Chapter Quiz

Post-Production 199Official ReleaseOnce you have a complete package ready to go, burn the complete game installer witheverything you need to play the game to a CD and give it to a few people who were notinvolved in the beta testing process. If you feel that the game is ready for prime time, youmight send out copies of it to online- and printed-magazine editors for review.Out the Door or Out the Window?One thing is for certain: When you work on a game project for an employer who knowsnothing about software development, you can count on having marketing run the show,which is not always good. Some of the best studios in the world are run by a small groupof individuals who actually work on games but know very little about how to run a businessor advertise a game to the general public. Far too often, those award-winning gamedesigners and developers will turn over the reins of their small company to a fulltimemanager (or president) because the pressure of running the business becomes too muchfor developers (who would rather write code than balance the accounts).Managing the GameThe manager of a game studio might have learned the strategies to make a retail or wholesalecompany succeed. These strategies include concepts such as just-in-time inventory,employee management, cost control, and customer relationship management—all verygood things to know when running a grocery store or sales department. The problem is,many managers fail to realize that software development is not a business, and programmersshould not be treated like factory workers; rather, they should be treated like membersof a research and development team.Consider the infamous Bell Laboratories (or Bell Labs), an R&D center that has come upwith hundreds of patents and innovations that have directly affected the computer industry(not the least of which was the transistor). A couple of intelligent guys might haveinvented the microprocessor, but the transistor was a revolutionary step that made themicroprocessor possible. Now imagine if someone had treated Bell Labs like a factory,demanding results on a regular basis. Is that how human creativity works, through schedulesand deadlines?The case might be made that true genius is both creative and timely. Along that same trainof thought, it might be said that genius is nothing but an extraordinary amount of hardwork with a dash of inspiration here and there.There are some really terrific game publishers that give development teams the leeway toadd every last bell and whistle to a game, and those publishers should be applauded!