MatthewDoyleArt.com Blog

I just wrapped up my first round of contract work for a group of up and comming guys out of San Francisco - Shattered Reality Interactive. These guys have a ton of heart and energy, and they’re working on a unique next-gen MMO called Kaos War. My first round of design work was to help them develop a few key design documents, among them a PvP doc.

I really like what these guys are doing, and things are going very well for them. If things pan out, I may move back to good ol’ Cali’. I went to SF once to interview at Lucas Arts, just before coming to AZ. It is a beautiful city and matches my personality. The guys at SR Interactive are considering me for the lead designer position as soon as their next round of funding comes in. It would be an honor to work with Damon and the guys there.

Check out their site here: www.kaoswar.com

One of the largest issues in game development is that of scope management, particularly in this day of MAG (multi-action genre) games such as Grand Theft Auto. Game designers have a tendency to think big; more and bigger levels, more features. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact thinking big is critical to the process of developing innovative gameplay and innovative gameplay is the key to being successful as a company. The real trick however is to know when you have crossed the limit of your time and budget. This comes with experience. Veteran designers develop a sixth sense for knowing when they are approaching the limits of feature implementation for their projects; however, even the most senior among us still need to step back from time to time and begin cutting to stay on schedule. A secondary effect of scope management arises when designers are not willing to cut features and instead of doing one or two things well, their game ends up doing several things poorly. There are a few simple guidelines you can follow that will help you keep your game design lean, while maintaining fun and interesting gameplay.

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