Of E. Coli and Game Development
Consider E. coli. You “expel” a few trillion of them at a time, ish, and that, (don’t be embarrassed) is a lot. Geneticists love them because they reproduce very quickly and they are, thanks to you, readily available. If you want to see what happens when bacteria have a mutation, you really don’t have to wait very long to study what happens to the next generation. So… imagine if every few minutes, you tried something new. If it was successful, the idea stays and becomes part of you. If it doesn’t work, who cares? You only missed out on a few minutes of Oprah, and you’ve got it recorded anyway.
Hello, I’m Jake Rodgers, one of the founders of Spacetime Studios. Just like a mutating pile of our little colon-dwelling pals, game development can be an opportunity to learn something completely new and to get better with each successful iteration. This process is essentially a guided evolution. Clearly the idea has been around for millions of years, but we’re finally adopting it as a process.
Sometimes we forget parts — such as learning from our mistakes. That’s no fun no matter who you are. Usually this is when managers are heard to say, “failure is not an option,” and the crunch cycle begins.
The reason I say our take on this is a “guided” evolution is because we aren’t just randomly poking around until we find success. We put a lot of educated guesses out there and get critical feedback as soon as possible. This isn’t because we are gluttons for punishment, but because we know the game’s design, art, and engine must be able to withstand the scrutiny of much scarier stuff than us when we launch.
As art director, my responsibility is to help our artists create the incredible universe that our designers are imagining, and our conceptual artists are crystallizing with imagery. It’s the best, most scary, rewarding, and terrifying experience of my professional life.
Fortunately, I found some others who have similar views on bacteria (and games), and started a company with them. We’re putting all these ideas to the test every day - going through successes and failures as quickly as possible, and creating a “failure-resistant” strain of game development. I’ll be checking in every once in a while to let you know how it’s going, and eventually show you beautiful pictures of something other than bacteria. 
- Jake Rodgers