05 Oct 2023
Every developer knows that the game-making process is full of surprises and rarely goes exactly to plan. Whether you're planning a new project or joining a new team halfway through the process, there are a number of challenges that can crop up.
We spoke to Sergio Buenaventura from Life Is The Game, to find out his thoughts on the development process and discuss his key points to help stay on track, plan effectively, and adapt to any roadblocks.
"Every team and every studio has their own methodology."
So, before you dive in, understand the game plan, and see how you can work to the strengths of that team and what they’re already doing.
“If you're entering into a team that's already working on a project, it's better that you just catch up to what they've been doing instead of them trying to adapt to you.”
Get to know your team's workflow and adapt to their style, and it'll help you mesh seamlessly and start being productive as quickly as possible.
"Scope creep- it’s going to happen. But there are ways to handle it!"
“If you're in pre-production, you have the benefit of being able check pretty much everything. If you know the type of game you're making but you don't know exactly how you're going to get there yet, try lots of different things and see what works.”
During these early stages, experiment with all aspects of your game to see where challenges might arise, and to establish how long certain things could take. This way, if the scope starts to move, you already have a realistic idea of everything that’s involved, and you can adapt accordingly.
“You have to be prepared for periods of crunch.”
“I hate it myself. I work against Crunch, but it's inevitable. When it happens, I always have a one-on-one with all of my team, and If you're a good producer, you're going to know that the crunch is coming months or weeks before it happens."
"If you have an unhappy team doing crunch, it's the same as having the team working 8 hours a day and doing nothing more! So, if you have a happy team that understands the challenges of crunch and how they should manage themselves during the project, it's even more valuable than having someone work 20 hours a day who doesn't”.
“When you hire toxic people, it’s going to start wearing down the teams and lowering morale."
"A lot of team leaders and even studio executives will say 'Let's push them here. Let's see what we can do with that', which is great because you always have to give opportunity to everyone. But you also need to be able to acknowledge when a person's not working and you have to cut your losses."
It's going to be something that changes the team dynamics without you even realizing it. So make the change, if you can, to someone who's more willing to work on your team.
Thank you to Sergio for sharing these insights. It's great to hear his opinions and hopefully, some of this advice will resonate with other developers. As always, we want to hear your take on these kinds of topics. Share your thoughts and reach out to us on socials, or subscribe to our newsletter to get more content.
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