AdviceToolbox
Building games is hard; building great games is even harder.
Here are Reid’s tips for hiring and forming a dev teamFive rules for
team-building
AUTHOR
REID SCHNEIDER
Reid is the producer of Splinter Cell, Battlefield Vietnam,
Army of Two, Batman: Arkham Origins, and Batman:
Arkham Knight. Follow him on Twitter: @rws360situation, people will, for the most part, be on
their best behaviour, and try to tell you what you
want to hear. I like to refer to this as ‘meeting
their representative’, since it’s not necessarily who
the person really is. I’ve found that the best way
to really get to know someone is to see them in
a more social situation. For example, if you go
to lunch or a bar, how do they treat the staff?
Are they the same person, or are they a jerk?
About a year ago at Typhoon, we were looking
for some support in a very specific domain.
At the time, my wife Mandy (who’s been a rock
star in supporting the company and still teaches
yoga classes here), would sometimes sit at
the front desk and greet visitors. Anyway, our
potential employee walks in, and he happened
to know one of our other co-founders quite
well. To say that he was rude to my wife – who
he assumed was a receptionist – would be an
understatement. A few moments later, I walked
over while he was talking with other staff, and I
said, “I see you met my wife, Mandy.” A look of
horror came over his face, and with that, let’s just
say he didn’t get the job.- Beware the ‘law-enforcers’
Early on in the evolution of WB Games Montréal,
we needed to hire a producer for a new game
we were developing – Batman: Arkham City
on the Nintendo Wii U. We had received a
recommendation from another employee who
said he knew someone he thought was good,
but warned he could be a bit “militaristic” on
occasions. We interviewed him, thought he could
be valuable, and the team liked him. Something
felt a bit off, but we couldn’t directly identify it.
30 / wfmag.cc
Based in Montréal, the team
at Typhoon Studios has
grown rapidly since its
founding in 2017.was recently sharing an elevator with
an old friend and colleague, Patrice
Désilets – creator of Assassin’s Creed
and Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia. Like us
at Typhoon Studios, he split off from
the corporate world, and started a company
called Panache Digital Games. They’re currently
building Ancestors (see issue 18). As we talked in
the elevator, Patrice said something which has
stuck with me: “Finishing any game is always a
minor miracle.”
At first I kind of laughed, but then as I thought
more about it, the more I agreed with him.
It takes a great team to finish a game, but great
teams don’t just happen overnight; they happen
through people working together, over long
periods, to achieve a common goal. I’ve made
some great hires over the years, and also made
some disastrous ones. Hopefully, the tips below
will help you in your team-building journey.- How does this person treat others?
This one is highly personal to me as I have an
allergic reaction to arrogance. In an interview
I