Tools are just means to get the job done
We started from the bottom and now we are here
This is the second article in series about starting and working as an indie game company. You can read the first article here
Game development is, without a doubt, a form of contemporary art. Pioneer games might have been more technology-oriented but nowadays, however, we have pixel-art, VR and narrative focused games. When it comes to choosing right workflow art-side can help but might as well limit your vision. That what the case with us.
What makes indies different from AAA studios the most is the budget and, of course, the number of people involved in the development. An average AAA game dev. crew consist of Game designers, artists and modelers, animators, VFX, sound designer, composer, writer, marketing and business people, engine and gameplay programmers, and many more. These projects can have up to 600 people-which is not the limit. In case of indie studios, in most scenarios You find yourself having 5–8 core crewmembers and several freelancers . I don’t know how EA or Ubisoft manage their crew -as well as their workflow, but even for small independent studios, this can be a non-trivial task. Now, let’s be honest: most indie studios, like us, are funded by developers and designers, individuals who have limited experience in management and planning.
For us (TTS) the problem was that the game development and design had already started without any workflow, procedures defied. You know how it goes: development and design are hard but rewarding while management and docs are boring as death itself. So I had to -and advice the same to others- go to events, talk to people and take free online courses in Management, Marketing in order to find better way to approache company management. Normally, it is advised to start with the administration and structure creation; only then you will have more room for improvisation and have stamina to overcome failures. Some products may fail and change over time, yet the team (and more importantly - the structure) will remain the same.
As the result and as proven — I had no choice, I came up with a Company workflow guide, Protocol and a Business plan. These documents help US as a Team to stay productive, being 100% distributed team. These new rules and regulations had to be simple, straightforward and transparent.
New tools and techniques we implemented — Slack, Trello, Agile, Kanban and Scrum (and some more)
Note, I don't state to be Agile/Scrum expert, even though I visited couple of events and lectures. 
ACT II.The Hangover
Company Protocol and all those hilarious documents.
All good game developers start with GDD and prototype. All good indie managers start with defining “Principles and Values” of their company.
Principles and Values - should be a short presentation with minimum amount of text. It's just about defining who you are and what you believe in as company. On another hand every single individual should feel that company cares about him and his rights.Then you have NDA and individual Contracts (if you already officially registered your enterprise). In this situation it’s best to consult lawyer or somebody in related fields — business people. These documents are, of course, a formality and some people may dislike them. I suggest that you explain why signing them is necessary using simple language. State that these documents will help both individual team member and company. Their purpose is to serve as an insurance and assure both parties that you have serious intentions.
“Welcome to the Company of Future. I am glad to have you working with us.”
Here comes the… Code of Conduct and Ethics (CCE). Another representative of family of formal documents. This document is very formal but that is what makes this doc special.When you don't know what or how to do anything— you just read it and follow it’s guidelines. In our CCE we have 9 paragraphs — Confidentiality, Ethics, Discrimination and bias judgement, Duty of care, Conflict of interest, Contracts, Product quality assurance and standards, Professional conduct and Motivation. This document does not need to be long — our is 7 pages long. First page is always the CEO foreword to the team.
If you don't know what to write just google 'Code of Conduct and Ethics'. Many of top corporation share them online. Next step might be - to create Workflow and Procedures document. Though as my practice showed having simpler presentation style article/wiki is much better solution.
It’s a bird, it’s plane — not it’s a….
Team workflow guide is main document that is easy to read by everyone and it can be accessed online at any time easily.
Team workflow guide can follow Wiki pages style (GitHub or Bitbucket allows to have private Wiki). Good practice is to divide it by categories — general Information, Development/Art sections etc. Each section should have separate moderator, pick volunteer from the team who is willing to keep it updated — or distribute the responsibility equally between all team-members.
Recommendations:
- Keep it simple
- Keep it structured
- Follow guidelines (create read-me)
- It’s okay for team to ask questions and be skeptical
- This document is made for team convenience and should help
You can also create separate Medium style presentation article which showcase typical “day at work” of your company. This document can contain list of tools and how to work with them, simple company workflow (day at the remote office)and couple of straightforward examples. Swiss army knife vs. multi tool. The winner is …
Apart from all the documents, regulations and wiki’s — any company can’t do without communication. It’s more straightforward when you and your team located in one office or at least city, it’s completely different planet when you work remotely. Online communication tools is what come to the rescue.
I suggest using services such as this and have one online calendar specially for team. Calendar can help team to stay on one time-track and keep them updated on upcoming events.I won’t go into advertising services and just say that some tools are good for voice and video conferencing. While others are more suitable for everyday chatting and file-sharing (but definitely not email). Many of them are free to use or have free version with enough functionality.
Typical communication workflow:
- Private call ~15 minutes every day. Set-up time in advance on daily basis
- Team (3D+2D or Development or Marketing Team) call — weekly 30 min.
- Group call — monthly 45 min.
What is next — task assignment, tracking and progress assessment tool
What to use it for:
- Keep track of your current tasks
- Assign New task or archive Finished
- Update task status or add attachments to it
- Look at Team progress and what is being done
- Leave comments to the task
You can integrate task tool Calendar with your Google Calendar to keep track of deadlines and major milestones. It is good practice to check Boards and update tasks on a daily basis.
What not to use task tracking tool for:
- Chatting or general communication
To commit, or not to commit….
File-sharing and Version Control Systems (VCS) are very important for game dev. There are many great free file-sharing tools — GDrive, One Drive, Dropbox … On the contrary — VCS have limited amount of freeware versions. For small company BitBucket (free for team of 5, Jira integration and groups management) may be good solution to store dev. code. Besides I recommend to set up private SVN server for assets and levels files.
In regards to long term planing it’s beneficial to have your own private server and cloud storage .
Useful Information
What is Agile, Kanban and Scrum Agile in Extinction:AG game development context ?
Agile -> Individual and team interaction are our priorities. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design. We should release often small pieces of working solutions be it models or level or music track.Kanban -> Main focus is work that's actively in progress.Once one task is polished team moves to the next one. Team should review tasks that are outside of their main fields of expertise. No multitasking but rather divide'and'conquer into smaller sub-tasks.We are delivering continuously - releasing new game updates often. Changes are goodScrum -> We are open to suggestions, to critique. We all work together to achieve common goal, mutual respect is our backbone. We adopt to changes and have courage to try new approaches. All that we are doing is visible - open to the team.
Hope you enjoyed reading this publication. Have a nice day.
In Part III I will go through main challenges and problems we faced and how we solved(ing) them.
