It has just opened my eyes. Or not 🙂 When I earn a senior producer title in Vivid Games, I thought that I know how to create games. It was because of the Real Boxing (Mac/PC) development, was an excellent piece of teamwork and production work. Why? It is because we made an efficient and productive pre-production phase. When I started my journey in ATGames, I thought that I’d be able to do the same. But looking at the Puzzle Craft 2 development and Full of Stars pre-production, I failed my team in this area.
But I hope that I found the way to redeem my guilt – I’ve shown them this – Mark Cerny and his Method. And it was refreshing. During one hour Mark is talking about his game development approach setting proper goals and strategy for pre-production, production and gameplay testing. The core is to define what is publishable first playable for the end of the pre-production and differs macro and micro design. What is more, he’s arguing with some common myths and mistakes made by developers:
- “It’s possible to plan and schedule the creation of your game.”
- “Working productively means not throwing out good work.”
- “Frequent project review is essential to good management.”
- ALPHA = FIRST PLAYABLE
- “A canceled project is a sign of bad management or a bad team.”
- “The more defined your initial vision, the better.”
- “If you want to make a hit, listen to the consumer.”
And the more I’m in this business, the more I agree with Mark. Maybe it’s just a matter of experience 🙂 And now – this is my new game developer bible.
