Feature: 'Put Me In, Coach: Creating A Cooperative Work Environment'

In today's main Gamasutra feature, career specialist and industry veteran Marc Mencher weighs in some possible approaches to the tricky job of staff management in the video game industry. In his introduction, Mencher outlines the overarching concepts of his article: "Management techniques for more “traditional” industries often just don't hold up in the game development arena. Game developers are constantly incorporating new technology within product, and within the product development cycle, and all while managers must supervise a diverse team of artistic and creative people. It is this combination of technology utilization and workforce creativity that creates this industry's more "unusual" work environment, and makes managing it a special challenge. Compounding this challenge, managers, technical leads, and producers often find themselves with the additional pressure of profit and loss responsibility for multi-million-dollar development projects. Game development management includes the responsibility to design, develop, and release to market a compelling and technically advanced product. And do it within a specific time-frame. And, by the way, retain your talent. So, how do you manage a diverse team of programmers, artists, and designers and deliver a great game? How does Bill Belichick manage a team of a diverse team of multi-millionaires and win the Super Bowl? By being a coach, not a boss." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).