Featured Blog | This community-written post highlights the best of what the game industry has to offer. Read more like it on the Game Developer Blogs or learn how to Submit Your Own Blog Post
Empowered teams and creative freedom is the holy grail of game development. Casual game teams are pioneering a new approach on how to build high quality products at a low cost in an extremely motivating work environment. How to set up a garage of garages?
(this post is also printed at http://www.hansoft.com/expertblog/shotgun-approach-to-boost-innovation/)
Over the last years I have met a large number of seasoned console game developers that are now creating smaller games. The common story I hear from them is that they are tired of the challenge riddled environment; they want to go back to their roots. In 2010 I had similar feelings, so I was sketching on a method on how to transfer a large studio to a garage-of-garages. The development method I was drawing up is very similar to the approach that many successful developers are using today; a partly self-filtered, partly market-filtered shotgun approach. Basically, it’s about creating as many games as possible to be first to the next thing. The problem to solve is that we can’t be sure what the rapidly changing market is looking for, and we can’t rely on a few people to be able to predict it.
A diagram showing the phases of taking a game from prototype to shippable and finally maintenance of the successful games.
The method is by far most efficient in an environment where talented developers can make great games without much supervision. Failing early and often is one key ingredient; the second is to capture successful games and rapidly develop them further. It relies on collective wisdom, rather than creative leads that directs and reviews; everyone is a creative decision maker.
Before I explain the method, let’s make a few assumptions:
We have 50 talented developers with different competencies.
We have at least enough money enough to fund development for at least half a year.
Potential flaws
Since I haven’t tried the method in reality I can only speculate in the flaws of it. Here are some things that could be problematic:
Self-organized talent – The team needs to consist of people that are very creative, talented and good at driving themselves forward. They are attractive to every game developer out there, so they are hard to find in abundance.
Cash flow – If the first batch of games flop the team could run out of cash pretty rapidly.
Voting - This is the component I’m most uncertain if it will work in reality. The risk is that people are so passionate about their prototypes that the voting creates internal friction.
Focus – Creating a framework that keeps the organization focused while still not being restrictive can prove to be a challenge.
Summary
There are many organizations out there that are using a similar approach, and I think it can work as long as the casual segment is still booming. The risk is that success will slow the teams down, once a number of games becomes successful the studio will transform from a creative power house to a service focused beast. To prevent this, the studio needs to continuously find talent that can come in and start filling the barrels.
Read more about:
Featured BlogsYou May Also Like
