I am a student in mechanical engineering and I have recently been studying design tools. I was wondering if QFD (Quality Function Deployment) is used in the game design process in any companies you know of. What other design tools are used in the industry? I am aware that these kinds of design tools are very unpopular with some people because they feel that they stifle creativity, and that other people swear by them feeling that they help focus creative energies. I am interested in how widely they are used. Thank you [Edited by - Hakiko on February 21, 2005 10:30:27 PM]

welcome to GD forums ;)
(no idea bout the question btw)

Thanks

Bump.
I am still real curious about this.

I have never heard of Quality Function Deployment. A quick web search defines it as:

Quote:

A structured method in which customer requirements are translated into appropriate technical requirements for each stage of product development and production. The QFD process is often referred to as listening to the voice of the customer.

Given that there's almost always no distinct customer, no customer requirements, no fixed technical requirements, and no distinct stages of development, I can imagine that such a process would be difficult to apply. ;)

Actually that's a bit of an exaggeration but there really aren't all those formal steps in 98% of games that are developed. Or even in most business software.

To be honest I believe it is very unlikely that any formalised engineering-style method is applied to game programming, never mind game design. I totally disagree with formal methods for software to be honest, but that's a different story.