http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/10...0.html?show=hi
edit: Ok confirmed starcraft 2 bit on NEXT week's episode, but again just looks like a comedy bit with no actual news....
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7478/jacehall2.jpg
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http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/10...0.html?show=hi
edit: Ok confirmed starcraft 2 bit on NEXT week's episode, but again just looks like a comedy bit with no actual news....
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/7478/jacehall2.jpg
Want Beta nao.
That must be my account for beta... oh snap?!
-Psi
am feeling its getting close, am getting a hard on.
Just 5 more days! :D
Where'd you find that screen shot? Never seen that before (only one I saw was the one with the hats)
Edit: Nm, I actually opened my eyes and saw the link! :P
next fri=12th
1000 days
I'm still waiting for Wednesday
Design Meeting?
Looks like an icon for a fourth race is highlighted in that picture. Def. a joke of some sort
MB
that would be "Random"
The need to change that to the three race's icons blurring to each other.
That is a horrible idea for an icon. The die is perfect.Quote:
Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk
Its dice for random.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arachnyd
Maybe the fourth icon is Random?
LOL. Imagine having alien dice as a race in SC2.
Random it is.
Edit: Haha, I was just thinking that, don! New Race, the cube race! 100% confirmed!
Anyone else still hate the Protoss icon?
http://starcraft.incgamers.com/galle...otoss_Icon.jpg
It's a die, giving you the choice to play random.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arachnyd
Hehe, filmed 06/23/09, so next week we might see 7 month old humor shots from sc2. I wonder how many people are actually working on sc2 and not just part time when they got time off from WoW dev team. Probably like 3? maybe 4 :)
I mean lets face it, 1000 days for any hard working team is a beta/ship long ago. They probably need a big increase in staff, cuz right now its probably two people playing the game and one making the game look better, to give apperance of hard work, while the two others try to balance the game, waiting for the WoW crew to come back to help them with the more serious stuff.
Im not saying its not hard to make the game, im not saying they should cut back on detail and balance, but im saying they are SLOW in making the game, so they should have increased staff to make things speed up a lot, obv things would go faster with a bigger dev crew, working only on sc2.
ROFL!
*Dustin Browder pointing to the many empty beer bottles*
"This is how Starcraft 1 was balanced"
First actual funny thing on the show :)
While this episode shows further his intended joke storyline for Blizzard throughout Season 3, there is something that is worthwhile to mention regarding this story.
During all the random shinanigans, it's not unheard of for this series to assist companies in basic exclusive releases. Just like in Episode two where the Blizzard content is obvious sketch comedy, the Monk Female Art is exclusive.
For that reason, even if next week's episode doesn't have anything "official" in it, I wouldn't be surprised to have something to talk about, such as a new battle.net screen or whatnot. Who knows, the fact that it's aligned in the same week as the conference call is something that Blizzard is aware of I suspect.
Ultimately, this doesn't change anything but merely shows some of my own speculation... It's still interesting to see how it will be on that specific episode. It'll be interesting to see how next week as a whole goes, whether the community loves it or hates it.
2 things to consider.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alterran
1. They have a fully functioning staff that's more than your exaggerated 2-4 person squad. Whether it's an interesting picture to paint in the mind, we should keep reality in scope.
2. While it may be more efficient in terms of money, the quality of their games are on a level that's nearly on their own sometimes. Imagine if the game hit beta 1.5-2 years ago... how much the game would have missed out in terms of polish would have been staggering. That's not to include the information that's not public, such as the potential setbacks that we're not privy to understand/know.
/yawn
if they don't announce anything on wednesday then I might turn to the next episode in desperation, but otherwise I'm not really on the edge of my seat or anything
the show has some funny moments but I don't suspect anything special will happen unless the conference call mentions something which would lead one to believe so
conference call should be the day everyone is looking forward to
Like i said, im well aware they are in a class of their own when it comes to quality of the games. BUT my point was that they are slow in making them, and you cant argue that a bigger staff would make a quicker development.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gifted
And i dont really know if the development team is really bigger than 4 people dedicated only to working with starcraft 2, they have previously said they had to pull some people away to work on world of warcraft. Ofc, if you include the sound department and such its probably a lot more, but in my understanding movie/sound and other stuff are shared among the teams.
oh my... she really eat a mouse G_G
If you want quality you're going to have to wait longer. It's as simple as that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alterran
There is a point of diminishing returns in terms of larger staff. Blizzard can't just throw more and more developers at a game and have it come out exponentially faster while still maintaining the same quality. Do you think Blizzard likes having their games take 6 years to develop? If they knew of a feasible way to churn out the same games in 2-4 years I'm sure they would do it. Obviously it's not as simple as throwing more people at a project.
Now Blizzard has a lot more developers than they used to, but instead they use it to work on more projects at once.
Btw, both the SC2 and Diablo teams have about 60 members each. AFAIK the only shared team is cinematics.
