Video: Making a game while struggling with obsessive compulsiveness

In this GDC 2013 video, 24 Caret Games co-founder Matt Gilgenbach delivers a personal postmortem on how his obsessive-compulsive behavior led to a crunch-heavy, four-year development cycle for the PlayStation Network and PC rhythm reverse-shooter Retro/Grade .

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free lecture reflects on the 750,000 lines of code in the game and the personal sacrifices Gilgenbach made to maintain 80-hour work weeks. But one lesson learned, he says to question the extra time spent on features, to debate if they will increase sales or at least impact the player's experience.

Session Name: Obsessive-Compulsive Development: Retro/Grade Postmortem

Speaker(s): Matt Gilgenbach

Company Name(s): 24 Caret Games

Track / Format: Independent Games Summit

Overview: Retro/Grade was featured in the 2009 IGF, with nominations in Excellence in Design and Excellence in Audio. After almost four years of grueling crunch, the game was finally released to positive reviews. Although 24 Caret Games was silent during development, Matt Gilgenbach will now talk about what went wrong on the project and in his personal life, as his obsessive-compulsive disorder caused development to spiral out of control. He will also discuss what he learned from the mistakes on Retro/Grade , and his new and healthier approach to indie game development.

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