Consultancy
14/09/09 18:50 Filed in: Personal
What sort of market is there for a games consultant?
I worked for Eidos as a publishing designer, giving feedback to external teams, but in that role there was always a certain element of command intrinsic to publisher feedback. Often that meant that the feedback I gave had to be general rather then specific and I didn’t feel I could really provide as much value as a consultant hired by the developer would.
Most external feedback developers get tend to be from publishing until the game is at Alpha or Beta when focus testing begins.
I actually think it can be very useful to have a fresh pair of experienced eyes come in and give a new perception on a project while it’s still in development. Detailed analysis of design documents, risk assessment and suggestions for missed opportunities in a game’s design seems like a useful services to offer, especially when the client is free to take it or leave it.
Having said that I’ve never heard of people in the games industry looking for external feedback other than focus testing, I mean everyone’s got opinions, right?
I think that there are a few aspects of design that can be managed by a an external developer (much of the story aspects of games spring to mind) but it will be interesting to see whether the game development industry is interested in design consultancy services.
I worked for Eidos as a publishing designer, giving feedback to external teams, but in that role there was always a certain element of command intrinsic to publisher feedback. Often that meant that the feedback I gave had to be general rather then specific and I didn’t feel I could really provide as much value as a consultant hired by the developer would.
Most external feedback developers get tend to be from publishing until the game is at Alpha or Beta when focus testing begins.
I actually think it can be very useful to have a fresh pair of experienced eyes come in and give a new perception on a project while it’s still in development. Detailed analysis of design documents, risk assessment and suggestions for missed opportunities in a game’s design seems like a useful services to offer, especially when the client is free to take it or leave it.
Having said that I’ve never heard of people in the games industry looking for external feedback other than focus testing, I mean everyone’s got opinions, right?
I think that there are a few aspects of design that can be managed by a an external developer (much of the story aspects of games spring to mind) but it will be interesting to see whether the game development industry is interested in design consultancy services.
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