Friday, March 09, 2007

Project: Top Secret

From Gamespot:
Earlier this month, Acclaim Games unveiled Project: Top Secret, a new massively multiplayer online game designed with the input of a community of gamers. Not only will the game give credit to all those whose work appears in the game, but one contributor will be singled out by Acclaim and entrusted with directing a future major MMO game from the company.

That's an interesting idea. It may turn into the biggest train wreck ever, and I hope the guy who manages the project plan has a Xanax the size of a doughnut to take every morning, but it's an interesting idea.

Actually, this could be a brilliant idea. Get the community invested in the project and they're much more likely to play the game when it's released. It's evergreen publicity for the duration of the development process. And I've always said that one of the cardinal principles of game development should be to remember that the community wants to help you with your game, so let them.

I think the big question here is how much rework will need to be done on user-submitted content. If that can be managed well, then this could wind up very well from a cost-to-output perspective.

Of course, saying "if rework can be managed" might be like me saying "if I could jump a foot higher, I could slam dunk."

Site Meter