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Transforming the Games Industry into a Well-Oiled Machine: Balance, Bigger Picture, and Battling the Vicious Cycle – Part 2

 

Go To Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6



This is part 2 of 6 in my response to the Gamasutra.com opinion piece entitled “Making the Game Industry an Attractive Place to Work,” written by Electronic Arts' current head of European talent acquisition, Matthew Jeffery. Click HERE to read the original article.
December 10, 2008
By Eric M. Scharf

 

Balance


EA may have performed exhaustive research into how to properly combat overtime within its European game development studios, however, in the United States, EA is performing no better in the battle against overtime than any other publisher or developer. The very statement of “EA has conducted extensive analysis on how to effectively plan for product launches while maximizing workload planning in the months and weeks leading up to the ‘crunch’” . . . contradicts the idea that EA is making major strides in preventing its global workforce from continuing as a disposable workforce.

The idea, or ideal, is to have no crunch, not some crunch. Most game developers have never experienced what a project is like without crunch time, and, thus, they are so accepting of it as common place that the alternative is easily dismissed. Realistic planning and project scoping, however, can-and-will deliver a reversal of fortune that has the game development community begging for more.

Regarding the positive effect of casual games development on work-life balance, a typical casual game development cycle – in the United States – will involve 3-5 team members over a three-month production period. 10-15 team members for one casual game project – as Matthew suggests – is the equivalent of delivering milk with a high-performance sports car, unless such a team is simultaneously developing multiple product skus. Even then, 10-15 may still be too high of a head-count for a true casual game.

I am in full agreement, however, regarding the boost to personal and professional benefits which comes from developing casual games. As a person who is married and has a family, I have personally experienced the scheduling flexibility that also comes with casual games development. I do not recall the first or last time I have ever heard of more than ultra-mild overtime having to be performed on any casual game.

 

Bigger Picture

 

Another important element affecting work-life balance and general stability in the games industry involves the all-too-common scenario of a game developer – from start-up to established and independent to wholly-owned subsidiary – focusing exclusively on one project at a time.

This statement in-no-way discounts the fact that all but a handful of well-known independent game developers (out of tens of hundreds of others) are not independently wealthy. The remaining have-nots, thus, are always desperately dependent upon the funds and commandments of publishers, venture capitalists, and anxious-to-be-involved angel investors.

Most industry participants already know and understand this, but what is often overlooked in this scenario – once again – is the near-complete lack of in-depth planning pre-start-up or between-projects.

Independent studios are generally left-for-dead when a publisher decides to pull up stakes, take their IP and go home. The independents are, then, left with little-to-no money beyond their last milestone delivery payment or in a savings account . . . if they have one at all. The serious lack of business-minded, financially-astute, relentlessly-protective studio managers – with a great nose for when to spend, how much to spend, and when to save for a rainy day – leaves most of these studios in no better position than to jump when told to jump.

Sharp business managers – not to overstate the obvious – are not attracted to cannibalistic or unstable industries. Nonetheless, if your funding source tells you to speed up product development by one, two, three, or however many months, 99.9% of the time your team is faced with instant crunch mode. This is where your ego, pride, heart, and mind are greatly tested. You either grin and bear it in order to survive . . . or you refuse the prescribed medication and fold.

Do you take this opportunity to re-enforce the fact that you are “so passionate about video games” that you will swallow hard and do whatever your project benefactor demands so that you can pound your chest, bark at the moon, gain the loyalty and respect of your teammates, and show the gaming world you succeeded?

Do you – alternatively – decide this kind of “criminal behavior” and project quality-diminishing act is not why you got into the business of making games? Do you decide to close up shop, firing all of your teammates, including yourself, potentially going into extreme debt or worse? Do you forevermore wonder what could have been if you had just taken the high road in order to complete your project and deliver the goods?

You may never get another shot at running your own studio once word spreads that you wilted under the external pressure of your external funding source and business associates . . . or you may receive several more opportunities – with better, mixed, or the same results.

