IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

BioWare: AAA Development Is 'A Poor Goal'

Posted July 14, 2010 by M.H. Williams

In a talk at the Develop 2010 conference in the United Kingdom, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk said that developers have the wrong focus these days. Gamasutra reported that Zeschuk told attendees that “Triple-A game creation is a poor goal for developers working today.”

"While blockbuster game creation is everything that most game developers working today growing up wanted to do, it's precisely the wrong thing to chase in gaming’s contemporary landscape. As a result, innovation and creativity [are] being squeezed,” he said, referring to the lack of invention taking place at most large publishers. “Where the bottom of the market had dropped out at one point, now it’s the middle of the market has dropped out. Unless you can be in the top ten releases at one given time, it's unlikely that a triple-A game is going to make money.”

Zeschuk’s keynote was on the importance of a studio’s culture when creating a new title. He encouraged studio runners to “think of company structure and culture like a game designer.”

“Start by identifying what you want to be and the steps you need to take in order to get there, just like you would when designing a video game from the ground up. Simply saying that you want to make a triple A game is no longer a viable goal,” he added. “Rather, you must make clear, defined and measurable goals, and build a studio culture that allows those goals to be realized. Your structures and processes must always be consistent with your cultural goals."

The founder expressed that while BioWare has changed over the years, the studio’s mantra, “Quality in workplace, quality in products and entrepreneurship all in a context of humility and integrity,” remains key in everything it produces. Zeschuk felt that that the transition from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 was a clear example of the mantra in practice. The game provides value to players and financial success for the studio without exploiting the creative minds it employs.

Zeschuk reminded developers that you’re only as good as your last game. Studios lose much by becoming too arrogant, with fan feedback being important in improving a studio’s output.

"It’s all about fit. Good game developers are very mobile, and the smartest candidates will check for the culture of a new place before joining to see if it fits them well. The key is always in finding the right employees to fit the right culture,” he concluded, noting that every developer is different. “Happy and engaged employees make better games. If the team is happy they do better work, so the focus should always be in marrying culture with disposition. And culture is paramount: it informs and guides the operation of your group.”

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.