One of our core development principles is “from small things to big ones”! This is how we put Diary #30 together. First, we will analyze the local issues, for example, whom the S.O.S. team is actively looking for, and then we will move on to the more general problems in the gaming industry. This release should be not only interesting, but also informative, especially for the beginners. Off we go 😀
Let's move on to the actual issues of the development team: what kind of specialists are needed for S.O.S. today?
Igor: Programmers and game designers in the first place. And after that the art lead, concept artists, level designers. It would be nice to have additional people for each direction.
In some projects, it is normal practice for the lead game designer to assemble the first level of the game which goes through focus groups or is presented to an investor. Such people are of great value.
Ilya: And we could use an experienced producer mentor. The one who worked in this genre and knows how to do such a project correctly. In our project, for example, the programmer or the game designer confirms the work on art. And ideally, in the absence of an art lead, to have such a person who could suggest or give an expert assessment of any aspect of the game. Most importantly, s/he will be able to explain how to build the development process correctly. But it is not possible to get such people for free, unfortunately.
Igor: A significant advantage would be the presence of a person with experience in a foreign market. Now we may fail to understand what is good and what is bad for promotion, say, in America. A very revealing story from the development is of STALKER. THQ Publisher sent a producer Dean Sharp to GSC to make sure the development team was on schedule. Before he joined GSC, there were floating plans for another 10 years of development. The THQ management did not like that the development team was scattered on a large number of features and did not have a clear plan.
Therefore, it would be great to have a person who, on the one hand, understands how the business works, and on the other hand, understands development and understands how everything is interconnected.
Nikita: The guys said everything correctly. From my side, it remains only to add that we no longer need juniors in the team. Previously, we could invite a person under the pretext of “let's learn something together,” but now we cannot afford this due to lack of time. We need the people who know exactly what and how to do, that is, at least middles.
As for specific areas and professions, these are definitely level designers and programmers. And well, we won’t refuse a marketer-enthusiast who could take the team to a new level.
What is missing for the team for the project realization?
All of us: time.
Igor: If everyone had a financial “airbag” for 3-4 years in advance to be creative, then work on the game would be more active.
Nikita: I'm talking about experience again 😁. If each of us had 3-5 years of experience working on a similar released project, that would be a significant plus.
It's cool to have the experience of launching a project: you know how to do it right or how not to do it wrong; having seen how works what your team has been doing for many months. And we have to build almost every process from scratch. The exception was the onboarding system, and task administration.
Dmitry: There is not enough quality expertise and time.
Advice for novice developers.
Dmitry: there are a lot of books and other educational content now, so I would like to give advice on how to approach the matter. If you take up the game and sincerely believe in it, then never give up. Learn from your own experience and learn from the experience of others, compare it.
In terms of narrative, I can advise you to train “watchfulness”, read more, understand how it works and often ask the question “why is it invented this way?” Think about how this scenario was built. It's the same with game design. For example, to save time, I watch various walkthroughs of the same game on YouTube in order to track the possible paths of various players from the outside.
Nikita: I would agree with the above. The most important thing is not to be afraid. If you don’t know what to do, you will understand in the process; there is always something to prove yourself and where to learn something, just start with something if the standard “first understand who you want to be in game development”, “learn the whole list of professions” for some reason do not suit you.
Ilya: I would advise to behave reasonably and practically. If you don’t have enough money for food, you probably shouldn’t throw all your strength into a creative project, hoping for its success in the near future.
Igor: The most important thing is to start doing something. And if you spend a lot of time on preliminary preparation, documentation and planning, then in fact you can not move anywhere in the development. You can stew an idea in your head for years, and sketching on paper is already a good first step. The second step is the prototype.
Nikita: At the very beginning of the path, you can only throw in a brief vision, concept, and only the first steps. At first, you can try to recreate something simple according to the existing equivalent.
Ilya: I would even advise to start with something very small if you have never had any experience in game development. So you can understand whether it is your path or not. The most important thing is to finish the game. Take a template, remake 5 elements from it and feel if you are really gettinging involved into it.
If you are already doing something more or less big, I would advise you to be realistic and keep your ambitions. See what is really important and have only that, only in that case you can finish the project and get satisfaction from the work done.
