Karstein Ersdal#polydev

Karstein Ersdal• 24

• 2 ½

• 7

• Ravn (ravnstudio.no)

Confession• I was late

• Other’s needs came first

• Outsider

Soul mate (noun): a randomlyassigned person somewhere in the world

The Chance of Finding Your Soul Mate

• Soul mate set at birth

• 90% chance your soul mate is

• 100 billion total, 7 billion alive now

llustration by Randall Munroe

The Chance of Finding Your Soul Mate cont.

Mythic identification of eye contact

• Few dozen people each day

• 10% of them are close to your age

• 50,000 people in a lifetime

• 500,000,000 potential soul mates (past AND future)

• You’ll only find true love in one lifetime out of 10,000

FUCK

Illustration by Randall Munroe

Enter Polyamory and Game Dev

Polyamory (poly for short)

“The practice of engaging in multiplesimultaneous close romantic relationships withtwo or more individuals with the knowledge andconsent of all partners concerned.”

consent

Mono–poly Continuum

I made this illustration

I am here

Poly Game Development Definition

"Working on two or more games simultaneously"

Poly Game Development

• Multiple simultaneous games are awesome• Genres, styles

• Variety

• # of released games

• Chances of success

• The producer in me

• You don’t have to like all your games • But it helps..

Drawbacks

• It’s also a lot of work!

• Split focus

• Prioritizing

• Some projects more «exciting»

• Jealousy

Committing

• "You just can’t commit!"

• Just the opposite!• Can’t commit to 1

• Won’t last with 2

Choosing

• Issue of soul mates: the same goes for games.

• What is the chance of «finding» a hit like Minecraft?

• HINT: Pretty fucking low

• 10+ games on Steam each day

• 1000+ games on the app store each day• How many do you hear about?

Stage gate: the first date

• We all have certain things we look for in a partner• Common interests

• Common activites

• Nice teeth

• Good/bad taste in music

• Pumpkin spice latte obsession

• Enjoyable friends/families

• Etc.

Stage gate: the first concept

• And games• Is the concept more more than 10% unique?

• Can it sell more than a 1 000 000 copies?

• Is the game easy to communicate?

• Can we make it in 6 months with 1 programmer?

• Etc.

Before the first date

Source: Lars Doucet (Fortress of Doors)

Bottleneck for a game

Source: Lars Doucet (Fortress of Doors)

Stage gate cont.

• Some things can’t be figured out just by "reading"

• You have to «try it out»

• Prototype/dating• Is the person/game as you thought he/she/it would be?

• Continous reflection• More stages

• For a temp time

Development

• Comitting

• Defining:• Laying foundations

• Boundaries

• Communication

• #Goals

• Time

• Scheduling!

• Relationships (and games) don’t: • Develop in the same way• At the same rate• At the same time

Managing time

• You only have so much time (7 days a week)

• Say you have two partners/games

• Regular day alone each week• Important for growth!

Managing time

- HERE BE DRAGONS!!!

“You can start playing the newPlaystation game, but only if you do itfor no more than 7 hours per month onalternate Thursdays.”

Yourself• Don’t forget who you are

• Time for yourself and your needs

• I know I do

• Never sacrifice your own needs

• You are the most important person in your life

Love

• You’re in a relationship with one person

• You happen to fall for someone else

• This “proves” you don’t really love the person you’re with, right?

Love

• This is the “scarcity model” of love

• The notion that love is rare

Love

• That we can only have one true love

• That our brains mysteriously shut off

• Ignorance is bliss

Communication is Success

• A successful poly relationship and game development project requires: • Trust and security from everyone involved

• Abide by the boundaries of the relationship

• Honesty

• Conscious effort

Knowing when to quit

• Bad projects

• Bad environments

• Bad relationships

• Sunk-cost fallacy• The notion that making unrecoverable investments justifies keeping/doing

something

• "The time I’ve spent developing this game/relationship means I should see it through"

Source: Dan Cook (Spryfox/Lostgarden.com)

Source: Dan Cook (Spryfox/Lostgarden.com)

ThanksClick follow on Twitter @karzt1Check out my studio ravnstudio.no