The Euphoria of Completion

The E3 Countdown reached zero yesterday night, and without much fanfare. We expected the last days to be a mad rush to the finish line, filled with difficult decisions and exhausting days without end; but in truth, the crazy days of two weeks ago secured us a steady, pleasant ending. We're still working like crazy, mind: the typical workday lasts 14 hours, and I haven't had a weekend off in a month. But we're no longer pushing ourselves past the limit.

Now is the time I prefer in any videogame production: the finishing touches, where we pour over the content without going 'My god, we will never solve all these problems', but rather pay attention to details, and spend our time thinking 'What could make this even better?'

It's a strange mix, equal parts euphoria and exhaustion. We're really and truly a team now, spending less time arguing with each other (although there's always the occasional spat), and more time cheering each other up, laughing at some shared joke, or rejoicing at the newest cool feature to go in the E3 demo. Even our Executive Producer is now sharing in the quiet euphoria, joking with us or exclaiming at the coolness of it all.

We've entered the final stage now, where we slow down on bug fixing, focusing on what will be the final demo. In four days, we lock down the code completely and fix lingering problems before pressing the DVD and starting to think about packing our stuff for the flight.

It's a rush, and I'm starting to miss it already. But then again, I've been missing sleep for a while, now, and I don't know which I like the most.

The Last Stretch

We've been in single digits for a little while, on the E3 team. The countdown officially ends Friday, at which point we enter what is called in sports 'overtime'. (Trust me, actual work overtime has been initiated for a while now.)

Remember that Miracle Build from last week? Predictably enough, all the following builds have been hell. We ended up staying past midnight for a few nights more, to the point that we were pretty much brain-dead for the following 3 days.

But the good news is, we made it. We sent a good version to the press, as well as Microsoft. We received glowing reviews from Ubisoft's Editorial, and the feedback we received from Ubisoft's press event has been stellar. Yet we don't have time to fully rest on our laurels, as all these reviews are coming with some major "buts" attached: simply, we have some critical issues still to solve before we can call it ready for E3.

So we're entering the very difficult period where we know we're close to success, we're near exhaustion, but we can't give up just yet. Energy is starting to wane, if I can judge by the number of people who fall sick for a day throughout the remaining weeks.

Now is the time to clench our teeth, push through the stress, and turn this potential of gold into gold.

Then all that's left is to wow the rest of the industry at E3.

The Miracle Build

One of the most important, yet unsung part of making a game is the versioning. With next-gen consoles, it's even more dramatic: there's just so many people touching the code and the data that getting a good, stable version of your game every time you need one is nerve-racking. Build one version, everything is broken. Fix one thing, five new bugs pop up.

So yesterday, while preparing an important version for E3, we ran into our usual lot of annoying problems: server crashes, version-ruining last-minute bugs, use of Chinese characters in the version control software... We had it all. Around 10 PM, I thought to myself, 'Why don't we ever have a lucky build?' Why must our luck always turn to the bad?

And at 3 AM, it happened: the Miracle Build. The proof that there's a minor god for game developpers and that, sometimes, he looks kindly on his children.

Here we sat, staring at the latest version, and somehow... everything came together. Things that we tried to get working for weeks were now running smoothly. We saw some of the next-generation visual effects we have been struggling to integrate for so long, finally appear and blow us away.

In the middle of a map, the game seemed to give up on us and crashed.

"Do you think putting in your sound update can fix this?" I asked Zhang Lei, our Sound Designer.

"You know quite well this isn't a sound crash... Of course it won't fix it," he answered.

We updated the sound anyway, just for the heck of it. We reloaded the map, and now we had music on top of everything. Not only that: the map didn't crash anymore.

I grinned at Zhang Lei. "See? I told you so."

He grinned back. We both believed.

I Thought I Knew Tired

Myself, and our "Road to E3" sign
(currently at 12 days left)

Here we are, working on a Sunday for the second week in a row. E3 is in 3 weeks, and we're in full-swing, tough-as-nails crunch time.

