Shaina Grade’s Post

This is number 4 on the list of de-risking tasks for # indiedevs to increase their chances of securing funding (and improving their games!). 4. Build a Strong and Scalable Production Plan Why It Works: A realistic production plan demonstrates that the team has considered the development process, needed resources, and timelines. How to Do It: Create a detailed roadmap with milestones, projected timelines, and resource requirements. Break down each development phase, including pre-production, alpha, beta, and final polish, and identify key risks and mitigation plans. Potential Issues: Unforeseen Challenges: Development often has unexpected technical, creative, or resource challenges that can disrupt even the best plans. Overly Ambitious Goals: It’s easy to overestimate capabilities or underestimate development time, leading to schedule overruns. Skill Gaps: Indie teams might lack experience with detailed production planning or tools, which can limit plan accuracy and scalability. #ProductionPlanning #GameRoadmap #ProjectManagement #GameDevelopmentPlan #IndieGameJourney

The difference between a pro producer and an amateur? It’s simpler than you think. It's a straightforward, yet game-changing approach. It makes mixing easier and BETTER. And no, it’s not rocket science. The secret? Commitment. Non-pro commit 10x less than their pro counterparts. Seriously, I just prepped a session for mixing and what do I get? 15 snares, 12 claps. Overkill, right? When I asked, the producer said “I wanted to give you options, wasn’t sure which one sounded the best”. Sounds a lot like indecision to me. Maybe we should put together a ‘Commit Camp’. Imagine, one weekend, one challenge. Craft the best-sounding production you can, but it has to fit on a 24-track tape machine. Really … commitment is key. Embrace it and watch your production quality jump by 20%. (Also, as your mixer, I will be quite happy :) ) Let’s bring back decisive creativity.

Game development’s scaling problem: when teams grow, challenges multiply. As a seasoned game developer, I've observed that managing large teams in game development is exponentially more challenging than handling smaller groups. This often catches studio directors off guard, as the skills required for large-scale management are vastly different from those needed for smaller projects. 🎮 Communication breakdown: As teams grow, information flow fragments, leading to misunderstandings and conflicting directions across departments. 🕰️ Scheduling issues: Coordinating tasks and deadlines becomes complex, often causing bottlenecks and missed milestones. 💰 Increased costs: Large teams come with hefty price tags, not just in salaries but also in overhead, tools, and infrastructure, which often lead to budget overruns. 🧩 Feature creep: More team members can lead to unnecessary features, diluting the game's core vision and extending development time. 🔥 Burnout and turnover: Large-scale projects can cause exhaustion and high turnover, complicating continuity and knowledge retention. Managing large game dev teams is nuanced and requires dynamic scaling, with team size varying significantly from pre-production to live services. Effective communication involves a complex web of internal and external reports and meetings across departments, requiring skills that many directors may not develop with smaller teams. The Mythical Man-Month fallacy is another issue. It’s a misconception that adding people speeds up development; some aspects, like rapid iteration testing, require time regardless. Even in large-scope genres like MMORPGs, large teams aren't always necessary; modular development and agile methods can help manage complexity efficiently. For studios managing large-scale projects, recognizing these challenges is essential. It requires skills in strategic resource allocation, stakeholder management, and maintaining a cohesive vision across a large, diverse team—qualities that many directors may lack when transitioning from smaller productions. #GameDev #TeamManagement #ProjectScaling #CommunicationChallenges #ResourceAllocation #MythicalManMonth #ProductionTechniques #LeadershipSkills #ScopeManagement #AgileMethodologies

2nd Book Progress – Will you stick around?   Last week, I finished chapter five, meaning I am done with around 118 pages out of a planned 200. More than half the book. 😊 Game Director Stephan is at his lowest point in the story and confesses that he has no idea how to get the game back on track. The core loop keeps refusing to click, the team is becoming frustrated, and the CEO is scrutinizing every move they make. In this very moment he receives an extremely attractive job offer and is seriously considering abandoning this project and jumping ship. For Stephan, this is a pivotal moment. One where he has to decide whether to stick around to see it through or to jump ship at another great opportunity. Game Directors rarely quit. They tend to become emotionally attached to their project, so much that it takes a lot to make them leave. But important key people in the team do not have the same level of attachment. Their decision to start talking to recruiters comes much earlier. When things are quiet and moving along. People in the trenches are pretty good at predicting whether a project has a future or not. When leadership teams start talking about “flight risks,” it usually is already too late. If things are on fire, people do not start looking. They just pull their options. People want to work in winning teams and if they start believing that their team is not a winning team, they will look elsewhere. And it is hard. Making a winning team is more than trust, good working climate, and job security. It also means making tangible progress, working on something that has a compelling purpose, and is something people can feel proud of.   P.S. We are moving to Stockholm, so everything is a bit hectic now.   #gamedesignimpossible #writing #gamedevelopment #gamedesign

Develop a new game feature or improve existing ones? Every PM faces this dilemma. Enhancing what you already have often yields better results than starting something new. Here’s how to approach it: 1. Double down on what works: ↳ Identify the features that are already performing well. ↳ Can they be taken to the next level? ↳ Sometimes, small improvements can lead to big gains. 2. Fix what’s broken: ↳ Pinpoint features that aren’t delivering at all. ↳ Are there issues that can be resolved? ↳ Improving these could have a more significant impact than introducing something entirely new. Before diving into new developments, ensure you’re getting the most out of your existing features.

If I could do only one thing to help my dev and engineering team, i know exactly what that would be. I would be constantly storytelling on why we're building what we're building. I would be making that story as sexy, and as aspiring, as it can be. Because that “sexy” story is what motivates everyone to do the “unsexy” day-to-day grind. And it's the day-to-day grind that will make the product win. Nothing else. Be a master storyteller. Make your team love what they do.

 It’s More About Mindset Than Mechanics Here's the real talk: scaling up as a video editor has less to do with perfecting each cut or transition and everything to do with building the right mindset and leveling up personally. Sure, you could be the most talented editor out there… But if you don't know how to market yourself, if you’re lacking energy, or if your focus is all over the place… you’re holding yourself back from real success. Skill is essential, but it’s only part of the equation. How you approach the journey and sharpen your inner game can make all the difference.

Morning News Why every developer is a movie producer COMMENT Every developer is a movie producer – they may just not realise it. Embracing this creative reimagining of the role is key to securing legacy and defining a genre. For those new to the industry, the role of a developer can be challenging to explain. Reflecting on the early years of my career, I have found that the best way to describe what I do is by comparing it to the role of a movie producer. This analogy captures the essence of the job, emphasising the importance of fusing vision and imagination, teamwork and collaboration and persistence and resilience. It’s ultimately about creating a product that delights and excites our end users and, hopefully, leaves a lasting legacy that stands the test of time. https://lnkd.in/eAsKk3_P

Your Game Direction should NEVER change. Picture yourself in an ongoing development with an unaligned game and Game Direction. You're in trouble, so what to do? The gut solution would be to change the Game Direction to fit the game, but it's mostly the wrong one for 2 main reasons: - If you change the experience, you force the game to change as well - You set a precedent whereby you can change both game and Game Direction This risks leading to an endless spiral of continuous changes. You'll go around in circles without reaching anything and also increase the chance of unforeseen issues. So, the safest thing you can do is to change the game. I wrote a Newsletter Issue about it, to show you why you should never change your Game Direction and what happens if you're forced to do it. Grab it here: https://lnkd.in/dZrzMd7p A Game Direction is like a lighthouse guiding ships; don’t change its position, make it taller.