If you can keep one eye on your current project and one eye on the bigger picture – while keeping your wits about you during inevitable times of stress . . . much of this potential turmoil may never come to pass. “Why did the chicken cross the road (and not get hit by oncoming traffic)? Because the chicken looked both ways.”

 

Battling the Vicious Cycle


How do you battle this seemingly vicious cycle – even on a small, manageable scale? Common sense dictates that – before you even enter the games industry – you have compiled a detailed list of games which you absolutely love playing . . . and for which you would be in total paradise to develop sequel after sequel. Therefore, if you are like most games industry people – who began their careers working for a game developer before starting your own studio – then, you construct a plan (or plans) around the potential opportunity to develop a sequel to one of your favorite, most enjoyable games.

Your planning of this effort encourages you to role-play as both a game reviewer and studio manager:

1) How would I improve upon this great product (spelling each improvement out, step by step)?

2) How would I assemble a production plan and attract the right team (covering the minimum number of personnel you believe you would need for each of the major disciplines – art, design, programming, audio, and QA)?

3) Who do I approach about marketing, manufacturing, and distribution (whether or not these “finishing” details are handled by your eventual publisher)?

The target audience – for your project planning efforts – requires additional research. While your favorite games may have entered virgin market territory at launch, that very same market sector may be suffering from oversaturation by copycat products. Your target audience may, in fact, not be yours at all.

You can go status quo and collect broad market analysis from one of many qualified industry trade magazines, to assist you in identifying the “latest trends,” determining which project concepts are best to pursue and – more importantly – why they are the best to pursue.

Two general pieces of information you can gleam from market analysis would be guidance on what is highly mainstream-popular-and-potentially-not-so-unique but capable of better-than-average sales, like a first-person shooter, versus what is popular-but-niche and traditionally at risk of lower sales, like a flight simulator.

There is no shame in starting your company off reasonably safe and secure – waiting out a head-on engagement of the vicious cycle until "conditions on the ground" are optimal. You can wait until you reach success with your first few projects. You can wait until you have made a reputation for yourself (and your team) as an accurate and capable game developer. You can even wait until you have wisely saved up a reasonable portion of your post-expense direct sales profits and / or royalties.

You can wait until you have successfully fulfilled a number of steps towards long-term game development existence . . . before attempting to bypass the status quo approach to marketplace knowledge. You can pursue the theory that a quality game developer can adopt any raw product concept – mainstream or niche – beat the design cobwebs out of it, and deliver a winner . . . to be purchased and immensely enjoyed by all.

If you are well beyond the stage of entrance into the games industry, caution still fits nicely within your plan – but your approach and expectations may be more advanced. You may be currently employed by a developer / publisher – or fresh off a contract with one. You may have had an opportunity to observe a daily regimen of direct / indirect business decisions . . . from the trenches to middle management, if not higher. You may be using some or all of that information as formal guidance for the planning of your first great start-up adventure.

You – unlike the games industry rookies or those licking the glass from the outside – should be ready to generate a set of compelling, well-planned, original / sequel IP game development concepts (including forward-thinking production requirements for each, from A-Z). Each concept should receive equal attention to detail . . . as you never know which of your concepts will receive a green light from your financing source.

You are performing an exercise in preparedness – to prevent naivetι on your part and to keep your business partners as honest as possible – from the moment you first meet until the day your project is complete. The devil is in the details but without first-hand knowledge of those details . . . you are behind the eight ball before you even begin project funding discussions.

You may be a rookie or a veteran. Your plan may be simple or complex. The goal – ultimately – no matter your approach, is to give yourself the best possible chance to bypass battling the vicious cycle . . . through reasonable end-to-end planning for your product concept and start-up.

Game development – at most – is equal parts protection (from the vicious cycle) and production (of your product concept). The vicious cycle waits for no one. If you short-change even one component of your plan, you may seriously jeopardize the protection of your production. The vicious cycle will mercilessly grind it up . . . making you regret planning like a pup.

Go To Part 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6