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Call of Duty Video Game Producer Zach Gonzalez Talks Treyarch, Creating and Publishing Triple-A Franchises

Released Monday, 20th April 2015

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Call of Duty Video Game Producer Zach Gonzalez Talks Treyarch, Creating and Publishing Triple-A Franchises

Monday, 20th April 2015

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Today we talk with Zach Gonzalez, producer at Treyarch on Call of Duty and other huge game franchises. We talk about the business model of funding, developing, and publishing Triple A games, the ethics of first person shooters, and how crowd funding is opening up new avenues for indy game development.

Zach also talks to us about the role of the producer in gaming compared to film and other creative industries, getting work in gaming now versus five years ago, and then we settle in for some old school game nostalgia.

3:40 -The business model of big games
6:30 – Crowdfunding is blurring the model
10:10- Gambling and Video game launches
10:50 -Call of Duty
12:00- Treyarch Studio Culture, everyone is accountable and trusted
14:10- Job Desc: Project manager, dev manager, producer
15:45- Typical Day: Daily standup, Technical meetings, tech request, play test
17:53- What does it take to develop?
19:00- DLC season, additional releases
20:00- Childhood Gaming- PC game consoles
22:20- Evolving Industry- First person shooter versus top strategy
20:50- Background artist “God of War”
23:31- First person shooters “Wolfenstein”
24:40- School for computer programming background/ web design/ finally game art and design- Art Institute
26:30 Getting into the industry then and now
27:05 Build your own game
28:45 Game industry relies on word of mouth, tight knit community
29:45 Article- Computer games
32:10 Call of Duty 3 and beyond
35:10 What are the different professions in the industry?
36:45 What is lateral mobility like in the industry?
37:45 You have to train yourself and go out of your way
39:10 Juice Stop to Circuit City customer service to Blizzard
40:00 Skip all the bullshit and get into the industry
40:40 To College or not to College
41:50 YouTube University
42:15 Virtual Reality Gaming- How real is too real? (reference to Mike Murdoch)
43:00 GDC Game Developers Conference
45:35 Moore’s Law (2nd reference in show)
45:45 How real is too real? (reference to Josh Fell)
46:45 “We have already hit certain limits”
47:40 Pac man to now, it doesn’t exist it is another world
48:45 Video game, movie, both an escape
50:00 Xbox Kinect integrations and lasers
52:00 Simulation is necessary