Heading into Production

Hello good people,

I know it has been a long time since I last penned some words about the industry. There are so many things that happened in FIEA and the Interactive Entertainment industry.

First off, Take Two's Rockstar label launched Grand Theft Auto IV. I know that announcement did not need to be made on this blog, but it is big news. The first weeks sales eclipsed the sales of Halo 3 with $500 million, thus making it the highest-grossing opening week of any entertainment property. As we patiently waited for the release of GTAIV, EA was courting a buyout of Take-Two for a couple of billion. The negotiations came to a halt as the launch day came closer and closer. Now, I wonder will EA still entertain a buyout of Take-Two while they are riding high on the GTA drug or will they wait for the high to come down before opening up discussions, again? We know all the publishers out there want a Rockstar on their team, who will be the first to get one? Enough about the industry, let's talk about two games that are changing it-- Zephyr and Meat Mechanics.

Our preproduction stage came to a close late April. The presentations were excellent. The Meat Mechanics came in with a heavy hitting, body slamming, death match presentation. Their presentation was similar to watching an episode of WWE Smackdown! They showed off their real-time strategy game in real-time. They also created a real-time strategy game for your ADD gamer and gamers that dislike violent games. For the first time, I said this may be an RTS that seems really fun before playing it for myself.

Next, Team Zephyr was up to bat with a sky high final pre-production presentation. As the presentation snowballed into an action-packed climax, I thought about how much blood, sweat, tears, and sleepless nights that the team's producers, artists, and programmers put into the game during the semester. Zephyr's leadership pushed us through to the finish line. But, credit has to go to those team members that accept the vision and plow through the work to make it a reality.

Now, for some more rules.

RULE 4: Good leadership is important, but followership is more important.
Once the team completely aligned with the leadership, we were able to make miracles happen. As we struggled through the vision, the team was able to focus on a single course of action and make it happen. Everyone wanted to present a good prototype and demonstration of the game. The team learned to put all their differences and problems to the side to concentrate not only on the game, but the presentation. For once, meetings felt essential in order to deliver a fun prototype. The team was measuring every step and hoping the best result came from every decision.

Extra kudos to the programmers for sleeplessly working in the cohort space to make sure the game was worth viewing during the final presentation.

RULE 5: A combination of passion, planning, and action is the fuel to overcome ALL obstacles.
I know this sounds like common sense. But, you will be surprised how many people in the world do not use all three to overcome obstacles. Most people believe planning and action are enough to overcome obstacles; however, without passion they never overcome the obstacle because they do not care about the goal. People that are passionately active without planning become too broad and not focused on achieving their goals, thus never making it to the finish line. We all know what happens to those that only passionately dream without action. They wither away with time. So, the correct balance of all three is necessary for success.

RULE 6: Use success for momentum to conquer higher goals and not to celebrate. This is not the time to celebrate. The successful completion of pre-production empowers action in production. It is too early in the game to celebrate. Both teams need to take the feedback from the higher powers and hone in on fixing our mistakes and striving for success. If we celebrate now, we are bound to lose momentum and potentially fail. Nothing is perfect, but we should strive for perfection. One battle doesn't end a war. Both teams are not only in a war to complete an enjoyable and fun game, but in war with the other student games currently being produced at other institutions.

This enough for one entry, I'll be back next week to deliver the highlights from the Production kick-off.