What is the process for introducing new game or design ideas? Is there a formal process - like a scheduled weekly meeting where studio heads can introduce ideas for discussion and approval or is it more informal?asked by Juris Storm

I think it's both!

Yeah.

We certainly have a weekly leads meeting where all of the studio heads and department leads meet. We meet over Skype we discuss what we're doing and we discuss ideas and those get kicked around. But then we also have, Chris will come up with ideas and tell us what his vision is, and then we'll carry that forward. We have a design council that kicks around ideas, and then we also have the players in the community - we constantly read the forums and listen to ideas that are coming from the players. So, it's a little bit of everything.

Yeah. I was gonna say, one thing I've observed at this company is like, way back in the day when I was starting in QA it was always kinda frowned upon to put in your suggestion bug, but I would say that this company is super open. Like, Chris especially is super open to QA feedback, and he's always trying to get QA reports, QA feedback. What's the balance like? What's the feel like? So, I think ideas come from all places.

I agree. I've always had that philosophy through my whole career - a good idea can come from anywhere. You don't have to just be a designer to have a great idea.

A lot of our stuff just comes organically anyway, and right in the middle of a meeting we're always like, "you know what? Maybe we can tackle it this way instead?" or "We found that this didn't work, so why don't we come up with this type of missle, this type of gun." So, there is informal process to it.

Well, and there's just the process of playing the game itself.TD & DV: Yeah.

I mean, we have company-wide play tests where everybody jumps in and plays, and then afterwards they give feedback and from that feedback we come up with more ideas.[Everyone nodding in silence]

Killed it.

Alright.

Indeed.