When things are happening quickly, it is difficult to take the time to write about them.

Over the last month, I have been really busy. Pretty Good MahJongg 2.1 was launched on January 18th. It now includes more tile layouts, the ability to dynamically use (formatted) bitmaps for custom tilesets, and the Pretty Good MahJongg Screen Saver. I am currently working on Action Solitaire 1.1 for release in the near future, and it will have a number of new solitaire games to play against the clock for points.

Our annual community service project, the Pack 224 Pinewood Derby (for which we wrote automated timing software) was run on January 20th, and this was a transition year as I turned the actual operations over to new volunteers, with some expected teething pains. I have been unable to fully turn over the leadership reins in the ASP, though, and I am now helping to build traffic and community in the brand new ASP Indie Games SIG. One post, an examination of the unfortunate direction of current DirectX development entitled “Where DirectX Lost Its Way“, is published in the current [February 2005] issue of ASPects.

January also marks the start of the ice racing season for the Michigan Ice Racing Association. For fun, we race automobiles wheel-to-wheel on frozen lakes around the area. I ran a silver 1989 Mazda 323 (#23) in Class A the first two weekends. Unfortunately, my car got just a little bent out of shape (literally) when I was passing to retake the lead in a race. I followed up the disappointing end to my racing season by getting a bad cold (unrelated) which kept me out of service for the better part of a week.

February marks the 10th anniversary of our first development contract, coming shortly after the decision to make a full-time commitment to the company. (I have not been employed anywhere else since that time.) This first contracted product was Z’art Photo Painter, a program/service which creates a custom paint-by-number canvas from a scanned photograph. The product was featured on television, appearing on QVC and Inside Edition.

It has been stated that a software title takes 10 years to become successful… [cue foreshadowing theme music]

Happy New Year!

Until a week ago, I was Chairman of the Board of the Association of Shareware Professionals. Before my term expired (terminated, so to speak), the final act of the 2004 Board of Directors was to pass my motion to create the ASP Indie Games SIG (Special Interest Group). This SIG was created for the purpose of “advancing the cause of computer games that are developed and published independently”.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the private newsgroup for the SIG went live and there were more than 100 posts in the first four days. This is an enormous step toward building a strong community, which was one of the early goals for the SIG. Over the next couple of months, we will be working toward developing a charter and enhancing participation.

This is an excellent opportunity for anybody reading this blog to get involved at the beginning of the ASP Indie Games SIG and help us shape and direct it. If you are already a member of the ASP, all you need to do is subscribe to the asp.sig.games newsgroup and join the conversation. There have been a number of prominent game developers participating to this point, and I expect that that will be many more as the word spreads.

If you have not yet joined the ASP, this is a wonderful time to do so. Membership is only $100 for the year, and this provides access to the private ASP newsgroups, including the SIG newsgroup, many member-only discounts, the monthly (printed) ASPects newsletter, and the ASPects CD, containing all previous issues in PDF format, dating back more than 15 years. To join the ASP now, go to http://www.asp-shareware.org/join/join.asp.

I anticipate and fully expect that the ASP Indie Games SIG will become a strong voice in the game development community, and coupled with the invaluable business, marketing, and technical information to be gleaned from the rest of the ASP, it will be the place for game development entrepreneurs.

Like most things, “crunch mode” is not all bad, nor is it completely good (certainly not). Here are the good, the bad, and the ugly of this cultural institution within the game industry.

First of all, we need a definition. Crunch mode is that time in a development project, and I dare say almost any game project, when the team members (especially programmers) are expected to put in significantly longer hours to meet a deadline. This is often toward the end of a project, but it also regularly happens leading up to important events (such as E3) or contractual milestones. To put a number on it, anything more than 60 hours per week would be crunching, though 80 or more hours per week are common. I know of at least one game developer who did 128 hours in a week, which is not a record anyone should try to break.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, there are good aspects to crunch mode. It can be a fundamental bonding experience for game developers, working together and putting in extra effort for a common cause. We support each other and struggle “in the trenches” striving towards a shared goal. Often, the expectations are cultural or internal, rather than imposed, and pushing oneself to succeed is a respected theme in this world. There is a natural tendency to push a little harder when a deadline is looming, or just when the finish line is in sight. Even when working on a one person project, I often find myself crunching despite having no pressure other than personal satisfaction and taking pleasure in my work.

