DICE: Steve Nix on ‘Studio Survival’

At the DICE Summit, Reggie already said his piece, Phil Harrison got some bad press with his reported DICE statements, and Doug Lowenstein‘s final speech was emotion-packed. Now, it’s id’s Software’s director of business development, Steve Nix’s turn to hog the limelight.

In a recent DICE session called “Studio Survival, One Level at a Time”, he said that in spite of id’s relatively small number of staff, “leadership and company culture were the most important aspects of long-term studio health”.

He also mentioned that the games industry is in effect, “more constrained”. He also divulged more about id’s philosophy in making games, by saying:

I think we’re at ‘fast, cheap or good, pick one. You can say you’re going to do a 12-month title, maybe it ties with a movie, but the thing is, don’t plan on being cheap and don’t plan on being good also. Pick one…At id, we always pick “good.” If we turn out a game thatÂ’s not very good in one of our brands, it ultimately hurts the value of the studio. So we always focus on good. Quality is always number one.

He also emphasized the importance of having the best dev team and the best technology and that to have a team like theirs, it all boils down to company culture.

It turns out when a new employee starts at your company, they’re usually fired up, and they really want to come in and do a great job for you. If they’re in a really great organization, they look around, and if they see someone focused next to them working on the game, they tend to work on that. They mimic what they see around them.

The id director also boasts of their team leaders as he described them as the “hardest working people I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s zero burnout, there’s 100% dedication. They’re there the longest hours, they’re going to push you constantly.” And that a company should do all they can to fix leadership problems.

id Software is responsible for games like Quake (Xbox 360, PC), Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Commander Keen among many others.

Via Gamasutra

At the DICE Summit, Reggie already said his piece, Phil Harrison got some bad press with his reported DICE statements, and Doug Lowenstein‘s final speech was emotion-packed. Now, it’s id’s Software’s director of business development, Steve Nix’s turn to hog the limelight.

In a recent DICE session called “Studio Survival, One Level at a Time”, he said that in spite of id’s relatively small number of staff, “leadership and company culture were the most important aspects of long-term studio health”.

He also mentioned that the games industry is in effect, “more constrained”. He also divulged more about id’s philosophy in making games, by saying:

I think we’re at ‘fast, cheap or good, pick one. You can say you’re going to do a 12-month title, maybe it ties with a movie, but the thing is, don’t plan on being cheap and don’t plan on being good also. Pick one…At id, we always pick “good.” If we turn out a game thatÂ’s not very good in one of our brands, it ultimately hurts the value of the studio. So we always focus on good. Quality is always number one.

He also emphasized the importance of having the best dev team and the best technology and that to have a team like theirs, it all boils down to company culture.

It turns out when a new employee starts at your company, they’re usually fired up, and they really want to come in and do a great job for you. If they’re in a really great organization, they look around, and if they see someone focused next to them working on the game, they tend to work on that. They mimic what they see around them.

The id director also boasts of their team leaders as he described them as the “hardest working people I’ve ever seen in my life. There’s zero burnout, there’s 100% dedication. They’re there the longest hours, they’re going to push you constantly.” And that a company should do all they can to fix leadership problems.

id Software is responsible for games like Quake (Xbox 360, PC), Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Commander Keen among many others.

Via Gamasutra