The Game Outcomes project was due to be revived this year with the goal of once again examining how different factors play into a team’s success or failure, but with improvements on its 2014-15 predecessor.
Those behind this year’s iteration, however, have called off the project. The reason for doing so is detailed in a Twitter thread postmortem. In short, its creators say that as the visibility of the project has grown “so too has the need to discuss it, defend the results, and explain what interpretations of the study can be supported by the data and which ones cannot.”
This time around, issues gathering enough responses, lack of significant correlations between new questions, and a desire for more quantitative data played a part in the decision to call it off.
But, while the 2018-19 Game Outcomes Project won’t see the light of day, the team behind it has released a number of new, interactive charts on the findings of the 2014-15 study. Devs can check out those new charts here, which include findings relating to things like the impact of voluntary overtime, team participation in major changes, studio turnover, and more on a team’s success.
The Game Outcomes Project twitter account has shared some useful insight into those new data displays as well. Meanwhile, the findings from the 2014-15 study still have useful insight to offer developers on how leadership, team structure, production methodologies, and other aspects of game dev culture contribute to a project’s outcome.
“We do not rule out the idea of revisiting the survey again in the future, but we want to ensure that the next iteration takes all of the above into account, and not only builds on the 2014-15 study, but exceeds it by a wide margin.”