(Editor's Note: It is not the policy of Gamasutra to remove features unless they contain untrue or inaccurate statements. While Andy Evans' Sheep Postmortem contained no factual errors, it has been removed at the request of the author. Andy explains his decision in the following letter.)
I, Andy
Evans (the author) have asked for the Sheep Postmortem to be
removed.
This
document was posted for games makers to learn from our mistakes on
a single project, not for people to judge the entire company. This
Postmortem deals with the one and only project from Minds Eyes that
went over budget or deadline.
My glib
remark "not everything went wrong: O.K. it did" was meant
to be humorous. For every one thing that went wrong, ten things went
right. You should learn from your own (and our) mistakes. That is
why I listed the mistakes in such detail and glossed over the successes.
Sheep
is in the past. Both Minds Eye and I have moved on. The document was
in no way intended to reflect on any other project that was running
concurrently with, or since, Sheep.
As stated in the document, until the project for which I was the producer
started, Minds Eye had a prefect record for delivery, quality and
budget. It may be of interest to note that the three other projects
running concurrently with Sheep all finished on time, on budget,
and to the client's satisfaction and Minds Eye have not missed since.
I would like it to be known that Minds Eye have an excellent crew. I would like it to be known that Sheep was originally a "little" game for us to cut our teeth on. It caught the imagination of everyone who saw it. It became big. I made the statement that new people should not be put in mission critical positions. When Sheep was small it was not a mission critical game. The use of new people was valid.
The
document in no way reflects the current situation at Minds Eye.
An apology: Also note that through a bad choice in phrasing
I may have inadvertently slandered our publishers. It may have looked
like I accused them of not paying the final balance on the game. This
is not true and I take full responsibility for the error and I apologize
completely and unreservedly for any offense I have caused. Minds Eye
was paid in full and as per the game contract.
I say again. LEARN - DO NOT JUDGE.