This was an extraordinary week in my internship experience at Helios Interactive Inc.. We had a traveling band from the west coast. Our execs showed up after meetings, in Cali and Canada. They returned with some sick news and details on what would turn out to be an all-hands on deck type of week.

The week started with a full house of interns and day long meetings. I have been learning a lot every day that I come into work, but this week was much more eye opening than most. Aside from routine project and hours tracking, I've been allowed to participate in a couple of proposal planning meetings. The entirety of my time this week was taken up by researching games for a particular age range and investigating competitor practices. From this vagueness all I can tell you so far is that this is one of those things that small companies wish for; an opportunity to talk with the big boys in the video game publishing business.

Unfortunately I can't go into much detail, but I can relate some of what I've found to be important lessons. Planning a proposal and developing a tech demo in two weeks is a tough challenge. Luckily for us, we have a very skilled team of developers and designers. My boss is also quite an amazing person. I'm sure quite a bit of his skills come from experience, but the rest of it has to be smarts and a mind for seeing the big picture. Too bad I can't do a brain dump from his head to mine. He taught me to look at our proposal from an overview stance and fill in the gaps with calculated risks. Another of my assignments this week was to assemble an asset list for all 3d, 2d, scripting, and programming tasks that I could imagine going into our proposed video game pitch. Coming up with tasks and features was one thing, but estimating hours and durations to fall within an established roll-out schedule was not easy for me.

Overall I think I did pretty good, but I can always improve. My spreadsheet came out looking like a long laundry list of tasks. I did manage to go back and organize my data in a clearer and easer to read manner. I also had to calculate for customer savings; a total with our studio doing all the work vs. a total if the client provided all 3d assets. It was quite a difference.

Next week I'm back in class at Full Sail University, hello Susan!


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Labels: Helios Interactive

The game designers working on Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k action game have quite a bit of collaborating to do. It seems to be quite a challenge to work with an established IP and manage a fan base who expects the world. This interview discusses some of the relationship aspects that lead to better game design. The guys working on Space Marine had to tread on new ground. In doing so they came across many small questions that may have seemed trivial, but are more important when you deal with a branded IP.

One such example comes from audio design in a game. For some indie developers the audio may be one of the last things considered or dealt with. Creating the sound effects might fall to a team member or if you're lucky, a guy who likes to work with audio. Preferably a musician. A sound effect for a weapon may be something that gets a bit of attention, but only until you find a sound that you think works and isn't overly annoying. Something as simple as a "pew pew" or "blam blam blam" sound would work in most cases. Not so in the Warhammer 40k Universe.

In the interview they mention how there was a back and forth experience in dealing with creating and adjusting the Bolter gun fire sounds. This is where attention to detail and a solid working relationship come in very handy. The guys at Games Workshop had particular notions of how they imagined that a Bolter's gun fire would sound. I'm almost sure that this is the case for all weapons, dialogue, sound effects, and music that go into this game.

Space Marine appears to be turning into another wonderfully crafted transmedia extension of the Warhammer 40k universe. The attention and care being given to this title, and in general by game studios dealing with established IPs, is admirable. As a game designer and producer, I am thankful for developers who are willing to share their works in progress. This interview reminds me that details do matter, and as long as time allows, we should pay more attention to the little things. Audio design is one of my weak areas, but after playing games like Red Dead Redemption, my ears are opening up more.

Enjoy the video and lookout for Space Marine.

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Labels: game design