AdviceToolbox
Ultimately, we hired him, and gave him a shot. It’s
fair to say the appointment didn’t go well. After he
started, the new producer tried to turn the team
into a “combat platoon”, with a chain
of command that could never be questioned. This
ran counter to the values of the studio,
and the team quickly began to resent him.
He didn’t last, and we had to let him go. In short,
trust your gut, and beware of anyone more
interested in war re-enactments than team
solidarity and development.
- Hire for diversity
Having a diverse team is critical for game
development. If you’re lucky, your game will be
played by thousands, and potentially millions of
people. And guaranteed, these people will not
think like you. Having a diverse team isn’t simply a
checkbox to tick. It’s a benefit for your company,
as it will bring different perspectives to your
project, and help you
identify ‘blind spots’ which
you might otherwise miss.
Diversity makes
good business sense.
Diversity will help you
create successful projects and sell more games.
In full transparency, we’ve been OK at this at
Typhoon, but we still have a long way to go.
The good news is that more and more women
are entering game development. This is a win
for everyone. - Hire people who enjoy what you make
This one seemingly goes without saying, but it’s
worth mentioning. Pretty much every interview
I do with a candidate, I ask them what they’re
currently playing. They don’t need to be the most
hardcore player, but they do need to have an
interest in games. This is particularly important in
cities like Montréal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and
London, where there are high concentrations of
both game developers and movie VFX companies.
With consoles and PCs becoming more powerful,
and films featuring more and more CG, the
crossover between these two workforces
is increasing.
When you’re interviewing, you may come
across an artist, animator, or programmer who
has a lot of experience in film but not games.
If the candidate is genuinely interested in your
project and games in general, then take the
risk and make the hire; they will be motivated
wfmag.cc \ 31“Diversity will help you
create successful projects
and sell more games” The team at Typhoon are
currently working on their
debut outing, Journey to the
Savage Planet. The Nintendo Wii U port of
Batman: Arkham City proved
to be a solid one, despite a
few producer problems
behind the scenes.to prove themselves. However, if the person
(despite their talent) doesn’t play games, then
even if they say something to the contrary, they’re
probably just looking for a bridge between jobs.- Be wary of demotions
In Typhoon’s early days, we were fortunate to
have people who were excited (or crazy) enough
to want to join us. Our founding team and
first employee consisted of a creative director,
technical director, producer, and head of art.
We had two individuals who were really excited
about joining us, who in
their previous lives had
been creative director and
art director respectively.
Both were really good at
their old jobs, but made
the decision to ‘step down’ to the roles of design
director and principal artist.
Initially, it was great; everyone was getting
along well and doing their part. Unfortunately,
game development is rarely all rainbows and
sunshine. The challenge we had was that the
pair were very used to getting their way in terms
of creative choices, and they found it difficult
when this didn’t happen. Now, I’ve seen cases
where this situation does work, so this isn’t a
hard and fast rule, but rather something to keep
in mind: what it really comes down to is a team
member’s personality.
Like game development, team-building is
hard, and it’s an iterative process. Where you
start out is almost certainly not where you finish.
I was listening to a podcast a few months ago,
and there was a start-up founder talking about
his approach to hiring. The main takeaway
was to always hire ‘missionaries’ rather than
‘mercenaries’. What this boils down to is, hire
people who are intrinsically motivated by what
your team is building, and for whom the pay
cheque (while important) isn’t the number one
driver. We try to live by this rule every day at
Typhoon, and while challenging sometimes,
it’s done well for us.