Interesting post about the failure of Duke Nukem Forever

[C. K. Ponnappa]

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/all/1

Best,
Sidu.

[Martin DeMello]

Reminds me a bit of Dreaming in Code, the book documenting the
failure-to-take-off of the Chandler project.

martin

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 5:47 PM, C. K. Ponnappa <ckpon...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/fail_duke_nukem/all/1
>
> Best,
> Sidu.
>

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:00 PM, Martin DeMello <martin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Reminds me a bit of Dreaming in Code, the book documenting the

failure-to-take-off of the Chandler project.[..]

Some excellent lessons to take home if you're in a business. 

I did get me wondering how much of 'artistic integrity' you have to compromise to get a product out the door in time to keep your business running.


--
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in

[Kumar Gaurav]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:03 PM, Noufal Ibrahim <nou...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I did get me wondering how much of 'artistic integrity' you have to
> compromise to get a product out the door in time to keep your business
> running.
>
>

Remarkable article.

artistic integrity? I thought these guys lacked that. Borrowing ideas
left and right. The article gives me the impression that george
broussard was scared. and not in a good way.

--
Kumar Gaurav
Latest Post -- Gitting things right
http://wp.me/pbU2Q-2j

[Noufal Ibrahim]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Kumar Gaurav <kgthe...@gmail.com> wrote:

[..]

Remarkable article.

artistic integrity? I thought these guys lacked that. Borrowing ideas
left and right. The article gives me the impression that george
broussard was scared. and not in a good way.

My point was that if you have to get something to ship, you *have* to cut out features that you want. Boussard seemed incapable of making those hard choices and the fact that it didn't hurt him didn't help either.

If I had a successful pet project and I wanted to push out a sequel, I think I'd be hard pressed to just say 'that's enough, let's ship it'.

P.S. Great artists steal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU

--
~noufal
http://nibrahim.net.in

[Kumar Gaurav]

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:18 PM, Noufal Ibrahim <nou...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> My point was that if you have to get something to ship, you *have* to cut
> out features that you want. Boussard seemed incapable of making those hard
> choices and the fact that it didn't hurt him didn't help either.
>
> If I had a successful pet project and I wanted to push out a sequel, I think
> I'd be hard pressed to just say 'that's enough, let's ship it'.
>

true

> P.S. Great artists steal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU
>

I think great businessmen steal. great artists don't. regardless of
what steve jobs says . :)

[C. K. Ponnappa]

> I did get me wondering how much of 'artistic integrity' you have to
> compromise to get a product out the door in time to keep your business
> running.

When working on a commercial product a couple of years ago, I always had
a hard time reconciling my instinct to build well with what both XP and
my business sense told me I should be doing. My inclination to
beautifully factor my code always fought with my instinct to get
something out of the door so I could gather feedback as well as generate
revenue. I suppose in the case of commercial products, the latter pair
should take precedence.

Building obscure open source is easier - with no commercial angle, I can
putter away at my own pace, polishing this and buffing that. The fact
that there are no users besides myself removes the XP angle of gathering
feedback. Perhaps in this case the complete lack of success is a
blessing in disguise. :)

Best,
Sidu.