Your most insane deadline?
polycounter lvl 18
So whats yours? i just got mine today
Background: i am the lone 3d artist in a company which does mini 3d games to sell along with our "duck hunt" on crack type of system we sell.
so anyway my boss comes in and tells me he wants to do some deer hunting game we plan to advertise in europe along with our laser thing a ma jig.
so i wrote down all the detials to what he wanted.finally i ask him the due date,he responded march 15, not march 15 2006,march 15 2005.
so in summary
in 2 weeks i have to
1.model,skin (2-3 texture variations) rig,animate (20 animations so far) and export the model in the game.
2. create new enviromental assest along with recycling some from previous games,like trees,bushes etc export them
3.animate all the animations in 1 max file in 1 really long sequence because our engine we use must have all animations in 1 big file to export right.
4. make adjustments on shader in the designer
5.make terrain,map it
6 add collison to most objects
7. work out any bugs
8 and finally send it through the labyrinth of nit picking my boss does (my boss carries a measuring tape in his pocket he uses regulary to check is framed pictures are placed correctly around the office,thats how OC he is)
9 have ready to burn and sell on cd by march 15.
yay, see you all im off to have a drink or 5.
oh yeah im the only 3d artist in the company if i forgot to mention it.
Background: i am the lone 3d artist in a company which does mini 3d games to sell along with our "duck hunt" on crack type of system we sell.
so anyway my boss comes in and tells me he wants to do some deer hunting game we plan to advertise in europe along with our laser thing a ma jig.
so i wrote down all the detials to what he wanted.finally i ask him the due date,he responded march 15, not march 15 2006,march 15 2005.
so in summary
in 2 weeks i have to
1.model,skin (2-3 texture variations) rig,animate (20 animations so far) and export the model in the game.
2. create new enviromental assest along with recycling some from previous games,like trees,bushes etc export them
3.animate all the animations in 1 max file in 1 really long sequence because our engine we use must have all animations in 1 big file to export right.
4. make adjustments on shader in the designer
5.make terrain,map it
6 add collison to most objects
7. work out any bugs
8 and finally send it through the labyrinth of nit picking my boss does (my boss carries a measuring tape in his pocket he uses regulary to check is framed pictures are placed correctly around the office,thats how OC he is)
9 have ready to burn and sell on cd by march 15.
yay, see you all im off to have a drink or 5.
oh yeah im the only 3d artist in the company if i forgot to mention it.
Replies
Me: "Cool"
Boss: "So, we need to give them a test level"
Me: "OK. When do we need it done by?"
Boss: "Tomorrow."
Me: "Uhhh..."
Boss: "Well, you will be having one other guy help you out."
Got it done, and it exceeded the client's expectations, but that was a rough day.
and I thought 3do was hardcore stupid. We did 3 7 month games through 21 monthsof solid crunch time. And I turned out a huge amount of environmentla objects for Armymen world War, because the art director just told me what to do each day and never told me how much or when it was due.
Scott
thats it,last project manager we had was 6 months ago and he was fired for basiclly saying that these demands are unreasonable, mention design document in the office youll get laughs,testing?? whats that.
im honostly surprised this company hasnt imploded yet let alone makes the money to pay us weekly.
one last tid bit on my boss to highlight what type of intellectual he is,this is a verbatem memo we recieved one day.
and i swear im not making this up.
"Recently it has come to the attention of management that many workers are placing "post it" notes on their computers and the surrounding areas,concerned had been raised about the glue from these post it notes affecting the appearence of the computer and surrounding work area. Workers from now on are required to use magnets when placing any memos on their computer and on any area around their work station"
so basiclly that glue might affect your computers appearence so please use magnets,when i recieved this memo i literally glanced at the calander expecting to see april 1 and laughed my ass off when i realized the memo was real.
my brilliant boss
I don't know if its my worst one, but I had a pretty bad one just a week or two ago.
I get into the office and the boss tells me I need to come up with a new brochure, new verbiage & aesthetic, etc. New everything basically for a new client....In 1 hour!
THEN the owner of the company comes in, and demands I do a photo retouch for him. He says he doesnt give a crap about my deadline, and I've gotta do what he wants NOW. stop what Im doing, do his thing immediatly. So, I do it. It takes 30 minutes or so. I tell my boss, "Hey, the owner came in and made me do this thing that took up 1/2 the time I had, which already wasnt enough, I'll need a bit more time"
His reply? "I dont care. Get it done. You have....28 minutes."
I got it done, but then he complained that I didnt sort the price lists by cost in that timeframe.
win!
On San Andreas It wasn't a deadline, but there was a bucnh of characters that were being redone, a list ranging from "must be redone" to "if you get the time". At the end of my list was a beach person. I tweaked the model, edited the UVs, retextured, dropped in the skeleton and reskinned it in about 20 minutes to make the build.
That was mental
On the whole we have really well structured deadlines, full design docs and decent milestones. If the project runs late then it's usually the clients fault, because we've not missed a deadline for the past 12 months, yet all go home at 6pm nearly every day.
I think that structuring projects from the outset and getting basic timescales into check at the start, should ensure that no one in my team works overtime and we get the best quality output - when we used to make games for the OpenTV platform we had 1 project manager, 1 games designer, 3 artists, 2 coders.
But I do remember that working in Japan was crunch time everyday, once I worked with a guy 2 days solid to get some piece fo shit broadband website finished. We couldn't actually leave the office untill the boss left, because of some stupid Japanese rule. On the whole Japanese guys stay in the office from dawn till dusk but do about the same amount of work as someone who works 9 till 5, so it was very frustrating for a foreigner like me.