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打造成功的独立开发团队需具备的元素

发布时间:2011-08-22 17:02:40 Tags:,,,,,,

你是否正着手创立自己的独立游戏工作室?那你就需要一个囊括编程、美工、设计、音效、项目管理和运营等各种职能的团队,你得找到可以共同奋斗数月甚至数年的合适人选,以下关于打造成功独立开发团队的数点小建议:

职能分配

游戏开发过程要涉及多种常规工作,以及一些容易被忽视的角色。小团队的每个成员通常都可以身兼数职,而有些角色则常由多人担任。

编程

编程工作对独立开发团队来说远非游戏开发这么简单,这部分成员经常还需要创建开发工具和建设网站,另外还要负责开发安装程序。

设计

设计是一项可由多人共享的工作,但设计师才是最终拍板敲定设计方案的人员。设计师还要负责管理游戏设计文件以便统一团队工作进度。

美工

美工人员不但要处理游戏美术内容,而且还要协助制作市场营销宣传材料和网页设计。美工需与程序员紧密配合,以保证实现技术和工具需求,他们还要与设计人员合作以保证游戏视觉效果和艺术风格符合预期。

id software(from doolwind.com)

id software(from doolwind.com)

音效

这是游戏开发过程中常被忽略的一个重要环节。开发团队不可在最后一分钟才草草塞入声音文件,否则会导致音效与游戏风格脱节的情况,所以程序员应该在开发初期就创建有关声音文件的内容,以便后期进行统一测试。

项目管理

项目经理人负责统领大局,他们必须了解整个团队的工作进度(游戏邦注:例如,大家工作进入了哪一个阶段),知晓成员的工作情况何时滞后了,并及时监督大家有效地各司其职。他们需要让所有成员了解项目当前目标和最后完成期限等情况。

QA

如果没有QA成员,团队就很可能推出一款不具可玩性的游戏。QA也是一种可由多人共同担任的角色,所有成员都应该经常玩游戏,并及时修复其中漏洞。最好是让非程序员发挥QA的作用,因为后者对自己的代码司空见惯,对其中的错误较不敏感。团队成员也可以和好友分享游戏,并推出测试期以有效分摊QA的工作。

运营

如果无人接手游戏项目的运营工作,那么大家很可能就只是为了好玩才开发游戏,所以必须指派一人负责实现游戏赢利性的问题。另外,所有团队成员都要知道,大家制作游戏是为了赚钱,而不只是为了好玩。运营工作包括市场推广、销售、编写项目计划和寻找融资机会。团队的运营计划一般包括以下内容:

·市场营销策略:如何让人们发现游戏?如何销售游戏,这其中涉及多少成本?

·现金流管理:团队开销费用多大?如何维续项目运营?

·经济评估:与市场同类游戏相比,预计自己的游戏能够实现多少收益?

协同定位

最好是整个团队成员在同一橦楼中工作,以便大家快速检验各自想法,激发他人积极性,共同测试游戏效果,观看他们游戏玩法。但租用一个办公室成本较高,而控制成本对独立开发团队来说至关重要。不妨大家定期带上笔记本找一家咖啡厅坐坐,或者在车库、地下室一起工作。

工作量

这一点要视各个成员对项目的贡献度而定,应该事先就讨论好各成员的工作量,大家的贡献度越接近越好,因为各人的工作时长如果差异较大,往往容易引起成员之间的不快和敌意。其他易引起成员分歧的不平衡因素还包括:

·更大的股份/利润所有权

·更多的项目创意掌控权

game designers discuss(from cncden.com)

game designers discuss(from cncden.com)

个性

对独立团队来说,开发者的个性重于能力。与多数高智商专业人士一样,游戏开发者通常的具有鲜明的个性。对大型游戏工作室来说,锋芒毕露的个性可能只是个麻烦,而对小型独立开发团队来说则可能是个至命导火索。所以每个开发者都应该将游戏项目及团队排在第一位,最好是之前已经共事的老搭档组建成一个团队。

冲突

每个团队都免不了冲突,但如果有一个共同目标,那就有可能最小化冲突的影响。最佳选择就是找到一个解决争端的协停人,而这名中间人必须是众人推崇,并且会兼顾各方工作安排的对象。其他解决团队冲突的方法还包括:

·开诚布公:开放性、持续性的交流是解决问题的最佳途径。

·妥协:团队越大,就越容易出现众口难调的情况。所以有必要各人相让一步,毕竟团队是一个整体,只有妥协才能解决争端。

·让每个人都有发言的权力:投票表决是极好的解决方案,团队最好事先定规矩,以少数服从多数的投票机制解决冲突。

外包vs.内部开发

许多独立开发商预算不足,无法让内部团队全程包揽所有事项,所以外包就成了一个理想的选择。常涉及外包项目的领域如下:

·游戏引擎:整个团队都可以共享外部开发的引擎,这样就能节省大量开发时间。

·声音库:可以将其作为制作游戏声音的组建模块。

·美术:美术设计是游戏开发的重要环节,外包可以节省时间和资金。

游戏邦注:原文发表于2010年1月7日,所述事件以当时为背景。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Building A Strong Indie Game Development Team

Are you looking to set up an independent game development team?  You’ll need a team that covers all areas of game development including programming, art, design, sound, project management and business.  You need to pick the right people that can work together for months or even years.  Below are some tips for putting the right team together to increase your chances of success.

