Jace Hall Show Ep. 2

[Alterran]

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?

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 and ofc not to mention the people from WoW that jumps teams, thats gonna be like 150+ people creating diablo 3 and starcraft 2?

[Triceron]

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.

[Alterran]

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.

[rcp181]

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.

[Triceron]

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...

[Alterran]

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.

[rcp181]

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.

[Alterran]

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...

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.

[Triceron]

Im just saying that an increase in staff = shorter development time.
This is ofc assuming they are professionals and that they can delegate work.

Not necessarily. That statement is very context sensitive.

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.

[Domi87]

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?