#consultant work

[askagamedev]

Hi! I’m a Brazilian fan of your work, and I want to thank you for all the content you share. I often see heated discussions about the role of consulting companies in game development, and I’d love to hear your perspective. In practice, how much influence do these consultancies have on making changes to a game? Do you think they have the power to shape development in a meaningful way? Thanks for your time!

Consultants have as much power as the studio or publisher gives them. When Nintendo hires a consultant to act as the team's executive producer/director (e.g. Masahiro Sakurai via Sora Ltd.), then that consultant will have as much power as a director of the project, granting him broad authority to do what he wants. When the Tony Hawk Shred team hired a physics professor to consult on the physics of skateboarding, they tasked him with coming up with a control scheme that felt like actual skateboarding. He didn't have any more power or responsibility than that. In my experience, companies hire consultants to ask them questions about their specific area of expertise and then they can choose whether they want to listen.

I suspect your question is primarily about a particular consulting company about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. These folks aren't any different from the WWII consultants that were hired by the Call of Duty team to make sure the games felt real. Consultants are usually there to provide advice and answer our questions. It is up to the company's leadership above them to decide whether to make the choice. A company like Sweet Baby Inc. is generally brought on to answer questions about the representation of people within the game they're consulting on, since that is their field of expertise. Whether the devs doing the narrative design, quest design, cinematic design, character design, item design, etc. take their suggestions is dependent on the decisions of the team leadership.

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[fiddlepickdouglas]

Saw another poll that asked what your natural hair color was with half the choices being shades of blonde and that just won't do. Let's go about this the professional way (this does not describe tone but tones are based off this level system). Some natural levels fall in between these, as human variation will do, but go with what you believe is closest.

Feel free to describe your tone in the tags!

*some level systems include levels 11 and 12 but these are strictly to describe shades lightened above a level 10 and are not considered on the naturally occurring spectrum for hair aside from going lighter with age

[wardensantoineandevka]

it's always darkly funny to me when people go on at length about how C3 is the most complex and nuanced campaign that the rest of us are simply Not Getting because it hurts our feelings or sensibilities or whatever and one of the bullet points is that it is "challenging the history and tradition of imperialism in D&D and fantasy" and I'm like in a campaign that does not engage with its Asian-inspired continent as a place instead of merely as set dressing after the prior campaign very much engaged with ITS largely European-inspired continental setting as a place?

[capitalism-and-analytics]

[violent138]

I would find it so funny if Bruce Wayne, who has an ironic and slightly ridiculous disdain for the occult, had to grapple with his kids' deep belief in the occult. For instance, if one of their siblings went missing with no leads, Bruce would insist on a new search strategy while the kids would be convinced they should at least consult a medium once to get proof of life. The medium would call out Batman for his shitty energy and Bruce would contemplate all the life decisions that led to this.

[boytransmission]

little pout

$app + top surgery fund + wishlist

[ihathbenobiwankenobied]

cody and obi-wan sitting in a LAAT/i

k i s s i n g

[turtleblogatlast]

One of the earliest examples of Leo’s “I’ll do my own thing to accomplish our goal without discussing it with my team first” is in episode one. It’s super, super quick, and ultimately inconsequential, but it subtly sets up a great precedent that I think is very interesting.

When the boys need to grab the medallion from Splinter without Splinter noticing, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie huddle together with Raph taking the lead in trying to devise a plan to get the mystic device. Meanwhile, Leo slinks away and grabs the device by clocking the situation (by knowing his father well enough to predict his actions - something he does with each family member multiple times in the series) and making a move on his own.

It works out perfectly fine, and is ultimately the best move, and it’s honestly okay that he didn’t consult everyone for something so small when it’s such a non issue to get it, but it nicely sets up how this tends to go in the series, including how it goes in the movie.

To be honest episode one is actually really good at setting up a lot of things for each character in the long run, this is just one example that caught my attention, as small and unassuming as it is.

[yourlocaltoad]

so uh I've been playing corporate clash lately 🧍

[lemonzone]

Revvington... had to draw him miserable-style for a second to heal my soul at Uni

[frostinepac3]

Art isn't really his strong suit...

[askagamedev]

Mark Darrah is back on Dragon Age as a consultant. What use does a consultant have on the team that doesn't involve sensitivity feedback (i.e., that seems low-key sexist, racist, etc)?

I think you may misunderstand the point of a consultant. Generally, a consultant is an expert in some field that a company hires so they can get questions answered. Sometimes that expertise is in things like sensitivity feedback or diversity/equity/inclusivity, but it can also be in any number of fields - corporate efficiency, a specific type of technology, economics, ancient Chinese history, military tactics and equipment, constructed languages, skateboarding physics, or (in Darrah's case) extensive brand knowledge and experience.

Companies hire consultants, often for very high fees, to answer the questions they need the specific expertise for. If a company or a person has questions they absolutely need answered, they're often willing to pay an expert to answer them. The most common situation for regular people to hire a consultant is when they have legal questions - they usually hire a lawyer to ask them the questions and get answers. A game company might need questions answered about reducing sexual harassment in the workplace, how ancient Mayans farmed, or how the Battle of Bulge went down in order to finish their project.

Relationships with consultants are usually fairly short affairs - once the necessary questions are answered and solution is decided upon, the consultant gets paid and they leave. They're very similar to contractors in that way - they are paid to join the team temporarily, do a specific thing (answer questions and/or come up with solutions), and then leave. You may have noticed that this blog is basically a (free) consulting gig for me. I've got a lot of institutional knowledge that isn't super common and that knowledge is valuable. If a company wanted my expertise to help solve a specific game development problem or answer specific game dev questions, I would charge them a consulting fee for it.

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Got a burning question you want answered?

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[betweenblackberrybranches]

Part 2 of the "reveal at work" comic for the rlgl au! bc of popular demand and because i cant handle even the slightest amount of unresolved angst apparently

Just Sun being Sun

Okay just to clarify in this version of the au they have been neighbours for a little under a year and have gotten rather close in a "will they, wont they" kind of way.

[chiprewington]

There comes times where other toons break in, assume Perry's being held captive, and attempt to fight the big bad Chainsaw Consultant in order to "free" em. In the event of this, Perry usually portholes away back to the playground, and at first would wait until the following day to come back.

Eventually, this turned into coming back in once the coast was clear and there was no longer any revving behind closed doors.

When that first happened, eir efforts to offer help- extending a gloved hand to clean off the smears of frosting, or just help tidy the office, ey were immediately met with the sole command to leave.

No eye contact was made.

Ey complied.

It'll be better, tomorrow.

[capitalism-and-analytics]