Resolutions (from Computer Games magazine)
For those of you who can't/don't get CGM, this was the latest column in their TECHNicalties section. Written by Jason Cross:
Resolutions: I wish Developers would make a few promises for the new year
You're probably reading this in February, which is the time when you forget about New Years resolutions you made and resume drinking, smoking, eating poorly, and stop excersising and/or volunteering your time to the less fortunate. I was goingto waste this page making a few resolutions of my own, but what do you care? It's not like i mkae those games you spend all that time and money on each month. It would be far more useful to find out what the game developers resolutions are, but since none of them will tell us, why not make some up? So here's my list of resolutions I wish upon the world's game developers and publishers:
No more Matrix Cam - I hearby resolve to never again use bullet time, stop time with panning camera, or any of the other way overdone effects that were so cool in the Matrix movie. It was tired after it was ripped off once, many moons ago. (Those actually making games with the Matrix license, Shiny and Monolith, are excempt from ths one.)
Revolving cameras are stupid - I resolve never again to slowly revolve the camera around a talking character. Or a spaceship. Or a car. Or a Building. I realize that needless camera movement does not add drama to a death animation, weight to a conversation, or make a space station seem more grandiose. It just moves the camera, and it's dumb.
Broader Horizons - I promise to draw insperation from more than the latest sci-fi and fantasy movies or novels. Maybe I'll read Homer or Shakespeare to study about epic battles or dramatic conflict. Maybe I'll even rent a bunch of old noir films for dialogue inspiration. Even if I'm making another paramilitary action/stealth shooter with tactical team elements, there's a lot I can apply from sources outside Tom Clancy.
Further Education - As the capabilites of games advance, so too do I have to improve my skill set. I therefore resolve to actually go to the library a couple times a month. If I'm a level designer, I'll pick up architecture textbooks and do more than look at just the pictures. If I'm an animator, I'll read up on acting meathod and technique and practice it. If I'm writing dialogue, narration, or just scripting a plotline, I'll do more than read other people's fiction but also textbooks and primers on how to improve my writing and storytelling abilites. If I'm involved in any way with a cutscene, I'll study up on applied techniques of cinematography. If I'm a programmer, I'll make use of the tremendous and freely available work being done in the field of graphics, physical simulation, and AI at universities. If we can't get our game done on time and under budget, maybe we should take a production management course or two. if our games are to be unique and better than the competition's, we have to learn everything we know from our own experiance or other game players.
Quality control matters - I promise this year to stop shipping games that have known problems. There is no excuse at all for a patch to be available on the day of a games release, or right afterward, unless our company actually shipped it to stores with known bugs or incomplete testing. Selling products with known flaws and insufficant testing is ethically courrupt, and it's only a matter of time before some consumers set their eye on the industry that makes "more money than Hollywood" and files a class-action suit. The solution is easy: stop shipping stuff we know is borken; make a good QA department maintain a bug list of ZERO during a full week of testing before declaring the product "gold." My resolution is to work that into our production schedules this year.
When it's done - I'm going to stop telling gamers that my game will be out "when it's done." I realize they're not naive enough to belive my publisher accepts that answer and are sophisticated enough to understand that schedules can and do change. Besides, half the time our game ships and it's still not "done" until it's patched up a few months later.
Are there any game developers making these New Year's Resolutions? I doubt it. It's been my experiance that most developers don't take any responsibility for what's wrong with their games. It's always the publisher's fault. But if my little slap in the face wakes up just one or two game makers, it's worth it.
This article can be found on page 66 of CGM Issue #148, march 2003.
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#1. A short time in the future, ina living room nbot so far away...
"CONSOLE WARS IX"
It is the dawning of the 9th Console war; 23 years after the first shots were luanched from the Big "N", A new player has been screwing with the world of gaming while a former rival is developing a massive Behomth, the PSX, the Big "N" is outnumbered but theyhave a secert weapon.. he GameCube II!
#2.Freedom of speech and freedom of idiocy are not synonymous-Lady Iapetus
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