Green Monster Games - Curt Schilling
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The location was something I was told was going to be a massive hurdle and a huge mistake. Neither has been the case. No one here has been "paid" to come here.
By that I mean the salary structure here is absolutely competitive, also absolutely within the norm for the industry.
The "perks" are there, such as the 50/50, but that"s not something tangible for people. We"re going to have to launch an awesome game for that to come to fruition. We pay 100% of the insurance premium, match 401ks, all that stuff that imo makes people understand this company will move mountains for it"s family members. None of that gets someone to move from a very secure well paying job, across country or around the world, if there isn"t a rock solid business plan that has a roadmap laid out that"s precise and focused.
People are here because they see what it is, and can see how different it all is, and how vastly different it will be.
There is a certain energy to a startup, everyone knows that, but at some point that energy goes away and it all gets very real, very fast.
One of the keys in building out the core team was finding people who"s character and reputation exceeded their extreme talents because when that startup transitions to the next phase, the process changes but the people can"t.
By that I mean the salary structure here is absolutely competitive, also absolutely within the norm for the industry.
The "perks" are there, such as the 50/50, but that"s not something tangible for people. We"re going to have to launch an awesome game for that to come to fruition. We pay 100% of the insurance premium, match 401ks, all that stuff that imo makes people understand this company will move mountains for it"s family members. None of that gets someone to move from a very secure well paying job, across country or around the world, if there isn"t a rock solid business plan that has a roadmap laid out that"s precise and focused.
People are here because they see what it is, and can see how different it all is, and how vastly different it will be.
There is a certain energy to a startup, everyone knows that, but at some point that energy goes away and it all gets very real, very fast.
One of the keys in building out the core team was finding people who"s character and reputation exceeded their extreme talents because when that startup transitions to the next phase, the process changes but the people can"t.
Just curious, from a game design standpoint. I understand that"s not really your strength, and your expertise likely comes from your already developed skills with team management and such. But all the same, especially considering your comment about design meetings, I cannot imagine you have been left out of them.
So I"m wondering, has your design team discussed any differences between tabletop RPGs and computer RPGs? I ask this because most computer RPGs have nearly the same structure as D&D, and yet the environment and playstyle are drastically different. This ends up creating avoidable negative points in gameplay.
Is GMG working to stretch the definition of role-playing games in general, and MMO"s in particular? Will you be, in your quest to create the best MMO, be satisfied with the limits of the current design? I expect you and your design team will be trying to create new ideas, but I"m wondering how deep you"re planning to go?
Thanks.
So I"m wondering, has your design team discussed any differences between tabletop RPGs and computer RPGs? I ask this because most computer RPGs have nearly the same structure as D&D, and yet the environment and playstyle are drastically different. This ends up creating avoidable negative points in gameplay.
Is GMG working to stretch the definition of role-playing games in general, and MMO"s in particular? Will you be, in your quest to create the best MMO, be satisfied with the limits of the current design? I expect you and your design team will be trying to create new ideas, but I"m wondering how deep you"re planning to go?
Thanks.
I feel like this is pretty much an impossible question to answer. Like asking how far into space will you fly given unlimited fuel.KharzaWHA? said:
There is a strong desire to do some incredible things, and having so many hardcore gamers in all disciplines here, most, if not all, know what"s out there in what games.
We know when something "unreal!" or "Holy crap" hits the whiteboard.
That being said, there are alot of things and alot of ideas that smack of doing them "just to be different" where the design guys see it as a bad thing.
Yes I am in the design meeting, yes I think I do have some very unique ideas, but for the most part that makes me EXACTLY like most of you.
I am here to lead this company, oh you can bet my ideas get heard, but at the end of the day, if Scott or Steve looks at me and says "Dude, that"s cool as hell but it just ain"t happening", it doesn"t happen. It"s what THEY are good to great at, and I am not.
My job as the founder of this company is to put these EXTREMELY talented and PASSIONATE people in the best possible position to succeed, and then step away.
I make sure that the Dev team does NOT get interrupted in their work flow of making this world, this IP, this game, and I take care of the non game things that have to happen when you are building something like this.
If you"re willing to "step away" from what you feel is your project, I have little to no faith that this game will be any different from the rest.
You said it yourself, you"re entrusting people who have done something one way already, why would they change? They know what works, and it will become the exact same retarded shit we"ve seen for the past ten years. I predict another "2 steps forwards, 2 steps back" approach, if you intend to let people tell you that YOUR ideas aren"t feasible. What ideas ARE feasible then? Everything that"s already been proven to work? Exciting! How revolutionary!
I don"t suggest taking that approach with everything, but ffs man, everything that"s ever been innovative or important in life was "impossible". Solve an impossible problem, and you"ll be a hero. Otherwise, you"re setting yourself up for being another dime a dozen game.
