Building an Effective Team
You are only as strong as your weakest link
by M. Abdullah | October 3, 2011
Building a good team to develop your indie game is more important than the idea behind the game itself. If you don’t have a good team the idea will die a brutal death at the hands of laziness and poor workmanship. The expectation that an idea can quickly be turned into a playable game is the most foolhardy notion of all first time indie game developers (I am guilty too) but most of us feel driven to pursue this goal. This elite group of men and women must bring forth the disciplines of tech and artistry to complete an indie video game.
The expectation that an idea can quickly be turned into a playable game is the most foolhardy notion of all indie game developers. Yes, this passion cannot be understood until one starts that trek toward an elusive dream. Programmers and artists band together as brothers to bring forth there disciplines of tech and artistry to complete a task such as creating an indie video game.
A week or so into the journey they soon find out that the journey will be more dangerous than first anticipated. The path is filled with adversity and chaos. Simply drawing draw concept characters and plotting the structure for the engine is not enough. Soon, you will have to produce these assets and more forward with a complex project over many months. The team seems to waiver and many realize they don’t have the constitution to finish such a journey. This is indie game design. In this article I will guide you through some of the challenges of developing a team in an attempt to stop problems before they arise.
Before we get into the roles that need to be filled in the process I am going to talk you about the types of people that you need to find. Many of these factors may sound like common sense but you will be surprised. You need to acquire self motivated and self confident people to fit into the group. They must and I stress must be able to take criticism. You are making game not boosting egos.
Secondly, they need to have a history of finishing things that they have started. This doesn’t mean finishing an assignment for school or work on time. They have to finish things that they have started on their own. Some people do not know how to finish and you don’t want them in your group.
Lastly, the people in your group need to have a little ambition. The people you want to make your indie game must have something to gain or lose. Ambitious individuals will want the project to be completed in order to fulfill the goal of getting work on their resume or to progress closer to starting a company. This is critical for the success of the project and will have these people putting in the extra hour or two a day that you need to finish the project.
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