Hi again everyone!
It's almost 2015 and I wanted to write, at least, another post here. For this one I've been thinking a lot but in the end I decided to go with one of the few phrases that I always remember.
The first one was "Straight line, Joan".
My philosophy teacher told me that one. And from what I understood it meant no distractions and clear objectives. But this isn't the quote I wanted to talk about. This is:
"You still need to find your team"
This came up during a conversation with one of the professors of the Master I took. One with a lot of experience, knowledge and passion for video games, Specially for SEGA.
I'm still thinking about a lot of things that we talked that day, but this was almost eye opening. He was right. He was so right.
Up until now I worked alone or with other architects and fellow students. But, what I learnt during the master is that in video games everyone speaks a different language and that everyone comes from a different place. Not that much in architecture where there's much more commmon ground to relate and connect with others.
I also learnt that it's very strange that one person is able to fully develop a game. From the design documents to the finishing touches on music, art and programming. And this is why you're going to need help.
You will need help because:
It's almost 2015 and I wanted to write, at least, another post here. For this one I've been thinking a lot but in the end I decided to go with one of the few phrases that I always remember.
The first one was "Straight line, Joan".
My philosophy teacher told me that one. And from what I understood it meant no distractions and clear objectives. But this isn't the quote I wanted to talk about. This is:
"You still need to find your team"
This came up during a conversation with one of the professors of the Master I took. One with a lot of experience, knowledge and passion for video games, Specially for SEGA.
I'm still thinking about a lot of things that we talked that day, but this was almost eye opening. He was right. He was so right.
Up until now I worked alone or with other architects and fellow students. But, what I learnt during the master is that in video games everyone speaks a different language and that everyone comes from a different place. Not that much in architecture where there's much more commmon ground to relate and connect with others.
I also learnt that it's very strange that one person is able to fully develop a game. From the design documents to the finishing touches on music, art and programming. And this is why you're going to need help.
You will need help because:
- You don't know much about the other stuff a video game usually needs.
- You don't have the time or willpower to dedicate to everything a video game needs.
- Your game can easily outgrow it's initial potential if more than 1 person is working on it.
The third reason is the important one here. For me, it meant discovering that even if I developed a game on my own, it wouldn't be as cool as if I developed it with a partner.
Having another perspective in a project helps A LOT. And also, starting a journey alone is very different from starting with friends. The development process becomes a game on its own. You start joking with the others, improving your productivity and creating a better feeling in the workspace.
Having another perspective in a project helps A LOT. And also, starting a journey alone is very different from starting with friends. The development process becomes a game on its own. You start joking with the others, improving your productivity and creating a better feeling in the workspace.
That is, if you work well with your team.
If this does not happen, it does not mean that you're unable to work well with others, or that the rest of the team are. This has nothing to do with this.
If this does not happen, it does not mean that you're unable to work well with others, or that the rest of the team are. This has nothing to do with this.
Think about it like a puzzle. The game project is the puzzle. And the pieces represent the members of your team and the amount of work they can accomplish.
If there's a piece that doesn't fit maybe you should try using it somewhere else or rotating it.
I've experienced something like this myself. While I was in the master course I started with a project about a crab that lost one of his pincers. After the holiday vacation I was kind of upset with the work done and the will demonstrated during the break. This started a conflict that ended up with me leaving this project and team for good (but you can totally check their game out!)
After that I had 6 to 7 months to work from scratch on this project. And it ended quite well. The new team helped at the beginning but soon I realised I just changed the kind of fires I had to put down.
In the end you need others, but more importantly, you need others that you feel comfortable working with. They can be friends, partners, family, coworkers that you talked to help you in a side project or total strangers that you felt like working with.
In the end you need others, but more importantly, you need others that you feel comfortable working with. They can be friends, partners, family, coworkers that you talked to help you in a side project or total strangers that you felt like working with.
That's why that quote was so important for me. For a long time I though I was the only problem. And this made me realise this is much more complicated than this.
Don't get me wrong, I still think I need to smooth some things out in terms of team communication and teamwork. But now I know that this is not only my problem to solve. That I will eventually get to know interesting people with whom I might connect and develop amazing games.
When you gather creative and hardworking people that think alike and are able to work together as one. Chances are that they'll come up with a project that they are able to feel passionate about.
And if you play that, you'll probably think that they had a blast developing this.
For this second post I though I might give some examples of games that represent what I'm talking about. In this case Mario Kart 8 is the game that comes to my mind when thinking of game developers having a ton of fun creating the game. Every track is great and sends this message of pure, raw enjoyment and competition.
And that's it. At least for now. I REALLY want to write another post before 2015 so stay around :D
J.