[continued from Application to Shareware]

Crafting Excellence

Back in medieval times, guilds played a major role in European society. Craft guilds served to train new craft workers and pass the knowledge of an industry down from each generation to the next. A boy would begin training as an apprentice at a young age, learning the rote skills of the craft. After many years of apprenticeship, the young man would be allowed to take a test to prove his knowledge to the guild. If he passed the test, he would become a journeyman.

As a journeyman, the young man would work for a number of different masters, learning and enhancing his fine craft skills. During this time, he would begin creating one very special item to prove his abilities. This would be an arduous task, since the work had to be done in his limited spare time, and the process could take years to accomplish. When finished, this ultimate example of his craftsmanship would be presented to the guild, which could convey upon him the status of master craftsman, if the item showed sufficient craft. This was his “Masterpiece”.

Our company adopted a motto several years ago: “Nothing short of a Masterpiece.” To us, this motto is far more than a marketing slogan. It is a guiding principle, based on the ideas in this article. It represents our joint desire to do our best work on behalf of the company and our clients, and it has become imbued with meaning from shared experiences of both triumph and failure.

In practical terms, the motto says in five small words what otherwise would take much longer to say, if it could be fully expressed. When we have to make a decision regarding an issue that could affect the quality of our work, it only takes one of us to repeat the motto, and we are reminded of our goals and principles. This is certainly not a unique idea; Ford managed it in still fewer words with “Quality is Job 1.”

[continued in What Quality is Not]

[continued from Quality – What is it?]

Application to Shareware

With a working definition of quality, we can attempt to apply this concept to shareware. In this case, the viewer is primarily our potential customer, but it also refers to the press, our possible detractors, and anyone else who can be influenced positively or negatively by any interaction with us, the creators and operators.

The first thing to realize here is that the perception of quality is not limited to our software or services. It encompasses every interaction we have, whether or not we are aware of it. This means our web site, our documentation, our press coverage, and our conversations on unrelated public newsgroups. It even extends to items we cannot directly affect, such as word of mouth, so it is important to convey quality in the arenas that we can control.

It is definitely important for developers to have a quality product, and just the basic issues related to that are a whole separate article. In general, though, this is accomplished by having the fundamental skills, testing, using good programming practices, testing, utilizing available tools and resources, and conducting more testing. Without a good product, the rest of the discussion of quality is basically moot.

Having a quality product, however, is just the beginning. All venues for communication must have similar standards. The documentation should be clear, easy to use, and fully proofread. The product web site should be informative and not appear to be an afterthought. If a phone number is published, that phone should be answered professionally. The ordering process must be straightforward and foolproof.

The pursuit of quality is a mindset that one can choose to adopt by simply refusing to be satisfied with work that is substandard. This mindset should encompass all of the above, plus any other items that could adversely impact the perception of either the product or of the company as a whole.

[continued in Crafting Excellence]

[continued from Quality: An Introduction]

Quality – What is it?

Of course, the answer to this question is obvious. Everybody knows what quality is, certainly. But if this is the case, why is there so much software that lacks quality? More generally, why is there so much about the world around us that seemingly lacks quality? Surely, the issue must be one of definitions, then.

My desk dictionary gives the following concise and relevant definition for quality: “the degree of excellence which a thing possesses.” This entry seems to cover the whole issue very nicely, primarily by replacing our need to define “quality” with a need to define “excellence”. In this context, these words are largely interchangeable.

From another context, these infamous words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart seem appropriate: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”

Justice Stewart continued on to say that the item in question from that case did not meet his criteria, and it is that clue which provides us with a better way of looking at quality and excellence. Though both are positive ideas, they are more adequately described by the lack of negative traits as seen through the eyes of the viewer.

Quality, therefore, is defined by the absence of issues that cause one to question the abilities or judgment of the creator or operator. This also suggests that the perception of quality is far easier to lose than to obtain, and practical experience shows this to be true.

[continued in Application to Shareware]

[continued from Quality: An Introduction]

Quality – What is it?

