Vanguard Development

Yesterday I came upon this 1up post summarizing recent happenings in the MMO world. The primary topic of discussion was Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and its development process at Sigil Games. 1up linked to two interviews at F13.net, an MMO-focused blog. The interviews are with an anonymous Sigil ex-employee and Brad McQuiad, CEO of Sigil games. Each interview casts very different lights on the development of Vanguard. One thing both agree on, though, is that development did not go smoothly. Apparently, development of Vanguard didn't kick in until a year before release, even though it was in development for four. The employee attributes this to the lead designers, including Mcquaid. Mcquaid himself attributes development difficulty to publisher funding and support. After reading both interviews, I think there is validity to each person's argument. I would highly recommend both interviews, they're enlightening. But the reason I wanted to bring this up is because, honestly, it was jarring. Its easy to get caught up in design and forget about development. Game development is the practice of game design. I love game design, but development is what causes all of those great ideas to come to fruition. Design is only half the battle to making a great game. Check out those interviews. The 1up story is really good also.