Each month, industry veteran Tom Sloper provides career guidance to game biz wannabes, newbies, and junior professionals with the goal of helping them break into the industry, and stay in. Submit a question to Tom for developer-oriented advice in this column (IGDA members only).
Herding cats; no baloney!
Mr. Sloper,
I'm a university student, and I've recruited some other students to work on a game with me. I have never managed a game project before, but I understand that you have. So I'm looking for tips and tricks. How do I keep them working, how do I deal with non-performance or poor quality? What kind of problems should I expect, and how should I deal with them?
-- First time producing
Dear First Timer,
The first thing is to understand what motivates your people. Professionals are motivated by money (and other things). But what motivates your students? There's an awful lot of other stuff on their plates: studies, partying, girls. So whatever your project has to offer has to hold sufficient weight with them. Before I get into that, I hope you've all started with a unified vision for the game and the project. And I certainly hope you already have a
collaboration agreement that spells all that out. Okay, getting into it:
Some of your people may have expectations that the game will make money, and that they will share in the profits. You need to know if any of your people have such expectations, and you need to know exactly what they expect. If the game makes money, exactly how much can each person expect to get? A percentage? Of what exactly, and upon what basis? That is to say, how is the profit broken down among the contributors? And what about a guy whose work has to be redone, do all his hours still count? What about the value of the highly visible artists' work versus the value of the usually overlooked sound guys' work? If you're doing a for-profit venture, then hopefully the
collaboration agreement is thorough and unambiguous on these matters.
But realistically, what are the chances of the game actually making any money, and what's the plan for making money, and who's going to drive that part of the process? Are your team members' expectations realistic, and can you leverage those expectations without making promises you may not be able to keep? In my opinion, you should make it clear to all that the game is unlikely to ever earn a nickel, and that there are other good reasons for making the game.
Some of your people may be in it for the learning opportunity, or for the experience -- to have something to put on the résumé or portfolio. These are good reasons to work on a game in school. If you know that's what motivates a person, then you can use that knowledge to motivate that person.
Watch out for people not doing the jobs they said they would do. Some people will just say whatever they think you want to hear. You need to develop a baloney meter for that kind of thing. And if someone's work is below the quality you need, you can't be the kind of person who just says whatever you think they want to hear. Don't take baloney, and don't dish out baloney.
P
lease note that there is no guarantee that Tom will be able to respond to all the questions he receives. It is up to his discretion which questions he uses for this column. For further advice and resources, check out the IGDA's discussion forums, the Breaking In web site and the Students & Newbies Outreach section.
Tom's Bio
Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.
© 2012 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.
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