Of course, the answer to this question is obvious. Everybody knows what quality is, certainly. But if this is the case, why is there so much software that lacks quality? More generally, why is there so much about the world around us that seemingly lacks quality? Surely, the issue must be one of definitions, then.

My desk dictionary gives the following concise and relevant definition for quality: “the degree of excellence which a thing possesses.” This entry seems to cover the whole issue very nicely, primarily by replacing our need to define “quality” with a need to define “excellence”. In this context, these words are largely interchangeable.

From another context, these infamous words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart seem appropriate: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”

Justice Stewart continued on to say that the item in question from that case did not meet his criteria, and it is that clue which provides us with a better way of looking at quality and excellence. Though both are positive ideas, they are more adequately described by the lack of negative traits as seen through the eyes of the viewer.

Quality, therefore, is defined by the absence of issues that cause one to question the abilities or judgment of the creator or operator. This also suggests that the perception of quality is far easier to lose than to obtain, and practical experience shows this to be true.

[continued in Application to Shareware]

[This article was originally published in the October 2002 issue of ASPects.]

Money. Time. Quality.

All three of these items are good things, in general, and regardless of our individual situations, we could always benefit from more of each. Extra money provides opportunities, and there is never enough time. Likewise, any operation can benefit from improved quality.

Though I cannot help directly with the time and money, I want to provide you with a way of thinking about quality that can allow you to make more money and better utilize your time. This topic begins with a question.

[continued in Quality – What is it?]

Quality takes time.

One of our three basic tenets at Digital Gamecraft is Quality. The applicable dictionary definition of quality is “superiority of kind”. As the term is intended and understood around here, it is an attitude that only excellent work is acceptable. This approach is represented by our corporate motto:

“Nothing Short of a Masterpiece.“

Note that we take this attitude to heart and always attempt to perform at the best of our abilities. It does not mean that we always necessarily succeed, nor (as per the earlier Voltaire quote) that we have to create perfection or the ultimate product. What it does mean is that we strive for the best and do not make decisions obviously contrary to that goal. When faced with a decision, we will sometimes recite this motto to remind ourselves of the objective.

For the next few weeks, I intend to republish a series of four of my articles, written for ASPects, the monthly newsletter of the Association of Shareware Professionals, on the topic of quality (game) software development. In keeping with the style and length of blog postings here, each article will be broken into sections. These were originally published about 3.5 years ago, but the content should be just as relevant today.

Please enjoy.

Freedom is indivisible; we have it all, or we are not free.
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A new documentary about video games is available online.

Beyond Pong: The Evolution of Video Games is a student documentary produced by Andy Nwoye of Michigan State University. The film is described as “a story about how video games have ‘come of age’ and how some have taken their passion for gaming to the next level.” It is driven by many interviews of people who have grown up with video games over the past 30 years and have a connection to them.

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed for Beyond Pong last June, and I do appear in the documentary (as does my younger son, William). Other interviewees included Jay Semerad of Red Leader Audio, Brian Winn of MSU’s GEL (Games for Entertainment & Learning) Lab, and Dr. Henry Jenkins of MIT, to name just a few.

The documentary can be viewed at the Beyond Pong web site. Note that the full running time is 40 minutes and it requires QuickTime 7 to play. (That latter requirement delayed this posting somewhat.)

My interview took place in my office, so the curious can see some of my working environment. It must be said, however, that my Williams Fun-Fest pinball machine steals the show. If one looks very closely, one can see a part of my large game book collection, too. (The book close-ups are just what I have directly behind me as I type this.) The shot of me getting beaten in Midtown Madness 3 by my son is in the living quarters, outside the office door.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go to the gym to lose the 20+ pounds that camera added…

This is not exactly a postmortem, but rather a memorial.

In early 2000, SophSoft began development of MVP Backgammon Professional for MVP Software. The beta testing began later that year and continued into 2001. Today is the fifth anniversary of our last beta build of the product, which is yet to be released, unfortunately.

