Nick Earl, General Manager of Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Studio, talks about how the General Manager’s job is to run one of EA's six studios, which are the places where they actually build the product. The GM administers and manages the portfolio of products at the site. Each product is then...
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Turner explains that while console teams can be upwards of 100 people, GameBoy games can be built with 10-15 people. This core group of people is divided up into engineering, art, animation, game design, and production. The product cycle was optimized to get the best product out as qui...
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There were a number of creative imperatives that were addressed in the development of James Bond, says Turner, primarily, retaining authenticity to the Bond character. Bond has an aura of always being in control of his environment, and this had to be maintained in the game. At a practical level,...
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Turner talks about lessons learned in game development. The first lesson, she says, is that the product is only as good as the people that build it. The second lesson is to be a customer. In order to create a good product, she notes, the team was using the product everyday. The last le...
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Turner talks about how the James Bond character was done in the third person in the game and his style and control comes from the mechanics of how he moves. He is always the master of his environment, she says.
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The PC market has not been growing as much as was hoped, says Earl. Creating games that can be played against other players from a TV set is an important goal, but the commercial side about how to make money is still under development.
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Kim explains that EA’s strategy is based on nailing down the "X," or organic fun concept for that product. EA shares knowledge across studios and around development creating a collaborative environment. The development process is pretty standard: build prototypes, do market tests, star...
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Earl and Kim respond to the question: How has the competition from Grand Theft Auto influenced EA? Vice City is brilliant in its open world design, says Earl, you can go in any direction and interact with the environment. Grand Theft Auto was a little bit of a wake up call for EA suggesting that...
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Kim’s first game experience was a hugely successful online parlor game that was launched on AOL. Majestic, her second game, tried to stretch the Internet experience into the next generation of games, but didn't do as well, she says. The core team from Majestic was out of work and lookin...
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Earl talks about how EA is good at figuring out early on if a game is not going to be successful and starting over before it is too late. EA brings a compliment of distribution, marketing, resources, larger teams, better technology, and high caliber designers, artists, and engineers to ...
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Kim talks about how there is a large range in the projects at EA. Team sizes range from 30 people to 200. Development times take 10 months to 2-3 years. Some projects are original licensed intellectual property, like Lord of the Rings; others are hybrid intellectual property, like Gol...
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Kim describes her own path into game development at EA. She majored in film making as an undergraduate, started working in management consulting, and then decided to start a web-design company. Afterward she acquired an MBA and joined a startup company. Later on, she joined EA online in an entry...
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