May 2008 Event Report

IGDA San Francisco
May 7, 2008 event report

Crystal Dynamics Studio Profile

Speakers:
Darrell Gallagher, Director of Art
John Pursey, Director of Technology
Troels Folmann, Department Manager

Location:
Dolby Labs Theatre
Event sponsored by Autodesk
After-party at Il Pirata, sponsored by Green-Ear Gaming Network

We had a very successful first event, kick-starting the San Francisco chapter of the IGDA. In the acoustically astounding setting of the Dolby Labs Theatre, 82 local developers came together, packing the room to hear a talk by studio executives of Crystal Dynamics, makers of Tomb Raider: Legend – who better to talk at the IGDA-SF reboot event than the people who skillfully rebooted the Tomb Raider franchise?

Jim Lorenz from Autodesk got the meeting started by welcoming the chapter back from the dead, and inviting all members to come to the Autodesk Game Tour event in San Francisco on May 13.

Darrell Gallagher, Director of Art at Crystal Dynamics, began the formal presentation with a high-level discussion of issues the studio faced in the transition to the current generation of consoles. The simultaneous explosions of an increasing number of platforms to target, increasing costs to create a AAA title, higher-than-ever consumer expectations, and the resulting large team sizes led to the development of several unique approaches. Crystal Dynamics developed shared technology and creative services departments to take advantage of cost reductions due to improved collaboration between the 2-3 simultaneous productions among their 180 staff at any given time. Simultaneously they increased their collaboration with the growing Eidos Montreal studio. Darrell emphasized that they realized they clearly needed to “work smarter, not harder”.

John Pursey, Director of Technology, stepped to the microphone next to talk about the challenges they faced in spinning up and maintaining a shared technology department. Previously, they tried to set up shared technology for the PS2/Xbox generation. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as well as they would have liked - they created two engines, and the game teams interfered with each other. So this time they did a few things a little differently: they put the engine experts in the shared tech group, and got all the game teams on one code base without starting completely from scratch. They realized that the shared tech team needed dedicated support personnel for the game teams, and that it required an interactive, proactive partnership between the shared tech team and the game team. Also, the game teams need freedom to extend the tools and run-time in order to maintain their ability to be independent, and innovate. John says their 36-person shared tech team is split into seven working groups and running strong today, with the engine used across games on Xbox360, PS3, and PC at both Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. But “the light at the end of the tunnel could be a train...”

Lastly, Troels Folmann (Department Manager) talked about his experience setting up a shared creative services group for the multiple Eidos North America studios. The shared creative services group provides shared art resources for all internal projects, including cinematic animation, audio, effects, user interface, concept art, and video. Troels talked about the high importance of communication, making sure that the game team and creative services people share a common vision or goal, and are well organized and aware of dependencies. He talked about the challenges of retaining staff in a shared department, making sure that the individuals are empowered and appreciated. Troels also commented on the important strong production practices such as doing daily check-ins and having project-based metrics. His departing advice was that “whatever hits the fan will not be evenly distributed” – that is, a chain reaction tends to hit the last parties in the chain the most!

After a short round of Q&A with the generous Crystal Dynamics team we adjourned to Il Pirata, where we had the chance to chat with each other and dine on pizza and drinks provided by Green-Ear Gaming Network.

Green-Ear Gaming Network had surveys at the event to gather feedback on the needs of game developers. The company has provided voice technologies for various markets for the past six years and is branching out into technology for games, such as easily integrated voice and hosted multiplayer opportunities. Their developer survey will be available at http://tinyurl.com/3t49md through May 30, 2008, and one lucky participant will win a $200 Best Buy Card. The winner will be notified by email and announced on the IGDA-SF website.