This morning, I got up relatively early, but found myself physically incapable of putting on my socks to go to work. I was, without any exageration, mentally exhausted.

I logged on to MSN, and chatted a bit with Louis, our Lead AI Engineer, and got a quick tour of the status of the game. Louis joked around to make me feel a bit guilty, and it worked a charm: 15 minutes later, I was in the taxi on my way to work.

And here I am once more.

I've worked long hours before, and I've known stress before, but the road to E3 has shown me new levels of exhaustion and tension. It's going well, mind you; we're all exhausted as much as we're excited, about going to Los Angeles, and about showing our game to the world. It's a sign of the team bonding that many of us in the core E3 team are either quoting Arrested Development at one another all the time, or playing round upon round of Mario Kart DS whenever we have a minute.

(For more pictures of the team, you can visit Audran's photo blog here.)

Go to China, Meet the Montreal Mayor

Whew. It's been a hectic week... and it's still just Thursday.

I made the last post (complaining about my 80 hours week) on Sunday night. Don't think it was the end of it, though... Oh no. Here's a little rundown of my week so far:

Monday: Absolutely hectic day all around, lasting from 9h00 AM to 12h30 AM. Audran, our Artistic Director, keeps humming 'we're not gonna make it' all day. Insane problems continue to plague the team as journalists are 12 hours away from invading the studio. I leave past midnight, feeling guilty as hell as my team continues to work. I'm afraid my brain won't work with less than 6 hours of sleep, and I have a press presentation the next morning.

Tuesday: Get in to work at 8h00 AM, and discover that the boys have finished at 4h30 AM. On my desk are 2 X360 development kits, all neatly lined up and labelled by the guys. They're just the best. We present the game to 12 journalists from all over Europe, and all goes without a hitch. Big lunch at Nepali Kitchen, where I spend time schmoozing two cool guys from the UK. Back at the office, I have to hang around giving an interview and setting up a new one. I manage to leave at 7 PM.

Wednesday: In the office at 9 AM, after a tough time trying to get a taxi in the rain. I get there just in time for the arrival of GГ©rald Tremblay, Mayor of Montreal, on visit to Shanghai. We pose around for the cameras, and then I present Splinter Cell Double Agent to Mr. Tremblay. Radio-Canada films it, and my face is all over the evening news.

Thursday: In at 9h15, from which I proceed to do meetings and run around for most of the day. I manage to sneak in a short break when I spill some Pepsi on my keyboard and have to run to get a new one. Aaaaah... Back to the normal workday!

How was your week so far?

Overworked? Believe It.

It's Sunday night, 7h30 PM... I'm working tomorrow at 9 AM, and I'm just about over my 80th hour of work this week.

The hallowed halls of E3 seem quite far right now... I must keep up hope.

The Road to E3

Long time no write, no? As always, this happens to me when work buries me until my social life becomes a distant memory.

In the present case, it's the imminent arrival of E3 that's making me scarce. In 4 weeks, I take a plane to Los Angeles, where I will attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the Mecca of gaming. This year, there will be playable demos of Splinter Cell Double Agent X360 on display... and that means very little sleep for me and my team until then.

With 3 weeks left to our data lock, we're entering the last stretch like true sprinters. This means, essentially, that we're starting to push ourselves past the limit of our endurance, calculating it in a way that we collapse just beyond the finish line. Case in point, this week, I have already worked 60 hours, and I just got in to work this morning, on a Saturday, at 9h20 AM, ready for one more exhausting day.

At this point, the entire team is a bullet fired from a gun aimed at success. There's no time to worry about the method anymore; all we can hope for is that we're headed for the right target.

Results are pretty awesome so far, though. Still, there's 4 weeks of exhaustion between us and a post-E3 celebration in a LA hotel room. Wish us luck... and a lot of sleep afterwards.