Gamasutra - Features - "GDC 2002: Moving to Multiple Projects" [05.15.02]


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By Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka
Gamasutra
[Author's Bio]
May 15, 2002

Why Grow?

First Steps

Setting Growth Targets

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This feature originally appeared in the Proceedings of the 2002 Game Developers Conference

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Features

GDC 2002: Moving to Multiple Projects

Setting Growth Targets

Understand what kind of company you're trying to build and work slowly toward it. Set goals on what kind of company you want to have based on your personal goals and the goals of the key people in your studio. Make sure everyone is on the same page with the same target in mind. Don't grow quickly without a plan or goal.

Financing your Rapidly Growing Company

Options to consider in financing your company are varied and likely beyond the scope of this talk. However, it is important to consider the cash flow requirements of your company at all times - continually do cash in/cash out assessments of your business, build up lines of credit and reasonable levels of debt with financial lenders, and structure your projects to provide sufficient profitability in advances to allow for a safety cushion near the end of the project, during that all-important time when you are seeking new project funding and still awaiting the start (hopefully) of royalties from your last project.

How to Optimally Use Your Bulk

Some of the best ways to use your new found size (and we mean company size, not waist size) include: sharing technologies and ideas among projects, having people consult on projects they're not normally working on in order to give an educated and focussed critique on their area of expertise (organizational learning), and to build value-added services that are great to have, but can't be justified with only one team to support or when cash is too tight to justify non-critical expenditures

Managing Multiple Projects

The Art of Executive Production
Exec producing is about sharing your knowledge with the teams, and getting the teams to share their knowledge with each other. Another key task is mentoring up and coming producers to help them learn the 'right' way to do production. E.g. leading by example, respecting and trusting the team members, and guiding the project with a gentle, but firm hand.

Trust the People that Work for You
If you are the type of person who has to do everything yourself don't grow your company, you won't be happy. Managing multiple projects is all about learning how to delegate, often to the point that all you have left to do as a task on the project is play the game and make suggestions.

Building Synergy Between Projects
Successful companies in this context share a few qualities: consistency of personnel (maintenance of Organizational Learning), solid inter-project communications, and a desire to help the company in general, not just personal projects.

The Importance of Company Values

What's the easiest way to make competing decisions? Have a solid set of company values that can always be referred to with every single decision. Bioware approaches this topic by consistently preaching two key values both internally and externally: we value quality in our projects and quality in our workplace.

Every company issue we run into can usually be answered in some way by referring back to these two company values. Can your company say the same?

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