Before I write the first sentence of the next paragraph, I just want everyone to know I have been laid in my lifetime. I have a girlfriend that I've fornicated with many times and I've also fornicated with several other attractive women in my lifetime. Phew, now the hard part...

So I was sitting by myself the other night watching the special bonus DVD that comes with God of War II: Special Edition (before you reply, see the above paragraph), and I thought to myself, "Dave and the gang would really appreciate this." The DVD istelf consists of a 30-45 minute feature about the making of God of War 2 as well as several bonus clips on the individual departments involved in making the game. Because I enjoyed the game so much and because the DVD was so informative, I wound up watching every single second of footage they put on it. There were a couple of themes that became apparent by the end of the DVD that I thought would help give some people on this board some perspective on what goes into making a great game:

1) Great games aren't made overnight.
Because Sony wanted to cash in on the success of the original God of War, God of War II had to meet some seemingly impossible deadlines. Cory Barlog, the game director, conceeded that too meet some of the dealines he and the rest of the staff would go into borderline sleep deprivation and put in all sorts of overtime that would sometimes include sleeping in the studio. From the day the project started to the last day of testing before the game got published, the entire staff went %100. One employee made the observation, "The deadlines aren't going to change, so instead of complaining about it, you just accept it and put everything you can put into the project before that deadline is up."

2) Strive for perfection despite your limitations
One of the first things that every department lead said about their vision for the game was something along the lines of, "You know what, we have time and hardware limitations, but we're not letting that stop us. We're human, and we can't be perfect, but we're going to strive for perfection in every detail of the game anyway." One member of the team said that because of the passion and talent level of those around him, he came in everyday knowing he had to perform at his highest level. He said if you didn't come in with your A game 5 days a week, people noticed and the work suffered. Since you knew everyone else was bringing their A-game 5 days a week, you didn't want to be the weakest link.

3) The game director must have a distinct vision for the game and the staff must have unconditional support for that vision.
Throughout the DVD, it seems like the game's director (Cory Barlog) is always criticising some aspect of the game in front of whoever is responsible for that aspect. Some of the staff say Barlog has them do things over 15 times before sticking with something. Barlog even admits, "I'm sure some people think I'm just a [jerk]," but he says that everyone at least respects his passion and knows that everything he does is because he wants to make a great game.

Dave, I know you guys are strapped for time as it is, but I would STRONGLY recommend showing this to your staff if you guys could spare 30-45 minutes watching it together. The DVD is a great mini-documentary on what it takes to make an exceptional game and how this Sony team went about it. At the very least, I would reccomend picking up a copy of god of war II special edition and watching the DVD in your spare time. Has anyone else seen it and do you think it would be worth watching?

Thanks for the tip, Jake! We work in our grungy little bubble here in Burnaby and sometimes we forget that games are hard to make no matter how much time and money you have. Some of the crew take the same bus to work that the EA employees do and it's comforting to hear them complaining about about the kind of problems we thought maybe only we had because we're new to this. I definitely want to check out that God of War 2 mini-doc now. Thank you!

I hate men

Yes, I have seen it and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get into anything in the entertainment media field. Not just gaming. I am working (at a slower pace than I want to be right now) towards becoming a game designer and between my parents and other people, I get knocked for wanting to pursue it as a career. They know there's money in it if you can there but I'm not in it for money and that scares them because they thing I won't be able to find work. I know they mean well but it still pisses me off when I tell people what I want to do for a living and the first thing they say is, "Oh, there's good money in that!" I'm not in it for that.

Nonetheless, the documentary was inspiring to see that, here I am struggling to simply find a great school (God, I want to go to Vancouver Film School), and these guys face bigger stuff everyday and still push through it.

[quote][cite] dratsab:[/cite]my post disappeared ;/?[/quote]

You should check your email more often.

Ok, I sent a new one. If you wish to discuss things like this further, go ahead and email me. Let's not sidetrack what this topic is about.