News Feed
May
Managing expectations25
I dare you to find a game developer who doesn't think they can do it better. The "it", of course, meaning "everything", from coding, art, game design, management. If game developers are to be believed, fantastic games can be made by them alone, if only they got a chance and didn't have to deal with the "idiots". Let's face it, this is more or less why we went indie. A healthy dose of arrogance and self-belief is essential to making that huge step from being an employee with a monthly paycheck to becoming a risky, financially insecure start-up. However self-obsessed we were (and are), we were luckily also fairly realistic. It wasn't going to be easy, we knew. And though we agree on the major issues, we have disagreements regularly which, I'd like to think, keep us grounded and on track. Too much back-slapping can lead to a blindness in purpose.
Though we have all taken lead positions in several forms over our careers, management is something that has been fairly new to us, and as such has been somewhat of a weak point that manifests itself in different ways. In fact, the funny Youtube links we used to share with each other have slowly been replaced by links to interesting articles on management. The more we read about management, the more it's obvious it's not something that can be learned, but something that has to be ingrained, slowly, over time and with experience, and is intensely personal. For every nugget of wisdom, as we see it, that we read concerning management there are many more that preach management fundamentals that we either wholly disagree with or simply wouldn't work for us or our company strategy.
One aspect of our business that good management would have helped us with is that of focus. I'm talking personal focus here, not business, which I believe we are all pretty much agreed on. No, personal focus is an issue that we are still trying to tackle.
A major failing I perceive in our business is that we are just too bally keen. We have a deep passionate love for games and ideas coming out of the wazoo, wherever that is located. It's very hard not to get distracted by better ideas, or to avoid that last crunch period of finishing a game because we just love to work on this latest, greatest idea. Though Score Studio in itself isn't a vanity project, a lot of our prototypes could be seen as such. The other day, for example, I couldn't face a fifth straight day of slog, so I took a personal day and spent it designing and creating all the art for a simple little game, just because I could. Obviously this time would have been better spent finishing off another project, but being your own boss it's easy to come up with excuses like "well, I'm inspired" or "I wouldn't be as productive had I forced myself to work on that other stuff". Having a scary manager who holds your paycheck ransom can be useful to force the fleeting, playful mind of a developer back on track.
Another issue is that we are all simply wearing too many hats. So far we have more or less dealt with managing ourselves, occasionally each other. It can work very well. However, when certain things need to be done but one of us is distracted by important but non-development tasks, it can be an issue. Though we've often drawn up lists of how we would expand in the future, what kind of people we'd need to progress further, we often overlook management and business people because, well, we're developers; we tend to think only about development. Having someone to deal with (read: stress about) finances, contracts, paperwork and all that malarkey would mean one or two thirds of our company wouldn't be distracted so much.
Our current dynamic of being a three-pronged Hydra, where we all have equal say and decision power, works great. Yes, it is distracting, but it's a great dynamic that works well for us. Assigning one of us to be the overall boss or manager won't work. We'd need to hire an outsider to do that job for us at some point. But we have benefited greatly from taking on contract work alongside our own projects. Instead of having a boss, we have a client, who acts as boss. This has meant we are necessarily more focused. Keeping a client happy is as good a drive as having a scary boss look over your shoulder constantly. On top of that it has helped us reevaluate our toolchain and work methods. What has worked for us in our closed eco-system needed some tinkering with when dealing with clients, which has been a great eye opener and motivator.
Though initially we might also have had problems with motivating ourselves, always a big issue when you first start to work from home, that issue has now been reversed. We now have to force ourselves to take it easy sometimes. I personally find it hard not to get drawn into work on weekends, and have made efforts to stay as far away from my PC as possible on days I am supposed to rest. As Paul often likes to point out "it's not work if you're having fun!" which is true, but try telling that to your body. We've all seen the dangers of overwork and it's something we need to avoid for ourselves, no matter how much fun we think we're having.
