Tag: Game Development

A last supper styled shot of the Dunder Mifflin conference room, with Michael clearly annoying his team.

Leadership and Feedback

Some time ago I sent out a tweet extoling the virtues of timely, concise feedback as a responsibility of leadership in game development.This is absolutely not a reflection on any specific person I've worked with and more an overall topic I've been stewing on over my years in the industry - and what I've seen to be good, and bad in leadership roles. In Short, Director and Lead roles aren't collectibles, they aren't some magic threshold where you get to start doing the "cool stuff". You have a lot of responsibilities in these positions, one of the most important is feedback. I'd argue that often in these roles your highs and lows are more pronounced. A good day can be a truly great one, but a bad day is crushing. You often make no, or reduced commits in regards to your own project - your focus shifts from direct tangible contribution that comes with a revision number towards more people management, expectations, and giving clear, concise, and ON TIME feedback to those working under you. Leadership roles (And in my experience especially Director roles) aren't a license to just waive vague opinion around, or for your opinion in meetings to…continue reading →

Atari v Meteos?

I think the important takeaway here is that Tim (as intelligent a person as he is) is off the mark with any swipes taken at PUBG. It is subjectively undeniable that the foundation of the Fortnite design pivot was inspired by the success and/or design of PUBG. The core mechanics of PUBG itself can be traced back to countless gaming experiences, even within its own genre to the @Survivor_GameZ series of events. https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q83nYaDr27w The Original Survivor GameZ Trailer US Law (to the best of my non-lawyer knowledge) is fairly clear in Section 102(b) of the Copyright Act that "In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work". (Lawyers, feel free to tell me if I'm wrong).Note: It seems my anecdotal knowledge comes primarily from the 70s and 80s, wherein Tetris Holding v Xio Interactive may flip the script - who knows. At this point in the genre especially, no one person or group can claim ownership or moral genesis of the pillars of Battle Royale, nor should…continue reading →

Perception

I'm a terrible Producer. To be more specific, I'm a terrible example of a Producer. Which is amusing, as I currently find myself in the role of an Executive Producer.I've spent the last seven and a half years working exclusively on open world survival games, the last six of which continuously in the Creative Director/Design Director role.Early Whiteboard Designs for Initial DayZ Base BuildingI find myself back in a producer role, likely entirely based on my friend and coworkers perception of me - obviously influenced by what he knows me to be, what he has seen the most positive success working directly with me from. From my joining the DayZ team in 2013 through to early 2014 when he left to begin work on his next project, this is what his experiences with me were colored by. Which isn't to say this perception of me is false by any means. The decisions I make in a production role are entirely influenced by amazing Producers I have worked with in the past, those of which who specialize in Production and have years and in some cases decades of experience. Their names, and the actions they took on projects I worked with…continue reading →