If anyone right now has a real chance at actually moving the genre forward, I imagine it would be your "all star" roster. You have the money and the talent, and very little holding you back in the form of a major publisher who refuses to take a "risk" by doing something different.
edit: It"s a little harsh, I know, but it"s not intended as a knock on people"s talents. I have nothing but respect for Ryan and Steve and those guys.
You said it yourself, you"re entrusting people who have done something one way already, why would they change? They know what works, and it will become the exact same retarded shit we"ve seen for the past ten years. I predict another "2 steps forwards, 2 steps back" approach, if you intend to let people tell you that YOUR ideas aren"t feasible. What ideas ARE feasible then? Everything that"s already been proven to work? Exciting! How revolutionary!
I don"t suggest taking that approach with everything, but ffs man, everything that"s ever been innovative or important in life was "impossible". Solve an impossible problem, and you"ll be a hero. Otherwise, you"re setting yourself up for being another dime a dozen game.
If anyone right now has a real chance at actually moving the genre forward, I imagine it would be your "all star" roster. You have the money and the talent, and very little holding you back in the form of a major publisher who refuses to take a "risk" by doing something different.
edit: It"s a little harsh, I know, but it"s not intended as a knock on people"s talents. I have nothing but respect for Ryan and Steve and those guys.
Erronius
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I have to disagree with this myself.WillTR said:
What he is saying is that he isn"t trying to impose some impossible-to-implement ideas onto people. There are things he would like to do (as I"m sure we all have similar ideas), but at the end of the day its better to let it go and let the devs concentrate on ideas that are either feasible or at least implementable without running the risk of having to drop it years later in the design cycle.
We all know how Brad is viewed, with his ideas and "The Vision". Was it good Sigil had such broad, sweeping ideas, to the point that over their development time they had to drop/change/modify a fuckton of shit, so much so as to give forum warriors everywhere fodder for years?
Personally if Curt (and whoever is a financial backer) had come into meetings and simply dictated what they wanted in a game, without knowing what they were talking about, I"d be chalking GMG up to the BC3000AD category. It isn"t optimal for leaders to have 100% control, delegation is key. If he can surround himself with smart people, can give them the "Broad mission statement" and then GTFO of their way and let them do their jobs, then maybe GMG will do great things.
Besides, I"m sure Curt is really skirting a basic idea here though I doubt he would argue against it: Curt is not a developer. He is not a designer. He does one thing: throw baseballs (and occasionally smash cameras?). That"s what he does, and he does it well. I"m sure a lot of what he has been saying has just been skirting the idea of"Hey guys, you know I don"t know much about actual MMO development, like most of you - we are fans/players first and foremost. But take comfort in the fact that I know my limitations, and rest assured I"m not going to totally turn GMG into a clusterfuck by getting in the way".
I don"t take this as meaning that Curt is just going to let things go, and going to check back in on things in a couple of years. Nor do I take this as meaning that Curt doesn"t care, or that he isn"t willing to champion certain ideas. If he knows which battles to pick and choose, and has the insight to know when he is wrong and to capitulate to others, than I can only see that as a good thing myself.
Because we can.WillTR said:
That"s a simplistic statement, but until you have worked in this industry you don"t realize how often the opposite is true. The more entrenched an IP, the lower the odds that a company is willing to push the boundaries with it.
The biggest thing that"s different about our approach is that we get to ask questions like "Why hasn"t this been done in an MMO before?" If we know there"s a valid reason why not, then fine; there are some things inherent to the medium that we don"t have any control over. Experience is handy to have for those reasons, so that we don"t have an answer every question that"s been asked dozens of times before. But if there isn"t a sound reason a good idea hasn"t been pursued before, we have the freedom to figure out why not and the chance to make it work.
Is every single thing about what we do going to be different than what"s come before? Of course not. There are plenty of things other games have done well, and changing simply for the sake of change can be foolish. Our goal is to make a great game, not to impress posters on message boards with our cleverness. But if we do our jobs right, at the end of the day we"ll have something cool and fun that both those who post here and the multitudes who don"t will enjoy.
Could you give us any example of anything that was brought up in your brainstorming sessions that sounded cool on paper but was scrapped due to it being realistically impossible to implement. Just a tidbit of an idea that will have to wait for future generations, I thought it would be nice to know whats impossible and possible to do for current developers.
By the way, didnt Curt post that we would be hearing about the game"s progress really, really soon? It"s been a couple of weeks now if I recall correctly.
By the way, didnt Curt post that we would be hearing about the game"s progress really, really soon? It"s been a couple of weeks now if I recall correctly.
Well I"m a Minnesota boy, so the weather hasn"t been a huge readjustment for me. We do have a San Diego native or two for whom the coldest days have been a little rough.Faille said:
What I will say is that New England is different from anywhere I"ve lived before. For example, Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix, and San Diego all have obvious differences, but for the most part they are metropolitan areas surrounded by suburbs.
