Orbiting the Giant Hairball!

After attending GDC (Game Developers Conference) in March 2010 I was pointed in the direction of this book by Gordon MacKenzie. The book helps explain how creativity can be lost during the "ascension" process of ones career into corporate business. MacKenzie tells about his time spent working at Hallmark and certain obstacles he overcame regarding bringing out peoples creativity by speaking to corporate business execuitives. He tries to bridge the gap that seems to have been created in certain situations where creativity is stifled because of conformity to corporate structure. The biggest takeaways I got from this book were

1. Versatility is necessary when navigating the hairball
2. Knowing how to orbit the hairball becomes more necessary as you move up through a company
3. Motivation is one of the key attributes to being versatile
4. Assisting or allowing others to realize their abilities is more useful that telling them how it is done

I think it is important to realize that the creative industry is not something can always follow a set pattern, but it should always have a positive purpose. This is shown in different game industry companies where different methodologies are used during the course of production and different companies systems that conform to their creative team.

For example, the setting of a place can help someone come into closer contact with their creative side, as MacKenzie describes in one of his stories where he "upgrades" a section of the Hallmark company with desks, lighting and props to help bring out the creative elements of people.

As mentioned above, motivation and versatility is vital during the production process, especially in the game industry. Since there is no official production methodology written that works for every single game company there is no true way to say if something is going to work. Some developers may believe an idea and design is fantastic only to find out after it is released it was not received well.

It is not to say that a "terrible" game is always due to poor development. This happens, but it can also mean that pre-production or even production was just not what research showed. Sometimes it can just be a gut feeling, and knowing how to pitch that gut feeling to stakeholders is very important. I think this book helps the reader realize how to use that feeling to ones strength and gain the trust of your stakeholders to make your "dream" come true!