With the game pressed and waiting for January 26th this week has been about reflection and planning. During this time it is customary to sit at an email and spew hate for the things you didn’t like while working on this project, ignoring everything that was great about what you did. Some would call this a ‘post mortem’ – a dissection of how the project faired in terms of production. I call this unproductive bullshit.

Listen, the point of a post-mortem is to have a retrospective look at how the project faired: We are a young industry and we’re still making all this shit up, so it’s important to aggressively criticize the methods taken to make the game. Writing down emails of ‘and then this person did this and I hated it’ accomplish nothing. Sitting in a room with 30 people and having a shouting match about what you hated accomplish nothing. You need to break it down to what worked and what didn’t. But also one more thing that many studios forget: you have to create action items for everything on the list; you need to ensure that every complaint, every kudo has task to fix it or continue it.

But it doesn’t stop there: you need a production or management staff that will use those action items as tasks for the next project. In 2005 for Full Auto, the art team filed me (as Art Lead) emails that were broken down into such categories and combined and filtered them into what ended up being a 55 page document with action items for everything. This was then sent to the managers of the studio, where it sat and wasn’t looked at. Which then created more emails of hate. The Art Team did everything right and all the work and effort that was put into it was put out with the heel of a boot.

BioWare, and more specifically the Mass Effect team’s preferred method, is to gather everyone in a room for half a day and with a Producer at the helm gather the feedback. (I should note here for others in the gaming industry that we have the best producers in the world here. Your preconceived ideas of what a producer is is completely shattered at BioWare). Usually doing this causes chaos and a Kill Cloud of negative energy gathers in the room. People start talking over each other, others become quiet and irritable, even worse is when some people’s comments are negated because someone has a louder voice. But kudos to our production team for finding a way to resolve this. Yesterday our Project Manager Corey Andruko split the giant whiteboard into 4 sections of development: tools, workflow, systems and communication (usually the whipping boy of these meetings) and like a conductor, a stinking and sometimes unworking marker his baton, brought in the the ‘What went rights’ with the ‘What went wrong’. Everyone had a chance to speak and every item was boiled down to the issue at hand, sometimes being combined with other issues into a larger task. Even though we were trapped in that dark meeting room for the entire morning, we all left feeling that someone had listened to our thoughts.
And here’s the thing…every item brought up were things that would make the next project better. There was nothing disastrous brought up and that really showed how well this project went. We were all sitting in that room wanting things to change, or stay the same, to make the next project better.

So now the poor production team has to collate not only our feedback but the feedback of every department and discipline on Mass Effect 2. And this is where we’ll see if our minimal effort and productions hard work goes further and is rolled out as tasks for the next project. Seeing as how this process and a post-mortem of Mass Effect 1 created Mass Effect 2, a game and process we’re all immensely pleased and proud of, I’m optimistic.

But for those of you entering the industry or working at a studio that doesn’t have any or a productive post-mortem process, here’s my advice. It is critical that we do this: we are a young industry with gangly arms trying to get the respect of the adults. If we don’t seriously criticize ourselves and work to fix those issues that arose; if we don’t research how other studios resolved those problems and envelop the successful studios processes we will not only not get that respect we’re asking for, we will never mature as an industry. So gather your people after a project, ask them what went right, ask them what went wrong and take those tasks to heart as to how your next project will work. Don’t make this a shouting match of hate because that will do nothing but piss people off.

