MMO Development Lesson #17
Every feature demands a sacrifice. Anything you put in the game will almost invariably require you to sacrifice another potential feature or idea. Be willing to make the appropriate sacrifice. What feature belongs in your game more? Does it adhere to the game’s vision? Will it benefit the game more overall than whatever it is you have to sacrifice? This is one of the most difficult aspects of game design, in my opinion, because you really have to determine the impact of everything you do before you do it.
Very good point, heres to hoping you guys make the right decisions!
Ryan,
While this isn’t specifically related to MMO design, I would like to point out that the 38 Studios website needs to consider this development lesson, and possibly make some changes.
There are some mildly cool features on the site, but the loading screen is a real turn off. Every time I go to your site, I start to read something, and have to wait for the damn thing to load. No offense, but your site give me the impresssion that whatever game you produce will have a lot of load screens.
Don’t sell your future product short by perception mistakes at this stage, in order to gain some gimiky features on your corporate website. Make it visually please, and make it easy to navigate. Don’t make your consumer wait for no reason.
Cyndre
This is true of any creational process; writers and directors experience this frequently. This is why I believe developing a MMOG is a lot more like writing a book or making a movie than building business software.
Stephen King has a great passage in his book “On Writing” where he talks about sacrificing things that you love for the sake of the overall story (in this specific case, to improve pacing):
“Mostly when I think of pacing, I go back to Elmore Leonard, who explained it so perfectly by saying he just left out the boring parts. This suggest cutting to speed the pace, and that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings)…I got a scribbled comment that changed the way I rewrote my fiction once and forever. Jotted below the machine-generated signature of the editor was this mot: “Not bad, but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd Draft = 1st Draft - 10%. Good luck.”"
I also tend to watch a lot of director’s commentaries for movies, and you can see the same thing in effect there; they cut scenes, even if they love them personally, because they don’t advance the overall story of the film, or hinder pace, or whatever.
When creating something, be it music, movies, literature or a game, you have to be willing to sacrifice certain favorite things in order for the greater good.
In other words: “There are no sacred cows.”
I use the following excercise when helping a team develop scope for projects. Hold a brainstorming session and write down every feature you want for your project on a post-it. Put the post-its on one side of a white board in the front of the room.
Now, turn around and tell everyone that they have to prioritize the top 5 or 10 features…and the least important 5 or 10 features. Keep doing this till you have the features cut down to a manageable scope.
It’s crazy, though. People get pretty emotionally invested in their personal pet features. However, when you force choices like this visually, it’s easier to justify the choices that have to be made in order to complete the project on time and within budget.
I loved “On Writing” - great read, and great advice. I received similar advice on my first rejected manuscript: “You take seven sentences to explain something that should take two. Tighten it up.”
It’s odd, you see the same defensiveness with writing, or projects, computer development, anything people have put their hearts into. No one wants to hear the “kill your darlings” message. But when you find people who take that message constructively, recognize it and hold onto those people. One can remain extremely passionate without getting defensive.
Kendricke, I like that post-it technique too. It’s a good, quick way to get everyone aligned.