It's safe to say: no-one likes to wait.
We all want access to things as soon as possible,
particularly entertainment.
New movies, TV series, and of course games.
We're so excited that we'll even settle for previews of the end product,
allowing for it to be incomplete.
For example: Trailers of movies without the final sound or post-effects,
a few scenes from an upcoming TV series,
or maybe a playable level from a game,
or even just a demo of some key mechanics.
All this builds up the hype.
But it comes at a cost. And one that usually isn't talked about.
So today, we've enlisted Curtis:
a fellow who worked at NASA on satellite systems
before becoming a network programmer on Everquest
and spending the next fifteen years in the industry;
to help us talk about it.
MUSIC: Extra Credits intro.
When it comes to seeing previews of games we're excited about,
we all say we'll make allowances for the product not being finished yet,
suspending our final judgment in deference to the potential.
But in all honesty, this is kind of a lie we all tell ourselves,
and I'm no different.
And while we partially covered this in the episode about early access games a bit ago,
I think it's worth drilling down into a bit more.
The first big misconception about games
is that games spend a lot of time in an unfinished state,
rather than an incomplete one.
Unfinished has the implicit assumption that we know where we're trying to get to,
kind of like a road trip. But game development is never like that.
You probably have a solid idea and a plan,
but it never survives contact with the development team.
Incomplete on the other hand, means just that.
All of the pieces don't exist yet.
And the missing ones? We might have no idea what they look like.
In fact, some of the pieces that are already completed might be wrong,
or in the wrong order,
or might end up being taken out entirely.
And unlike television or books,
games stay in this incomplete stage a lot longer.
It's not at all uncommon for a game to be 3/4ths of the way through their development cycle
and still be incomplete.
Another big misconception about incomplete games
is that they can be played at all.
Of course, some parts can,
and it's true most studios try to get a vertical slice
or internally playable demo running as an early to mid-project milestone,
but that's not always feasible, or representative of the final product.
And even if it does exist, all the interesting in-development work
is usually only accessible through what amounts to a developer's kit,
and usually requiring access to studio-only assets on private file systems.
Not to mention, with the lack of a usable UI,
usually a game relies on debug or console commands
that are completely undocumented and known only to the team.
The art, sound, animation, models, and writing
is all in flux, and in need of polish.
It's not something you'd really want to see.
And those early trailers that make you so eager to get your hands on a game?
They're usually cobbled together from resources and small snapshots
of posed and constructed gameplay,
cut together to look like a cohesive experience.
But really, it's not.
The game you see in teasers doesn't exist.
At least, not yet.
And certainly won't be representative of the current state of development
when the trailer goes live.
So don't feel too let down that someone, somewhere
is playing the game you're waiting for.
Next, let's talk about how E3 and other similar trade show demos work,
because, in some ways...
WHISPERS: ..they're kind of the worst.
They often take away a ton of time from actually working on the game.
And instead of working on the core development, you end up doing a lot of hacks and workarounds
that would never make it into the final build,
to make a small section of the game seem like it's great
so long as no-one's looking under the hood.
And that requires time. A lot of it.
In fact, besides just the work being done on the demo
many studios have someone whose title is "Build Engineer".
And boy is that person busy.
Mostly, fixing the fast moving target that is the internal build
which changes and breaks on a near-daily basis as the game is developed.
The last thing you wanna do is bog down the development process
by stopping it for a week to package up a release
that is guaranteed to be thrown away after the demo,
along with the temporary and placeholder assets that inevitably needed to be a part of it.
Lastly, let me clear up a misconception about sequels.
Many people think that when working on a sequel to a popular game,
especially if it's going to release on the same generation platforms,
we basically start with 70% of the work already done.
This is almost never true.
Of course working on a sequel means you'll inherit some things that make development easier,
but when work on
-- BOOMING VOICE: Amazing Game: The Sequel --
begins, we usually use this as an opportunity to fix or refactor large chunks of the game.
Really ripping the guts out of it.
And usually doing major upgrades to the game's engine or third party software
that is just too risky or time-consuming to justify doing on the original.
Sometimes, the team will even start from relative scratch,
pulling in systems and assets from the original,
but functionally creating a new game.
And we do this because we have to keep up.
As tools and engines are improved,
we have to incorporate those improvements or match them in our own development
to make that sequel— which most consumers think of as the same,
on-par with all of the other games being released a year or two down the line,
when it finally comes out.
So while fans often ask why they can't get their hands on a game
as soon as the first trailer goes live,
or why it needs another two years in development after the first teaser comes out,
just know that the studio is not being secretive to be mean or detached.
There are practical reasons of time and cost,
but really, it's the fact that the game in that teaser that made you want to play it so badly
probably won't even exist until very soon before launch day.
Which keeps early builds from being released.
And if all that waiting is still too much for you,
just do what Zoey and I are doing while we are patiently waiting
for Kojima to drop Death Stranding.
ZOEY MEOWS
No, not eat mice. What?
I meant get to work on your Steam backlog.
Seriously, you gotta learn to read the room a little bit.
MUSIC: Extra Credits Outro