Ever Been To A Game Designer's Office?

After reading a lot of posts about game designers and developers, I was lead to wonder how many people realize just how -small- most companies are? Sure their logos look great and it -seems- like they're everywhere. We would like to think they're the size of Walmart, employee-wise. But they're not.

Case in point:

I think it was in about 1998, a game called Revenant was in development. In doing some research on it, it sounded like a game that I would really like to play so I began following it and participating on forums related to the game. In the course of all this, I found out that their company was located in a suburb of the city in which I live.

I, being a huge and excited fan, called them up and asked if I could come for a tour of their company and see the game in development. Imagine my surprise when I got there and it was a 5 room office! Most of the offices were very small. The largest room was the gameplay room where they had two guys sitting at computers testing various builds that had just been completed. The graphics department's office was smaller than my 12x12 bedroom at home. The lead designer's office was smaller than that.

The point in all this is that, while AN might be slightly larger than Cinematix, they are probably VERY limited in the number of people that work there. That we get the content updates that we do is nothing short of a miracle when you consider how small most development companies are anymore.

Anyone else every been to visit a game design studio? Post 'em here!

I used to work for a company called Turbine Entertainment....not sure if anyone is familiar with them but they did the Asherons Call series. The office space wasn't much larger than your average apartment(at the time...they've since moved into a larger space)....Most of the employees had multiple jobs. I did Texturing and Development Scoping....Most of these companies don't need alot of space or alot of employees because they hire employees that are capable of doing multiple jobs...Sure the hours are long but video game development isn't something you fall into...you're there because you LOVE doing it...the benefits of the long hours are definately worth it in the end.

Thanks for that, Algren. I'll bet you had fun. I have always wished I knew how to do something that would contribute to a game's development. How lucky to get to make and play games for a living!

While I've never been to the offices of a game developer, I have known developers in the past who have regailed me with tales of how hard development actually is when each person has so much work to do and when the staff is in fact so small in number.

This is exactly why I hold Arenanet in such high regard. Not only do they give us this game for no monthly fee, but the very game itself is almost a masterpiece. The coding efforts alone must've been pretty damn stressful on the few guys pulling "all-nighters" over mug after mug of coffee, but not only that, the visuals in this game are breathtaking at times and must've involved some damn hard and personal work.

On top of this, Arenanet probably work around the clock writing new code for updates, and that's not even including the code and design work for new areas and expansions in the works.

This is why, after playing such shoddy games with monthly fees (Star Wars Galaxies in particular), I love this company so much and will probably buy every game they ever make in the future. Anyone who complains about the lack of an update, a bug, or anything else so menial should keep all these things in-mind, and that so many other companies do such a crap job of it and take so much more from the players.

there's one bad point though : instead of nerfing drops and areas, they should work on things to make the players happy
they are actually killing their own game

I assume that by "killing their own game", you mean to say "stabilising the economy and screwing up bots." But really, let's not go off-topic, this thread is about the actual game design process and where it takes place.

This isn't really on topic. Please stick to it.

That said, they are forced to nerf areas because of exploiters.

/off topic

My wife is a computer engineer, and has worked at a game development company in the past.

It's axiomatic that anyone who has any real experience with software development knows better than to make demands of developers. It's a hellish job under the best of circumstances, which game development definitely is not.

Worked at a couple

*in best German accent* Vell den, vhy don't you just lay down right heer und tell us all about it...

hahah, actually I'd rather not say just avoid any biases and debates.

But I agree, many developers work in places where you least expect it and they generally work thier arses off (also have lots of fun). It's almost a lifestyle than a job.

I browse CG forums where there are people who work for game developers like Bungie and EA Games, and there are horror stories on how many hours they work and hoops they have to jump through to do their job.

People suggest many things that should implemented in the game, and I am sure that there are a number of good ideas ANET would like to do, but the coding for some of the ideas is most likely very extensive.

So I'll continue playing GW's for the great game it already is, and look forward to patches, whenever they are released.

I went to a local one (can't remember the name now) to pitch some of my music to them for a gamer cafe that they wanted to build. They needed music for the game and also ambient music for the cafe itself. Sounded like a really cool idea. (Which I don't think ever came to fruition.)

Yup, it was really small. I walked in and was surprised to see only about 6 employees.

no, after four tries to compose the music that the lead guy was trying to express to me, I gave up and didn't get the gig.

Come on, Dax, you can talk about it without naming names. I do. =)

I've worked in the industry for a handful of years. Developers are small companies. Publishers are the big companies. Publishers also control a lot of what developers can even say to the public: Don't be so quick to angrily demand that the developer come out and publicly state something. Probably, the publisher won't let them.

How long ago were you at Turbine, Algren? I know some people who have applied for jobs there, and met a few people from there (but don't know any of them that well).

*is at uni to get one of these jobs... it looks like my kinda thing*

*coughnamedropcough*

My lecturer is the amazing man who created Actua Soccer. But we don't talk about that. (ssh..) *fears him*

I was there when they were doing beta development for original Asherons Call...unfortunately I wasn't happy doing graphics and left before the game was released to pursue a network security job.