| In 2002, Greg Shaw joined Microsoft's Turn 10 Studios | | | | time they got to building Forza 3, they were making the |
| as Audio Director and Business Production Process | | | | scrum process work even better. They established an |
| Manager for a new IP (intellectual property) | | | | initial deadline of three months to build the first 30 |
| code-named "Forza." Greg already had six years of | | | | minutes of game play. They started with different |
| audio design under his belt as Production Assistant for | | | | disciplines working together with a general |
| Opcode Systems, Inc., Sound Designer for Adrenaline | | | | understanding of where the game was going, what |
| Interactive, and Audio/Video Manager and Sound | | | | the visual style would look like, what was the planned |
| Designer for Crystal Dynamics where he created, | | | | audio style, and how the audio would be supported by |
| designed, and implemented sound for interactive video | | | | art. In the first three months, they identified the |
| games. | | | | questions that needed to be addressed, the man-hours |
| When Greg began developing what was to become | | | | needed to keep it on track, and the criteria by which |
| the Forza Motorsport franchise, it was pretty hush | | | | they would judge the sound quality. |
| hush inside Microsoft Game Studios and people | | | | With the initial vision in place, Greg led the Audio |
| outside of Microsoft did not know anything about it. | | | | Program Design through a series of milestone |
| Inspired by Gran Turismo, a game on the Sony Play | | | | buy-offs. Basically, he established deliverable chunks |
| Station, Microsoft was still looking for its own voice. | | | | and oversaw contractors who were paid on delivery |
| Greg not only established the "vision" for the audio for | | | | of completed pieces (chunks) rather than by the time |
| Forza Motorsport, but he also played a key role in | | | | they spent working. Starting with the end goal, they |
| establishing the "vision" for Turn 10 Studios-the studio | | | | worked backwards and broke the time into delivery |
| that produced the Forza franchise. | | | | points. For the audio, Greg was the person who sets |
| As the audio lead and director, Greg built and | | | | and "buys off" on the deliverables-that could be a car |
| maintained innovation in the audio space as well as | | | | recording, a rough skeleton of a song, or audio |
| defined the next generation quality bar for the Forza | | | | features and code for those features. For example, |
| franchise and the racing game genre. From the | | | | Forza Motorsport 3 had over 400 in-game cars, more |
| beginning, he reverse engineered the sound of cars, | | | | than 50 ribbons (a subset of an environment such as a |
| evaluated the audio quality of the competition, | | | | racetrack), several hours of custom created music, |
| developed an aesthetic bar, and delivered | | | | several hours of licensed global car sounds such as |
| communication through prototypes. | | | | collisions and tire traction sound, and the list goes on. |
| Greg managed a staff of internal and external | | | | Through the entire design and production process, |
| contractors and secured the audio resources required | | | | Greg provided the oversight and the "audio vision" to |
| for product development. Building a video game is a | | | | ensure the sound matched the visual and the |
| complicated process of software development, artistic | | | | back-story for the game and advanced the game play |
| application of a story line or theme, and interactive | | | | for the end user. The game is by no means complete |
| game play. It generally takes two years to build a | | | | with the basic production of the software and |
| video game of this size. With any software | | | | programming. While testing the game, inevitably a lot of |
| programming design, it is difficult to define the end | | | | "bugs" can surface. Code is never perfect, and |
| results two years in advance much less stay on | | | | therefore, all software development involves bug triage |
| schedule and aligned to the original "vision." The | | | | to identify problems and "fix" bugs or remove them if |
| technical challenges were huge. Greg's job was to | | | | they have significant adverse impact on the game. |
| push the team to make a commercially successful | | | | Working with QA (Quality Assurance), the Forza |
| product. | | | | Management Team (including Greg) established a |
| Greg managed the audio for the Forza Motorsport | | | | process to identify the bugs and classify them for |
| franchise through two distinctly different software | | | | priority importance, severity, and urgency. The team |
| development processes-the waterfall process and the | | | | then got together and individuals made the case for |
| agile development method known as scrum. The most | | | | fixing or not fixing specific bugs. This meeting has |
| common process used in software design is the | | | | different names in different companies and divisions, |
| waterfall or cascading, process-meaning completion of | | | | but according to Greg, they were literally triaging the |
| one item leads naturally to the next, having been build | | | | bugs. |
| on the previous item. However, with a two-year | | | | After initial production and release of the game, the |
| completion deadline, a waterfall process could lead to | | | | work continues by designing downloadable content |
| dead ends and regressions that would use up too | | | | and add-ons. Over the eight years Greg Shaw has |
| much time and prevent completion on schedule. Forza | | | | worked for Microsoft on the Forza Motorsport |
| Motorsport 1 used the waterfall process. When Forza | | | | franchise, they have released three versions. In |
| Motorsport 2 was underway, it was obvious Turn 10 | | | | October 2009, Forza Motorsport 3 was released and |
| was growing big enough that some official change in | | | | nominated for Best Audio by GameSpot. Forza |
| process was needed, so the management team and | | | | Motorsport 3 is widely accepted as the best sounding |
| Greg began to experiment with a process | | | | racing game delivered to date. The casual game |
| management known as scrum. | | | | player might be surprised to learn the enormous work |
| In a scrum process, different disciplines work in parallel | | | | that precedes a computer video game release. For |
| rather than sequentially. The process is an agile way to | | | | Greg Shaw, working as the audio designer on games |
| hit the deadline dates. Through scrum, one aims to build | | | | offers enormous technical challenges and many |
| a bunch or modules of a game (like features) with | | | | rewards. Behind every game, there is much more than |
| smaller teams focused on just that feature. By the | | | | meets the eye-and ear. |