As more mobile game developers move into the F2P space or integrate IAP into their premium game, a common set of problems occur around process (or lack thereof) when it comes to designing for monetization. Many game teams I talk to or work with in my role as a monetization design consultant are working in F2P begrudgingly. They distrust the business model and this sentiment bleeds through to the game’s implementation, limiting their chance for success. In […]
Design Tutorial – How to write a feature brief
The simple truth of game development is that a finished game will never be all that you imagine it to be. Even the best managed game development processes result in a game that represents 5 to 10 percent of the initial ambition. Ideas are cheap, implementation is expensive and at a certain point games must be shipped. For instance, even if my team’s current game Enhanced Wars is a runaway success and we continuously improve it for […]
I Made a Song with Scrum
When I was 15, I received a free copy of Acid Music Studio while skipping out on Third Eye Blind at an alternative music festival in Chicago. I spent weekends in the basement with my friends, arranging pre-made loops with delusions of being the next Chemical Brothers. For my 16th birthday, I convinced my grandmother to buy me a Roland MC-505, leading to hours spent with the Groovebox sequencing bass lines and tweaking filters. I […]
Scrumification of Music – Day 5
Day 5 began with my second trip to Guitar Center of the week. I picked up a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 usb audio interface and rushed home to record vocals. Setup was quick and easy, multiplying my regret at wasting most of the previous day trying to set up my outdated Mbox 2. I closed the door on my bedroom and slightly embarrassedly began to record the vocal takes for “One of Us”. Listening to the […]
Scrumification of Music – Day 4
I attacked day 4 with a renewed energy that quickly evaporated in the angry heat of hardware issues. My momentum point from the previous train wreck of a day was writing the vocals, so began day 4 attempting to burn down the 3 hours estimated against recording a scratch vocal track. My first attempt was to get a microphone working with the mic-in jack on my laptop, since this take was solely for arrangement purposes. […]
Scrumification of Music – Day 3
Day 3 was a disaster; completely unproductive, creatively bankrupt and frustrating. It is an inevitability of creative work. Despite the setbacks, the day underscored why using the scrum process to write music was a powerful idea. On day 3, I watched tutorials and then left for a doctor appointment and visit to Guitar Center to pick up some audio gear. I had been making progress with only Ableton and my laptop so far, but I […]
Scrumification of Music – Day 2
I began the second day of my scrum experiment by watching more tutorials to learn the basics of Ableton. After watching enough videos that I felt comfortable feeling my way around the production environment, I began writing drums. I had not purchased a midi keyboard or audio interface yet, and drums were the best place to start with only a mouse and laptop keyboard for input. Historically, drums had been my biggest weaknesses when writing […]
Scrumification of Music – Day 1
I began the first day of my Scrum experiment by writing a one page work brief. The brief’s purpose is to set a clear intention and give a tool to measure quality of the end product. Writing a brief is a standard part of my game production process, but is an exercise I had never applied to music. The brief laid out a concept for the song I wanted to write, as well as an […]
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a project development framework frequently used in software development and specifically game development. It is an agile development method with a strong focus on visibility, accountability, team dynamics, quick pivots and finishing demoable product. It has been an essential tool at BioWare San Francisco for managing the breakneck pace of live game development, and has been transformative in my own time serving as a game producer. There are numerous resources throughout the web […]