Darkened Software

So all game companies put in game tips during the loading screen to pass the inactive screen time TCR’s.  But as always if you are going to do something then there is no excuse for not do it right.

Here is the problem I see a lot, if I am 8 hours into a game and I have died 5 times in a row and I am forced to watch the loading screen before my next chance to die.  Guess what I do not want to see in my time of frustration, informational tip “Press X to Jump”.  Its likely I got a handle on that tid bit already, how about something on how to dodge the attack that is killing me.

Darksiders, I am looking right at you as the most recent and frustrating offender with the same 5 useless tips for the entire game.

At the very min make sure you have unique loading screen tips for each level and only cycle through the ones for the level or at the very least weight them a lot stronger in the rotation.

Even better is if you can detect why they are reloading the level and provide hints that make sense for it.  Maybe put up hints on the latest move, weapon, spell or item they  acquired.

I am not recommending going to the extreme that was the loading system in Bayonetta which let you practice attack moves the loading screens.  Although it was interesting there should never be a reason for its existence.   They had to go there since they had > 2 min loading time, a crime that had not been seen since the mess that was Crash Bandicoot 2.  I am sure the gaming community would have rather seen the developers spend more time and making sure the load times were in line than putting in mini games for them to waste their down time on.

The Peter Principle states that “In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence”, and adds that “work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence”.

Which brings us to The Game Developers Dilemma:

Do you do someone else’s work to try to keep the project going or do you let the person fail so things will reset and not harm the company long term.

We have all worked our asses off to cover for someones incompetence only to see that incompetent person get promoted to a position were they can and quite often do take down the entire company.  It has happened so often I now cringe when I get introduced to someone and they say “this is bob, he just got promoted to position of high importance“.  There is a 65% chance they do not even have close to enough training to be in that position and will likely fail within 1 project.  The game industry is notoriously bad at mentoring people and often does promotions strictly based on time at the company instead of proven skill sets.

Once upon a time my answered to the game developers dilemma is that the project was the most important thing and everyone should step up to do whatever work is needed to make sure it never fails.  I would kill myself to make sure it succeed.  But most of the time it only prolonged the inevitable crash from too many bad process, scheduling and money decisions.  I now realize that learning is the most important thing and every time you stop someone from failing you stop them from learning as well.   Very few people learn enough from close calls but everyone learns from failing so let the people fail.  Far fewer projects get canceled than management would lead you to believe.  If the right people are held responsible they will learn their lessons and the company will be orders of magnitude stronger in the long term.

Not taking the high road here, for every person I have helped prop up in the past I know someone has helped prop me up when I made bad decisions.  I am also not saying we should never try to help people avoid making bad decisions.  Anyone willing to learn should be taught everything they can so they can avoid as many mistakes as possible and get to a higher level of productivity.  All I am saying is after someone makes a bad decision they need to experience the consequences of it even if it means failing.

You can not make a sword without a lot of hard blows.