1. Chud.com: Before games my first love is movies and when you work in the games industry and you’re a father of 2, sometimes it’s hard to be a movie buff: you’re either at work, or you’re at home with the kids. I’ve been reading Chud since the late 90s and I feel like my movie nerdisms are kept intact by the folks there. And the site really has elevated itself with the somewhat recent addition of Devin Faraci and their games column written by Trevor and Alex. Thanks guys for making me feel in the loop, even if I don’t get out to the theatre anymore.
2. Transcend Coffee: I had an admiration for coffee for years before coming out here, but it was this little shop in an industrial district in South Edmonton that elevated that admiration into love. I’ve come to appreciate the many layers that coffee has, and learn to hate it when I’ve not cleaned my french press enough that it tastes ashy. The guys there all rock (Josh and Poul especially) and make me feel at home whenever I come in.
3. My music collection. I don’t think I’ve ever been so appreciative of having a very broad taste in music as I have this year: with many hours sat in front of my work computer trying to come up with fun designs, being able to switch from Judas Priest to Radiohead, from Muse to Pantera, from Depeche Mode to Skinny Puppy has got me through the day.
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum Because finally a superhero game was serious and fulfilling. And it showcased some of my favorite Level Design techniques (that I neglected to write about): Spoke and Axel (free roaming central node with spokes of linear level design), multi-pathing, and elements of choice within a linear design. This game was tight, and while I don’t agree with every (boss) design choice (boss) they made (boss), we should all strive for the marker of excellence they made.
5. Blade, Near Dark and Nosferatu: As reminders of what great Vampire films used to be.
6. BioWare: I say this all the time because it’s true: I am a fan of BioWare before I am an employee. I feel on many levels that Dragon Age was made for me because it was made for fans of Baldur’s Gate, and I live and breathe those games. It is why I am here: to make games that everyone talks about…I think we’ve done that with Mass Effect 2.  But beyond as a gamer, as a developer BioWare was something to admire because of all the love and care they put into their games, and now, as one on the inside I can say: Holy CRAP to these guys care about their games. And now I am one of their fold. BioWare also puts up with a lot of shit from me and lets me flex my muscles at what I’m good at. Thanks Ray and Greg: you guys really have set something special here.
7. Dragon Age: Teeheeeheeheeheeheeheehee. I LOVE THIS GAME!
8. Supernatural: TV is fun again! Most of my favourite shows (Deadwood, Twin Peaks, Carnivale, The Wire) are fantastic shows that have no equal…but man are they dark and depressing. I remember sitting down and watching the entire series of Buffy with the wife and even through the crappy episodes having a really good time. And then Angel came along and pooped all over that. We’d heard from a few people about how great Supernatural was, and we finally bit the bullet when the first season was on sale. And wow. We’re 1/3 into Season 2 now and…well take everything you loved about the great episodes of Buffy, add some of the great things about the great horror movies over the last 40 years and you have Supernatural. And Sam and Dean..man I don’t think I’ve seen chemistry between two characters like this in a while.
9. My family: puts up with a lot of shit from me: coming to this cold hell called ‘Northern Alberta’, putting up with long hours, grumpiness, a vegetable on the sofa at the end of the day… I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing at a great company like BioWare. And my kids constantly remind me of what’s important: colour of your dress, the importance of Barbie Stickers, the placement of food on your plate for dinner.

So there you have it. A little insight into what I’m thankful for this year. Mass Effect 2 would have definitely made the list had we shipped in 2009 but alas like you I have to wait until Jan 26th.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you out there. Keep an eye on some new posts in 2010 (the year we make contact).

This is just Not Right

If you’d rather a less scary Halloween Wallpaper from Mass Effect 2, visit: http://masseffect.bioware.com/media/wallpapers

—edit–

Let’s try some links that actually work, shall we?

—edit—

The final of my 4-part article on ‘What I do’ and ‘How I got here’ is up on Bioware’s blog, though I do have more coming. I’ll mention now that the intent was to have it in 2 pieces, but I ran a little long at the mouth and shot the shit a little too long. For best absorption read 1&2 together, then 3&4, with a Scotch and Soda and cigar in hand.

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p4/

Previous posts:

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p3/

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p2/

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p1/

The posts on BioWare’s Blog  featuring articles written by yours truly continues. This is part three of the 4-part series and in this I discusses what a Level Designer does.  CLICK IT!

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p3/

Previous posts:

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p2/

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/22/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p1/

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/19/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designers-origin-story-p2/

http://blog.bioware.com/2009/06/18/the-long-road-to-bioware-a-designer%E2%80%99s-origin-story-p1/

I haven’t written about many trailers for Dragon Age here, mostly because I’m not working on the project and because I’ve been playing the game at work and I’m terrified I’ll reveal something.

But this trailer is worth mentioning because I think it is one of the best damn trailers BioWare has done for any of their games.

Parents beware: violence, bad language and pure awesomeness.

BioWare is currently up against Gearbox in the first round, and while I love Gearbox, I love BioWare that bit more. So vote BioWare! I’ll edit this post with updates as the tournament goes on.

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———-FINAL UPDATE————
Well it was a close fight, but Turbine managed to take the prize home. Congratulations to them and their millions of fans!
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———-UPDATE 5————
Finals! We’re up against Turbine. You know the drill.
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———-UPDATE 4————
Well folks, we made it into the Final Four and were declared South Division champions! Thanks to everyone who voted.
Now into the final matches. Right now we’re up against fellow Canadian developer Relic, makers of the fine fine game, Homeworld.
But screw them and their fine, fine game! Vote BioWare now!
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———-UPDATE 3————

Ubisoft down! I repeat, Ubisoft is down! We’re onto the next round against Rockstar. Ooo…That’ll be a difficult fight. But apparently we’re beating the snot out of them.
Vote BioWare now!
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———-UPDATE 2————

After a clean decapitation of Atlus, we’re on our way to the next round against Ubisoft Montreal!
Vote BioWare now!
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———-UPDATED————

We won against Gearbox, and in the second round we’re up against Atlus makers of Persona 4.
Vote BioWare now!

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