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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 24</font></b></font></p>
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              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../corner/index.html"><font size="-1">Guest 
          Editorial</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          To Scuttle the Boat</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:randyp@home.com">Randy 
          Pitchford </a></font></font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here’s where some problems 
          came in. First, it was too much for only a couple of engineers to tackle. 
          In many ways the project was too ambitious. Second, the &quot;GI. Joe 
          vs. Cobra&quot; concept was translated by our publisher to mean &quot;Player 
          vs. Megalomaniac.&quot; I believe they felt it was a little trite. I 
          have to admit it is somewhat clich&eacute;. We figured it wouldn’t matter 
          if everything else worked as we expected. Third, another game appeared 
          that made extensive use of scripted animations and presented friendly 
          characters. <b>Half-Life</b> turned out to be a huge success which begged 
          questions from our publisher about whether or not we could compete. 
          Considering that at the time of <b>Half-Life’s</b> release, we had tons 
          of quality content and some great rendering features, but no actual 
          game, I must assume that some worried that we could not. Without &quot;the 
          game,&quot; our talents in game-play design could never be effectively 
          articulated or, better yet, proven to EA. Finally, some other games 
          started appearing that were doing outdoor military combat. <b>Delta 
          Force</b>, <b>Spec. Ops</b> and <b>Tribes</b> come to mind. I believe 

          all of these games were reasonably successful and generally applauded.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">It’s a funny thing. If you’re 
          making a game that is similar to a weak seller, some publishers will 
          assume your game will sell weak too (<b>Golgotha vs. Battlezone</b>, 
          <b>Uprising</b>). If you’re making a game that is similar to a hit, 
          some publishers will think your game will not be able to compete (<b>Prax 
          War</b> vs. <b>Tribes</b> or <b>Half-Life</b>). It’s sort of a catch 
          twenty-two. </font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>&quot;When will it be 
          finished and how *big* will this game really be?&quot;</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Clearly, RBR didn’t have 
          the &quot;when it’s done&quot; luxury. Unfortunately, we had come from 
          3D Realms so we were very much used to designing with that freedom. 
          The philosophy understands that innovation is difficult to schedule, 
          so why bother? Even at the end, our engineers considered much of what 
          they were doing as an R&amp;D project. This allowed them to create some 
          miraculous things, but made it impossible to schedule. Our publisher 
          was running a business that has a foundation around predictability of 
          their development schedules. And, we had contractually committed to 
          having the game completed near the end of last year to be on shelves 
          sometime in February or March. Content development didn’t have the same 
          hurdles to overcome as engineering, so content was able to maintain 
          the schedules it had developed with EA. This, at least, allows us some 
          measure of predictability and earned us monthly milestone checks. But, 
          while we had come to a new good faith agreement with our publisher to 
          have the game ready near Q3 of 1999, it became obvious to all of us 
          that it wasn’t going to be enough time to accomplish everything technologically 
          that the title required. I think EA called this &quot;missing our technology 
          window.&quot;</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">But, what we were building 
          was BIG. Not just in terms of the scope of the game, but what impact 
          the engine Billy was creating would have on the world. Even today, the 
          level designers that worked on <b>Prax War</b> are feeling that, despite 
          never having an executable game to build around, constructing worlds 
          with arbitrary polygons is where the future of 3D level construction 
          will be headed. We were building the world from within a tool that used 
          a purely 3D perspective, which used the same rendering engine as the 
          game. The tool we used that Billy wrote is a significant breakthrough 
          and had a profound impact on all of our level designer types. The kind 
          of advanced thinking it required will be of great value for us on whatever 
          project we work with next, so even though most of our work will never 
          be seen by the public, the experience in itself was worth quite a bit.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The other significant feature 
          that was likely to leave a big imprint on the game industry was the 
          Java-based game architecture. I have heard some speculation that perhaps 
          our use of Java caused some of the problems. I do not think this is 
          the case. Java was going to allow for many unique and valuable attributes 
          for our game construction and for the end user. These are things like 
          allowing multiple modifications to work simultaneously and the ability 
          to add and remove modification or other game code attributes on the 
          fly. Additionally, I understand that Java allowed the engineers to do 
          quick prototyping of tools. The final advantage is that most of the 
          best Java development kits are free to download from the Internet. End 
          users need not purchase expensive development tools in order to create 
          game code modifications.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In the end, however, many 
          of the new innovations our engineers had to invent cost us the predictability 
          our project required. One of the rules of business states that a new 
          start-up should leave as little to chance as possible if it wishes to 
          succeed. It was a lesson hard learned for RBR.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>So, What Have We Learned?</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We learned that ideology 
          can sometimes hinder decision making in critical times. There were certainly 
          several key moments for RBR where the lack of an ultimate authority 
          over game content and engineering was a problem.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We learned that it doesn’t 
          really matter how sound we may think the game design is. Until a final 
          game can be fairly judged, there will always be doubt and skepticism 
          as well as fans and followers. The trick is to build enough of the game 
          play early enough to prove the fun of the title to those that are footing 
          the bill for its development.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">We learned that it was insane 
          to attempt to develop such radically new and advanced technology simultaneously 
          to developing the game. We all had such faith in our engineers at the 
          beginning that it didn’t seem to be a problem. By the time we realized 
          it was a problem, it was too late.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Finally, we learned that 
          when people work together they can overcome incredible obstacles. We 
          also learned the converse of that.</font></p>
        <p>&nbsp;</p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Last Words</b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In some ways, RBR was an 
          experiment. We were the first Dallas company to spawn since id Software 
          that attempted to create our own technology for our flagship title. 
          We were developing a title with a smaller budget than any of the other 
          original POV development teams in Dallas. And we were being published 
          by a new entry to the first person genre – giant EA.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In many ways, RBR was a success. 
          It showed that a small team could get together, and use its experience, 
          history, and talent to build a start-up and sign a relatively good publishing 
          deal. It also showed that it could manage itself to create extremely 
          high quality content and dramatic innovations in new technology.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In other ways, RBR was a 
          failure. It could not accomplish its original goal of a completed game 
          before 1999. And it could not ultimately satisfy the publisher that 
          it could finish its technology (and, therefore, its game) within a profitable 
          timeframe.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In any case, every person 
          involved with <b>Prax War</b>, from our producers at Electronic Arts 
          to our technology and content developers in Dallas, has learned an incredible 
          amount from the experience. We went places with 3D development that 
          many will not visit for years to come. We invented methods for doing 
          things that will apply to the next few generations of technology. We 
          explored game design concepts and innovations that are sure to sell 
          the next titles any of us help ship. We went the distance and we are 
          all better people for it. It was a rocky journey, but I wouldn’t trade 
          it for anything. It has made each of us a stronger developer. Just wait 
          until you see what we all do next!</font></p>
        <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font> </p>
        <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i>- 
          Randy Pitchford was a designer on the now defunct <b>Prax War </b>for 
          Rebel Boat Rocker.</i></font>
        <p align="right">&nbsp;
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    <td height="22"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
      Guest Editorial logo illustrated and is &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. This Guest 
      Editorial is &copy; 1999 Randy Pitchford. All other content is &copy; 1999 
      <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi productions</a>. 
      Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited and not nice.</font></i></td>
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