Game Development 2 Dot 0

Game Development 2.0: Moving from boxed product to a service-based model Justin Quimby Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 1

Need assistance in building a service? • You are looking at a copy of the slides I used in my 2009 GDC presentation • Please contact me if you have any questions or I could be of assistance to you and your organization • Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 2

Obligatory Background Slide • Asheron’s Call • Asheron’s Call 2 • Lord of the Rings Online • Dungeons and Dragons Online • Spore Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 3

Services Beat Boxed Products Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 4

Boxed Product Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 5

Service Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 6

A Service is not a Franchise Service Franchise Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 7

Differing Mindsets Boxed Products Services • Do whatever it takes to ship • Design for continuous revenue • Obsess over launch date • Practice sustainable competition and marketing development • Throw bodies at problems • Invest in automation and • Build and plan for one tools release • Listen to customers • Rest when the game is done • Evolve the product continuously Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 18

We are … Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 19

We are … Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 20

We are Hunters Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 21

See the target Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 22

Gather weapons Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 23

Go on the Hunt Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 24

Avoid injury Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 25

Collect the spoils Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 26

Rewards can be very high Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 27

Risks are very high Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 28

Rest Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 29

We need to move beyond hunting Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 30

Evolving our Mindset Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 34

Company Culture The culture of the boxed product can be the culture of company failure Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 35

Culture can sabotage everything Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 36

Who do you reward and praise? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 37

Firefighters? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 38

Firefighting is Hunting Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 39

Who wants to live here? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 40

Users leave burning neighborhoods Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 41

Hunting Culture Warning Signs • Team feels they are done when the product goes gold • Corporate focus on shipping rather than shipping then supporting the product • Formal review and compensation process does not place value on a service-oriented mindset • Service support is not seen as sexy • No clear path for service-based career growth • No financial incentives for building a sustainable service • Superstars go on to new projects • Mediocre employees get dumped on the live team Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 42

Hunting Culture Fixes • Build a culture focused on post-ship • Build career paths around supporting a service – Titles – Financial rewards • Make planning sexy – Reward proactive problem solvers – Track promises and results Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 43

Plan like a Farmer Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 44

Plan like a Farmer Preproduction 1 4 2 Gameplay and Core Technology 3 Gameplay testing and iteration Patch and Release testing Final Approval and Ship 4 Process 10 Slop time Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 45

Scheduling is Critical Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 46

Scheduling is Critical Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 47

Passion Crunch Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 48

Schedule Crunch Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 49

ANY type of crunch leads to burnout Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 50

Management Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 51

Staff Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 52

Planning for Schedule Crunch is Planning to Fail your Service Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 53

Death Marching is not necessary • D&D Online shipped with only 6 weeks of crunch in a 2.5 year development cycle Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 54

You build your own path Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 55

Plan well for launch • A smooth service launch needs every aspect of the launch to be rehearsed • Intentionally fail internally before you fail externally Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 56

Plan well for launch • Escalation pipelines • On-call personnel procedures • Community management tools • Telemetry and other mechanisms to measure customer usage • Patch process and tools Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 57

Patching Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 58

Patch Process Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 61

Patch Process • Who decides what goes in a patch? • How long does QA need to review the patch? • Does QA need to formally approve the patch? • What happens if QA rejects a build? • What backward compatibility testing is done? • Who makes the call on publishing a patch? • How does the development team work ahead on the next patch while QA is testing? • What is the branching process? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 62

Branch Process • Keep it as simple as possible • Ensure all departments follow it • Pre-launch and post-launch branches follow the same process • Trust but Verify – Require developers to write and run unit tests – Use automated testing – Run a “shaminator” • Never set branch deadlines on Monday or Friday Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 63

Build Process Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 64

Build Process Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 65

Build Process • Make an automated build system • Have a clear owner who kicks off the official build • Have a simple build numbering system • Use one build system Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 66

Deployment Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 67

Deployment • How does the handoff of the build to Network Operations work? • How much time do they need? • What last-minute sanity checking is done prior to letting the public in? • Who can make the call for an abort of the deployment? • How can operations roll-back to a previous version? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 68

Player Communication Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 69

Player Communication • How do the players know about upcoming downtime? • What information is provided to them during downtime? • How are new changes communicated to them? Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 70

Crisis Management Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 71

Information is Power Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 72

Perception is Reality Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 73

DRM Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 74

Community Management • Never promise something you cannot deliver • Always respect the intelligence of your players • As much as possible, explain why potentially contentious changes are being made • The crowd will expose every flaw in your logic • At some point, you will be wrong! Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 77

Hire proven experience Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 78

Customer Service is everyone’s job Executive Team Project Production Management Team Development Service Team Team Art QA Engineering Net Ops Customer Design Service Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 79

Team composition Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 80

Evolving teams 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Prepro Dev First Alpha Beta Launch Playable Hunters Farmers Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 81

Best Practices for Building Services Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 82

Patch Notes for Every Build Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 83

Patch Notes for Everyone Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 84

Peer Review for Everyone Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 85

Physical Proximity Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 86

Spore Gameplay Editor Engineers Team Core Animation Engine Engineers Team Pollination Artists, An & Web imators & Team Audio Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 87

Woo-hoo! Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 88

The work is not done Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 90

The work is not done Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 91

Post-Launch Work Gameplay and Content Bug Fixing Additions Service Improvements Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 92

Post-Launch Work Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 93

Provide Joy Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 94

No Joy becomes No Team Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 95

Automate, Automate, Automate Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 96

Services Require Flexibility Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 97

Boxed Products requires a Fixed Goal Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 98

Flexibility or death Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 99

Types of users Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 100

Spore riding creatures Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 103

Sporn Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 104

Crafting in D&D Online No! Yes! Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 105

Evolving Services need Evolving Teams Year 2 Year 1 Launch Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 106

Single Points of Failure Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 107

Humanity Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 111

Humanity Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 112

Recognize unique talent Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 113

Duplicate it Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 114

Keep the team happy Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 115

Never be this guy Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 116

Services are the Future Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 117

Happy Farming! Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 118

Need assistance in building a service? • You are looking at a copy of the slides I used in my 2009 GDC presentation • Please contact me if you have any questions or I could be of assistance to you and your organization • Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com Justin@QuimbyHeavyIndustries.com 119

Game Development 2 Dot 0

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