When's It's Done?
If you ask a first person 3D game developer when its next game is going to be released, the response is always a boilerplate: When It’s Done.  The idea of not setting release dates in stone originated back with id Software in the mid-90s.  The company was so hot that it could afford to tell the press, buyers, and a publisher, “You’ll get the game when we’re happy with it.”  In many ways, it was an ego trip to have enough clout to get away with “When It’s Done.”

Today, I’m wondering if “When It’s Done” is still a good philosophy, especially when we’ve seen a number of big games slip time and again – Duke Nukem Forever and Team Fortress 2 come to mind.  On one hand, it’s great to see a developer taking the time to get a game right.  But is a game ever really done to 100% perfection?  There are diminishing returns, and if developers aren’t careful, they could miss their window of opportunity.

Admittedly, most of these developers do have internal release date targets for a game, even if they aren’t publicly disclosed – or at least I hope there are internal targets.  We all know that whether we like it or not, most of us do our best work under the pressure of a deadline.  Without that deadline pressure, it’s very hard to keep team work ethic at the level it needs to be.  It’s not impossible to do this if the team has a great deal of passion and vision, but when a company has a group of 20 or more individuals working on a game, it’s hard to instill that vision in everyone. 

So, is “When It’s Done” still a good idea?  I don’t know.  The real judgment will come when games like TF2 and Duke Forever arrive.  If they end up being Game of the Year caliber titles, then you can’t fault the developers for their philosophy.  But if these games ends up disappointing, perhaps there’s something to be said for a more streamlined development process with specific date targets   In the end, it’s funny how that works:  “When It’s Done” probably ends up building even more pressure for a team to deliver a good product.  After all, "When It's Done" dictates that there are no excuses for a bad game.