Between doing contract work, pushing ourselves to finish off our own products and an increasing understanding of the importance of managing ourselves, and our expectations, this first year of Score Studios (our anniversary is coming up soon) has been an immense learning experience. We are more focused now, better organised and increasingly better managed, but especially that latter point is something that needs addressing constantly and hopefully, in the future, by a manager, so we can do our developing thing, and occasionally be told to just shut up and work.
Comment in our forums (2 replies)...
Though we have all taken lead positions in several forms over our careers, management is something that has been fairly new to us, and as such has been somewhat of a weak point that manifests itself in different ways. In fact, the funny Youtube links we used to share with each other have slowly been replaced by links to interesting articles on management. The more we read about management, the more it's obvious it's not something that can be learned, but something that has to be ingrained, slowly, over time and with experience, and is intensely personal. For every nugget of wisdom, as we see it, that we read concerning management there are many more that preach management fundamentals that we either wholly disagree with or simply wouldn't work for us or our company strategy.
One aspect of our business that good management would have helped us with is that of focus. I'm talking personal focus here, not business, which I believe we are all pretty much agreed on. No, personal focus is an issue that we are still trying to tackle.
A major failing I perceive in our business is that we are just too bally keen. We have a deep passionate love for games and ideas coming out of the wazoo, wherever that is located. It's very hard not to get distracted by better ideas, or to avoid that last crunch period of finishing a game because we just love to work on this latest, greatest idea. Though Score Studio in itself isn't a vanity project, a lot of our prototypes could be seen as such. The other day, for example, I couldn't face a fifth straight day of slog, so I took a personal day and spent it designing and creating all the art for a simple little game, just because I could. Obviously this time would have been better spent finishing off another project, but being your own boss it's easy to come up with excuses like "well, I'm inspired" or "I wouldn't be as productive had I forced myself to work on that other stuff". Having a scary manager who holds your paycheck ransom can be useful to force the fleeting, playful mind of a developer back on track.
Another issue is that we are all simply wearing too many hats. So far we have more or less dealt with managing ourselves, occasionally each other. It can work very well. However, when certain things need to be done but one of us is distracted by important but non-development tasks, it can be an issue. Though we've often drawn up lists of how we would expand in the future, what kind of people we'd need to progress further, we often overlook management and business people because, well, we're developers; we tend to think only about development. Having someone to deal with (read: stress about) finances, contracts, paperwork and all that malarkey would mean one or two thirds of our company wouldn't be distracted so much.
Our current dynamic of being a three-pronged Hydra, where we all have equal say and decision power, works great. Yes, it is distracting, but it's a great dynamic that works well for us. Assigning one of us to be the overall boss or manager won't work. We'd need to hire an outsider to do that job for us at some point. But we have benefited greatly from taking on contract work alongside our own projects. Instead of having a boss, we have a client, who acts as boss. This has meant we are necessarily more focused. Keeping a client happy is as good a drive as having a scary boss look over your shoulder constantly. On top of that it has helped us reevaluate our toolchain and work methods. What has worked for us in our closed eco-system needed some tinkering with when dealing with clients, which has been a great eye opener and motivator.
Though initially we might also have had problems with motivating ourselves, always a big issue when you first start to work from home, that issue has now been reversed. We now have to force ourselves to take it easy sometimes. I personally find it hard not to get drawn into work on weekends, and have made efforts to stay as far away from my PC as possible on days I am supposed to rest. As Paul often likes to point out "it's not work if you're having fun!" which is true, but try telling that to your body. We've all seen the dangers of overwork and it's something we need to avoid for ourselves, no matter how much fun we think we're having.
Between doing contract work, pushing ourselves to finish off our own products and an increasing understanding of the importance of managing ourselves, and our expectations, this first year of Score Studios (our anniversary is coming up soon) has been an immense learning experience. We are more focused now, better organised and increasingly better managed, but especially that latter point is something that needs addressing constantly and hopefully, in the future, by a manager, so we can do our developing thing, and occasionally be told to just shut up and work.
Comment in our forums (2 replies)...
