The Unusually Simplistic Law of Video Game Development
This law is not meant to be broken
It was supposed to be a merry time of year — Christmas carols were playing, and in the new year, my fledgling game studio was going to release its first game.
However, my mood turned dour as I sat in the dimly lit bar, nursing a bourbon with my mentor. A growing sense of dread was forming in the pit of my stomach as we talked about next steps for the studio.
He looked at me quizzically and said, “So you haven’t started yet?”
I shook my head and said, “No, unfortunately not.”
He sighed, and the rickety stool made a screeching noise on the floor as he pushed back from the bar. He settled deeper into his seat and said, “Then you and your game studio may be in trouble.”
He continued as he fidgeted with his glass nervously, “You already know this is an unwritten law in game development — so you need to push harder for your team to see the truth.”
As a producer, I knew he was right, and I needed to correct the error quickly, or else this oversight could have far-reaching consequences.
After finishing my drink and saying our goodbyes, we left the bar, and a chill wind started to blow — little did I know it would be a harbinger of the new year.
What events prompted this conversation, and what “law” was he speaking about?
Planning on Long Term Success for the Game Studio
Running a small game studio is hard and planning for years in advance is even more difficult. Milestones are created for the current game the studio is working on initially but does the studio management look to the future? What happens in year four? Eight? Twelve? Infinity and beyond?
A studio really should have two plans that they follow — the agenda for the immediate future and the schedule for the long term future. It’s almost like being a well-rounded investor. Investors usually have plans for the intermediate term (less than or equal to one year), short term (more than one year but less than three years), medium-term (more than three years but less than eight years), and long term, which is longer than eight years. Milestones fit into the intermediate time and the short term planning scenarios — but do you notice the words mentioned by financial planners? They are “intermediate” and “short” — and they encompass a timeline of only up to three years! A studio usually doesn’t plan for the medium and long-term timeframes beyond the time their milestone schedule ends.
The studio’s longevity depends on some hard work and forethought on where they want to be in the years beyond their current game. The studio should plan for the future at least once a year and then pivot based on what the past year revealed or what they think will happen in the future. The results of these planning sessions can also be presented to the staff to be comfortable that the studio is planning for their well-being far beyond the current game’s milestone schedule.
Tearing the Blinders Off
Development of a video game is hard — mostly when most milestones occur in 4–6 week intervals. The staff is usually fully dedicated to ensuring that the game when it is released is a success. In a small game development studio — the urgency is to get the game to market and get it right, so the publisher/investor recoups their investment, and the studio can pay out bonuses and retain staff. Not looking forward to the future can lead to tunnel vision and short term (or in the investment terms above “intermediate”) goals.
On a small team, the management is usually working side-by-side with the team in the trenches, and they share in the daily, weekly, and monthly travails of the studio. However, it’s always a good practice for management to divorce themselves from the day-to-day and go to the “30,000-foot view” (to use an overworked phrase) to get a lay of where the video game industry is going and what part the studio will play in that future beyond their next game. Unfortunately, too many studios get lost in the weeds and don’t poke their heads up to see what is coming up next for their studio and note what trends other studios are developing. Also, the studio only sounds the alarm bells when it’s too late — forethought and planning needs to happen to ensure that if more funds are required. The publisher’s request needs to have supporting evidence and should happen months before the funds need to be deposited.
Pivot and Let Go
The hardest thing you will ever do as a game studio is to carve out some staff and work on a second project for a publisher or internally while shipping a game. Designers usually need to refine what systems they are working on, and engineers have bugs to fix. They aren’t thinking about prototyping, animators are working on refinements, artists are working on DLC content, and management is busy trying to wrangle the game to be shippable. During all of the final sprint’s chaos to shipping the game, the ultimate sacrifice needs to happen — some of your most experienced staff needs to move to look at what the next game will be and bring it to fruition.
Distributing the workload to work on the next project could provide many junior staff opportunities to step up since the senior team needs to scale back their time to address the new challenge. Regardless, management needs to make this call and pivot into the challenge despite the current bug trends and how the game is coming along.
Everything That Deals with Money Takes Longer Than Expected
Before a studio can sign a contract, they need to show a deck together or get a prototype running showing off the next game’s proposal. These two parts of the game development process could take months to develop both these items, and they needed to be started before visits to prospective publishers. The deck takes the time away from the designers and management, plus the prototype engages all the disciplines.
Once the studio has a new project to pitch, publishers need to do a lot of due diligence before giving you a check to develop a game. Especially if it’s the studio’s first game with a publisher and the studio may have had some success with an indie title, or maybe the studio is founded with a game developer who had some success with another company. Publishers will negotiate to get the best deal possible from a game studio, and they can afford to wait out negotiations (unless there are competing bidders for the studio’s project). Regardless, the talks can take months and sap the studio’s management staff’s time and effort.
This Law is Not Meant to be Broken
This path of thought brings me to the discussion I had with my mentor. Our small studio had tried what I outlined above as best practices for the studio is planning for the future — but we had not fully implemented anything seven months before our game was going to ship. We weren’t working on our next game or pitching publishers — which meant time was running out.
The unwritten law was being violated — the rule is: The studio needs to sign the deal for the next project before releasing its current game. It’s a matter of survival — the main reason is that the game that the studio will release may not be well-reviewed, and sales may not be what the publisher expected. Once the game is out there and if it doesn’t do well, then the adage in the video game world is “You are only as good as your last game.” takes hold. Obtaining future funds for the studio will be difficult since publishers and investors are looking for a successful track record. But the bottom line is once the studio is out of cash it’s the end of the road.
Through my experience, I learned this unwritten law the hard way — and my mentor’s words came back to haunt me before my new studio launched our game. Long-term planning is essential in any business, especially in AAA game development, where you can have a staff of 50 or more working on a game. Most of those team members are counting on the studio succeeding and having a paycheck after the studio ships the game they are working on — there may be some attrition, but the staff needs to have assurances to help them secure their future.
Hopefully, this insight will help new and established game studios plan more effectively. If anyone is planning a game studio in the future, they can use this advice to ensure their roadmap includes the necessary steps to ensure that they are building an organization that will put out great games for years to come.
