Long Past Due  

Posted by Roland

I've been having a tough time with the people renting our house in Madison. They bailed, and their last rent check bounced. This is not good for our hero. So its back on the for sale market. The carpet downstairs probably needs replaced so that's gonna cost. But they're gone. Really not his fault, his company promised him one thing but didnt keep that promise. Screwed both of us.

Other financial strains include the lack of being able to retire before the age of 100. I dont know how people manage their futures but I have no idea what all the stock and ira and crap is. In somewhat related news, Im a little nervous about taxes this year. Its gonna be messy.

I finally took a day off (Sunday) from work and we went to Salem(MA). We went on a haunted tour, which was ok. It was very windy but at leastit didnt rain. A good number of people were there. Violet got a really cool doll so I recommend checking her blog since Im sure she'll post a pic of it soon.

Haven't played D&D lately and dunno when we'll start back up. Hopefully next week. Ah well.

Crunch Mode Part Deux.  

Posted by Roland

So I've been very busy the last week or so working 8-16 hour days and sometimes on Saturday. Not too bad really, 50 hours a week or so. Its worse at other companies, and I get free lunch, dinner, and comp time. We're only crunching becomes our release date is fast approaching(as you can probably tell if you check the release date listed on EB Games' website)

We've been polishing and bug fixing for awhile now. Sometimes I'm ok and only have a few issues on my plate (like now) and other times I've been overwhelmed with scores of issues that need resolution asap. If I was the kinda person that got stressed, these past 2 weeks probably would have caused some.

But something's gotta give, and Violet's been a real trooper about my absence from being home. I even skipped date night. I'm a bad monkey. I love you babykins! :)

Crunch Mode  

Posted by Roland

Lots of people work overtime once in a while. Some even do it a lot. But in the Gaming Industry overtime is so common it has its own term: Crunch Mode. "Crunch Time" is usually expected for a few days to a few weeks prior to major milestones, demos, alpha and beta, and release candidates.

Since most game industry employees are salary, there is usually no additional "compensation" for this overtime. It's just an expected part of making games. Gaming geeks, passionate about making games, willingly conceed to this overtime. Why is there crunch time? Many reasons. But first let me explain the triage of game development as I understand it. There are 3 things that you can adjust during a game's development cycle:

Resources: Add more people, outsource to 3rd party companies, etc. At some point this can be saturated and adding more people hinders production instead of speeding it up.

Time: Postpone the due date. A lot of companies do this, and some have done it so much they don't even list due dates for their games anymore. Instead they say "when's it done". This probably means they care about the other 2 aspects more than this one.

Budget: This may seem like resources, but it's not. It's the result of adjusting the other 2 and locking this aspect down limits the other two. In the end, the game has to make money or else there may not be another one. Like resources though, there is a saturation point where adding more money yields questionable results.

Sometimes a due date is a due date and you cannot postpone it, such as when a game title is based on the release of a movie. Or your publisher already planned the title launch with the release of a new console and has spent untold dollars for marketing and shelf space. So if you can't adjust the time, you can either pour more money into the project, which only works for a while, or add more people, which again, only works for a while.

So why is there crunch mode? Can't management plan and schedule these things to be done on budget, on time, with the people provided? Well, That's NOT an easy task. Game Development is basically taking a whole bunch of mud, throwing it against a wall, and seeing what sticks. Some companies throw mud at random and some others throw mud pies. Either way, its still mud. There's no way to really know how long something is going to take until its done, and believe me, things are never truly done. You can always make tweaks, adjustments, polish, and add more features. It's only "done" when its "Good Enough (for now)" and you move on.

Also, there's no real way to know everything that there is to schedule. Who knew 3 months ago that the model the artist made that the designer put into the level wasn't going to "work". You don't. Who knows how much time it takes to put in "Feature X". You may have a good, perhaps even educated or experience based, guess. But you don't know. God forbid the publisher changes their minds and decide on a different model. So you can't blame the producers. Or the artists. Or the designers. Or the programmers. You could blame the publisher but they're the ones paying your salary and are taking most of the risk so its clearly not their fault. So what to do? Just accept that crunch mode happens. Everyone else has.

What matters here then is how munch crunch time is required? If you're crunching for weeks at a time all the time, then that's bad. Very Bad. Look for another job bad. American McGee Presents Bad Day LA bad. And that's bad. If you only crunch a few days before a major milestone, then buy a house near your company... you're staying.

The average lifetime in the game industry is 2-3 years. Why would someone give up on their "Dream Job"? Crunch Mode. It'll burn you out faster than a California brush fire. That and the toll it takes on family is enormous. Also add in the fact that people in the game industry tend to make less money, on average, then someone else of their field in the "professional" sector.

What also matters is compensation. Many companies don't compensate you. Sucka. Others? Well... it may be a "volunteer" basis. If you stay late you get a free dinner. Cool. Work on a Saturday and you'll get compensated PTO time. Score. You're still a sucka, but you're a well rested, well fed sucka.

Player's Handbook II  

Posted by Roland

I really wanted to save money and buy the Player's Handbook II in a local game store or online. But I couldn't find one locally and althogh prices were 22 bucks instead of the MSRP of 35, I'd have to wait, pay shipping, etc. Many of the local book stores, even those that had D&D books, didnd't have this one in stock. I had seen it at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago so Violet and I went there again, and there was one left. I was under the impression that all B&N books were 20% off MSRP, but I was wrong and ended up paying full price for it. DOH.

Anyway, the book is very good, packed with useful information that I and my players can actually use right now in my game. I like it a lot. Now if only E-Tools would update its v3.5 database with this book's info :)

Xmas List  

Posted by Roland

I added a new element list over on the right. Xmas 2006 is my budding Xmas List of cool stuff that I really want but due to budget constraints cannot justify buying just yet. So I will wait. For Now.

 

Posted by Roland

Which Illuminati are you?
If you're cleared for that, Check it.



The Bermuda Triangle: Gotta catch 'em all. Fnord.