Infinity Ward wire story

[johnrose]

Video game developer tells story of rapid growth after Call of Duty success

Source: The Canadian Press

Nov 8, 2005 18:20

 

By Neil Davidson

The Canadian Press

 

Infinity Ward is hiring. Again.

 

The successful video game developer from Encino, Calif., has 12 different kinds of help wanted signs on its website, from animator and level designer to systems administrator and associate producer. There's even an opening for company events co-ordinator/concierge.

 

Infinity Ward is no stranger to rapid growth after the success of its debut title Call of Duty. The Second World War first-person shooter won a slew of awards, sold 2.6 million copies for the PC and spawned a console version (Call of Duty: Finest Hour) for publisher Activision by another developer.

 

It also paved the way for Infinity Ward's just released Call of Duty 2 on PC. An Xbox 360 version of the game will be available later this month.

 

The success of the original Call of Duty prompted radical change at Infinity Ward.

 

The company made the first version of the game over 18 months for $4.5 million US with a staff of 25. The sequel cost $14.5 million and resulted in the studio tripling in size to a staff of 75 over two years.

 

That growth raised all sorts of challenges, said Infinity Ward president Grant Collier who founded the company in August 2001.

 

Infinity Ward began with 22 developers who worked on Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor Allied Assault game.

 

``That was a real close tight-knit group of people,'' Collier, speaking of Infinity Ward's small beginnings, told the recent Montreal International Game Summit. ``It kind of had a family atmosphere. We had this real drive to be successful. We wanted to be the dominant World War II first-person shooter out there.

 

``You can turn on a dime with 25 people. . . . It's pretty intimate. You know everybody's names. You know who their wives are, their girlfriends, who their boyfriends are.

 

``That whole kind of small company culture, it's real kind of precious and dear. We tried to kind of hold on to that culture as long as we could. But once you get past 50-60 people, it's basically impossible.''

 

So Infinity Ward looked for ways to ``keep the culture positive'' while growing in size.

 

The company instituted Monday morning meetings to get everyone on the same page and allow staff to ask any questions. ``It gives people kind of a pipeline into management.''

 

They also added to management, bringing in new layers to help Collier and his two partners. Key employees from the first game were promoted to lead positions, overseeing others in their section.

 

The Infinity Ward team includes lead designer Steve Fukuda of Surrey, B.C.

 

Collier and his colleagues were careful about how they grew, mindful of the pitfalls that can accompany rapid expansion. So they brought on an on-site staff recruiter to organize hiring.

 

``That really helped streamline the process for us,'' Collier said. ``I get pulled in so many directions, I can't constantly be looking through resumes all day long. To find the good people, you've really got to spend a lot of time.''

 

A normal week involves two to three interviews. A busy one might bring six to eight.

 

Good hires take time and Infinity Ward has high standards, Collier says.

 

``A lot of people who would be a slam dunk at another company, we end up passing on them at Infinity Ward,'' he says.

 

``It's better to be really choosy than to get a few bad apples.''

 

Collier admits not all of their hires worked out, citing one problem senior programmer no longer with them.

 

Another Infinity Ward approach is to frontload difficult tasks during production.

 

``We allot a certain amount of time to tackle those. And if we don't knock them out, we just say forget about it. We'll work on that for the next game.''

 

Still Collier acknowledges his team left making the training mission too late in the development cycle on Call of Duty 2.

 

``We should have actually tackled that pretty early on. Not having a working training level made it so that when we brought people off the street and just had them dive into the game, we didn't necessarily get proper feedback from what consumers would be giving us. Because they were just plopped into the game and playing it.''

 

Collier says the current staff is all on the same page when it comes to ``the culture of excellence.''

 

``We really don't even have to tell people to work late. A lot of people on their own will decide that what they're doing is not good enough, it's not good enough to be in a Call of Duty game and it's not good enough to be part of an Infinity Ward game.''

 

While the company met all of its deadlines for Call of Duty 2, Collier says Infinity Ward will not sacrifice its standards to rush production.

 

``If there's someone else out there that wants to maybe do a churn-and-burn, you can take it somewhere else. We have spent a lot of time fostering this and we are not going to throw it away just to make a quick buck.''

 

The increase in size led to all sorts of costs, from new software and office space to flying in experts.

 

Even food. Collier estimates the company spent $1,000 a day feeding employees during crunch times.

 

Infinity Ward plans to develop two distinct development teams and is looking at new office space that will house more than 130 people.

 

Because of that growth, the company is now looking for help on the social front. There's an opening for an events co-ordinator/concierge, who will take of everything from organizing barbecues to nights out to see a band.

 

The idea is to foster camaraderie.

 

``At 25 people, there wasn't really any cliques,'' Collier said. ``As companies start to grow, you see people start to gravitate towards each other. ... The goal there is stop cliques from forming, getting people to mix with each other who wouldn't normally.''