Three Unusual Ways Video Game Creation is Like Making Amazing Bourbon
You break the seal on that latest video game, and you can smell the new plastic — it’s similar to breaking the seal on a bottle of bourbon and sniffing the bouquet that wafts to your nose.
It’s the anticipation of a new release and your midnight run to the video game store or online, and it’s the similarities of waiting for that new bottle of bourbon to be delivered or picked up.
Sitting down in a comfortable chair and playing a game you have been waiting for for months is one of the few simple pleasures — almost like sipping on that dram of bourbon — but bourbon is without all the annoying system and game updates.
I’ve been making bourbon for nearly three years, and I’ve noticed some correlations between making that AAA video game and making some award-winning bourbon.
Grab two-fingers of your favorite spirit (mine just happens to be bourbon), and let’s sit, drink and chat around a roaring fire with a couple of our favorite games.
Bourbon Maturity and AAA Video Game Development Cycles are About the Same Length
A video game usually takes a development team between one to five years to complete the game. For a AAA video game that isn’t a sports game, the development cycle is closer to 3–5 years.
“Preproduction” is when most of the game’s concepts and pillars are created, usually taking 6–9 months. Upon a green light, the development team can move into production and the multiple game development stages. The finishing touches occur during the alpha and beta stages, where developers get user feedback and make refinements. Again, this is a process that will take several years.
So how about the bourbon angle — is my favorite bourbon the same age as some development time from my favorite studios?
Bourbon has a couple of different minimum timelines as industry standards — a bourbon can be called “straight” after two years in a barrel. After four years in a barrel, bourbon doesn’t need an age statement (this tells how old the bourbon is). And if bourbon is labeled as “bottled in bond,” it also needs to be at least four years old. If bourbon is a blend, then the youngest bourbon in the blend is the bourbon’s age (e.g., a four-year bourbon and an eight-year bourbon are blended, the age of the blend would be four years).
During the development cycle of a video game, the QA team is continuously testing the game — this is similar to what a distiller does with bourbon. The QA team highlights incredible features, and the developers iterate on those features — in the bourbon world, as a barrel ages, some are better than others. When a distiller finds a good barrel by constantly testing — he can see that a “honey barrel” (a barrel with perfect qualities) will be better with age. Also, via testing, the distiller can eliminate barrels that may need more time or aren’t working out — just as the QA team would with features and bugs.
Throughout this timeframe, with constant testing and refinement, the game and the bourbon hopefully will get better under the watchful eyes of the team, so when it hits the shelves — it’s worthy of the time it took to create.
Awesome Bourbon and a Game Development Team Need the Right Ingredients
Game development is a long process, and you spend many hours with the team members that you grow to depend on to get the game done. Most studios hire for a culture fit since they realize that everyone needs to pull their weight, and conflicts in the workplace need to be minimized. Game development is sometimes highly stressful, and during these times, the team’s integrity depends on cool heads and resolving the problems that occur correctly.
How about the ingredients that go into the glass of bourbon? How are they akin to the right blend of personalities on a development team?
Bourbon is a blend of grains — by law, bourbon has to be at least 51 percent corn. Corn is a broad definition, and for corn that is “heirloom variety” (which means the corn has been passed down for 50 years and is open-pollinated). There are over 200 different varieties of corn grown in the United States alone. Picking the right corn is essential, but bourbon usually has a couple of other grains added to give it some variety — these grains are usually rye (which has spicy overtones) and malted barley (which is sweeter and aids in fermentation).
A distiller can mix these grains in any percentage to make bourbon — different types of grains beyond just rye and barley can be added — some four-grain bourbons add wheat or rice. In video games, the studio is made up of different types of disciplines which comprise different percentages of staff — art is usually the largest pool of talent, followed by the engineers, the designers, and then management. Depending on the game’s size and scale, internal and external contractors and QA could easily exceed the core game development staff size. Also, you have the publisher staff that supports your title.
A balanced mix of personalities will give your game studio the flavor it needs to be an engaging working environment and desirable for other developers to want to be employed there. Just as it is with bourbon — the right blend makes an outstanding bourbon and one that will be coveted by collectors.
Completing an Epic Game and Putting Your Unique Stamp on a Bourbon With a Unique Twist
After three or more years of development, the most challenging part about creating a game that will stand the test of time is to get that game in the box with the same care and precision used throughout the process. Quality assurance, the developers and the publisher take the extra hours to make sure the magic stays with the player for years to come — to make that legendary title.
During the Alpha and Beta stages, the public can give input on the game and help with the development process. The beginning of the Alpha process consists of closed playtests with the publisher. The publisher can provide feedback that will help with the public’s reception of the game when it is released. The next phase of Alpha is usually small playtests with fans or people who sign up for the Alpha (since the build may have various issues) — the number usually increases over time. During this entire Alpha period time frame, the developers are frantically making changes based on the user feedback and retesting the game — the process of “hardening” the final build has begun.
During Beta, the game is usually hammered on by many players, and for most games that have servers or “backends,” these backend systems will be tested as more and more players are let into the game. To prevent server overload, there is usually a “closed” Beta phase where large groups of players are admitted but are capped through keys — and an “open” Beta phase where anyone can join. The game is usually 90% completed, and the developers are looking for mostly minor tweaks or server fixes. However, this is sometimes not the case, and the game development studio may delay the game. Regardless of the outcome, the game at this stage is “finished.”
How is this process similar to making bourbon? Bourbon can stay in the cask (barrel) initially put into, or the distiller can finish it in a different cask that adds another bouquet of flavor to the bourbon. Some popular cask finishes are:
Portuguese Wine
French/California Wine
French Wine
Spanish Wine
Spanish Sherry
French Brandy
This finishing process usually starts after the bourbon is two years old, so that it could be classified as “straight bourbon”. Curious enough, in the video game world, the game starts to come together after the second year — so the extra effort to get that game to stand out is similar to finishing a fine bourbon. The Alpha phase signups can start a year from project completion, and Alpha playtests usually begin nine months before ship.
Pour One for the Developers and Distillers
Distillers and game developers make unique products, and their products need to mature, have the right ingredients, and have the time to be finished correctly. When your favorite game studio announces a delay — it’s not because they want to put the project on hold — it’s similar to a distiller saying, “We need to age this a little longer — it will be a better product.”
Care, diligence, and love are put into games and bourbons, and the teams behind these multi-year projects only want to give their fans the best product possible.
