Producing Games

C H A P T E R

EIGHT

The History of Game Developmentr

The balance of power in games has transitioned over the years. While back in the day the tail wagged the dog, where a development team had more of a say and influence in the game, now as video games have become far more corporate the dog wags the tail with nearly every decision being based on the publisher’s P&L and marketing spreadsheets. This has caused a strain on the developer/publisher relationship as the two still require one another to survive. The developer needs the publisher to pay the bills, and the publisher needs the developer to create the actual game. The result is a tug-of-war ranging from creativity to process.

Video games were born out of the early days of memory-based computing ...