Point taken!

*bows at Dave’s wisdom and superior technical skills*

On the plus side, at least I fixed the extra long link problem

Dave? Too much caffeine?

Heh, we noticed the formatting thing too. Say Dave we’re sorry for the extra load!

PS: It’s funny you mentioned actors and performers before, since my dad was one and now is a producer for one of the biggest theater companies here (I grew up very close to the performing arts).
Like I said, I guess it’s all connected!

Take care,
Badger&GEvan..

I notice you’ve also been assigned “Featured Post” status by the Gama administrators too – pretty impressive for a first post!

Cheers,

Colin.

PS: And I notice your link has shown up a limitation of the formatting on our new website… I’m sure Dave will be scratching his head trying to figure out a solution as I type
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Badger just posted on Gamasutra an article we made about what we were talking here. Take a look, here’s the link:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/FilipeTeixeira/20090627/2153/Production_or_Destruction__A_quick_guide_for_project_management.php

Take care!
GEvan..

Your point about licensed products is certainly true, although it’s slightly beyond the scope of what I’d tried to address in the Creative Assembly Lines piece, as I was specifically looking for examples of companies creating original products.

We’ve built our fair share of licensed games at Denki, and there’s no doubt some of them out-sell original titles, even though they may not be as much fun to play.

Again, this was something we learned the hard way from our experience with “Denki Blocks!” – the positive reviews weren’t translating in to sales, whereas games based on cartoon licenses were generally reviewing poorly and yet still storming the charts.

We concluded it could only be because customers in the Game Boy market at that time weren’t buying games based on reviews; instead they were buying them based on familiarity.

I’ve experienced this effect myself in bookshops and the like, where I’ll scan down a line of books and only pick up the one I’ve already heard about. It’s entirely possible that every other book on that shelf is actually a better book, yet here I am grabbing the one I know of. As I see it, that’s when the effect of good marketing becomes crucially important.

In the end, it led to this observation: “Great games don’t sell. Well marketed games sell. And great games that are also well marketed sell loads.”

This is something that’s becoming even more important with the arrival of markets such as the Apple and/or Google App Stores.

And, as coincidence would have it, this is also going to be the focus for one of my next blog posts… so, well anticipated!

Cheers,

Colin.

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This aproach to the industry will work well if you know how to choose the right title in the right momment. But again.. “If you give a good idea to a mediocre team they will screw it up;” so the quality of the team will always be important.

This matter is also beeing adressed in more detail on the article at gamasutra.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that original and creative ideas are not the only way to gain some success in the game industry… But I admit that I find beeing original and creative way more fun and relaxing!

Take care!
GEvan.. a.k.a. Gabriel E.

I’m honestly glad that I was able to be of some use.

It only serves to prove what I stated above, that the sharing of information, freely and willingly, only helps to better oneself.

That being said, I thank you for your kind comment. Which, coming from one the Denki “family members”, has a very special weight to it!

Me and my longtime buddy/fellow coworker Gevan (which is also a big Denki fan), have discussed this sort of topics in great length. After your “review” we’ve decided to refine the argument here a bit more with our shared experiences (or at least correct the spelling mistakes due to the quick nature of my reply), and I’ll post it on Gamasutra, as you recommended.

I’ll place the link here for another round of your very much appreciated analysis.

Godspeed,
Badger a.k.a. Filipe T.

Your observation about the importance of Pre-Production is a topic very close to the heart of the Denki Way. Our development process typically divides in the ratio 40:20:40 – that’s 40% Pre-Production, 20% Production and 40% Post-Production. We’ve been advocating this approach since our first game, “Denki Blocks!”, back in 2001. We’ve used it to deliver more than 100 commercial games successfully, and yet we still meet many people working in the Games Industry today who can’t believe we spend 40% of our entire schedule preparing for Production. “What do you *do* with all that time?!” they exclaim, to our continued amazement…

Your point about the fun process by which many of Pixar’s story ideas came about is an interesting one I hadn’t considered in much detail before. But now you draw attention to it I’m definitely going to have to give this some thought, as it’s clearly significant.

Their decision to focus on using what they know, rather than relying on entirely new technology is central to their success I’m sure. Again, this is something Gary Penn has recognised as part of the Denki Way. He refers to it as “repertoire” – akin to the tool-box actors or other performers develop during their career that allows them to move between disparate roles and yet still deliver a stunning performance. He suggests this is one of the most powerful and least understood aspects of performance that our industry has yet to learn to use to our advantage.

Great stuff Badger. This is exactly the sort of feedback that helps us to build our understanding of our craft. Can I recommend you either copy and post the comment on to the original Gamasutra article, or at least post a comment with a link to your post here? It really needs to be seen by anyone who reads the blog as it’s a great companion piece.

Thanks again for the feedback – it’s really appreciated.

Cheers,

Colin.

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