Igor: Writing down a lot of ideas is not harmful, it's still better than not having them at all. When there are a lot of them, it is easier to refuse the ones which do not work. Again, I repeat, it’s harmful to be engaged in a thorough detailing of everything, especially in the indie development, the time will be only wasted. For me, the most appropriate pre-production process is the following:
- Brainstorm;
- Fixing ideas in a concept document, without detailing. Document is your draft;
- Prototyping;
- Testing;
- Repeating the points above, making changes to the documentation.
The game jam experience is useful (the game jam calendar is here, you can track the beginning of each game jam in it). Here you can find different themes, engines info etc. Such a development format is useful in the sense that a game needs to be done in a relatively short period of time, but this will put you in a stressful situation. Especially when you have a team with the same skinny experience as you. One way or another, it unites, after the game jams permanent teams with working projects are formed.
Did the current development help someone get into the industry?
Nikita: When we started S.O.S., one of the goals was to “get into the real gamedev”. This means, of course, full-time employment, which brings you some kind of income and satisfaction.
Almost every incoming employee whom we hired replied that they wanted to get a successful case in order to develop further in the industry. The exception was those who already worked in this field and came to us out of interest.
The most interesting case was with Sasha Voynich, who joined us as an animator, created around 15 animations, after which he was hired by one large-scope game studio. There was Andrey Ermeev. Although he already had his own studio at the time of our cooperation, and was not our art director for long, that was a very useful cooperation. Now he is preparing to launch his project on a well-known Russian franchise. Yuliya Corn became a producer in an outsourcing company, she joined the team to as a game designer and narrator. Maks Avdiev went to Poland for a major project and works on 3d modeling there, thanks in part to our project. Aleksei Skobtsov, one of our first marketers, is now coaching guys in the League of Legends. In fact, the list of the revealed talents is worthy, this is only a small part of people whose fate was influenced by S.O.S.
What are the soft-skills and meta-skills that help in the development process?
Nikita: in any type of work it is enough to be a responsible employee, this is enough.
Ilya: If you took a task or promised something, do it. You need to communicate normally, in the game development it is not customary to be rude and look from the “above”. Try to be as punctual as possible. No less important is personal interest and motivation, the desire to immerse yourself in the project.
Nikita: There must be a certain passion for the matter you are involved into. Non-toxicity is a very important skill, as well as honesty and responsibility. If you don’t have time to complete the task, you shouldn't come up with “why?” fake reasons. You should not be shy about communication: if something didn’t work out, then tell us why; if you are late, then let us know. A sense of responsibility should work not only towards the team, but also towards yourself.
Igor: What is especially pronounced in the indie dev is that it is very difficult to work with people without initiative; there is no feedback, no desire to do something. Some people cannot even ask if there are actual tasks. You have to be distracted to once again ask something, learn about the problems, clarify the status of the task etc. So it's very difficult to work. Among other things, the initiative can help with a lack of expertise: you don’t know how something is done, you start the discussion, and now you are already together finding options for solving the problem.
Nikita: In general, the indie gamedev is an initiative bordering on responsibility and passion. These qualities help a person to create within a team. You should be willing to contribute to the project yourself, and not wait for someone to tell you something.
Be able to play games not as a player, but as a developer. Analytics, the ability to decompose and observation are included into this quality. This is exactly the skill that is developed in the process. If you are an artist, you notice some good solutions, if you are a designer -- mechanics, and so on.
There is another quality, let's call it adaptability. Come to the team, see how everything works, and synchronize with the rest.
What are your development plans?
Igor: we are working on the “vertical slice”, and this is a very large amount of work. There will be a build with new mechanics and a reworked combat system, as well as new levels. We took into account the experience of the past showcases, so we concentrate on small parts of the game, saturating them with details as much as possible.
Summarizing the abovesaid
We can say that nothing is impossible if you approach the matter confidently, proactively and without fear of mistakes. What other soft skills and character traits, as you think, are important for the game development industry?
We also remind you that S.O.S. needs new fighters! You can help the Space as a permanent part of the team, as well as a temporary volunteer!
We are in active search of:
- level designers
- developers
- game designers