The Boston area has a sizeable metro area, but instead of suburbs that grew outward it is surrounded by small towns that are hundreds of years old that have grown together over time. Many of these towns have a center square filled by mom & pop stores and a few local chains. Maynard has a Mayberry feel to it that reminds me of the little town in which I was born.
Personally, I like being close to movie complexes and Best Buy and lots of restaurants, so I"m looking for a house that is close to those things. Maynard is only about 20 minutes away from Framingham, one of the places that feels more like the suburbs I"m used to.
On the surface this may seem like an odd place to found a games studio, but the reality is there are already a lot of companies here. We"ve made contact with some great folks through IGDA meetings and such, and they"ve been very welcoming to us newcomers.
Not that you need me to tell you this, but that"s one of the most practicle things I have heard. More reality, less dreaming; it seems like a good thing.Moorgard Mobhunter said:
Plus, if I read you right, I appreciate your honesty. Realistic expectations and straight forward discussions about what a game will bring is another good thing, imo. As opposed to the PR spin that is common with discussions about game designs, etc.
Compared to Minnesota, this must be like the Bahamas; double-digit days, above-zero nights.Moorgard Mobhunter said:
More on-topic, with the core team nearing full assembly (I see you"re still looking for a Sr. Game Designer), how much longer do you expect it to be before GMG starts hiring the guys and gals for the trenches (programming, 3D artists, etc.)? 4 months? More? Less? And on that same note, is there a projected development time yet? Should we expect the average 4-5 years? More? Less?
OMG. I"m a St. Paul, MN girl...but I can"t wait to get the hell out of here to someplace warmer. Moorgard: call me the next time you come to visit the family up hereMoorgard Mobhunter said:
No I didn"t, nor would I. There won"t be game insight and lead ins here because "I think it would be cool", that"s a mistake of enormous proportions that I will allow others to make.Ikertxus said:
I"ll get in enough trouble arguing about things I should shut up about to begin with. I"m fiercely loyal to people to people in my family and my friends and these forums will present situations where I"ll need to bite my tongue.
I"ll promise Danuser and Shwayder, here and now, that I will ALMOST never reply to them, but there is no 100% guarantee, it"s not who I am.
As it pertains to game related posting, no one in this company will be posting a word about what it is we are doing unless it coincides with the multi-year PR/Marketing plan being laid out by someone with almost 3 decades of experience in branding and helping put an IP on the map.
We"ll get one shot at that first impression and we plan on doing it right.
Those programming and 3D artists guys, gals, are, for the most part, already here or on their way here. They ARE the core team. By core team I mean the key core people within the disciplines that make games, Art, Design and Engineering.Cadrid said:
We hope to have the Sr Game Designer, Mechanics, postion, filled in short order.
The great thing about the flow here is that once the industry saw that we were an actual company, with an actual plan and real dollars in the bank, the resumes changed from "Hey, I have no experience but I have 21 lvl 70 l337 toonz and some kick ass map mods from Castle Wolfenstein, when can I start?" to some rather well credentialed and accomplished people who fit the profile of having a whole lot more than just talent.
The other cool part of this is that we"ve had an independant film maker here since pre-day 1 to get footage of just about everything we"ve done. From filing our tax ID papers to getting Munch tattoo"s.
(Though Danuser"s wife won"t let him get one....)
I was under the impression that "core" meant the big boys running everything. That"s what I get for assuming. It"s good to hear that I was wrong this time; things reallyaremoving damn swift.
If there isn"t a whip-wielding mob in the game named after her I will be severely disappointed.Ngruk said:
That core is pretty much done as of today, the compilation of it anyway.
Now I get to head down to Florida and get ready for the grind that is the AL East 2007 style.
This could be a pretty incredible year in this division, given the competition and the schedule.
Now I get to head down to Florida and get ready for the grind that is the AL East 2007 style.
This could be a pretty incredible year in this division, given the competition and the schedule.
dechire
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One suggestion, start building your design docs and processes with QA and CS in mind, this will include things like tools for CS which so often gets pushed out to the last second and don"t quite meet up to your player base"s expectation. The earlier you start on this the easier it will be to implement.
Good Luck.
Good Luck.
CS will be something that will remain at the top of our priority list no matter where we are as a company.
If you don"t guarantee your customers the service they expect when they invest financially and emotionally in your products, and company, you have an ex-customer waiting to happen.
It"s another reason why naming the President we did was such an important event in this companies life, Brett gets it in ways that will matter to us, and to you.
If you don"t guarantee your customers the service they expect when they invest financially and emotionally in your products, and company, you have an ex-customer waiting to happen.
It"s another reason why naming the President we did was such an important event in this companies life, Brett gets it in ways that will matter to us, and to you.