The only reason Marine Aquarium has been so successful is that it's a one-man operation. Over the years, major software companies have assembled teams to try to duplicate it. The two largest companies abandoned the project after a few months (one ended up licensing mine). I have worked on such teams - Cinemaware, for example - and in my opinion, it's difficult or impossible for a collection of individuals to really produce anything great. They are far too concerned with politics and power-trips. It always comes down to "Who are the monkeys?" The programmers see themselves as the geniuses, creating elegant algorithms which only need some monkeys to throw some pixels together so that their creation can be displayed on a computer screen. The artists have the opposite viewpoint. They see themselves as the Creators of magnificent visuals, and only need a few monkey code-writers to move their animations around.
Each group battles for power, and is frustrated by the stupidity of the other, so very little real communication takes place. Only when the two types live in the same brain do they respect each other enough to accomplish much.
Last edited by Jim Sachs; 02-09-2010 at 08:50 PM.
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