Interview 2 with Mr. Jeff Lind
Question 1. What is the process that you use to make games?
Question 2. What is the game engine that you use for your games?
Question 3. What coding language do you use?
Question 4. What is the preffered coding language used by other companies?
Question 5. How many people do you have on your team working on games?
Question 6. How long does it normally take to make a game?
Question 7. What is the normal budget for most games?
Question 8. Is there normally a limit to the amount of time you have when making a game?
Question 9. What roles does everyone play?
Question 10. Do other companies contract you to help them with their own games?
Question 2. What is the game engine that you use for your games?
Question 3. What coding language do you use?
Question 4. What is the preffered coding language used by other companies?
Question 5. How many people do you have on your team working on games?
Question 6. How long does it normally take to make a game?
Question 7. What is the normal budget for most games?
Question 8. Is there normally a limit to the amount of time you have when making a game?
Question 9. What roles does everyone play?
Question 10. Do other companies contract you to help them with their own games?
Interview Essay #2
Logan Mulhill
Mrs. Tranel
Eng IV/2
20 April 2015
Interview 2 With Jeff Lind
On Thursday April 16, I interviewed Jeff Lind, Studio Director of Gazillion entertainment, for a second time. Mr. Lind lives in San Francisco and has worked on Marvel Heroes Online since 2009. He’s married and has a few kids. He developed his technical skills in college and has worked on many video games including Marvel Heroes.
During our interview, I asked him several questions concerning the video game business and the process in which developers make games. The first question I asked was about the process used to make a game. I was told that when making a game, ideas can come from different places. For him and his company, they were hired by marvel and given the idea and what they needed to do, negating the need to come up with an idea. Game developers also need to come up with some core principles, such as the game must be fun and pleasing. Again, Marvel gave them the principles with the idea for the game. After I asked about the game engine he used. I was told that he and his coworkers used two different game engines. They used the Unreal 3 engine, used in many games, and an engine that was developed by Gazillion for the use in their game. They used the Unreal engine as a rendering tool, giving every character their distinct look. The engine that Gazillion created was used for all the analytical things, such as movements, damage and NPCs, which the rendering engine was placed over.
I asked what coding language did Gazillion use and what was the most common coding language used. Mr. Lind said that the language he used was C++, an older language but a reliable one. He then went on to say that a numerous amount of languages were used by others, but the most common was C#, used for computer games, as well as portable games for iOS and Android. Another question was about the number of people that are normally working on his team. He told me that he had about 75 people working on it at once. 75 is a small number in terms of large AAA titles which normally launch on consoles, such as Xbox and PlayStation, but is large compared to mobile games. After that question, I asked about how long it normally takes to make a game. I was told about four years is the normal amount of time it takes.
Over a million dollars. That was the answer that I got for one of my other questions. I had asked about what the normal budget it for making a game. This all depends on the scope of the game and is normally confidential, depending on the company. The budget is also influenced by the sales expectations. If the company doesn’t expect the game to be recieved well, the budget isn’t very high. My seventh question was, what was the normal limit to the time they had to make the game before launching it. He told me that it depends greatly on the project, the scale and the budget. That was the extent of that conversation.
After that conversation went dead, I asked about the roles that everybody played in the game making process. Mr. Lind said that it varied on size. The larger the group, the more people specialized in one area and the more they had to cooperate in the game making process. This turned it into an assembly line like process as one part went down the line, being added onto by each group. The final question I asked was if other companies would contract each other to help with the making of a game. He said that it happened. This was because of the creation of relationships between companies. A developer could contract a smaller company to help with the animations used in cinematic parts of the game. Normally, companies contract each other for certain needs, such as the example stated.
I learned a lot more about the game business than I had in the first interview. Mainly I learned that companies aren’t as independent as I originally thought.
Mrs. Tranel
Eng IV/2
20 April 2015
Interview 2 With Jeff Lind
On Thursday April 16, I interviewed Jeff Lind, Studio Director of Gazillion entertainment, for a second time. Mr. Lind lives in San Francisco and has worked on Marvel Heroes Online since 2009. He’s married and has a few kids. He developed his technical skills in college and has worked on many video games including Marvel Heroes.
During our interview, I asked him several questions concerning the video game business and the process in which developers make games. The first question I asked was about the process used to make a game. I was told that when making a game, ideas can come from different places. For him and his company, they were hired by marvel and given the idea and what they needed to do, negating the need to come up with an idea. Game developers also need to come up with some core principles, such as the game must be fun and pleasing. Again, Marvel gave them the principles with the idea for the game. After I asked about the game engine he used. I was told that he and his coworkers used two different game engines. They used the Unreal 3 engine, used in many games, and an engine that was developed by Gazillion for the use in their game. They used the Unreal engine as a rendering tool, giving every character their distinct look. The engine that Gazillion created was used for all the analytical things, such as movements, damage and NPCs, which the rendering engine was placed over.
I asked what coding language did Gazillion use and what was the most common coding language used. Mr. Lind said that the language he used was C++, an older language but a reliable one. He then went on to say that a numerous amount of languages were used by others, but the most common was C#, used for computer games, as well as portable games for iOS and Android. Another question was about the number of people that are normally working on his team. He told me that he had about 75 people working on it at once. 75 is a small number in terms of large AAA titles which normally launch on consoles, such as Xbox and PlayStation, but is large compared to mobile games. After that question, I asked about how long it normally takes to make a game. I was told about four years is the normal amount of time it takes.
Over a million dollars. That was the answer that I got for one of my other questions. I had asked about what the normal budget it for making a game. This all depends on the scope of the game and is normally confidential, depending on the company. The budget is also influenced by the sales expectations. If the company doesn’t expect the game to be recieved well, the budget isn’t very high. My seventh question was, what was the normal limit to the time they had to make the game before launching it. He told me that it depends greatly on the project, the scale and the budget. That was the extent of that conversation.
After that conversation went dead, I asked about the roles that everybody played in the game making process. Mr. Lind said that it varied on size. The larger the group, the more people specialized in one area and the more they had to cooperate in the game making process. This turned it into an assembly line like process as one part went down the line, being added onto by each group. The final question I asked was if other companies would contract each other to help with the making of a game. He said that it happened. This was because of the creation of relationships between companies. A developer could contract a smaller company to help with the animations used in cinematic parts of the game. Normally, companies contract each other for certain needs, such as the example stated.
I learned a lot more about the game business than I had in the first interview. Mainly I learned that companies aren’t as independent as I originally thought.