Roles

Game development involves a number of common roles as well as some overlooked ones.  Individual team members can handle multiple roles on smaller teams and some roles can be shared by more than one person.

Programming

Programming on an independent team is about more than just game development.  The programming department will be responsible for tools and website development.  They will also have to handle the creation of the installer.

Design

Design is one of the great areas it pays to share ownership.  The designer has the final say on decisions and is the go to if people are unsure.  They also maintain the game design document to unify the team.  A wiki is a great way to collaborate on the design document.

Art

The art department is responsible for not just game art but also creation of marketing material and web design.  Artists need to work closely with the programmers to make sure technical requirements are met and to drive the requirements for tools.  They also need to collaborate with design to make sure the look and feel of the game is met.

Sound

Often overlooked, sound is vitally important to give atmosphere to the game.  Sound should not be left to the last minute as it will feel disconnected and won’t add as much to the game.  The programmers should build the infrastructure for the sound early to allow experimentation.

Project Management

Project managers are responsible for the velocity of the team (how much they are achieving each milestone).  They need to be aware of when team members are falling behind and make sure everyone is performing their duties.  Visibility is the key to making sure everyone on the team is aware of their current goals and deadlines.

QA

Without QA the game will be unplayable.  QA is another area that is good to share across the whole team.  The team should be playing the game constantly and fixing bugs as they go.  It is preferable to have non-programmers doing QA as it is easy for them to overlook issues in their own code.  Sharing the games with friends and having a beta-testing period is a great way to share the load.

Business

Without someone managing the business side of game development, you may as well be making the game just for fun.  One team member needs to be responsible for making sure the game will be profitable.  The entire team needs to be mindful of the fact they are making a game for profit, not just fun.  Business includes marketing, sales, business plan writing and possibly seeking funding.  The team needs a business plan covering:

Marketing Strategy – How will people find out about your game?  How will you sell the game and how much will it cost?

Cash flow Summary – What are the expenses of the team and how will you afford to keep the business running?

Economic Assessment – How much do you expect to make from the game, based on similar games

Co-Location

If possible, the entire team should work together in the one building.  This lets the team quickly test ideas, keep each other motivated, play-test the game together and watch each other play.  Renting an office is expensive and it’s important to keep costs as low as possible.  Get creative, work together on laptops in a coffee shop, move in together, or work in each other garages or basements.

Workloads

Depending on the situation each team member may have differing hours they can devote to the project.  Each team member’s level of commitment should be discussed and decided up front.  The closer these levels can be the better.  Having a large imbalance in working hours can lead to resentment and hostility between team members.  Some ways of evening out imbalances include:

Larger share/profit ownership

More creative control over project

Personalities

Personality trumps ability on indie teams

Personality trumps ability on indie teams.  As with most high-intelligence professions, game developers often have strong personalities.  While these personalities might be annoying at a large game studio, it can be the death of a small indie team.  Each developer needs to put the game and the team ahead of their own agenda.  When possible a team should be formed with people that have worked together previously.

Conflict

Every team has conflict.  Conflict can be minimized having a unified goal.  The best option is to have someone in a position of power to settle disputes.  This person must be trusted by everyone not to push their own agenda.  Some solutions to solving conflict in your team:

Talk it through – Open, continuous conversation is the best way to solve problems

Compromise – The larger the team, the harder it is to keep everyone happy.  Compromise is a necessity.  Ultimately the team is in it together and need to compromise to solve disputes.

Give everyone a voice – Voting is a great way to solve disputes.  The team must agree that a voting mechanism will be used and respected up front.

Outsourcing vs In-house

Many Indie companies have little money, necessitating all work is done in-house.  Outsourcing gives a reliable quality for a fixed price.  Some areas worth outsourcing include:

Game Engines – shared by the whole team, they can save a lot of development time

Sound Libraries – can be used as building blocks to create sounds for the game

Art – Art is often the critical path in development.  Outsourcing may save time and money

Conclusion

This should set you up on the path to creating a solid team for your next indie game project.  What are your experiences with building a team?  Where have you succeeded and failed? Do you have any recommendations for others who are building their team? (source:doolwind


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