Tips For Organizing A Project In The Game Industry
Let us make a little bit of change to the famous Shakespeare’s quote: “All the world’s a game, and all the men and women merely characters”. Moreover, every game is a project, and every project is a set of defined rules, activities, KPIs, team players, and deliverables.
You may be interested in Unity mobile development , Android or iOS game development, C++, Java, C# programming languages, 2D or 3D game development and other specific technical moments. Sooo how to plan and manage game app development projects in love, peace and harmony (met deadlines, smooth communication and high profits)? Read about it below.
Types Of Top Gaming Companies
A very good place to start is to gain an understanding of the main types of top gaming companies. Different companies have their own methods and business processes. There are 4 main types of gaming companies below you need to know.
Game development studios, game developers
Teams hyperspecialized in a full-cycle gamedev service including game conceptions, plots, graphics, characters, sounds, different device platforms etc. to make it interesting and fun to play. The successful companies are growing and working on more and more big projects.
Game publishers
Such companies publish video games created by game studios. Here we have teams of professional, highly experienced and skilled in the game industry people responsible for testing, manufacturing and marketing the games.
2 in 1: game development and publishing companies
Sometimes successful game developers decide to work independently without game publishers or game publishers decide to extend and create a game development department as an additional structural unit.
Indie game development teams
Teams are formed spontaneously to provide services to specific game projects. Indie teams usually do not have an exactly defined plan of their future work, however, can create surprisingly innovative and trendy market decisions.
Game Development Roles
The next step is a clear understanding of the game development team roles. The client/investor/developer should uate workload, size and scope of the game and form a team in accordance with the specific project requirements. Let’s check out the following list of basic project roles in the mobile game development industry.
Producer / Project Owner / Business Developer
This team member is especially interested in big sales, profits, market success. He or she is responsible for the general project strategy, economic assessment, effective teamwork and associated psychological factors.
Project Manager / Scrum Master
This role defines leading the teamwork, controlling deadlines, solving working issues, achieving defined goals.
Game Programmer / Developer
Developers create codebases and the tools for the game. Sometimes they can be responsible for debugging and beta testing in order to make the user-friendly game interface.
Game Designer
Designers develop a general visual part. They keep the design loyal to the original idea and control any new ideas that could be implemented in order to improve the game experience.
Artist
Artists produce different visuals (lots for a 3D game development platform): characters, objects, settings, backgrounds, animations. The game art part is often outsourced to the other game dev studios.
PR/Marketing Specialist
Such specialists investigate the game market, key competitors, potential customers, market opportunities and risks, ways of informing and promotion. Especially social media era requires game brands to be proactive and close to their clients.
Community Manager
The manager creates a specific game community (social media pages, blogs), provide technical support in case of need 24/7, create a Q&As base. It is worth mentioning that a specific game project may need the following additional expertises: sound composer, quality controller/tester, writer, business analyst, HR specialist.
Choose Project Management Methodology
One of the first important decisions is choosing which project management methodology for the specific game project to follow. The most popular frameworks are Agile/Scrum/Kanban dashboards and Waterfall. They all have advantages and disadvantages, as there is nothing perfect in the world.
Agile way of project management represents continuous interactions with clients/users, feedbacks, necessary improvements at every work stage despite the in-depth planning, individual importance over processes and tools. If you choose to implement Agile model, you probably will use Scrum method. It represents a set of unchangeable working rules. Precise workload periods allow teams to close ready projects steadily in time. Kanban presents itself a desk with several columns in order to visualize control points, reminders, daily tasks.
Waterfall methodology follows a clear and chronological process. This approach doesn’t allow to return to finished steps and correct them, only to start the project from the initial point.
IT-Life Hacks From Stepico Games
Here are IT-life hacks and advises that will help you to avoid some management mistakes:
- Teamwork:
- Decide which tasks should be outsourced and which tasks should be performed by the game development team (e.g. HR services).
- Try not to combine Product Owner and Scrum Master functions in one role. Project Manager should perform as Scrum Master and Game Designer responsibilities can include Product Owner role.
- One of three or more specialists with the same responsibilities should be Leading Specialist. This step helps to control and increase teamwork effectiveness.
- Human Resources:
- Hire young and enthusiastic people in order to teach them for long-term cooperation. However, if there are some urgent tasks, it makes sense to find highly experienced professionals to perform tasks quickly and effectively.
- Analyze the pros and cons of your team members working from home remotely and in an office.
- Don’t forget about person-to-team psychological compatibility in collaborative tasks.
- Market rules:
- Unity game development has the biggest market share among game engines in the world.
- Be careful buying an official license for your game music background. All rights must be reserved.
