Can of Relentless in one hand, mouse in the other, it’s 3am and your body is telling you that you need sleep, but your mind tells you to stay awake as you work in sorting out a glitch that could cripple your game...Finally as you become more tense you finally manage to fix it and breathe a sigh of relief before reminding yourself there are other tasks at hand. With a groan you sit there deciding whenever to get started on what needs to be done or call it a night...That ladies and gentleman, is the dilemma that Games Designers, Games Artists and especially Games Developers face. Try as you might to come up with a schedule and stick to it, most of the time sod’s law will kick in and something will make you go behind schedule which will lead to many all-nighters just so you can move on.
That was the problem Ruffian games faced when they were developing Crackdown 2, sequel to one of the Xbox 360’s first AAA titles.
The studio was thrust into the deep end almost immediately. The experience, according to Ruffian producer James Cope has been somewhat bittersweet: “It hasn’t gone very smoothly. We’ve had to learn very quickly...We’ve been lucky but it’s also been down to insanely hard work from our team; they’ve worked themselves ragged.”
Still, it looks like all that hard-work, tension and stress will pay off when Crackdown 2 is released on July 2nd. As a huge fan of the first instalment, I simply can’t wait for this game and have been looking forward to this game ever since it was announced. I’ve also enjoyed the mini-episodes that Ruffian Games have released, detailing how the world of Crackdown 2 is in such a mess – it simply adds more flesh to the story of the game. Train2Game students should consider using this as a way of promoting their games in the future.
Speaking of the Train2Game students, some of them are already use to this kind of stress, having been part of events and conventions that have the participants create a game within 48 or 72 hours. I believe Train2Game students should try to attend at least one of these events as a way of building up experience and preparation for when it comes to creating their video game. That way they will be able to handle the more stressful moments of developing their game.
What do you think about this? Send me your comments below.
Want to read up on how Ruffian Games worked to the bone to develop Crackdown 2, click here - http://www.develop-online.net/news/34983/Ruffian-recounts-surviving-unhealthy-crunch-phase
