DevGAMM: Production for indie teams

Key points

A DevGAMM talk translating production experience from large game teams into questions that a small indie team can use. Yaroslav defines the producer’s responsibility as helping the game reach release within its intended time, budget and quality constraints. In an indie team this need not be a separate job: the role can be combined with other work or shared, provided its responsibilities do not disappear.

• Distinguish exploration from production. Trying to discover which game to make is legitimate, but it should not be mistaken for executing an already understood plan.
• Agree on the team’s purpose: income, a portfolio piece, learning technology, recognition or enjoyment can imply different decisions. Explain why someone would want this particular game.
• Write down the full feature scope, assign priorities and make rough time estimates. Comparing the total with the desired schedule makes expensive, low-priority features candidates for removal.
• Use recurring processes only when they help the actual team. Communication should keep people aligned on the same game and end with actions and expected completion times.
• People are not interchangeable machines. A tracking system or meeting format that works elsewhere may not fit this team, and conflict or lost motivation cannot be solved by a spreadsheet alone.
• Accept uncertainty instead of trying to control every detail. The producer must notice missing responsibilities, support decisions and resolve coordination problems without turning the project into exhausting micromanagement.

Based on automatic Russian captions, which may contain recognition errors; this guide paraphrases the clearly recoverable ideas.