It is certainly not unusual to have game projects cancelled and/or never released, but this was one of the best we developed to not see the light of day. To my knowledge, the game was never actually cancelled, just stalled for some reason. Several months later, communications with MVP Software failed and we parted ways. The breakdown did not appear to be limited to our product, however, as their web site has not changed since then, with one exception. Earlier this year, the technical support forum, which was the only real sign of life, was removed in favor of only providing email support.

Recently, I fired up MVP Backgammon Pro for the first time in quite a while, and the experience was strange. On one hand, playing the game again was inspiring. Everything about the game holds up really well, given the virtual dust that has had the chance to accumulate. All of the graphics and sounds are good, and the custom trained neural network plays a world class game of Backgammon, as well as Acey Deucey, a variant. There is also support for multiplayer games via network, modem, or serial cable. I had even forgotten how nice the checker animations looked.

On the other hand, it was slightly depressing to realize that this essentially complete game was never made available for purchase. Knowing approximate sales figures for its predecessor (through 2001, of course), I am confident that the game could have had total sales in the mid six figures (US dollars) by now. Five years ago, I was really only waiting to bump the version number to 1.0 and have it released; even the limited demo version was done. Over all these years, I have only found one minor bug, so it was basically ready to go.

The obvious question is why the game was not released, to which I was not given (and do not have) a clear answer. I know that there was the intention to connect MVP Backgammon Pro to their (still unfinished) game service, Classic Entertainment Online. I disagreed with that decision, arguing that the first version should be released without that feature, anticipating an upgrade (free) when CEO went online. In retrospect, I have to say that I was correct, since we could have had almost 5 years of sales at this point.

One can see our Current Projects preview page featuring MVP Backgammon, which contains screenshots and program artwork, as it existed in 2001. It is also still the top product on the MVP Software Coming Attractions page, listed as “Coming soon.“

Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. — Voltaire

Finally, business is starting to return to normal (busy) around here.

In the last couple of weeks, lots of things have been happening at SophSoft. The fruits of all of our efforts in the recent past will be revealed in time. Unfortunately, there is precious little that I can write about publicly yet, so here is a quick summary of recent events of interest.

Last Sunday, there was a chapter meeting of the Southern Michigan IGDA. This was a fairly busy meeting, including a presentation by Eric Arnold of Volition on the development of the multi-platform retail game, The Punisher, and a discussion and demonstration by Scott Brodie and Brandon Furtwangler of their IGF winner, Ballistic, which can be downloaded from the game website.

The meeting was at (nearby) Michigan State University this time, and one MSU student who probably should have been there was Lindsey Poisson. She wrote an insightful opinion piece about video games in The State News, the article having appeared in the previous Friday [April 7] edition of the paper.

This editorial follows on the (real) news that a federal judge has ruled that the new Michigan law restricting sales of video games to minors is unconstitutional and handed down a permanent injunction. You can read about the story on CNet and Gamasutra. Of course, our Governor is making noises about wasting more taxpayer money by challenging this ruling.

In response to the onslaught of attacks from state and federal legislators, the Video Game Voters Network was launched in March. Even though every piece of similar legislation so far has been ruled unconstitutional, it is unlikely that politicians will quit pandering (like prostitutes) to noisy fringe groups, stop the attacks on our industry, and start to focus on important issues, until we make ourselves heard. Speak up.

Of course, in addition to the political battles, there is also the legal front, and the Entertainment Software Association, among others, has done much to defend video games in court. Now, the ESA is suing the State of Illinois to recover legal costs in fighting the anti-game legislation that has since, unsurprisingly, been ruled unconstitutional as well. As I understand it, the basis for the lawsuit is, essentially, that Governor Blagojevich and others knew and accepted the ultimate outcome, but proceeded with the political exercise anyway. The Michigan Senate hearings that I attended included discussion of “skirting” the First Amendment here, so another suit would not surprise me.

Alas, it is difficult to keep track of the news about states jumping on the anti-game bandwagon (Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Florida, Tennessee, Utah, Iowa, Indiana, to my recollection), so it is important to note that Georgia is offering tax incentives for video game development, following the lead of Louisiana, which created a successful program to attract game developers to that state.

Tomorrow, we will recognize an unusual game anniversary.