Development wastage can be eliminated, says Denki

One of games developers' biggest problems when making games is wastage - but that's something that interactive TV games developer Denki has almost completely eliminated by scaling their work to fit the time that's available, meaning that they can deliver finished games in just five weeks.

That's according to the company's MD, Colin Anderson - speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, he explained his belief that the typical approach to game design is wasteful and it's that waste that "kills most other developers". He commented how developing games for cable and satellite TV helped Denki prioritise development and keep waste to a minimum.

"You have to be able to deliver a game in six weeks, sometimes quicker. We can do that," he said. "But typical game development doesn't work like that - you start with an idea and then build it until it's finished. If that happens to be five weeks, great - but more often than not it's a lot more."

"The thing that kills most other developers as well is wastage - they spend a lot of time on things that either never get seen or never get used. But because [we] have a process that's been scaled to fit the time available, the wastage is minimal - sometimes there isn't any at all," he added.

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Denki's Colin Anderson and Gary Penn is now available.