The sound department is shared...?Quote:
Originally Posted by rcp181
You are telling me 60 people have been working only on starcraft 2 for over three years? What are we smoking today? :O are you really saying 120 people are working on sc2+d3 and nothing else? 120 people?
Why would there be diminishing returns in a effective company? They are not a highschool class working on making a game here, they are all professionals with the education and skill to do their jobs, you dont think they got a clue on how to delegate work or what?
I would say at most 20 people are working on starcraft 2, probably less. Not counting the people that have already been confirmed to jump teams. If its 60 people im very convinced 40 of them are hired to make the tank bob...
Ofc, this is me assuming they all work full time, not part-time.
Wow, and you think I'm the one smoking? I thought you were making a joke about hardly anyone working on Starcraft 2, but all I can do is LOL if you seriously think the SC2 team is 20 people or less.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alterran
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html...=2&sid=3000#24 There's Bashiok saying they have about 70 people working on Diablo 3.
Also a good quote from him!Quote:
But really having a bigger or smaller number with no frame of reference as to the types and amounts of content being developed is sort of meaningless. It's more important what's being worked on, who each person is, their abilities, and the end result than just a sum of the bodies assigned to a team.
I do think Gifted is on the right track.
The SC2 beta release of Jace Hall will coincide with the actual release of beta and the conference call. as he said, it's very common to promote releases of things through stuff like this.
Combined with the people that have at one point or another worked at the other games while sc2 is in production, thats a lot of people.
But maybe you just cant understand what im saying? :o
Well ur kinda funny if u really think blizzard got 120 people working in the development of 2 games, and now we are not counting the cinematic department :p and ofc not to mention the people from WoW that jumps teams, thats gonna be like 150+ people creating diablo 3 and starcraft 2? :)
Alterran, you obviously don't know much about current game development teams do you? 60 is not a very high number with today's games. But for the record, it has been stated that the SC2 team is more like 40-50, though that quote is maybe 2-3 years old. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 60.
Dev teams of 20 is a thing of 10 years ago.
No, im kinda counting the people that work part time on the development of WoW and not rly only on SC2 to be like 30 people or so, like i said...
So yea like 40-50 people working on SC2 sounds about right, when they are all working on it that is.
Starcraft 2 has also been in full production for a lot longer than three years by the way. When a game reaches "full production" it has teams of programmers, designers and artists working 40 hours a week or more on it. You think those same artists/designers/programmers are working 40+ hours a week on SC2 and then also going over to work on WoW?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18925251...cience-games//
Read that interview, Pardo says the game has been in full production since 2004, and that they had about 40 in full production in 2007. It's a safe bet that that team size has only grown since 2007.
40-50 is full time workers on SC2.
Where are you getting the idea that only 20 people work on SC2 full time? Where are you getting the idea that people working on WoW work on SC2 as well? There are only a handful of people who cross over to different projects, say either tech guys or a few artists, otherwise they maintain independant crews.
Is it the whole Sigaty quote from 2004? Cuz that is pure misconception if you think that's how studios work normally...
I do feel it would be a waste of talent to not use artists/designers in other games. Im sure blizzard are smart people and use everyone to their best ability.
Thats why im saying a lot of people probably work on multiple things, not just starcraft 2.
Crunch time for a single game often puts employees on 60+hour/week work schedules. They don't need to work on two games at once to be used to the best of their ability.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alterran
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triceron
Hey my point in this is not the numbers, just drop it girl. Just something i remember from blizzcon, someone saying they had to pull a lot of people out to finish wow expansion and stuff. But i know its been said, and if it affected the development of sc2 enougth for it to be mentioned, then it must have been quiet a few people, right? anyhow enougth of that :)
Some people just cant accept the fact that blizzard could do things better... No no.. they just have to be perfect and at the limit with skilled professionals working around the clock to deliver the game, no room for a few more just to make it speed up... i mean they are already around 100 people working on starcraft 2... right.. ri-i-ght.
Im still gonna stick to my theory that they could use more people to increase production speed and quality.
Not necessarily. That statement is very context sensitive.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alterran
During a crunch, it makes sense to pour more resources to get things done. Polishing levels, bug fixing, anything to improve a game that's on the cusp of being finished. So for the final stretch, it's plausible to 'increase staff', but for higher quality standards.
Production-wise, you can't throw 120 into a project and expect to finish a game in half the time of 60 people. It doesn't work like that.
What dictates quality is ultimately time spent on making things work. Blizzard hits a rare situation where they have the financial support to take 5-6 years to make a game. Think of it as writing a book. One author might spend a good 15 years to write an epic series. Getting 3-4 authors working in a 5-year window doesn't produce the same result.
Since this thread seems to be getting derailed, let me pose a question to get it back on track.
What does "Determination Rounds" at the bottom of the screenshot mean? Anyone know? Also what is co-op skirmish, like a standard unranked melee game or missions or what?