The basic rules of indie gamedev. Part 3

With you again uncle Doc. Last time I tried to tell you the basic "rules" of work with enthusiasts, in fact there are much more of them, but too many of them are based on personal preferences. This time I would like to consider the basics of working with an already assembled team.
The work of the game designer in addition to the "vision" of the game world and writing dizdok, is in the management team. And some of you will probably think: “What kind of hack is this?”. I would laugh now, but I’m afraid you won’t hear, the main problem of working with narrowly focused specialists is that they don’t actually understand each other, and if you have any complaints, discord begins in the team because the programmer will never pay attention to the work of the artist until it is too late, the 3d designer doesn’t care about the limited capabilities of the engine, and the sound engineer is generally violet for everyone and everything. And here comes gamediz, it is the link between these, in fact, different worlds. If the 3d fashion designer says that the texture peels off on the NPS when moving, it is gamediz that must understand whose mistake is here, the programmer or the artist.

// A small caveat, the whole hierarchy that I list refers only to indie-heidev. At the expense of a large igrostroy, unfortunately I can not say anything because so far I have not had a chance to work there. //

You probably ask, "How should I know this?". But from this moment begin the professional knowledge of the game designer. In spite of his controlling role in the team, he should know all the disciplines with which he has to work, theoretically good gamediz should be able to do games alone. It is impossible to demand from the team something you do not know. For example, your 3d fashion designer says what to do for all hundred species of animals a separate skeleton will be a chore, and a little more effective to do only 1 but with a huge number of frames. A programmer claims that this will greatly complicate his task and there will be a chance of random bugs with animation. What will you do in this situation?

Awww, I'm starting to understand where you're going ...

That's it for this game designer and should know the base of all the professions involved in the game. Of course, the more you know, the more tightly you will be able to work with certain specialists. And the more rationally you can use their abilities, who knew that the same programmer could be a specialist in: procedural generation, setting up AI, game physics, or even working with games for the first time.
And here we are smoothly turned to the work with specialists, I will count and give advice mainly focusing on the fact that you have one specialist of each type in your team (as usually happens).

First of all, programmers :
1. Programmers are guys who are very afraid of difficult tasks (although they claim the opposite), I strongly advise before setting goals for him, chatting over a mug of pi ... hmm ... soda and find out what he did before, and what exactly is his interested in. And only after you are sure of what exactly your special baldeit is, set tasks according to the level of his “love”, leaving all the most boring and tedious at the end, when the mere fact of an almost finished project will pull its work.
2. When you give a task to a programmer, be very very careful in expressing your thoughts. In order to explain more precisely what the problem is, I will give an example: Once working with a shooter, I put the programmer in front of the task of realizing the fall of a bullet and rebound from some surfaces, to which he agreed with a very serious face. A week later, when I came to him to check the results, he very much aggrieved me and said that weeks is not just enough, but too little even to make a basis. Few things from such happiness, I checked his work and found that instead of implementing a primitive flight along an arc and reflection from certain surfaces, Mr. Programmer began to implement the full physical model of the bullet based on its estimated mass, wind speed, initial speed, and so on. .d Do you understand now? Many programmers have a small feature of perfectionism, they always unknowingly try to complicate their task. Try to control exactly what it performs and how it implements.

What he wrote? I think it was a button ...

3. For the most part his knowledge is always higher than yours, do not be afraid to consult him. He knows about the engine you use, not just more, but even what you thought was black magic. And before you add or change something in the gameplay, ask him how much this will affect his source.

Further more fun artists :
1. If you can imagine yourself recognizable as a specialist, then you imagine an artist - enthusiast. Gathering them into the team, you know that they can not change their style, even if threatened with a soldering iron. So, very carefully inspect the workpieces that they bring to you during the test task, if the style is different from the final version of the game that you are trying to achieve, you can safely say “Good luck, we will call you back” and look further. Just do not confuse the discrepancy between the type of character and the discrepancy between the style of the game, although these are similar, but very different things.
2. Working with the artist, remember the basic rules, there are artists and there are artists. The artist is able to do everything, but he loves only his style, so if he fixes it, then he can be pixel art and vector art, etc. the artist, on the contrary, is able to draw only with his own style, say, with large pixel-pixel art and demand you isometrics, he will not be able to realize it anymore. It is quite difficult to determine, but from my observations I can say that Artists are completely drawing, if his hands are free, then most likely they are connected, but artists, on the contrary, approach drawing as work. If you have a choice, it is better to take forever drawing with a disheveled inadequate hairstyle rather than a well-dressed serious racer.
3. By assigning him a task, paint it literally with “toes movements”, he still realizes it differently. And the more accurately you explain the goal to him, the closer to it will be the final result.
')
The simplest sounds :
1. Most often, these guys are very dependent on the muse, and although they are ways to work without her participation. If you want a truly epic soundtrack, catch their inspired mood. For the rest of the time, try to distribute the little things, like breathing GG, steps of zombies, etc.
2. Learn to inspire people, the complexity of working with music is that if you knew how it would sound, you would write it yourself. Try to push your musician on a specific topic, say if you need a desperate battle with the boss, tell him about: “Heroic resistance, the space marines detachment surrounded by zerg. Behind his back, civilians are loading into the spacecraft, and in front are only endless hordes of damned xenos. And here is the last worker, comes into it, the ship rises in the air ... and it is shot down! Space Marines understand that no one else will return for them, and they are fighting not for their lives, but out of desperation ... " It is from your skill to inspire people that the quality of the music will depend.

And the most difficult, screenwriters :
1. Remember the main problem, most of the screenwriters are potential or failed gamedogs. If there is an opportunity, then it is better to do his work yourself, but if you take the risk or have to take it, carefully reread everything he writes, starting with the welcome speeches of the NPCs, ending with the victorious exclamations of the enemies. He works with the most difficult part of gamedev, with the game universe. Players will see it through HIS texts. And if you cheat, do not be surprised when it turns out that: Mario was the son of Luigi who traveled in time using the power of the dragonborn using the secret reception of the barbarians "Kame-hame-ha."

I'm not quite sure what I'm reading ...

2. Kohl you took him to work, try to give him the greatest share of their attention. Proceeding from the first point, he, as a potential designer, sees not just another project, he sees his project. Writers are very rare who can easily tune in to someone else's universe without bringing their own features into it. And as soon as he feels free, your ass will feel inconsistencies in the universe ...
3. Do not be afraid to expel, as I said the screenwriter is a potential gamediz. And two gamediz in one turkey will not get along. If you see that the scriptwriter is too arrogant, or simply does not understand the essence of your universe. Do not try to retrain it, believe it is much easier to find another, rather than change the existing one.

And perhaps everything today, I already wrote a lot of bukaf and I am afraid I was very tired of my tediousness. The main thing to remember is that all I have told you is only the tip of the iceberg, a lot depends on your intuition, try to listen to it and maybe you will be able to get a reliable team that you can trust with any of your projects without a tedious and long explanation of why elves ears.

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Thank you for reading, do not forget that your attention is like bread for me, and for the comments I may be encouraged by cookies (sometimes not even cardboard!). In the future we will consider the project itself from the point of view of the game designer, and how different the management of various genres is.

Past part