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The Producer Is Far, Far Away Juan Gril Joju. Why?. We work under these myths: “Creating a game with people far away is not possible!” “You can’t coordinate them” “In order to execute your vision, you need to keep control, and you can’t control somebody who is far away”.
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The Producer Is Far, Far AwayJuan GrilJoju CGA Europe: West 2007
Why? • We work under these myths: • “Creating a game with people far away is not possible!” • “You can’t coordinate them” • “In order to execute your vision, you need to keep control, and you can’t control somebody who is far away”
Current Market Conditions • This is what we hear: • “We spent 600,000 dollars in our latest game”. • “You can’t compete if you don’t have a large budget”. • What do all this mean (in theory): • You need senior team members. • You need a nice office to accommodate them. • You need VCs to fund you. • You need Management to get the VCs out of your way. • And if you can’t, go and work for somebody. • Great environment for innovation, right?
Innovation Is In The Garage • But the entire team doesn’t fit in it! • Let’s do a “virtual garage” then!
Case Study: Brown Noise Poo Blast Client: Comedy Central Development Time: 3 months Team Size: 8 (4 full-time)
The perfect team member • Technically and artistically oriented. • Believes in the collective creativity of a group over somebody’s vision. • Hates to be constantly supervised. • Understands that Monday is Monday and not Wednesday. • Does the best for his/her own sake (after all, his/her name is in the game’s credits).
Creativity and Project Ownership • Anti-outsourcing imperative: Doesn’t matter where you are at we’ll make sure there is a two way dialog. • Every team member has contributed in the design of a game we have made. • The Game Designer is the final authority. • But the best leaders are those who first listen to all the options and then make a call.
How We Write and Share Documentation • We use Google Docs for writing GDDs. • We share the GDD with all the dev members andthe publisher. • Everybody is notified of a change.
Project Management: Structure of a Timeline • Joju’s own version of SCRUM: • New build every 2-3 weeks. • The game’s project is divided in components (i.e.: Core Gameplay Engine, Score Panel). • Every component is a task. We don’t break it down more. • We identify 6-10 tasks that can be solved in the build’s dev time. • The implementation of the task usually is not the final (i.e.: Score Panel 0.3 in build 0.12, Score Panel 0.8 in beta build).
Project Management: Visual Timeline • We use Google Spreadsheets for timelines. We share it with all the team members and the publisher.
How We Communicate • 5 min phone SCRUM every day, with no more than 2 people at a time. • Available on IM. But if something is not understood after 3 lines of IM, grab the phone. • Remember that people don’t see your face and your gestures over the phone. Be slow and clear. • The Game Designer is the glue of the team. It’s his most important job of the day. • We have a mailing list for the project which we use to update everybody with.
Asset Management • SVN or a version control system is a must (you already know about this). • Don’t have money for a server? DynDNS is your best friend. • Save on programmer’s hours by structuring the project so levels, graphics and sound can be changed without recompiling.
Thank you Amsterdam! • You can download the presentation from here:http://www.jojugames.com/presentations/ProducerIsFarAway.ppt • Questions? Email juangril@jojugames.com