Survival of The Family: The Saga of Creating and Shipping The Godfather: The Game

Speakers: Michael Perry, Mike Olsen, Phil Campbell

Track: Game Design

Format: Lecture

Experience Level: All

Description: As EA's first true open-world game, The Godfather: The Game had all the markings of a title on a clear and confident path to success. But with the 1-2-3 punch of a blue sky pre-production process, an untested game engine, and a large new team, the path to success for The Godfather was long and challenging. Learn from the team's three Creative Directors how the team was able to recover from a slipped ship date, an over-scoped design, and a new team chemistry to deliver a successful game based on one of the greatest films of all time.

Idea Takeaway: Creative leaders will learn ways to collaborate with peers as partners in game design, and avoid internal strife and/or frequent mayhem. Project leaders will learn the benefits and challenges of using a diverse creative leadership team instead of an individual creative leader. Developers working on large teams will learn methods for working within the creative process.

Intended Audience: This course is intended for creative leaders and development leaders who are faced with the task of creating a very large game, as well as game developers who are working on large teams and/or are collaborating with several peers.