If I Ever Feel Better - Thursday, April 05, 2007
Last week Alex wrote mentioning
we are in the final stages of developing the game, a time of late nights and loss of sanity. Well, its now another two weeks after that and were hitting that period of lucid clarity brought on by the extra special mix of late nights, weekends and one intense problem-solving session after another. We only make sense when speaking to each other, but boy are we getting a lot done!
It is at these times that song lyrics really start speaking to me - you know, like when every song is speaking directly to you. Working on SingStar, you can imagine there are a lot of songs around, so you could say I have a lot of different voices in my head right now...
At the very end of developing the original SingStar, there was a song that I listened to every single day on the way to work, for about a month. It was If I Ever Feel Better
by the Phoenix.
It goes something like this
They say an end can be a start
Feels like I've been buried yet I'm still alive
It's like a bad day that never ends
I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don't try to deny
I'd better learn to accept that
There are things in my life that I can't control
Sounds like self-help therapy for a Producer, and it sounds like things were kinda bad doesnt it? Well, it wasnt really so bad
. Any developer reading this, or anybody whos worked on a long, collaborative project that youve given your heart and soul to, can probably relate to that feeling. Its difficult because you want things to move more quickly and its exciting because you can see that something really great is just around the corner.
But theres another part of this song that really rings true. The line: They say an end can be a start too true. Now that we have come to the end of the project, I feel like weve got it all figured out and it feels like now we can really start. Like, Yeah, now we all know what were doing, lets make this game! Should this worry me, or maybe my team, or even my boss? I hope not...
I think that is what game development is all about. I dont think you can ever really know exactly how things are going to come together, until you finish. Yes, you can have early prototypes and slices of gameplay, but when all the work finally comes together and works like its supposed to and its actually better and more fun than you expected that is excellent! I can feel this feeling coming on
So what exciting things can I tell you about the game.
The SingStore is up and running here in the studio, and weve got hundreds of songs to download, at our fingertips. Finally we can browse through hundreds of songs and download exactly the tunes we want its fantastic to have the variety and choice.
Were also starting to think about all the less known songs that we want to put up there. Its all digital now, so space is no longer at a premium. We no longer have to agonize over the perfect 30 songs on the disc and were looking forward to having some fun with it.
I recently had a request for the band The Pixies from a journalist and it would be great to know what everybody out there wants, so if you have any special requests, let us know in the comments to this blog.
In the meantime, heres another cool song from the Phoenix.
Paulina Bozek, Game Director
