Disciples II: Dark Prophecy Designer Diary #14

By , GameSpotPosted Jan 18, 2002 8:39 pm PT

Producer Pro Sotos signs off in this final entry of our long-running series of designer diaries for Disciples II.

Entry #14 - 01/21/02

By Pro Sotos
Producer, Strategy First

As I write this last designer diary, I have to first thank not only each and every member of the Disciples II team and each and everyone of the extended team, but also their wives, husbands, children, parents, and friends. Every one of us has had to break prior engagements and limit the amount of time we could spend with our friends and family during the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and for that, I and everyone else at Strategy First are very grateful. No matter how much planning is involved in the development of a game, during the last few months of a project, we are always faced with an insane amount of overtime, which translates into an average working day of 14 to 18 hours. I actually threatened to have the lead programmer physically removed if he didn't go home because he had been sleeping four hours a night, several days in a row. Fred responded with a smile and said, "I'm OK, Pro, I want to do this, and the bags under my eyes really make me look more tired than I am."

After several long years in development, Disciples II is finally done.

Everybody has dealt with the long hours in his or her own way. Some have taken up smoking again, a number of them have taken the energy drink route, and others swear by the cola wars. The reason we do this is that we all take pride in what we do and will sacrifice as much as we can--sometimes till it literally hurts, because we want this to be the best game possible.

As I write this, it's 1:34am, and all is well. It's mostly finishing touches and minor bug fixes that are being attended to. As I walk through the offices, I see the programming team, both of them, making sure that every last insignificant bug has been addressed. The art team is looking at each and every animation, image, icon, and portrait and making each and every one of them just a little bit better than it was before. The sound team is reviewing every "oooh," "aahh," and "clank" to make sure it sounds like it should. The scenario designers are replaying their maps for the umpteenth time to make sure that each story is told in the way they want. The quality assurance department keeps rolling along, reviewing all of this wonderful mess to make sure that everything is as it should be.

The unavoidable last night of a project is an all-night party filled with rock anthems from the '70s, '80s, and '90s, potato chips, caffeine beverages, laughing, and, quite often, expletives when someone loses a battle, which I call the sound of "fun." Even though every one of us wants to desperately go home, at the same time, everyone is determined to make sure that he or she has done everything possible to make this game the best it can be.

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1 Comments

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jakeboudville
Posted Sep 13, 2006 12:44 am PT

looks good
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