All teams go through a predictable cycle of chaos and order that can be summed up in four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

“Forming” is the stage where the team is first put together. Everyone is very polite and excited, but tentative. People are still floating, unsure of their role on the team.

The next stage is “Storming”. At this point, problems have started to surface, and people start to drive each other crazy. Everyone knows they are in over their heads, and they can’t get out. There is too much agreement in meetings, while inside everyone is smoldering with resentment. Fixing problems almost always involves stepping on toes. (more…)

Without fail, GarageGames takes it away indie style. I recently got a chance to talk with Tim Aste, who is the Director/Producer and one of the three full-time artists on the development team for the upcoming Fallen Empire: Legions game coming out from popular indie tool provider GarageGames. Classic indie production process where roles are shared in a close team. Fallen Empire is a browser-based FPS that will be launched at InstantAction.com.

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Managing The Project

Chances are, you are good at managing yourself and your own time. That’s one of the things managers look at when they decide on whom to promote to lead positions.

But, managing a small portion of a project and managing an entire project require different skills. You are no longer just concerned with getting your slice of the pie done. You are also responsible for making sure that others get their work done, and that both the people you work for and the people that you manage understand where the project stands at all times. (more…)

Company of Heroes, long time established in the Real Time Strategy genre, continues to develop its visual quality and coding ease with the Essence Engine. And of course, it also recently won the “Best PC Game” and “Outstanding Innovation in Gaming” awards at the Elans. I got a chance to speak to Relic artist Damian Pannell, who worked on modeling, textures, and gameplay aspects of the vehicles and tanks. It’s nice to get a chance to check out leaps in art that are local to me in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia–a mecca of game industry.

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With the introduction of player voice in Mass Effect, BioWare is taking on change in its writing style and company culture. Kevin Barrett, Director of Design at BioWare Edmonton, shares insights on these changes in a company that established itself as the premier developer behind text-branching role-playing games such as Baldur’s Gate and continues to promote the importance of writing in games.

“It may not seem like a big deal, but giving the player’s character a voice has really opened the door to cinematic presentation of dialogue exchanges. As soon as you go from mute player responses to cinematic, interactive dialogue, the writer’s responsibilities evolve significantly.
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What is a “lead artist”?

When you’re hired as a “lead artist” for a project you probably expect your role to be the keeper of the vision for the look of your project. What you may not expect is that you will really be the keeper of the team.

A lead artist is, first and foremost, a manager. How is a lead artist different from a production artist? Lead artists are less “artists who manage” than “managers who are in charge of artists”. You will likely spend the bulk of your time doing paperwork, email, meetings, and managing your artists. This was a shock for every beginning lead artist that I have talked to, and it was a shock to me when I first experienced it. (This is, by the way, a fact of life for any lead, especially engineers, who are just as likely to think they can contribute a significant amount of code and still manage a team.) You will have to change the way you gauge your own success, because you will no longer be able to look at the amount of art you have done to see how you’re doing personally. (more…)

Art outsourcing is a highly debated topic in the game industry. For one of our projects, we outsourced these tiny cut-scenes to an artist in Canada (we’re based in Australia). We got benefits from the arrangement, but also faced challenges that we didn’t predict.
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ECD Systems is holding its yearly contest for independent games. Voting began March 14, and they’re still taking submissions. The winners are up to the public, which means you still have a chance to make it if you enter your game!

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So what’s it like being an artist working with a handheld like PSP? Nathan Phail-Liff, Lead 3D Artist at Ready at Dawn Studios, knows just what goes into making a successful and visually pleasing game within the limitations of the handheld world from his work on God of War: Chains of Olympus. And if you ask me, the graphics are so stunning that it looks comparable to anything you’d find on console.

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