Thanks to Hunter: The Reckoning (one of my favorite all-time games), I'm a big fan of High Voltage Software. I've also met Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger a couple of times, and he seems together, pleasant, and extremely talented. (Eric has constantly changing hair that's as cool as his name.)
And I like their website -- it's fun and useful.
So I like reading things like Gamasutra's feature about High Voltage Software.
High Voltage is one of the largest of the remaining independent developers. That's important to me, because I think there's a culture and innovation that lives in that kind of environment, and as a guy in a corporation (note -- not a "corporate guy"), I look at companies like High Voltage and people like Eric to see what I can improve BigHugeCorp or me as a manager. (It doesn't sound like I've got a man-crush on Eric, does it? 'Cause he'll have to get in line behind Cliff Bleszinsky, based on my previous posts.)
Anyway, some particular points I took from the article:
- Core hours are 4 hours. "Core hours" are those hours that -- as a generality -- folks are expected to be in the office, so you can plan meetings around that time with a reasonable assurance folks will be available.
"People work very hard," Nofsinger acknowledges. "As part of that, we need to be very flexible with people, so that they can take care of what they need to, and be happy, and give it their all."
This makes so much sense. I worked for IBM out of college, and they had flex hours, but they were like from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Of course, I had a second-line manager who had his "core hours" of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is part of why I left -- it didn't matter if I was working until 9 p.m. on weekends; if I came in at 9:02 a.m., his spies let him know).
It's also important, because in my current role at BigHugeCorp, I fully expect to be impacted nights and weekends on a regular basis. But heaven forbid I move my lunch to 2:30 p.m. on a day I have no meetings so I can meet with someone for a workout -- I'll hear about it.
I just realized what a fun rhyme "Core hours are four hours" is. - Licensed IP is a challenge on the video game front (think every Batman game), and Nofsinger has some thoughts on that, too.
"We believe that licensed games have gotten a negative stigma. It’s not always that licensed properties are inherently bad, it’s what people do with them."
Compare this to what Peter Jackson said recently in movies based on games corollary: "Good films just need good characters, good storyline and a great director to bring it to life and make a film that you've never seen before. That's what it needs. It doesn't matter a damn whether it's based on a game, a book or a piece of chewing gum, you know? That's irrelevant. It's what actually ends up on the screen that's important." - And for some weird reason, the pict of the motion capture facility from sister studio Red Eye Studio really gets my excitement up.
- And quotes that are sticking with me:
"Just loving what you do isn't enough. You also have to provide a good work environment."
"It’s an exciting time to be in games right now, with the console transition. No one really knows what's going to happen, everyone’s hedging their bets."
"Our big mantra right now is quality. Quality, quality, quality. We've done some games that were good. We've done some games that weren’t so good. We want to be known as the company that is reliable and hits its time-frames, hits its budgets, and makes high-quality products. Good products for the people who are going to buy them." (Good advice for any development shop, regardless of vertical market.)
"As long as there's two guys with a dream somewhere, there's going to be little games."
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