[jacques_chester]

> The problem is that each step in the process is variable, and it's not variable by a small amount but potentially up to a magnitude. That's the problem.

That's not unique to game development. Or software. Or any industry, really.

> The second problem is that the industry does not pay for reasonable estimates, they want imperfect unreasonable estimates which are very conservative with which to beat the employee or the contractor over the head with to force overtime and crunch.

Of course, but that's because the estimate is not being treated as an estimate. It's being treated as a plan, or a goal.

I read a book called Industrial Megaprojects in which the author, talking about civil and industrial projects on a gigabuck scale, lamented the same problems.

[marcosdumay]

> That's not unique to game development. Or software. Or any industry, really.

Yes, it is. It's not literally unique to software, because R&D and "nobody ever made something like this" projects share it, but most industries don't.

[Macsenour]

In games we HAVE to push things forward, we HAVE to innovate or seen as a copy of an existing product. That being said, that's what "Pre-Production" is all about, answering the questions that are new to this project.

In the piece it says something about "needing more windows", that isn't what I'm talking about. That's just poor game design at the outset.

I was refused an interview once because they were looking for the exact person who had done a hit title, he "obviously knows what he's doing". The product in question was 2 years late and 1.4 million over budget. I said: "I can do that...". I think the game industry is unique in that we're often hired, or not hired, based on how famous the title was that we worked on last.