Just finished playing Wideload’s first game, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse. As the GameRankings scoring suggests, not necessarily an earth shattering game, but an enjoyable quick play nonetheless.

Admittedly, I was less interested in the game itself and more so curious to experience the end result of Alex Seropian’s use of the “core” team structure (arguably the closest to the per project film production model). There’s actually been quite some coverage on it, and unfortunately I missed his production lecture at GDC. The IGDA’s Chicago chapter also has a nice summary of a postmortem (LOL, a doubly appropriate term) Seropian presented back in November.

As identified by Seropian as one of his main problems in producing Stubbs, a big challenge in moving toward a core+contractors/outsourcers model is the general lack of an experienced and easily accessible/engageable pool of contractors/outsourcers. For the most part, such a large chunk of industry talent is “tied up” with full-time employment contracts. It is a chicken/egg problem that is further exacerbated by the lack of geographic proximity (like in Hollywood) and ever evolving tech/tool platforms.

A funny aside, I still can’t believe that Stubbs was being blamed for promoting cannibalism. The anti-game crusaders are really getting imaginative!