In article <43a2umF1m70unU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Dirk Bruere at Neopax <dirk.bruere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>What we need is someone who can get into the source code of (say)
>Call of Duty 2, modify the code and then re-release it as an
>upgrade. That's not likely to be someone we employ.
Seriously, it's not going to be easy to do that at all, in any
case. The last few months of a game's development cycle, all the
serious engineers on the project are paranoid about stability.
[Whether that's 100% of the people on a project varies by team.]
Introducing any new or changed source code is a huge risk to the
game. Supporting any new hardware is an even bigger issue -- you now
have to test everything with, and without, that hardware. So, the
game's QA staff need to have at least a handful of those devices to
test things with. And, there's the costs in time and staff involved to
test everything twice from there on out.
Also, once a game has reached stores, to use your example of CoD2
above, things get a *LOT* harder. Virtually all of the staff involved
in working on a game move on to the next project; it's usually just a
skeleton crew or people working part time to kick out a
patch. [Subscription-based games like MMORPGs tend to have a larger
and long-term support staff to fix things, but CoD2 isn't on of
those.] Unless there's an overriding *need* to fix something, most
patches won't address things-- remember that QA needs to test all the
additions.
Frankly, the best way to get support for something in a game is to
(1) make them cheap and plentiful in the developer's offices at least
6 months before ship, or (2) demonstrate a convincing improvement for
using your product with *minimal* risk, and send over large piles of
unmarked small bills. If you go with route #2, then having a large and
useful presence at game development conferences can help, but it's
still not guaranteed. Adding something to a game is a *risk*, to the
developer. The burden of proof rests on you to show that the rewards
are well above the risks.
Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates - personal webpage http://www.visi.com/~nathan/
# Programmer at Pandemic Studios -- http://www.pandemicstudios.com/
# NOT speaking for Pandemic Studios. "Care not what the neighbors
# think. What are the facts, and to how many decimal places?" -R.A.
Heinlein
|
