Gamasutra Expert Blogs: From Design Docs To Designing By 'No'

Author: by Staff

In our weekly Best of Expert Blogs column, we showcase notable pieces of writing from members of the game development community who maintain Expert Blogs on Gamasutra. Member Blogs -- also highlighted weekly -- can be maintained by any registered Gamasutra user, while the invitation-only Expert Blogs are written by development professionals with a wealth of experience to share. We hope that both sections can provide useful and interesting viewpoints on our industry. For more information about the blogs, check out the official posting guidelines. Here are the top blogs for the week: This Week's Standout Expert Blogs Can Console Games Compete With Free? Ted Brown Games are not just in competition with each other, but also with other forms of entertainment, some of which are "free." Designer Ted Brown cites a Nielsen study that says the average American watches five hours of TV per day -- how can a $60 game compete with "free" in the true mass market? An Indie Developer’s "Biggest Mistake" David Wesley Northeastern University research manager David Wesley looks at a case study involving an independent film studio and draws comparisons with indie game development. Here, he explains why "it is important to secure contracts early in the process." Lead Designers Who Only Say 'No' Timothy Ryan Veteran game designer Timothy Ryan uses examples to illustrate his experience with lead designers who tell their teams how to do things by telling them what they can't do. In his blog, he mentions one boss who literally told him, "Sorry, you can't do that. It's not what Halo would do." Using C# For A Commercial Game Alistair Doulin Australian independent game developer Alistair Doulin explains why he's using C# for a commercial PC game. Some reasons include rapid application deployment and better software development. The entry started a long conversation about the pros and cons of C#. The Value of Game Design Docs David Rosen Wolfire Games' David Rosen looks at design documents, the use of which vary greatly from studio to studio. While he doesn't deny that they can be very useful, he says that they can be a waste of development time for small indie teams like Wolfire.