Destiny

Matthew Colon September 23, 2020

What do you think of Destiny?
What key themes did you observe?
What did you learn about the developers?
What surprised or stuck out in their story?
What similarities do you see in your project?
Have you ever worked on a project that lacked unified direction?
“The biggest differentiator between a studio that creates a really high-quality game and a studio that doesn’t isn’t the quality of the team, it’s their dev tools. If you can take fifty shots on goal, and you are a pretty sucky hockey player, and I can only take three shots and I’m Wayne Gretzky, you’re probably going to do better.” That’s what tools are: how fast you can iterate. … “It’s the least sexy part of development, yet it’s the single most important factor there ever is. Good tools equals better game, always.”
1. Was this statement a surprise?
2. Do your tools allow you 50 shots or 3? If 3, how can you get to 50?
3. What about your timeline and budget? Are you only giving yourself 3 shots or 50?
Based on the Dragon Age: Inquisition session, do you think Destiny suffered from a lack of pre-production? Why or why not?
Next the Iron Bar and Blacksmith groups ripped into each mission of the game that Bungie had already created, splicing together old ideas and encounters to form the chimera that was Destiny’s new campaign.
1. If you were to make this call on your game, would you think it had a high chance of success or is a hail Mary?
2. How does the frakenstory contrast with Naughty Dog’s index wall of story beats?
“I think the real story of Destiny’s development is that just making any game is incredibly hard … huge assimilation and communication problems on a team, you end up wasting so many resources and so much time that you see it in the final game.”
1. How do you respond to this statement as it relates to the previous games we’ve studied and your game?

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Participants 401

Destiny

Matthew Colon September 23, 2020