How Many Programmers Does it Take to Put in a Light Bulb?
by Jerane Alleyne · in General Discussion · 02/02/2001 (8:01 am) · 4 replies
Many games that I see, in their team structure, are usually having only one, or sometimes two programmers. In comparison to maybe five or six artists, and maybe three level designers, more or less. In either case, there always seem to be a disproportionate number of programmers in relation to the design area.
I can understand why there are multiple people in the creative area, but why are there often fewer in the programming area? I'm guesing that its more convenient to have one person doing the code to keep from tripping over each others' work...too many cooks and all that. Or is it that they are skilled ot handle all areas of the game?
Thanks a lot :)
Jerane
I can understand why there are multiple people in the creative area, but why are there often fewer in the programming area? I'm guesing that its more convenient to have one person doing the code to keep from tripping over each others' work...too many cooks and all that. Or is it that they are skilled ot handle all areas of the game?
Thanks a lot :)
Jerane
#2
In my experience on big 3D simulations the artists tend to out number the programmers but rarely by more than 2:1 usually 3:2 or less. On Starsiege we had 8 core programmers, 15 or so artists, 2 designers, 1 writer, 5 mission scriptors and several others on support teams (audio, QA, etc). When you get this many people working on the same thing it is critical to be very organized, have well difined and understood tasks and most importantly USE VERSION CONTROL! Use it to manage code and art!
Recently Tim and I have been using CVS but in the past we have used Perforce. I think we would still be using Perforce if it wasn't for the $600 per seat. To give you an idea of how much I believe in version control I even use it on my personal projects where I am the only one programming on the code. This web site is even managed with CVS.
--Rick
02/02/2001 (1:05 pm)
The ratios really depend on the project. In my experience on big 3D simulations the artists tend to out number the programmers but rarely by more than 2:1 usually 3:2 or less. On Starsiege we had 8 core programmers, 15 or so artists, 2 designers, 1 writer, 5 mission scriptors and several others on support teams (audio, QA, etc). When you get this many people working on the same thing it is critical to be very organized, have well difined and understood tasks and most importantly USE VERSION CONTROL! Use it to manage code and art!
Recently Tim and I have been using CVS but in the past we have used Perforce. I think we would still be using Perforce if it wasn't for the $600 per seat. To give you an idea of how much I believe in version control I even use it on my personal projects where I am the only one programming on the code. This web site is even managed with CVS.
--Rick
#3
Its interesting about what you say regarding the schedule of programmers, I'm an artist, and I find myself on a 'sleep in the PM, work in the AM' routine. I don't work on anything real until after 12AM, and go to sleep about 1pm. It probably doesn't help that I'm managing the project, doing animation, modeling, concept designs, and dipping my hand in as many aspects as possible.
For our team, we have 2 modelers(including me), 3 level designers, 2 programmers, 2 concept artists, 1 Tester and 1 game concept/storywriter. For some reason I think we're gonna need more programmers before we're done :)
02/08/2001 (8:47 am)
Thabks for the information about version control. I'm gonna make use of that :)Its interesting about what you say regarding the schedule of programmers, I'm an artist, and I find myself on a 'sleep in the PM, work in the AM' routine. I don't work on anything real until after 12AM, and go to sleep about 1pm. It probably doesn't help that I'm managing the project, doing animation, modeling, concept designs, and dipping my hand in as many aspects as possible.
For our team, we have 2 modelers(including me), 3 level designers, 2 programmers, 2 concept artists, 1 Tester and 1 game concept/storywriter. For some reason I think we're gonna need more programmers before we're done :)
#4
02/08/2001 (11:20 am)
I gotta put in a little plug for CVS as well. If you can set up a CVS repository on a Linux server and then use WinCVS to access it, it really helps. WinCVS can be found at www.wincvs.org, the other nice thing is, it allows you to, say, at some random computer with an internet link (if your CVS repository is connected) just do 'cvs -d user@domain.com:/path/to/repository checkout Project' and boom, you have your whole project there to demo, work on, or whatever. It's really convenient.
Torque 3D Owner Pat Wilson
There is also a time delay with artwork that doesn't come with (all) aspects of programing. You write, say, a model loading module...it either works, or it doesn't. Where as, an artist making a grass texture may have to make it a few times because while it may 'work' for him, it doesn't fit where it's supposed to go. Just think about your favorite Quake/Half-life/Tribes/Whatever level. A *lot* of textures and models went into that. And then a lot more play testing.
Having never really done any of the art-part of games, I don't exactly know what it's like, but I do have a lot of respect for the people who do it, and do it well.