Biz Dev support for Creative Developers

Of all the stupid reasons to set up a development company (or even to just try and get a job in the industry) #4 is one which crops up far too often. The logic behind it seems to be that a huge percentage of games that reach the market are badly made, unoriginal, poorly tuned rubbish and so there is a space in the market for a start-up dedicated to making good games. The assumption seems to be that there are a huge number of developers out there who make games based on bad ideas or simply don’t care if their game is good and thus it will be easy for a new team to come in and do well.

In my experience that is almost never the case. I have worked with a many, many different teams on a wide variety of product types including original games, conversions and licensed games and in almost every case the developers care deeply about the game they are making. So, if developers start out with the best intentions for the games they make, how come so many games end up being lackluster? Could it be that making great games is actually rather hard? Could there be a reason for all the poor games out there beyond just “the design was poor”? Actually I can think of 10 reasons just for starters….

The following are all problems I have seen first hand:

1. The publisher doesn’t pay on time. This results in the developer being unable to hire/buy on time. If this happens once you can usually get away with it but all to often it can be a repeating problem. The resulting delays from this mean that the final product isn’t as good as it should be. – The usual solution to this is to make the team crunch to catch up but crunch doesn’t actually improve the game as fatigue and low morale just create new problems. The correct solution (which is seldom if ever done) is to negotiate for more time/money on the project in order to undo the damage.
2. Business dictates deadlines. If you are making a game in your spare time (or you are a multi-millionaire) you don’t need to worry about deadlines. If you are expecting an investor/publisher to pay you to develop a game then it is a business and there will be deadlines. Being creative on a deadline is difficult because something that seems like a great idea, once implemented, may not turn out to be as good as expected. If you are fixed to a deadline (either due to limited financial resources or a publishers need for a 4th quarter release) then you have just “wasted” a chunk of your limited time that you will never get back. This is actually one of the most common reasons for less than stellar games. When too many ideas fail to pan out the games quality drops significantly. Unfortunately in the harsh world of business it is actually better for a publisher to ship a bad product, rather than not ship one at all, so the game goes out rather than being held back for improvement.
3. Design is overly ambitious and there is no editing. It’s a designers job to make the best game possible and that often means that the design has to be overly ambitious. That is fine if you have unlimited resources but, as per point 2 above, that is seldom the case. This means that in order to get the game done within time/budget something must be chopped from the game. Editing out features is a tough process and it takes a disciplined team to do it well. Features need to be prioritised and progress needs to be tracked so that the team know when the remaining work exceeds the remaining time/budget. This normally requires a good producer with a strong relationship with the designer/team. Failure to properly prioritise means that features which should be lower priority get implemented and then time runs out before features that would make the game better (thus should be higher priority) can be implemented.
4. Changing hardware platforms. The birth of a new console platform or the poor performance of an existing platform can mean that a publisher/developer needs to change horses mid-stream. Jumping from one hardware platform to another will result in at least some work being wasted. If the jump isn’t properly managed (schedule and budget adjusted) then the wasted time will impact on eventual product quality. Worse still….
5. Unstable/unfinished hardware and tools. New console hardware platforms are often released to developers before the hardware/development tools are final. The on-going changes and instability make development less efficient. The resulting mistakes/problems during early development often snowball to cause more severe problems at the tail end of development and quality suffers.
6. Learning curve for new console platforms. Regardless of the stability of a hardware platform there is always a learning curve when a developer starts their first project on a new platform. The team need to learn the best way to use the hardware and often need to develop/redevelop tools and technology. This means they will be running at reduced efficiency for part of the development schedule. Unless this delay is balanced by more time/resources it will impact on final quality.
7. Late delivery of hardware/software. Essential hardware or middleware may be complete but isn’t delivered on time (see point 1 for reasons why)
8. Lack of ability in critical areas of the dev team. Taking code and art and level design and audio and combining them into a whole is a complex balancing act. A great game needs great code, art, design, audio and production. Finding staff who excel in each of these areas can be tough and if one area of the team isn’t up to the job the end product will suffer
9. Lack of publisher support for the developers vision. Creativity is a subjective issue and if a publisher doesn’t support a developers vision it can lead to delays in approvals, changed decisions, design U-turns etc. There are a host of reasons why a publisher may not support a developers vision but the results are the same. Indecision and delay, which impact the quality of the final project.
10. Poor management at the developer. Many developers are started by talented and creative individuals with little or no management ability or business experience. It would be nice if just being good at development was enough to succeed in business but it isn’t the case. When faced with tough decisions it isn’t unheard of for inexperienced managers to make the wrong choice and that can seriously impact on the smooth functioning of the team and the eventual quality of the game.

Conclusion
The above are just the first 10 reasons that I could think of. I know there are many others and many of the above can be broken down into sub-sets (there are many different reasons why a publisher might not pay on time). So, if you are an individual looking to break into the games industry in order to “make a difference” you will find that few, if any, of the causes of poor quality games are solvable by just one person. Likewise, if you are a team of developers looking to strike out on your own and start a company dedicated to great game play; be warned that a large percentage of the problems you will face can’t be solved by writing code or creating great art. Their solutions lie in the fields of person management, contract negotiation, publisher liaison, business planning etc. If your not equally strong in those areas as you are in actual development then chances are you will be one of the many, not one of the few.