They’ve made a TV drama about fishing (Deadliest Catch), kitchen maintenance (Kitchen Nightmares), staying at hotels (Hotel Hell), etc.

Many of us would agree that there is drama taking place in game companies as well, especially near crunch time.

If a reality TV drama about game development were to be made, what would you expect or like to see in it?

What would be the overall theme? What would be the point of tension building up to a final climax and then celebration at the end?

Cooking is not exciting in itself so chef Ramsey intentionally injects drama by yelling at and provoking people, so keep in mind that although it may be difficult to think about what could be dramatic about the creation of games, it can be artificially induced for the TV show, and enhanced with creative editing.

So think outside the box and think about what a reality TV drama about video-games would need to succeed.

A few of my own ideas are that it might need to be heavy on the documentary side as well, with a major selling point being that people get to see behind-the-scenes footage of major games pre-release. For example broken AI, interviews with designers on what decisions they made and why, etc.

The contention between some people can be enhanced and exploited for the show. In smaller studios there is often a lot more fighting between people and ego clashes. Sometimes a programmer wants to do it his way against the designer, etc.

In my first job, a fellow coworker and I got the music samples back and listened to them privately in the meeting room and agreed they were perfect. High quality and perfect for the atmosphere we wanted.

Then the CEO walked in and immediately said, “I just heard the music samples the guy sent. It’s terrible, don’t you agree? And completely the wrong atmosphere.” A perfect moment for a reality TV drama documentary (I officially coin “dramacumentary” as a word now) as we slapped our faces.

So what would you want to see in such a show?

L. Spiro

How about it was more in line with masterchef where all the people are competing against each other with different tasks set each week and then an overall winner selected at the end.

So what would you want to see in such a show?

I would not find such a program interesting. I hope no such a show ever will be made. In fact I would fear that many people would start to label all game developers from the behavior of the participants in the program.

They’ve made a TV drama about fishing (Deadliest Catch), kitchen maintenance (Kitchen Nightmares), staying at hotels (Hotel Hell), etc.

Many of us would agree that there is drama taking place in game companies as well, especially near crunch time.

If a reality TV drama about game development were to be made, what would you expect or like to see in it?

What would be the overall theme? What would be the point of tension building up to a final climax and then celebration at the end?

Cooking is not exciting in itself so chef Ramsey intentionally injects drama by yelling at and provoking people, so keep in mind that although it may be difficult to think about what could be dramatic about the creation of games, it can be artificially induced for the TV show, and enhanced with creative editing.

So think outside the box and think about what a reality TV drama about video-games would need to succeed.

A few of my own ideas are that it might need to be heavy on the documentary side as well, with a major selling point being that people get to see behind-the-scenes footage of major games pre-release. For example broken AI, interviews with designers on what decisions they made and why, etc.

The contention between some people can be enhanced and exploited for the show. In smaller studios there is often a lot more fighting between people and ego clashes. Sometimes a programmer wants to do it his way against the designer, etc.

In my first job, a fellow coworker and I got the music samples back and listened to them privately in the meeting room and agreed they were perfect. High quality and perfect for the atmosphere we wanted.

Then the CEO walked in and immediately said, “I just heard the music samples the guy sent. It’s terrible, don’t you agree? And completely the wrong atmosphere.” A perfect moment for a reality TV drama documentary (I officially coin “dramacumentary” as a word now) as we slapped our faces.

So what would you want to see in such a show?

L. Spiro

an intriguing idea, and considering the stress during crunch time, it's ripe with drama. However, personally i stear clear of this types of shows. making drama for the sake of drama is terrible tv imo. look at shows like mythbusters, or pawn stars, or even american pickers. it's not really about the drama, but humor as the people work together, their is not an overusage of editing to make it look like people are saying things they arn't actually saying. In the end, it's more about watching people have a good time with each other, instead of swearing at each other just to make "tv". I like to see teams that work together, sure their are disagreements, but don't make that the selling point of the show.

of course i seem to be in the small minority as those other shows are apparently making more than enough to stay on tv, so it'd probably be best to ignore me.

For doing the show, you could defiantly choose a small-medium sized studio, and just film them all day, an hour long episode would probably take a fair bit of editing of a week or so of footage, but i think their is potential to pull off a great show from the idea, it's just finding the balance between making it interesting, and fun to watch..

Cooking is not exciting in itself

Well, perhaps it is not completely fascinating, but at least people can understand what is going on, and there is some movement.

Watching people programming, 3D modeling, and other computer work would be really boring, because most people would have no idea what is happening on the screen.

Therefore, most of the filming would have to be in situations where people are coming up with ideas, making concept art, and recording the game music and sound FX, which are things that most people can find some interest in.

A good format would be more like each week is a sort of Ludum Dare kind of event. Each week, each team of maybe 2 or 3 people would have to make a game based on certain criteria, or a certain genre. At the end of the week, each game is judged and one of the teams goes home.

This show would be fun for game-devs and gamer-kiddies to watch, but it probably wouldn't appeal to most middle-age and elderly people like a cooking show does.

Damn, that topic would be even more interesting if it wasn't a reality drama we were talking about. Would love to see a Boston Legal like show ... kinda picking up what The Social Network did right (but completely fictional).

A reality show would need one famous person that leads the project and gives us a glimpse into the way they work and how they think (guess Carmack is the obvious choice).

A casting stage would be cool and it should not focus on drama - more on the vision and how cool any progress is.

They would show what tasks there are ... how the team tackles the challenges and, in order to appeal to me, they would have to release the code publicly as open source

(and make money another way - for example by creating and selling a very detailed tutorial series).

They could also invite VIPs for comments, reviews and inteviews.

And there could be a fan contribution part (how would the viewers solve a problem? Can they do a better job than the team? What can viewers do with the public code?)

... maybe in the main program or as a New Media Spin-Off that is somehow synced with the main show.

I don't think it would be boring or too confusing. People who don't know a lot about programming and only have a vague idea would get to see how slow progress is and how much effort goes into even simple seeming tasks.

And if there is some community aspect the indie developers who are watching could explain what is going on. They would need at least one person that can explain things very well.

Think "The Pickup Artist" without eliminations

I'm still waiting for that glorious day when the reality TV concept dies a violent, agonizing death.

When I watch cooking shows they're usually the competitions where there's some secret ingredient and the chef's have a certain amount of time to come up with something. I don't really care what techniques they use or how delicate or time consuming something is, I'm just curious to see the results and variations in quality (such as the judges are able to convey).

So, my vote is for the Ludum Dare style competition where each episode covers a relatively short project (I just don't think large scale projects will be interesting). Teams may or may not be involved but of course you'd have the people that are jerks or the underdog to root for or someone you just hope wins because they seem nice. I think a big draw would be the potential for viewers to download the results.

I cringe at what mainstream TV would do to induce dramatization. Something like this probably:

Except with more censored swearing, someone crying, and in general forced feuds of the grade school maturity level between characters.

Personally, I'd rather see more serious documentaries on game development.

Someone already did that, and it was terrible.

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Just to clarify, The Next Game Boss, from IGN, was a reality show about small teams who make games in a competitive reality tv show.