LF08 Production Track

The sessions in the Management Leadership Track cover broader scale topics that go beyond a single team or project.

Sessions

• Reducing Turnover: Keeping Teams Intact Through Strong Leadership – Linda Bonanno, Emergent Game Technologies
• Studio Growth Cases – Tim Gerritsen, 2K Boston / Jason Coleman, Big Huge Games / Shaun Himmerick, Midway Newcastle / Kelly Zmak, Radical Entertainment
• Management Idea Swap – Jason Della Rocca, IGDA
• Civic Entrepreneurialism – Rodney Gibbs, Fizz Factor
• The Due Diligence Process Revealed – Michael Heilemann, D2C Games
• Organizational Development as a Game – Richard Hilleman, EA
• Let’s Reboot the Developer/Publisher Relationship – Mike McShaffry
• Training as a Productivity Multiplier – Andrew Oliver, Blitz Games Studios
• Managing an Engineering Community – Stefan Posthuma, EA Black Box

Session Descriptions

Reducing Turnover: Keeping Teams Intact Through Strong Leadership

- Linda Bonanno – Head of Product Development, Emergent Game Technologies

Hiring and retaining employees in the game industry has become an art form. There are many exciting opportunities available that can lure away even the most dedicated staffer from your company. For some it might be a way to learn about new technologies, or a way to work on a project led by an industry luminary, for others it could be the chance to work on a game in a new and different genre. Everyone knows that throwing money at the problem is not the answer. Golden handcuffs only work for a while, and if the environment is not one in which your star employee is fulfilled, what you end up with is an overpaid, disgruntled, and possibly underperforming team member who will leave within a year or two.

This may seem like a hopeless cause, but there are a number of things that good leaders can do to engender loyalty among their staff. There will always be some employees that are looking for that next raise or that completely new challenge – but the majority of people want a place to work where they feel valued for what they contribute and respected by their management and peers. The essence of this is that they want to feel as though they are part of a community. This presentation will examine a number of techniques that leaders can use to create that feeling of community within the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

• Constructive feedback is important, and should not be given just at review time
• Trust your gut when dealing with troubled team members
• Treating people fairly does not mean treating everyone the same

Studio Growth Cases

- Moderator: Tim Gerritsen – Director of Product Development, 2K Boston
- Jason Coleman – Studio Technical Director, Big Huge Games
- Shaun Himmerick – Studio Head, Midway Newcastle
- Kelly Zmak – President, Radical Entertainment

The game industry has been expanding at breakneck speeds, forcing development studios to keep pace. This panel of studio execs will cover case studies on three studios: Big Huge Games, Midway Newcastle and Radical Entertainment. Each studio has taken a different path to growth and overcome the challenges of expansion in unique ways. The case studies will be followed by audience Q&A and discussion amongst the panelists.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how three different studios have approached growth
• Apply real-world examples to your own growth challenges
• Avoid the same mistakes…

Management Idea Swap

- Jason Della Rocca – Executive Director, IGDA

This fully interactive group driven session is like speed-dating for ideas on management leadership. Tables will focus on different management related topics (determined by conference participants ahead of time). Several group/topic rotations will be done so participants can explore various topics of interest, and interact with many different peers along the way. Room-wide report outs and summaries will close out the session. More participation details to be provided in September…

Learning Objectives:

• Ask and answer management and leadership questions most relevant to you
• Meet and learn directly from peers in a semi-structured format
• Identify new ideas and info for further investigation

Civic Entrepreneurialism: Engaging the Community to Grow Your Business

- Rodney Gibbs – Studio Head, Fizz Factor

When you’re a small studio or a start-up, competing for talent against big shops with sexier titles, bigger salaries and hunkier platforms can be daunting. Not all competitive advantages stem from having the fattest bankroll, however. We’ll examine real life examples of how small studios have adopted cheap and effective tactics to boost their profile in the community, enabling them to attract and retain strong talent; improve employees’ quality of life; and even tap into valuable resources that directly impact their bottom line. Participants will leave with a roadmap of initiatives, big and small, they can take back to their own studios to make themselves more competitive.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to identify and partner with local educational and community resources for employee recruitment and retention
• Define and exploit quality of life issues that give you an advantage over competitors
• Provide real world examples of how developers partner with municipal or state governments for training, publicity and incentives

The Due Diligence Process Revealed

- Michael Heilemann – CTO/VP Production, D2C Games

Have you ever wondered what publishers are looking for when investigating developers for future game projects? Have you ever wondered what the necessary ingredients are for the due diligence process? What should you, as a development studio, focus on to maximize your time and effort with the publisher during, and in preparation for their visit? Attend this lecture to learn how to better prepare for your next publisher due diligence visit. In this lecture, I will discuss the due diligence process from both the publisher and developer points of view. I will cover the key areas of focus by a publisher’s due diligence process, as well as the underlying reasons behind their questions and evaluation efforts. Additionally, I will cover how developers can better prepare for visits and create a great first impression.

