But we are talking about design decisions here, it would be micromanagement if he was getting in the middle of how things are done, not the end result.
Not every single piece of design should require signing off by a single person, though, not in large teams. If you look at interviews from Nintendo studios or 2nd party developers how Miyamoto oversees game development, it’s more like pointing out which game mechanics he things work better and should be emphasized and otherwise he’s super hands off and for the most part it’s to the benefit of Nintendo games.
Read the article carefully though, it’s mostly trying to be inflammatory. It seems ideas outside of what Bethesda usually does end up having to go through Todd because he is good at putting himself in the end user’s shoes even if he doesn’t want to be the guy with the final say in everything.
It seems more like something that happened over time as they became successful.
On big projects like this, the game director isn’t also the lead game designer. Or at least they shouldn’t. That’s the whole point of having these 2 positions in the first place
Yeah tbh the article doesn’t really help to determine how much he’s micromanaging but that’s basically where the issue lies. According to the example in the article it does sound like he’s stepping on the art director’s boundaries regarding creatures design though
He’s the game director, it makes sense that things would go through him.
Things: yes. All things: No. That’s micromanagement.
But we are talking about design decisions here, it would be micromanagement if he was getting in the middle of how things are done, not the end result.
Not every single piece of design should require signing off by a single person, though, not in large teams. If you look at interviews from Nintendo studios or 2nd party developers how Miyamoto oversees game development, it’s more like pointing out which game mechanics he things work better and should be emphasized and otherwise he’s super hands off and for the most part it’s to the benefit of Nintendo games.
Read the article carefully though, it’s mostly trying to be inflammatory. It seems ideas outside of what Bethesda usually does end up having to go through Todd because he is good at putting himself in the end user’s shoes even if he doesn’t want to be the guy with the final say in everything.
It seems more like something that happened over time as they became successful.
On big projects like this, the game director isn’t also the lead game designer. Or at least they shouldn’t. That’s the whole point of having these 2 positions in the first place
It doesn’t sound like he’s designing. He’s only (dis)approving the designers work.
Yeah tbh the article doesn’t really help to determine how much he’s micromanaging but that’s basically where the issue lies. According to the example in the article it does sound like he’s stepping on the art director’s boundaries regarding creatures design though