Shrapnel Games Blog

We have made a lot of new friends recently, but a lot of those folks don’t really know about our companies history or philosophy. I would like to point some folks to the following webpage:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/about.htm

To continue to move towards this goal I thought I would post some articles from an old feature we used to post regularly on the website. This is the first, in a multi blog series, that will highlight some of the ramblings err thoughts from our intrepid leader Tim Brooks. I will continue to post these as long as Sarge will let me ;).

Enjoy:

Publishers Say the Darndest Things

Over the last seven years, I have been in literally hundreds of conversations with upper management folks (suits) in the Game Publishing Industry… errr… I mean the Multi-Media Entertainment Industry. I have been keeping records of the most interesting quotes that have come out of these meetings. Now, I didn’t always write these quotes down. Early on I just thought I had ran into a really ignorant person, it was only later that I realized that most of the suits in this industry are all alike. That’s when I started writing down what was said. So, although not all of the following quotes are verbatim, the grand majority of them are, and the ones that aren’t are pretty darned close. By the way, these are in no particular order, and names are withheld to protect the truly stupid.

“We don’t use game designers…” - Producer for major developer.

“Let’s see, we are giving you one more month to finish up those changes. Could you also make it so that we can see the backs of the buildings. You know, rotate the view.” - Producer for major publisher, asking us to take a 2D engine and turn it into a 3D engine in one month.

“We only hire game designers with no experience, so that we can train them.” – Producer. When I asked who trained them, he said, “They just learn by trial and error.”

“We don’t do your type of game. We try to stay away from accuracy.” – VP of Development of wargames publisher.

“You know what would make this fun. You should make it like Command & Conquer, or like Quake.” - Vice President of large publishing house in a conversation about the sequel to 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy.

“Why don’t you do a game about D-Day. Now that would sell. Nobody wants to play a game about Normandy.” – Producer for major publisher after reading the Design Document for 101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy.

“They are two different things, this industry isn’t about games.” – Producer, answering my question as to why they don’t hire designers from the board game industry.

“I played that Doom game once.” – Producer for large publisher when I asked him what games he’s played in the last month.

“I’m way too busy to play games. I have to make sure that our developers turn out quality products.” - Another Producer, when I asked him how many game’s he’s played in the last month.

“You could be a good wargame designer if you just weren’t so interested in realism.” - In an employment interview with a major game developer.

“I was in the construction industry.” – New Producer, when I asked him what he did before he got his current job.

“It’s not supposed to end.” – Developer, when I asked him how to win the game they were showing me.

“Multi-media.” - Producer’s answer to my question “What type of games are you looking for?”

“You’re asking too much. We only pay $10,000 - $15,000 for our games.” – Producer who approached me about doing a game for his major wargame publishing company. He wanted to know how much we would charge them to design and develop the product. Needless to say, it was a lot more than $15,000.

“Turn-based games are dead.” - Producer with company whose largest hit at that time was a well-known turn-based game. I still wonder if he was aware that his company’s leading product was a turn-based game, then in the top-ten in sales. I didn’t have the courage to ask, I was afraid of what he might say.

All the above individuals still work in this industry, except one. And you wonder where all the really great games have gone…