Learning Objectives:

• You will learn how to prepare for a due diligence visit as a developer
• The questions to ask developers as a publisher
• A complete walk through of the entire due diligence process from both perspectives

Organizational Development as a Game

- Richard Hilleman – Chief Creative Officer, EA

From top to bottom, this session will cover the organization development of Electronic Arts. First we’ll delve into a little EA history: Making Money; The Genesis Revolution; The CD; Profit versus Revenue; The PlayStation/Xbox Era; RP; The Connected Customer. Next we’ll look at organizational development as game design: Scoring Systems; Numbers are Better; Clear, objective sources; Put it on a big board so everyone can see. Then we’ll discuss the importance of spotlighting the right ideas: You need to help them find the right answers; Education as an intelligence vector; Put a Spotlight on the Winner by making them teach the rest. We’ll also explore what won’t work: The Wrong People; The Wrong Goals; Scoreboards that don’t reflect on organizational success; Winners at the expense of losers; Secrets. Finally, when is it time to change the rules and the Scoreboard: When the Drug stops working; Gaming the game; Managing the Pivot; Recruit for adaptability; Smart is good.

Learning Objectives:

• Organizations are like all teams, they perform as they prepare
• Designing the organizational scorekeeping and reward structure are as important as in any game
• If you have the right players, one of them will find a winning answer and the rest will follow, then it is time to change the game…

Let’s Reboot the Developer/Publisher Relationship

- Mike McShaffry – freelance developer

Everyone wishes the developer/publisher relationship was better – one look at the boilerplate dev/pub agreement tells a sad story of everything that has ever gone wrong during game development. This lecture is not a rant, and it won’t be from a single point of view. Rather, I’m using my contacts in development, publishing, legal, and agency to collect opinions, sometimes anonymous ones, about what can be done to bring our professional relationships back to a happier middle ground. These people all want the same thing – a smoother way to propose, fund, develop, and publish new game ideas – but the bumps and bruises of the past are getting in the way. This lecture is more than just presenting the results of my research – it will present a new standard that can guide us during good times and bad, and propose radical changes in our relationships.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn what behaviors are most respected, and most vilified by all stakeholders (developers, publishers, attorneys, agents)
• See recommendations from all sides what THEY can do NOW to make game development better
• A general call to action to discuss and adopt an ethical standard we can all use to guide us during all phases of our business and development relationships

Training as a Productivity Multiplier

- Andrew Oliver – Chief Technical Officer, Blitz Games Studios

Training is singularly the most important productivity multiplier facing the games industry today. Failure to acknowledge and embrace training in the development
environment is tantamount to long-term strategic suicide. This presentation will demystify training by presenting some hard-learnt facts and methodologies that will help you to unleash the hidden effectiveness of your development teams that will result in higher productivity, better quality and a healthier bottom line!

Learning Objectives:

• A focused and dedicated internal training policy is no longer optional
• Training is a PROVEN productivity multiplier
• Training underpins effective strategic planning and generates a
  positive learning culture

Managing an Engineering Community

- Stefan Posthuma – Technical Director, EA Black Box

After accepting the position of CTO at EAC’s Burnaby studio in 2006, I was tasked with managing the engineering community of more than 200 people working on about 14 titles. There were a number of problems to deal with including a lack of internal as well as external communication, no well defined career path or promotion process for senior engineers and little sense of community amongst the various teams of programmers. A number of things were done to address these issues, some successful, some not so. This talk will be anecdotal in nature, describing the process of how we went about putting some structure in this large group of like-minded individuals. Anyone tasked with managing groups of engineers – and more generally, large groups of game developers – should be able to take something away from this talk.

Learning Objectives:

• Improve communication inside a large group
• Deal with the software engineer career path definition and promotion process
• Foster community between groups of engineers on different teams