Postmortems from Game Developer

INTRODUCTION

Tales from the Front Line

We are only beginning to understand how to make video games.

A couple of years ago I was working at a computer game company in Los Angeles, and one afternoon I took a walk through Universal Studios’ nearby lot. I was new to the West Coast, so it was a big thrill knowing that I was standing at the physical place where movies were made. I roamed around and peered in open doorways at the cavernous sound stages stacked with pipes and lumber.

I had no idea what any of it was, but two things were immediately clear: (a) whatever they were doing was enormously complicated and expensive, and (b) they knew exactly how to do it.

Universal Studios was founded in 1912, and after 90 years of filmmaking, they have it ...