Devs - development methodologies

Comments

• Randy Master Storyteller

  January 2002

  No - nothing like RUP. We started with the methodology built up at Sierra and then modified it to our temperament and the like as much as possible. The structure at our studio was GM> Project Managers> Specific Project Team. We had weekly team meetings to keep everyone on the same page. We also made good use of an intranet.
  
  I haven’t actually used RUP, so I can’t say for sure, but I wonder if something like that would be good or bad for “thinking outside of the box”. If it tries to put creativity into a corporate assembly line kind of structure – it'd be good for efficiently getting the same damn thing out there, over and over again - but who wants that? What’s true about visionary and benchmark setting entertainment is that you have to take risks – a bad word in the business world. But who knows, maybe it’s customizable enough to account for doing unusual things.
  
  Our particular team was headed by a design group composed of at first three people - an art lead, a programming lead, and a content lead. Later Christy, who was our Hollywood adviser, became a full-time writer and the fourth person on in the design group.
  
  Since the design group was made up of the team leads, it was pretty easy to keep everyone on the same page – especially so because we were enthusiastic, had pretty much the same vision, and were able to communicate. Somehow, and I don’t think that you can make this happen, we ended up with a great group of people who all got behind a vision – you can’t put a price on that, man. When people are all behind a vision they make things happen – they find a way.
  
  Plus, of course, our vision was pretty well defined by The Great Maker.
  
  Not that it was easy. Never is. Not that it always went right. Never does. Not that we didn’t squabble. Of course we did.
  
  We also had a great "data wrangler" who kept the art department and the programmers communicating and was absolutely anal about keeping track of uncountable files, and iterations of files.
  
  What went wrong was the connections between the team and management - for a lot of reasons - mostly having to do with a broken business structure that was inherited from day one at Sierra. Sierra was, IMO, a company that grew up too fast and never quite had a chance to develop a professional culture.
  
  
  [This message has been edited by Randy (edited 01-12-2002).]
• JackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>

  January 2002

  Dang... That all brings back memories.
  
  I am saddened by the probable fact that I will never ever get to be part of a team structure like we had on ITF.
  
  Foundation came close, but for different reasons. Many of the people there were just professional period, and professional people help each other out towards a common goal.
  
  ITF was different, because like you say Randy, we ate, slept, and breathed ITF. We all were way ahead on the professional level than the rest of the company as a whole I think.
  
  Man I still miss the fun of that job...
  
  [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/frown.gif[/img]
• Biggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>

  January 2002

  I'm saddened by the fact that I will probably never get the chance to work in that environment at all. The CGI area seems to be more rigid and the game industry is turning into an assembly line.
  
  My own philosophy for working on my game engine and models is currently "Work when I can" due to the constraints and energy-draining of a full time job. When I have decent quantities of spare time, however, things change. It instead moves into a philosophy of "Work on abilities: learn to do it small scale, then scale it up to fit into the project". So basically I choose an area to work on. I then develope a method for doing it in a small test program or on a small test model. Once I can do it there, I move on to implementing whatever it is (code or modelling technique) in the proper project.
  
  OK, I just realised you were looking more for an organisational structure than a working structure. [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/smile.gif[/img] I don't have much of an organisational structure, since there's only me on my projects.
  
  ------------------
  [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
  Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
  The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
  
  "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras
  
  [This message has been edited by Biggles (edited 01-12-2002).]
• shadow boxer The Finger Painter & Master Ranter

  January 2002

  'manager' is a word that makes me violently ill. Maybe 10% of the managers out there acutally do any managing. Paper shuffling, busy work, irritation, paranoid interference... I once dreampt about a certain stuffed shirt who made me miserable at work... I sat there at my Mac working away and he came in with a new brief ( a mangled torn off piece of paper with some baby scrawl on it)... he started up with his verbal briefing. ( Make is cool but not too cool... and I want this totally innapropriate piece of clip art in the corner because I mastered the clip art viewer in Corel Draw and I want the client to see I can do "art" too... )
  
  Somehow there was a holster strapped to the side of my 21"... from which I drew a 10" forty four magnum...
  
  and rid the world of one more cockroach... [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Aside from stories... I'm all for a pretty communistic kind of 'workshop floor'... management of the company should come from within. There should be almost no difference between a team lead and his charges and any major decisions about games or the studio in general should be made 'by the party for the party'.
  
  Everyone has to spend time staying super tight with the rest of the crew despite any differences...
  
  the eternal gulf between Artist and Engineer has to be bridged... and really... as Randy said to really make it all work you need a guy/gal whose most important role in the group is welding up the cracks and painting that bridge between those two polarised mindsets.
  
  A games studio is alchemy... [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]
  
  Then theres also the actual physical infrastructure... the renderfarms... the servers, and most importantly the mad mechanic who does his own brand of alchemy getting all the often disparate hardware and software to shake hands and play nice.
  
  I have an untested example of a good studio design which I may be able to get for you if you can be patient.
• rcmodels Ranger

  January 2002

  something i always wondered was, "how do you start coding a game?" I mean, where do you start? Do you sketch it out and go from there? or do you start right in on it?
• JackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>

  January 2002

  Depends on the type of game to some extent. Adventure (Story) based games need to be story boarded and written for to some extent before even a bit of code gets done.
  
  Simulators are more focused on the core game engine, so the order might be different there.
  
  In any case, with most programming languages being a compilation of loops nested in other loops, I would think that the programming side of things would start with the lowest end smallest peices like how to handle device access, then common routines, and then nesting those into larger loops to do a specific task... etc.
  
  I'm guessing mroe than anything...
  
  Although as time goes on, I'm getting to see the other side of the coin from what I've worked on.
  
  The last time I programmed a game was in line numbered BASIC, on a WANG 2200 in High School.
  
  [img]http://216.15.145.59/mainforums/biggrin.gif[/img]
• Biggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>

  January 2002

  With my game engine I started with drawing a square. But that was for learning the API. For the actual game engine I began with device recognition. Then I moved on to drawing a single model. Then I did being able to use the mouse to do something. I'm currently working on a bit of interface as a path towards finishing off device management.
  
  ------------------
  [b][url="http://www.minbari.co.uk/log12.2263/"]Required reading[/url][/b]
  Never eat anything bigger than your own head.
  The Balance provides. The Balance protects.
  
  "Nonono...Is not [i]Great[/i] Machine. Is...[i]Not[/i]-so-Great Machine. It make good snow cone though." - Zathras