作者：Samuel Rantaeskola

当你意识到在预期时间内自己有太多事需要完成时，你便处于游戏创造的中间阶段。这时候你的脑子里最先飘过的会是什么？

我敢打赌在这种情况下大多数人都会开始寻找更多人的帮助。你需要其他关卡美术师，编剧，程序员，灯光师等等。让我们假设你足够幸运在较短时间内便找到能够帮助你创造游戏且带有技能的帮手。在很多情况下他们需要搬到工作室附近并进行全日制工作。

如果你需要更多人去完成游戏的话也是可以的。但这是否也等于在说你在创造下一款游戏时也需要更多人的帮助。如果基于这种方法，你最终将陷入一种恶性循环，即不断需要更多人去完成之后的作品。

通过添加更多人去解决人员不足的问题，你也会给自己带来一些全新的问题。这些问题可能不会马上体现出来，但是你必然会遭遇这样的情况：

更多人=更多问题

团队中的高层会觉得新人的进入变得越来越不重要。比起整体，团队的每一员的重要性将大大缩减。这会导致各种需要不断关注与管理的摩擦的产生。

中层管理

在没有团队中层管理下如果你能够走得越远，你所面对的状况便会越好。中层管理将添加一个交流层面并导致事情变得更加复杂。更别提我们通常都很难找到带有技能的领导者了。

不断膨胀的作品

每一个作品都需要给予员工相应的报酬。所以当你在计划下一件作品时，你当然需要把它能否养活团队中的每一员列入考虑事项。自然地，作品越大，你便越难进行计划。在创造下一件作品的中途你更有可能意识到自己需要更多人的帮助。

解决正确的问题

solve it(from 25pp)

当面对过多问题时你需要问自己的并不是“我可以从哪里找到更多人？”，而应该是“我们该如何使用比现在更少的人去创造出同样出色的游戏？”

如果能够问对问题，你的思维也将被理清楚。你需要做的是寻找减少当前团队工作负荷的解决方法，尝试着明确自己是否能够缩减团队规模。并想办法找出这些问题的答案：

我们今天将时间花在了哪里？

如果你不知道自己今天将时间花在了哪里，那么添加更多人员只会让情况变得更糟糕。

我们是否拥有任何瓶颈？

在我们团队中是否存在哪些阻碍我们不断向前的元素？是否是因为所有人都需要长时间等待咖啡机的运行？还是概念美术师花了太长时间导致所有人都在等他完成工作？

我们是否遇到了时间窃贼？

是不是我们的外包过程占据了太多人的关注？还是因为创造过程太缓慢？

是否存在一些更机智的执行方式？

这可能是最重要的问题，同时也是我们需要深入挖掘的问题。我们也许能够基于一种更机智的方式去执行各种工作。这样做也能够帮助我们节省不少时间。

比起所拥有的时间，每个人所面对的问题往往更加繁琐。而真正聪明的人总是能够巧妙地对待这些问题，并且不会轻易去添加更多人员到工作中。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

You’re solving the wrong problem

by Samuel Rantaeskola

You’re in the middle of creating a game when you realize that you have way too much work to complete within the timeframe you have left. What’s the first thought that crosses your mind?

I’m going to bet that most people in that situation starts looking for more people. You need to find another level artist, scripter, programmer, lighting artist etc. Let’s assume that you’re lucky and you find skilled people with short notice that can come in and help building the game. In many cases they have to relocate to live closer to the studio and get a full-time employment.

It all makes sense, if you needed more people to complete this game. What’s not to say that you will need that when you’re making the next game? With this approach you end up in a vicious circle of continuously needing more people to complete your productions.

By solving the problem of having too few people through adding more people, you are buying yourself a totally new set of problems. They will not be apparent right away, but these are a few things you are bound to encounter:

More people, more problems

The senior people on the team will feel less and less important with the influx of new people. Each piece of the machinery becomes smaller in comparison to the whole. This can cause a lot of friction that needs constant attention and management.

Middle management

The longer you can go without middle management in the team, the better off you are. Middle management adds a communication layer that makes things more complex. Not to mention that it is very hard to find skilled leaders.

Ballooning productions

Each production needs to pay for the people on-site. So when you plan the next production you will of course try to plan the project in a way that it feeds all mouths on the team. Naturally, the bigger the production, the more difficult it will be to plan. More than likely you will find yourself needing more people halfway through the next production as well.

Solving the right problem

The question you should ask yourself when faced with the overload problem is not, “Where can I find more people?”. It should be “How can we build the same game with less people than we already are?”.

Asking yourself that question put’s your mind in the right place. What you need to look for are smart solutions to reduce the workload of your current team, try to find out if there are things you can do to keep the team size down. Supporting questions you should be asking yourself and your team are:

Where are we spending time today?

If you don’t know where you’re spending time today, adding more people is just making the situation worse.

Do we have any bottle necks?

Is there something in our team that keeps us from moving forward over and over again? Is it the coffee machine that always needs attention that everyone is always waiting at? Is it that poor lone concept artist that has way too much work that everyone is waiting for?

Do we have any time thieves?

Is our outsourcing process eating way too much attention from way too many people? Is the build process too slow?

Are the smarter ways we can do things?

Probably the most important question of all, and also the one that takes the longest to dig into. There are probably a lot things going on internally that can be done in a much smarter way. Doing things in a smarter way can free up a lot of time.

Everybody is facing the problem of having too much to do compared to the available time left. The smart ones think of the problem the right way, they don’t take the easy way out of adding more people.(source:gamasutra)