated).
In summary: The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success is a literal bible for achieving business and personal success. Written by Brian Tracy, it doesn’t read like a self-help book at all. It’s just filled with practical advice on business, leadership, money, negotiating, and time management. It’s only $12 on Amazon and I highly recommend it.
For me the time management discussion was particularly useful. Really thinking about what I need to do every day as well as in the future and prioritizing the tasks that will mean the most for each moment in the day. It has significantly helped focus my work. When very busy it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or out of control, this chapter was all about how to get done what needs to be done while letting less important things slide or be delegated.
The chapters on negotiation were also very useful. Coming from an academic background focused primarily on math and science I never had the chance to take classes or learn practical advice in this crucial area. Brian Tracy offers a number of excellent suggestions to assist you in being fully prepared to negotiate as strongly as possible for what you want. I’ve already been able to apply some of the advice here to improve negotiations I am involved in.
I’ve already read the book more than once and have repeatedly referred back to it over the past month. It is clear the suggestions in this book are useful if applied consistently to your life. The most difficult thing thing is achieving the self discipline required to put the advice to work. Then again, that’s true for success in most areas in life.
I recently bought the book, “Guerrilla Networking”, on a whim from the American Amazon.com. International shipping to Japan is always a pain but in this case it was worth it.
Quick back story – I’ve been trying to improve my skills in various areas of business. Of course game development and programming but I’m also working on improving ancillary skills as well like communication, networking, business/contract laws, and Japanese language ability. To that end, I’ve been reading more books than I have since perhaps high school.
Guerrilla Networking’s message can be summed up in one sentence. When it comes to achieving success as quickly as possible the proposed strategy is to “become the type of person other people want to meet.” According to the authors the field you are in doesn’t matter, the same rules apply. For example, if you want to become the most successful bee keeper with the most business you should spend most of your time making awesome honey that is promoted and sells well. If you did that, surely people would want to meet you which could only bring more success.
This stuff isn’t rocket science, far from it, but I will admit it made me look at improving my career in some new ways. Some of my recent experiences combined with some of the common sense in this book have opened my eyes to other ways to succeed beyond just being good at your job. That said, being good at your job is still priority number one of course.
For example, I had never sat down and critically though about what makes people popular and why some people are more famous than others. I grew up as a geek – I still am and I don’t think that’s a bad thing – but I always assumed that “those popular people just have something I don’t have.” Well, I realize now that type of thinking is bullshit. It’s not just this book that suddenly made that dawn on me but rather it reinforced some of the ways you can build recognition, fame and popularity through your actions.
Although it takes sacrifices I firmly believe anyone can build success for themselves if they are willing to think critically about the situation they are in and how to improve it. “Guerrilla Networking” helped me in a small way further realize what is possible and to question my own limits I put on my own abilities. And for that reason, I recommend reading it if you have any interest in this topic. It’s an easy read that can easily be read through in a day.
I’ve learned in the time that I’ve been working in Japanese game development that much more importance is put on the look of the game than any other factor. (This is going to be a generalization so bear with me, I’m sure there are exceptions.) For example, technology limitations are sometimes ignored when it comes to developing the desired look of the game. This is good and bad to me. It lets creative freedom run free but may end up with a vision that cannot be implemented. For the most part though, I think this is a good thing at the beginning of development. I’m sure that is why we have been recently graced with visual powerhouses like Okami.
Where it doesn’t work out so well is when production swings towards quick changes that improve the output image but can’t be maintained long term. For example, implementing a screen-space effect that looks great but uses an excessive amount of processing and will never get your game running at the target framerate. This kind of thing definitely gives an immediate “cool!” response from people who see the change but threatens long term scheduling when it inevitably has to be changed to ship the title.
I think my coworker put it succinctly when he described the difference between the production of Western and Japanese games. “Early screenshots for Western games look worse than when the game ships. Japanese games look great in early footage but often end up looking worse when concessions have to be made to finish the game.” I’m not saying one way is better than the other – I’m still a newbie in the Japanese development style – but as someone who comes from a technical background it’s a bit scary at times. I can’t dispute that in some ways it does allow more freedom of experimentation. I’m sure some times this type of development style has resulted in finding an interesting new technique.
This development style in general meshes with my cultural experience of living here. It has been oft said that Japan puts more importance on image than other cultures and it certainly appears to be true. For example the excessive packaging put on consumer products, even inexpensive ones. Packaging within packaging. Individually wrapped pieces of bread. Even places as world wide and standard as Subway Sandwiches has much better packaging and presentation in Japan.
This extends to people as well. Commuting to work in the morning in Tokyo I’ve seen a much higher percentage of people dressing nicely than I ever saw living in California. This is true seven days a week. Sure, it isn’t true for everyone but if you come here you will notice it too. I’m certain this ties into the “presentation culture”. This experience has been interesting and enlightening in many ways.
What do you think the primary difference is between the average Japanese and Western game?