Polycounter Poll: Which assets get cut/redone? and Why?

PaK

I am starting a new task, but I need a wider pool of data to feel comfortable moving forward. This is why I come to you guys...

In game production, things get cut, or redone. At my studio there are types of assets and similar reasons, and I wanted to verify my suspicions before I start acting on my conclusions.

So...tell me guys (or girls) What gets Cut? And Why?

When answering; consider the following:

• Has a portion of the asset being redone for any other reason aside from aesthetics? example: The rig has changed so all the animations are now broken. This counts as a redone asset.
  .
  
• The asset has been put in the game and work perfectly, but a higher-up cuts a dependency asset (like part of the story) and this asset goes along with that cut.
  .
• An Art lead/Director looks at an asset and decides it needs to be redone, after it's finished. This counts as a redone asset.
  .

Please post reasons in your replies because I do not know how to make more than one poll per thread.

Thx!

-R

leilei

Levels because under pressure, playtesting each reassessing difficulty and playability and bugs of them in tight deadlines is more hell than any other type of asset.

Weapons are often redone to improve the feedback because cool weapon feedback is cool.

adam

All of the above. Poor management.

Justin Meisse

should of been a private poll

PaK

why would that matter?

Daz

I think it's impossible to categorize any particular type of asset as being more likely to be cut than any other. It's completely arbitrary and happens for any number of reasons.

Eric Chadwick

Private poll forces people to vote before they can see the results, that way you get more votes.

Poor management is a big reason, but can also be caused by key team member(s) leaving, publisher getting cold feet, etc.

Justin Meisse

this poll shows who voted for what so it could possibly be seen as violating NDA

Eric Chadwick

Oh, shows how much I know about polls.

Justin Meisse

Guess I could go with prior mod experience: things get cut because the coder added hoverboards and his own DM level to the game without telling anyone instead of working on stuff in the design docs. True story.

Peris

adamBrome wrote: »

All of the above. Poor management.

yup. Though if the content you make is good though, management usually finds a way to keep it in if it had to be cut for other reasons than quality. Most stuff that gets cut is just because it isnt of high enough quality, has bad uvs or vertexcount etc.

Tulkamir

This is way too dependent on specific circumstance to really answer... so many factors go into this that I don't know that I could give a good answer without knowing your situation.

greenj2

adamBrome wrote: »

All of the above. Poor management.

QFT. A poor production/concept approval pipeline doesn't help any either. Or people making art/design decisions who have no relevant skills or experience to do so.

Emil Mujanovic

adamBrome wrote: »

All of the above. Poor management.

QFT!

-caseyjones

sprunghunt

very rarely will stuff be cut because of poor quality in my experience. It may take much longer to finish than scheduled because of the artist not being able to reach the quality required but it won't be cut.

Things usually get cut because they weren't working for design reasons. However this isn't necessarily poor management. (although it sometimes is) It's important to allow for people to abandon ideas that aren't working because otherwise it may make people afraid to suggest ideas in the first place.

Also there's no option in the poll for "other people's stuff get's cut" !!

adam

The poll is no longer public.

killingpeople

Twice in the four games projects i've worked on, an entire biome usually drops off the map; and is cut. That seems to be the most relaxing to a project's schedule.

The reason things are cut are horrible misjudgment of the studios abilities. Even the best couldn't predict everything. Bless their soles they try. Money, Management, Ambitious talent, Incompetent talent... all have their role and add to the uncertainties when scheduling this shit out. I'm glad I don't have to do it! I'd want to agree with Brome and assume cuts are due to bad management but, I've had days where I could have done twice as much work as I could have if I were the dev I wish I were, damn those days where your mind is every BUT on your work or you're banging your head against a wall and spinning your fucking wheels for whatever reason...

Mark Dygert

Assets are never cut, they are just just put on hold and repackaged into expansion packs...

spacemonkey

texture resolution.