Feature: 'Postmortem: Deadine Games' Chili Con Carnage'

Not every project goes according to plan, and even Deadline Games' tongue-in-cheek PSP exclusive Total Overdose adaptation Chili Con Carnage wasn't without its lessons learned, and in this exclusive Gamasutra postmortem, producer and game director Søren Lund reflects on the successes and pitfalls of this unique project. In this excerpt, Lund notes the studio's passion for the game as one of the aspects of development that went most right, adding that the team was so dedicated to the project that they surprised him with an unplanned (but, unfortunately, unused) addition to the game: ”Everybody from tech guys, game programmers, level designers, graphic artists, animators and the sound designer were very passionate about the game and where we were taking it. On top of that the leads were very good at structuring the work load for their respective teams and that combined just gave a lot of confidence in the direction, scope and schedule. My lead artist told me that he had clocked a total of 50 man-hours of overtime for his team on the project. The scenario was the same for all the other crafts groups and I’m happy to say that we were really good at scoping our ambitions and adjust deliverables to minimize the amount of overtime needed on the project instead of vice versa. The next goal must be to reach zero overtime. As a funny side note I can tell you that the team was so dedicated that once when I came back from vacation they had made an entirely Danish version of the game, complete with voiceovers and whatnot, all in their own time. They had had so much fun doing it that the whole experience was a great morale booster. Unfortunately the Danish version didn’t make it into the final game as the QA time needed wasn’t scheduled and budgeted for (we can thank the Hot Coffee scandal for ruining impulsive easter eggs forever).” You can now read the complete feature, which includes a detailed insight into the development successes and difficulties that went into creating Chili Con Carnage (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).