Train2Game students will get attached to the work they produce during game development, and might find it difficult to let something go if it needs to be significantly changed or dropped all together.
That’s according to Darksiders II creative director Joe Madureira and Vigil studio general manager David Adams who were speaking in an extensive interview with Gamasutra.
“You totally get attached to stuff… It usually comes to a series of painful realizations, where you try to fix it, and it’s still not good, and you try to fix it, and it’s still not good.” said Adams on getting “precious” with assets produced during game development.”
“And on your third or fourth time trying to fix it, you’re like, “It’s just something we can’t do”. For whatever reason, we don’t have the time to commit to it, or we don’t have the right people… But yeah, I don’t think it’s possible to not get attached to stuff; we’re human beings.” he said.
Darksiders II Creative Director Joe Madureira agreed, adding that developers need to compare what they’re doing by playing other games, even if it means you drop the idea afterwards.
“You just have to be honest about it, too, and play other games, and see how you measure up. And if something’s not good, we all know it; you can see it. Even if you worked on it for two months, it doesn’t really change the fact that it’s just not very good.” he said.
Madureira argues that learning to let go of your work is something you need to do when working in the games industry.
“Sometimes you do get really attached to something, and you’re sad to see it change, but… And there’s morale hits — there’s all that stuff that you mentioned — but it’s just part of working in games. I think the longer you work in games, the more you’re just cool with it.”
“I think people that just are fresh out of school, and super excited, sometimes get crushed by how hard it actually is. And once you’ve been doing it for a while, you just expect that stuff’s going to change at any given moment, even after we’ve worked on it for a long, long time.” the Darksiders II creative director concluded.
The full, four page interview exploring development of Darksiders II is on Gamasutra.
The comments from the Darksiders II team are similar to some made by Bioshock Infinite boss Ken Levine, who as previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, said “Everybody has to get comfortable with throwing their stuff away”
What are your thoughts on the comments from the Darksiders II team? Is it possible to not get attached to your work? Have you struggled to throw a concept away?
Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
