

Death March: The Long, Tortured Journey of Homefront (2012) - Flopsy
http://www.polygon.com/2012/11/1/3560318/homefront-kaos-studios-thq

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Rolpa
Why does it seem that every game development post mortem I come across read
like the Rocky Horror Picture Show? After reading a million and one of these
you inevitably come to understanding of what not to do - it would be nice to
find an example of what actually to do!

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Jare
Lots of postmortems on Gamasutra have a "What Went Right" section; pick a few
games you consider successful from the list below, and read what they say
about that. Of course, it's not so much about what to do, but about doing it
right: there really is no silver bullet. But in products like games, where
everything is so tangled up together, every mistake send ripples of trouble
across the entire project and team.

[http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-
postmortems/](http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-postmortems/)

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dandare
I am bit disappointed the author blames the failure partially on Peter's
Principle. As if hiring outside managers is a silver bullet, especially in a
situation where the very top management is clearly incompetent.

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newman314
Homefront is/was a fun game with IMO a great multiplayer mode. Not needlessly
complex but enough variety for a casual to play pretty easily.

It's a shame not more people are still playing it.

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LostInTheWoods2
The premise of Homefront is completely ridiculous! We're expected to believe
that North Korea ... a nation of 25 million with limited resources and a half-
starved population takes over the pacific rim and then pushes its way into
North America?

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gnarbarian
Games don't have to be believable they have to be fun. I'd say believable
games are the exception rather than the rule.

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rwallace
And that is a great example of why career advice that uses words like 'dreams'
and 'love' is such bullshit. People who follow it end up turning themselves
into little more than slaves.

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mercurial
It depends if your dreams take you in an area of the software industry well
known for long hours, terrible work practices and comparatively small pay.
AFAIK, nobody asks pentesters to work 90 hours a week.

~~~
phaus
As a network security analyst, I know quite a few former pen-testers. Every
single one of them cites 70+ hour weeks as their primary reason for getting
out of it. Its not 90, but its also not 40.

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ExpiredLink
tl;dr?

~~~
georgemcbay
Don't work in the game industry.

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markbnj
>> "At Kaos studios in New York sitting with a team that's finaling on 7-day
weeks for a couple of months. Talk about that ‘thousand yard stare’."

Geez this twitter comment from Bilson makes me so damn angry I shouldn't even
write here. I can understand why the developers freaked out. Turn the
production line grinding down of your people into process jargon. Well done,
sir.

