6/9/99
So when is Battlezone II really coming out? Will it still be summer of this year?
We're still aiming for a summer release and the team is working hard to finish as soon as possible. As anyone who saw or played the game at E3 can tell you, we are very far along with the game, but we would never sacrifice the quality of the product just to hit some date.
How is the ship date for a game determined? What are the variables that go into planning that sort of thing?
The ship date of a game is determined by several factors. The first factor is when the programmers, the artists, and the designers feel they can realistically finish their work. Then the quality assurance people at the publisher (Activision) look at the product as it is developing and try to assess independently when they think it will be ready to release to the public. And then testers-- internal, beta-- can always hold back release if they are unhappy with any part of the game. No one person controls when a game is released, many different groups have to feel it is ready. It's like love, you know it will happen for you someday!
What is the toughest aspect of game production to plan for? What part of the production of original Battlezone was the biggest surprise?
The hardest part of production to plan for is making the game fun. Once someone in the industry asked me why I couldn't mark down on a schedule what day each part of the game would be finished. My response was "so in my schedule I write, on May 11th driving the tank will be fun?" The point is you always know about how long it takes to finish programming something, or making the art or the design. But you never know how many times you will change the art, the programming or the design to make the game fun and beautiful.
On Battlezone 1 the unschedulable part was the interface. We did it something like twenty times and there was no way to predict in advance when it was "right". Bz2 has been smoother, but we spent a longer time getting the physics where they had new features and they felt right. We wouldn't ship Bz2 until every unit felt unique to drive and very fun as well. But that took a long time to get right in an unpredictable way.
The Battlezone II team appears to be much more "compact" than the teams for many productions. Why is this possible? Are your guys really just that good?
We try to focus on having excellent communications between a small group of people who are all the absolute best at what they do. If you want a game that fits together well, and is balanced, you need a level of communication that is hard to get from a big team. And if your team gets too big you turn your most talented people into managers, which can be a waste.
