Reading “Blood, Sweat andPixels”

Little did I know it was about debating granular details, efficiency, tools, investments, delays, and, last but not least: reputation.

Video games embody a certain facade of technology and, as mysterious as it remains, one of the most tangible digital industries that speak to everyone, regardless of their age or background.

Growing up to embrace a career in the data industry and operate oh so little within this gigantic field, I still had this lingering curiosity about the mechanics of the game industry which was pervasive in a way yet completely impervious to its outsiders.

I always perceived it with a biased look and luckily enough, I stumbled across the controversial Jason Schreier and his investigative “time crunch” stories narrated in the controversial “Blood, Sweat and Pixels”.

The book is a collection of ten case studies of ten game development entities either linked to development studios or known publishers themselves ( Activision, Blizzard, EA .. ). Every chapter showcases what is known as the usual crunch periods preceding each final shipment. Every story relates the ups and downs of each team responsible for the birth of each game intended for a specific public.

Obsidian Entertainment recovering from its darkest days thanks to Kickstarter’s platform , Eric Barone shutting himself alone for 5 years to come up with Stardew Valley, Yacht Club Games starting with 5 broke and hopeless former WayForward employees and assembled in a small apartment to create Shovel Night, Naughty Dog employees compelled to go through unprecedented time crunches to create The Last Of Us and the last opus of Uncharted right after that, CD Projekt’s last tremendous achievement with The Witcher; I discover it is a miracle any game could see a beam of light. As the author claims, video games straddle the border between art and technology in a way that was barely possible just a few decades ago while undergoing uncanny circumstances.

Putting together technical and artistic assets with the idea that you can create about anything ranging from a Tetris-like application to an open world with the utmost graphical realism, I cannot help but think of familiar traits of the industry that are also findable within many other technological fields:

• Interactivity with final users is crucial: Most of the development studios keep certain proximity with the players through different platforms, especially right after the game is shipped, so that more downloadable content and further features are made available for them.
• Keeping up with technology is fundamental: Processing and storage capacity enhancement is to consider when there are automation/computing tasks to preview.
• Tools are always evolving: Updates are constantly submitted. If a technical component is slow, full of bugs, or missing necessary features, building a product equates to mental impalement.

The need for a unified vision: As a product gains trust from its public and its investors, the headcount inevitably increases and becomes unwieldy, which puts the executives under considerable strain. Every team must firmly acknowledge where the project is headed to prevent its resources from being wasted.

According to many developers with whom J.Schreier had the chance to talk, scheduling a game development is an impossible task. This is just about the only issue that makes the industry so unique. You can surely tell by a simple glance over the history. There is this interrogative thought that comes along more than once; since lessons are seemingly learnt from the past, why do time crunches occur regularly when the project is promising and financially very well fueled?

As opposed to traditional software scheduling, people tend to look through what has been done in the past and try to relate to it. Whereas with games, it is a multidimensional iterative process where it is about sketching out a story with all its components and transferring it from paper to product. It is about guessing what could stimulate the player and simulating its senses.

With traditional software, you accompany your product with documentation without going beyond what the software is conceived to perform. A game must respond to every bit of curiosity. It also meant designing the creatures, mounting different levels, iterate again through different quest stages and fix every bug you come across.

And to anyone’s knowledge, there are no known metrics to that, no specced recipe nor common standards. It is just pure guess.

… No wonder why every game is delayed at least once.

Conclusion:

Game industry is a secretive industry, at least that is the sensed feeling I have after reading the book. I cannot recommend it enough to anybody wanting to catch some of this bitter-sweet world where sacrifice, endless working hours and unpredictability are the main watchwords. I recommend it also to those who want to immerse into 10 interesting stories to which every development studio relates.