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Meeting Report “One Size Does Not Fit All: FEBRUARY
2007 Sponsored by Adler Planetarium’s Digital Design
Group In this panel presentation, the directors of Midway
Internal Studios, Day One Studios and Wideload Games
discuss their different approaches to making games on the latest console
platforms. These three companies are all facing the challenge of
creating best in class videogames on brand new hardware. Their size
varies from a dozen to hundreds. Hear and learn how each of these
different companies have organized to solve the
challenges of rising costs, schedule pressure and quality of life. Topics for discussion include: - game engines
(licensed vs. proprietary) - scaling
(strategies for extending effort across multiple titles) - outsourcing - production
process and management - external
pressures and their effect on the game developer - lessons
learned so far and Q&A Between them, Alex Seropian,
Denny Thorley and Scot Bayless
have dozens of years of experience making games and have made the platform
transition many times before. Come hear their unique perspectives and
common viewpoints on the issues we all care about and are facing everyday. Speaker Bios: Scot Bayless Scot has been making games since 1987 when he left a
successful engineering career in the defense industry to code the first
AD&D role-playing games for SSI. In the 1990’s he produced or
contributed to a number landmark titles, including Falcon 3.0, Daytona
USA, Sonic 2 and Jurassic Park. As a studio head at
Microsoft, Scot led Microsoft Flight Simulator to its first $100M year
and helped drive Xbox to a successful launch. At Electronic Arts, Scot
executive produced 007: Everything or Nothing, considered by
many to be the title that finally eclipsed Nintendo’s Goldeneye as the best James Bond game ever.
In his time at Midway, Scot has led the Chicago studio to successful launches
of Blitz: the League, MK: Shaolin Monks
and MK: Armageddon. He’s also been an ardent champion of
product development disciplines now collectively known at Midway as the M
Process. Alexander Seropian Alexander Seropian is the
founder and CEO of Wideload Games, Inc. At Wideload, Alex has crafted a new kind of game developer
that utilizes an external development model similar to film production.
Alex began his career as the founder and CEO of Bungie
Software. Alex grew Bungie to become a
leading independent developer of video games and member of the Inc 500.
Under his guidance, Bungie created some of the most
celebrated game franchises in the industry, including Marathon, Myth, Oni,
and Halo. In 2000, Alex negotiated the acquisition of Bungie by Microsoft and launched Halo for the Xbox.
Halo is the best selling and foremost franchise title for the Xbox, having
shipped over ten million units. Halo is the recipient of the 2002 AIAS
console game of the year award. Denny Thorley An industry veteran with more than 17 years experience,
Denny Thorley is currently the President of
independent game developer, Day 1 Studios. At Day 1, Thorley is credited with securing a first-party
development relationship with Microsoft and establishing long term
development partnerships with Lucas Arts and Vivendi Games.
MechAssault, Day 1’s first title, shipped for the Xbox in
Q4, 2002. The fast action ‘Mech game quickly
became the darling of Xbox “Live” and helped Microsoft launch its
strategic, on-line initiative for the Xbox. MechAssault’s numerous
awards, including best action game and best on-line game for the Xbox, also
generated notoriety for Day 1 when the studio was nominated as Rookie Studio
of the Year at the 2003 Game Developers Conference. Prior to joining Day 1 Studios, Thorley
was the CEO and co-founder of FASA Interactive Technologies where he
executive produced MechCommander for the PC and assisted in the development
of Alien Invasion, a location-based, multi-person game experience for Walt
Disney’s DisneyQuest facility. Through
a 1999 acquisition, FASA Interactive joined Microsoft Game Studios, becoming
FASA Studio. During his tenure in the industry, Thorley has also held executive-level sales, marketing
and product development positions with software publishers such as Data East
and Extreme Entertainment. For
questions, comments or suggestions about the |
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