"You've Got 90 Seconds...."

I was talking on the web phone to one of my clients yesterday, trying to persuade him to give his team project a bit more time. I added that releasing the game in its current state would be commercial suicide : after a very heated discussion, he agreed to sleep on it and resume discussions on Monday. Relieved and tired after a busy week, I flopped onto the sofa and lazily scanned the TV channels for some good old entertainment : I ended up watching "America's Got Talent", the latest reality TV hit show where 3 "celebrity" judges vote, criticise and demean the efforts of amateur singers, dancers, magicians and comedians who are all competing for the top prize of one million dollars. It suddenly occured to me that , if you swapped the artists with game developers/publishers and made them sell their game to the media the same way, the end result would not be very far off from how the business works in real life... Confused? Well, think of it this way :

- The three celebrity judges represent the games media : the journalists that can make or break your "act" : if you dont have them on your side then you are in big trouble : they will push their big red buzzers which make distracting grating sounds and stop you in your tracks. If you happen to make it through the 90 seconds allowed then you are in with a chance...sleeping with the judges or bribing them for good reviews sometimes helps though!

- And what do these judges really know about what it takes anyway? Piers Morgan, a former successful newspaper editor, David Hasselhorf, an adequate actor and awful singer who got lucky when he discovered Pamela Anderson looked quite good in a red swimsuit, and Sharon Osbourne, daughter of Don Arden, one of the most succesful music industry managers ever...good start for her career in the same business.. what do they know ? The honest answer is : it doesnt matter ! The show is essentially entertainment and they are well known so its their faces and characters that sell the show.

- If you get the crowd on your side (or the game buying public) then that might influence the judges to change their mind. After all , no-one wants to upset the public, do they? We need their money!

I could go on forever making comparisons but the point is this : you dont get a second chance nowadays so tread carefully before you step out onto the stage! Yesterday, for example, I played a demo of "Crash Time " a racing game made by RTL games. In an already overcrowded and competetive racing market, this game looks, sounds and plays like an overgrown wart on my ingrown toe nail! (I wonder if the audience and people at home will laugh at that comment?) - it contained some ok ideas but presentation wise, I was asleep at the wheel after 30 seconds. Hit the buzzer... "NEXT PLEASE...!!!!!"
Wounded pride and lots of tears from the stage, no doubt! But as Simon Cowell says: "No-one makes or forces them to get on that stage in front of millions of people and humiliate themselves!". It does seems such a huge waste of money and resources though ....