Friday March 24 2006 Creating Stubbs The Zombie
Friday, March 24, 2006 Creating Stubbs The Zombie With the Wideload Model After selling Bungie Software to Microsoft and making a little-known title called Halo, Alexander Seropian left the glitz of Seattle Washington and headed back to Chicago to open Wideload Games. Wideload’s mission is to make strange games for strange people, but equally strange is how they set out to make their first title. In this presentation Wideload’s Alexander Seropian gives a post-mortem of Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse. The spotlight will be on Wideload’s model of production, where a large team of contractors located all over the world was hired to build the game with Wideload’s small coreteam. Find out how they managed to create a new company, a new IP, a console game, and a new production model all at the same time. Speaker: Alexander Seropian President, Wideload Games, Inc.
The Wideload Model
What is this Wideload all about? We wanted to create an independent developer to original gamesand 200 person in the climate ofmake $10 MM+ budgets teams.
The Wideload Commandments
• Original games are what we do • We want Wideload to mean something (i. e. brand) • We want to be independent
• We are thinking long term • We want to build something valuable
• We must determine our own success • Our goals and our partner’s goals should always be the same
• We don’t want 50 employees making one game over three years • We don’t want to suffer the churn of ramping up and down from one project to the next
The Wideload Development Theory Development costs are going up Project requirements are increasing The key to our commandments is size small size!
The Wideload Development Theory Small Team = Low Overhead Time = Money Wideload = Time
Everything Works in Theory HOW? No matter what, it takes a lot of people to ship a console game. We stay small and hire independent talent as needed.
What Went Right
A Truly Creative Environment • • I got an idea! No design politics Low organizational overhead Brainstorm to living room in one easy step
Leverage • Ability to say no • We didn’t have to live hand to mouth with each milestone
Cost Structure Saved Our Butt We shipped four months behind plan We survived because: – Overhead is low – We pay for assets
Cost Structure Saved Our Butt That’s a Million Dollar Difference!
Staffing • Hiring 12 instead of 45 is doable in Chicago • We saved over $300 K in recruiting/relocating • Cold, mean, bastard rule: Hiring and firing contractors is easy! • Scaling up for need
Finding Talent • Former Bungie Employees • Animation Farm • Red Eye Studios • Post Effects • Chewy Software
The Internet Shortening the iteration cycle – Contractors created game ready assets – Contractors submitted straight into source safe Realtime communication – Instant Messenger – Concepting Forums
What Went Wrong
Complicated Tool Chain Proprietary Engine & Tools – No documentation – No Internet Forums Wasn’t always clear when it was worth training
Contractor Selection • Not enough reference assets • Not enough tests • Due diligence on contractor management and art direction
Contractor Management • Internal staff: work vs. manage • Feedback delays lengthened iteration cycle • Not enough production management
Not Enough Producers • Our model really needs to have assets, designs, schedules and budgets tracked!
CAS Failure • We thought we could make our contractors crunch for us. • That didn’t eliminate our own crunch.
The Grand Experiment We shipped! We live to strike again! “WIde Load is awsome”!
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse www. wideload. com Alexander Seropian President, Wideload Games, Inc. alexander@wideload. com
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