Jeremy Heath-Smith (CEO Core - Tomb Raider) writes in Develop magazine (Feb 2004):
It was only on the last Tomb Raider that we got it right, with a complex in-house Intranet. This afforded the marketing and PR people throughout the territories a certain level of freedom within the centre of the development process; they had access to company specific details which made them feel much closer to the process. It also enabled us to feed information out at a more controlled pace. It's this sort of level of understanding and commitment that will be required to make the transition to the upcoming round of hardware.
His tips for getting publishers interested:
Timekeeping: don't be late
Have a plan: think beyond the pitch... publishers want overall team experience... look at using middleware
Have a team: your team should be already employed
Finances: if you can finance the work on a project for up to 12 months and produce an awesome demo, you immediately got to the top of the food chain... there is not a publisher in the industry who does not want to work closely with their developers... go through a company cashflow and projection with them, figuring out how you can work together to finance the project... by having your overheads covered - with a small amount of fat built in - you and the publisher have a common goal.
Posted by .M. at February 16, 2004 01:32 PM