Additionally, crunch mode happens because, for short periods of time, it works. If productivity is good, and team members are motivated, then extra time results in more development getting accomplished. When an entire team is putting in the longer hours in a coordinated fashion, there are also fewer impediments to progress due to the person with a critical function or knowledge being unavailable.

Some of the bad parts of crunch mode are fairly obvious, and many can be found reading between the lines to see the caveats to the positive aspects. Extended hours inevitably take a toll on productivity after a while, and the longer it continues, the worse it becomes. Crunch mode has an adverse effect on health, and the lack of sleep and recuperative time, as well as additional stress, compounds the problem. This can lead to mistakes that have to be corrected, resulting in negative productivity.

Perhaps the most serious long term impact of crunch mode is to relationships, both professional and personal. When there is friction among team members, this is exacerbated by the situation, and the resulting discord can have a very detrimental impact on the project. Outside the job, family and other social relationships necessarily suffer, and this is where crunch mode is most dangerous, jeopardizing the well-being of people beyond the actual developers. Nobody should suffer marital difficulties or limited time spent with an infant child for a game project; a game is simply not worth it.

It is fine if crunch mode happens as a natural result of enthusiasm and self-motivation. When it is required to meet a deadline, it is bad, as it indicates a lack of proper planning or other project management failures. That is, unfortunately, a reality sometimes. However, when management figures crunch mode into a schedule, ever, that is where it gets really ugly.

Crunch mode should never be taken into account when planning a game project. If this is ever a consideration, it is a clear sign that the project is on a path to failure. A recent anonymous blog entry, an another by a former employee, suggest that at least one major publisher is scheduling, and requiring, crunch mode for months at a time. If true, this constitutes abuse of their developers, and action definitely needs to be taken. The IGDA Board of Directors issued an open letter about quality of life issues, which is a step in the correct direction, if only symbolic.

Extended crunch mode is known as a “death march”, a fitting and appropriate moniker.

Later today, I will be giving an informal talk and Q&A session for Spartasoft, the computer game development group at Michigan State University.

This will be the second time I have spoken with students at Spartasoft, and this time I have been asked to use the development of Pretty Good MahJongg 2.0 as the basis for discussion. Two years ago, I spoke generally about my long career in the game industry, rambling on for quite a while. Nobody actually walked out, so I will take that as a positive review.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I spoke to Wolverine Soft, the game development group at the University of Michigan, about the game industry. This talk was immediately prior to the meeting of the Southern Michigan Chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), and the meeting report described the talk as “extremely interesting”.

In 2003, Spartasoft had two finalists in the Student Showcase at the Independent Games Festival, out of only ten selected. At least a few of the Spartasoft members at the time have now gone on to careers in the retail game industry. During the IGDA meeting this month, the Wolverine Soft demonstrations were impressive, and at least one has been submitted for 2005 IGF consideration. Suffice it to say that there is a great deal of game development talent right here in Michigan.

The big news around here this week is that our latest project, Pretty Good MahJongg 2.0, shipped last Thursday.

Not surprisingly, this was a major update to Pretty Good MahJongg, a game successfully developed with Goodsol Development. The original version was a hit, and I expect that this version will do even better, especially given the scope of the new features. I will probably describe the development of PGMJ in more detail later, but in the meantime, you can read about its history in this post from A Shareware Life.

After months of development, including a long beta test, we finally released the game. It is a wonderful feeling to complete a game and be able to be proud of the quality of the final product. Since it is published online, using the shareware model, it is not quite the same as seeing a box on the store shelves, but there are not the weeks or months of waiting, either. Nevertheless, despite still being in the recovery phase, I find that I really enjoy playing the game.

Welcome to the Gamecraft Blog!

This blog is all about the craft of making games, and in particular, computer games. Gamecraft involves a broad range of topics, including design, development, quality control, packaging, marketing, management, and life experience. I intend to share the knowledge and information gained through more than a quarter century of programming games, as well as that obtained as we move into the future.

As my obligatory first post, it is appropriate to lay the ground rules for the blog. It seems to me that the primary danger in blogging is making an artificial commitment to a mostly invisible audience, so I will commit to nothing. This blog will be updated when I both have something to say and the time in which to type it. I believe that necessarily means that there will be flurries of activity (especially at the beginning) and some quiet patches (and inevitably a last big one). The topic will be interpreted as loosely as desired at the time of any post as well, though it is safe to assume that as a craftsman in the computer game industry, I will rarely stray too far.

May my words be worthwhile to save for posterity.