Wideload coming through

Game Tycoon's got details about a GDC session on the Wideload Production Model (known to the rest of us as Distributed Outsourcing). Wideload developed the recent Stubbs The Zombie using a very small core team and a whole load of third party suppliers.

Now, seeing as this is exactly what Sony et al are saying the new games creation model will be, Wideload's experiences are salient ones. To whit:

* Stubbs was based on a proprietary (and undocumented) engine, which made life much more difficult than it needed to be for contractors. Next time: go with a popular engine.
* Wideload didn'’t create a variety of reference assets before selecting contractors, which meant that contractors werenÂ’t sure what was expected of them. Unsurprisingly, some contractors proved unprepared to meet Wideload'’s standards.
* Wideload did not attempt to ascertain whether contractors were well-managed and well-funded enough to remain solvent throughout the life of the project. Duh!
* Contractors were expected to crunch when under pressure, the way full-time employees do. No such luck.
* Assets required substantially more post-production polish than normal.

And a bunch of other stuff. So, a) not the panacea for all known problems and b) that delay on the Ps3 is looking handier by the minute.