From a “Proper Job” to Indie — Part 4: Assemble your Team

“From a ‘Proper Job’ to Indie” is a series of articles that describe what it was like going from Full Time employment into the world of Indie Development. Last time I talked about the game-related elements I focused on early in Abandon Ship’s development. This time, I talk about expanding your team.

Game Developers! Let our Powers Combine! (only those old enough to be watching cartoons in the early 90’s will get this reference)

You may be one of those incredibly talented developers that can make an entire game by themselves. If you are, I hold the greatest admiration for you!

For most people however there are skillsets they don’t possess, and this means having someone else on your team fulfil that need, whether that is a Business Partner, an Employee or Contractor.

Essentially, when you’re looking for people to expand your Indie team no matter what their relationship to the company is, you need to look for some common traits.

Expanding your Team

There are a lot of things to consider when looking for new team members.

The first should be identifying the skillset you need, and making sure that person can fill that gap.

Secondly, ascertain whether you think you could work well with that person, and how they’d fit in with the team dynamic. This is hard to gauge given that you may not have even met the person if you’re working remotely, so you’ll need to rely on your gut feeling. It’s not that you all have to be best buddies, more that you don’t want anyone who is going to needlessly piss off other people and upset the balance. A cohesive, communicative team pulling in a unified direction is more productive then a fractured team.

In a small team, each person has a massive impact on the project, so make sure it’s a good fit for both of you.

You must also balance cost versus experience. It’s all well and good hiring someone junior / cheap, but will they be able to get the job done? The more experienced person may be more expensive, but if you know they’ll knock it out of the park and do it faster, it is something that bears consideration.

You want your whole team to be filled with people that are diligent, professional and dedicated.

In the Games Industry, it’s not hard to find people that tick all those boxes!

Where should I look?

If you’ve been in the Games Industry, you’re probably familiar with ex-colleagues that you want to work with. This is a really good place to start because you know that person and will understand what they can do, how well they can do it and how they’ll fit into the team.

If you work in a remote location then sometimes slow internet speeds can be a pain.

Outside of that, searching suitable places like LinkedIn, Hiive, local developer meet-ups, industry events and conferences, or just plain internet searches usually turn up a wealth of options.

Sometimes you’ll be surprised what you find. One day I was on LinkedIn, and the algorithmically generated “people you may know” section popped up a face I recognised. After following the link through, I realised this was someone from a Student Competition that I mentored years ago. After some due diligence and discussions, I realised this person was a perfect fit for the project. So keep your eyes & ears open; you never know what opportunity may crop up!

Where will we work?

This will be determined by a lot of different factors.

If your team is spread across the country (or even different countries) then remote working is your only choice.

If you happen to live close to each other, then rented office space is an option.

However you will also have to factor in expense. Office space costs money but will improve communication. There are tools that help ease problems for remote teams (we use a combination of Slack and Skype which are both free, and Jira which has a one-time $10 fee if you host your own server) — but they can’t replace the immediate nature of turning to someone next to you to discuss a feature. However if you’re working from home, the money saved on office space can go back into the game.

You also need to consider what works for you. If you’re working from home but are easily distracted, then going to an office may be crucial in terms of your productivity.

There can be many distractions when working from home. Try to keep them to a minimum.

If you decide that renting office space is the best option for you, then it’s worth shopping around. There tend to be shared office space initiatives, and even start-up focused places that offer good rates and greater contract flexibility. If there is a strong development scene in your area, you may even find like-minded people to rent together. Here in Guildford, one such example of this is Rocket Desk.

Next you need to decide how your new team members fit into the company.

Business Partners

A Business Partner is someone who will have a stake / shares in the company.

If you’re going to have a Business Partner, the most important thing to establish is “can I work with this person?” Not just when times are good, when times are bad. Really bad. Making games is tough, there will be conflicts and disagreements — but if you can always resolve those and move forward, you know you’re partnering up with the right person.

Be prudent and set up a Shareholders Agreement to cover eventualities. No-one can predict the future, and this acts as a safeguard for keeping the company in the current Shareholders control.

Employees and Contractors

Unless you’re flush with cash, I imagine most start-ups will be hiring people on a Fixed Length contract. Regardless, make sure your employment contract is a games industry suitable one (there are templates online for free) and tailor it as you need to. Remember these agreements are to protect both parties, so be fair in your negotiations and willing to discuss clauses. Hopefully once it’s signed, you won’t ever need to refer back to the contract except to check payment dates and amounts.

Always remember that happy people do good work, so foster that “we’re in this together” vibe. Give them responsibility, don’t micromanage them. Treat them as an integral part of the team and unsurprisingly they’ll feel invested.

Working in the same office comes at a cost, but is great for communication.

And what about my role in the Team?

You need to Lead.

I’m lucky enough to have run teams in the past, so can draw from personal experience here, but being a team leader is a crucially important role because you set the tone.

Lead from the front. Be inclusive and transparent. Operate from a position of trusting people to do their job. Be logical and fair. Be decisive, but humble enough to ask for help or other people’s thoughts. In short be a Leader, not a Manager.

With the team all set and ready to go, be prepared to spend a percentage of your time planning out work plus providing direction and feedback. This time will increase the bigger a team you have, but by following this guide you’ll have everything in place to deliver your vision.

In the next article, I talk about what happens after you’ve got past those initial couple of months, and are now a fully-fledged Indie Developer!