History Doesn't Quite Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes
You know who's reading this and saying, "So what's new?" Everyone in the movie business.
Hollywood makes every theatrical release the way Wideload makes games. A relatively small production company conceives a film project, gets a studio to greenlight it and then assembles a production team on the instant, a whole special-purpose company with hundreds or even thousands of short-term contractors. The enterprise exists long enough to complete the one project, then disbands.
The film industry enjoys a huge, free-floating population of highly skilled technicians as well as standardized working arrangements and a common culture. The game industry is still in early days in these respects, but it has key advantages over film: Few of a game's creators need be in the same location, and they are all, pretty much by definition, heavily networked. The Wideload way requires a broad spectrum of web tools. Seropian says, "We rely on IM [instant messaging], source control like Perforce or [Visual] SourceSafe, a visually-oriented game engine with easy previewing capability (i.e. artists can preview their work in-engine before submitting) and also a Wiki for organizing and sharing ideas.
"I think our work flow, process and philosophy can work for both small and large projects. We've used it on a multi-million dollar project like Stubbs and also on smaller projects. The biggest hurdle for a developer or publisher to start working this way is simply culture. Groups with a DIY [do-it-yourself] mentality find it difficult to trust and respect outside contributors."
Now Seropian is trusting contributors from way outside the gaming field. As a partner in the media company Spectrum MediaWorks, Seropian has helped create a multimedia property with the working title X Quest. X Quest is a reality TV show produced by Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment airing next year on Fox TV, and X Quest is also an MMOG for next-gen consoles and mobile phones that ties into the TV show. Players will interact with cast members, and events in each medium will affect the other.
How does Seropian find time to run two companies? Does the efficiency of the Wideload way make it possible? "I am working with some really talented people at Wideload and Spectrum both. That makes things doable for me personally on a creative and production level. Yes, our production method at Wideload is efficient, but what makes it possible for me to be involved in multiple projects is the outstanding people I have the good fortune to be teamed with."
Allen Varney designed the PARANOIA paper-and-dice roleplaying game (2004 edition) and has contributed to computer games from Sony Online, Origin, Interplay and Looking Glass.
