Geek Woman: What types of work do you do?
Rose Hunt : I project manage the programming and multiplayer teams on Saint's Row. This includes duties like creating schedules, conducting team meetings, assessing risk areas, and keeping all the various lines of communication between the team and management flowing. Perhaps the most important work that we do is keeping in touch with the morale on the team and providing encouragement.
Anne Odom : As a project manager, my key role is to assist in project planning. The production team on a project at Volition consists of the leads for each discipline (art, design, programming), a team of producers, and a team of project managers. The leads, producers, and project managers work to plan the development of a project together. Project managers are responsible for taking the ideas, dreams, and visions of the rest of the leads and producers and turning them into a timeline, schedule, and list of tasks that can be completed by developers. A lot of iteration happens here - elements that don't fit in the timeline need to be revisited by leads and producers. If they are needed to make a competitive game, then managers need to revisit the timeline. As the project progresses, one of the most important tasks we perform is simply helping everyone to be aware of the effect of adding, cutting, expanding, or modifying elements of the game.
Anne Odom : In addition to that, we support the developers on the team by keeping their schedules accurate and relevant, tracking work that's been finished, and make sure the work being done now is still moving the product in the direction it needs to go. We facilitate communication between disciplines, strike teams, and individuals, and we work to ensure that everyone has the work environment they need to do their best work.
Geek Woman: When will Saint's Row be released?
Anne Odom : THQ announced today that the game will ship in the September quarter.
Geek Woman: Will it be released for the other 2 next gen consoles?
Anne Odom : Ack - I can't even think about that right now. All that can fit in my head is everything I need to do to help developers release it for this console.
Rose Hunt : I really couldn't say at this point. We're concentrating on getting it polished up for the XBox 360. Though, I hope so. It would mean more people would get to play our game.
Geek Woman: Ok there is a female character in the logo, is she playable?
Anne Odom : There is not a playable female character in the game. The main character is a fully customizable male character.
Anne Odom : It was determined early on that adding an additional gender with the level of customization that we were planning would not be possible considering the overall scope of the game. There's always a list of great things that everyone wants to add to an already great game, and sadly, it's just not possible to fit all of them in.
Geek Woman: So there is no female lead character?
Anne Odom : I'm not sure which logo you were looking at - so much art has been released that I don't really know which characters are out there. We do have a good selection of very interesting female characters who are integral to the story - they're great, and I have posters of them in my office.
Rose Hunt : The character you see backing up the logo on the website at this time (February '06), is Tanya Winters. She's not a player character, but is a wicked lady with a key role in the Vice Kings gang. Another woman to look forward to is one of the player's homies, Lin.
Rose Hunt : I project manage the programming and multiplayer teams on Saint's Row. This includes duties like creating schedules, conducting team meetings, assessing risk areas, and keeping all the various lines of communication between the team and management flowing. Perhaps the most important work that we do is keeping in touch with the morale on the team and providing encouragement.
Anne Odom : As a project manager, my key role is to assist in project planning. The production team on a project at Volition consists of the leads for each discipline (art, design, programming), a team of producers, and a team of project managers. The leads, producers, and project managers work to plan the development of a project together. Project managers are responsible for taking the ideas, dreams, and visions of the rest of the leads and producers and turning them into a timeline, schedule, and list of tasks that can be completed by developers. A lot of iteration happens here - elements that don't fit in the timeline need to be revisited by leads and producers. If they are needed to make a competitive game, then managers need to revisit the timeline. As the project progresses, one of the most important tasks we perform is simply helping everyone to be aware of the effect of adding, cutting, expanding, or modifying elements of the game.
Anne Odom : In addition to that, we support the developers on the team by keeping their schedules accurate and relevant, tracking work that's been finished, and make sure the work being done now is still moving the product in the direction it needs to go. We facilitate communication between disciplines, strike teams, and individuals, and we work to ensure that everyone has the work environment they need to do their best work.Geek Woman: When will Saint's Row be released?
Anne Odom : THQ announced today that the game will ship in the September quarter.
Geek Woman: Will it be released for the other 2 next gen consoles?
Anne Odom : Ack - I can't even think about that right now. All that can fit in my head is everything I need to do to help developers release it for this console.
Rose Hunt : I really couldn't say at this point. We're concentrating on getting it polished up for the XBox 360. Though, I hope so. It would mean more people would get to play our game.
Geek Woman: Ok there is a female character in the logo, is she playable?
Anne Odom : There is not a playable female character in the game. The main character is a fully customizable male character.
Anne Odom : It was determined early on that adding an additional gender with the level of customization that we were planning would not be possible considering the overall scope of the game. There's always a list of great things that everyone wants to add to an already great game, and sadly, it's just not possible to fit all of them in.
Geek Woman: So there is no female lead character?
Anne Odom : I'm not sure which logo you were looking at - so much art has been released that I don't really know which characters are out there. We do have a good selection of very interesting female characters who are integral to the story - they're great, and I have posters of them in my office.
Rose Hunt : The character you see backing up the logo on the website at this time (February '06), is Tanya Winters. She's not a player character, but is a wicked lady with a key role in the Vice Kings gang. Another woman to look forward to is one of the player's homies, Lin.
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