bitingmascot-blog

[bitingmascot-blog]

So you want to market your game

What I’m about to talk about concerns mostly Finnish game developers I’ve met. We are too humble in our work and our skills. I believe this might also apply for most introverted game developers. I have limited info and skills, so please make your own interpretations on your own experiences, read up on marketing articles on Gamasutra or look for other indies’ articles (I’ll link some at the end). I’m also studying game development, not marketing, so my ideas on marketing aren’t based on “traditional” marketing techniques, just what I’ve learned on a few courses and on the internet.

Something that seems to be difficult for starting game developers is how to actually sell their game. They can sell the idea to their team, the vision to other game developers, but not the product to customers. Some are great at the “show and tell” of gaming events, others at the magic of a social media hit. These come from skills of speech, showmanship, art. But they don’t know how to sell the feeling, the package, the price; the product. I’ve seen people immerse themselves into making their game, intending on making it a product. But then nobody hears anything until it’s done. And then it gets buried.

So why don’t people take time to sell their game? I’ve heard a few reasons, like

“game developers are artists who create for the joy of creating”: that would be great if their livelihoods weren’t dependant on the products selling

“it takes too much time to do”: if you are making a jam game or learning with a game developing hobby, that’s fine, but otherwise it’s just as important as the game you are making to get people to see it

“I don’t know how”: this is actually the most reasonable reason to not do marketing, but not good enough to not learn. Granted, there aren’t schools for specifically selling and marketing games (if you know of one, tweet at me @BeanieDev, I would be interested), but there are so many online resources to learn from.

I think everyone has heard the line “Marketing starts when development/preproduction/designing starts” in one form or the other if you’ve listened to any talk about video game marketing. I think that a more honest line is “marketing starts when the decision is made that the product is going to be a product”. Names need to be decided for social media, concepts drawn up for getting people’s attention. Then the three biggest decisions: who handles the marketing, what kind of marketing is used and how serious is the product. Let’s quickly go through these:

Who handles the marketing: A team nowadays can consist of a random assortment of the following; artists, programmers, designers, producers and audio guys. There may be other roles in your team, but these are the “main jobs” in smaller teams, so I’m gonna talk about them.  In addition, we can think about getting an external marketing person (that’s me!). So who would be best to do the marketing on top of their other work? This is also figuring you are a small team, indies without a marketing team. I actually think that marketing can be best handled as a team. Let’s look what every team member can provide for marketing and what weaknesses they provide if they are put into a marketing position on their own.

Artists have a lot of skills that social media marketing can utilize. But their other work is very important and can take a lot of time. So, this is a case-by-case decision for the team. If there’s a social media –savvy artist who can create small, clean stuff quickly, then an artist can get the product a lot of attention. But marketing also includes writing copy (text), contacting people, going to events and taking time to figure out what things are working and what aren’t. That’s a lot of time taken away from drawing, modeling, texturing or any actual game development.

Programmers or designers can usually make the quickest “funny in-game clips” in the editor. The great #gamedev/indiedev posts (glitches, gameplay/feature displays) are easily made with some simple screen recording software. They only need to write a funny explanation of what’s happened and that’s a great post! But again, there’s so much more to marketing that would take that time away from the game development.

Producers are commonly put into the part of the marketer. They handle events, they see what’s going on with every part of the project. But they might have enough to juggle with their actual work too. If the project is serious enough, producers are constantly keeping track of the project, handling emails, meeting with investors or publishers. So not the worst pick for a marketer, but they can be reliant on others for the materials or too busy for it.

Sound guys are the sound guys. With that kind of creative talent, they often know a thing or two about video editing too. They have great possibilities for making trailers. But, in that way, they are completely reliant on the others in the team.

So then we get to the external marketing person. They have the time set for writing, contacting and keeping an eye on things. However, they are dependent on the rest of the team to provide visual materials, barring they don’t have skills in art or game development in general.

So who’s the best pick here? The guys who can’t produce the content or the ones who don’t have time for everything else? I say combine the manpower. The whole team produces content. The easiest way to do it is to have people share what they see while creating it. Share it on the team’s Slack or Discord and then have someone in charge of posting put it up. This fixes another problem as well, we’ll get to that soon.

What kind of marketing: So there are many forms of marketing. There’s social media, news sites, YouTube, influencers and reviewers. Your own website, discord server, the social media handle, Reddit and Imgur. How do you pick what you want to use? Which social media? What influencers? When who what -Argh! So much to choose from. So what do you do? Do them all at the beginning? No. Choose a couple of social media tools and Reddit/Imgur. Look up on how to use those social media online (I’ll link some I’ve used in the end). For Reddit, look for relevant subreddits, check the sidebar for instructions, when unsure ask and remember the Reddiquette. Imgur is tricky. They dislike the hard sell, you need to interest them with short videos, gifs, and images. Instead of selling the game to them, show them some funny clip and say “this is a funny bug/cute scene from the game I’m making, had to share it”. Hang out in the comments and chat. Give more info when they want it. Great line from Mark Rosewater’s GDC talk: “People are more invested in things they initiated”. You give them a chance to ask in the comments. Those who are interested ask questions. Answer them and they get more interested. Once you get some following, make a discord channel. Give people more chances to get close to your product. Make a devblog on Tumblr or IndieDB. Find new social medias that I don’t even know about. Mastodon, Vero, Social-media-number-251, you never know what might be the next big thing for indie developers to make big waves.

So then you got to pick the most important thing for this part: what does the marketing sound like? Are you selling as the developer? Are you selling as a character? How do you talk? Cute-sy? Cool-like? What’s the tone? No matter where you market your game, people see the tone. If you haven’t heard of the Nintendo Power Earthbound “This game stinks” line, you should google that to see how not to sound when selling your game. So pick out a tone. Stick to it. This is where having one person post helps. No disconnect from the main idea. There should be some discussion with the group first, but then one person can do the posting when the tone is set.

How serious is the product: Are you making a small jam game with your friends? Or a 3-year endeavor that will break the way we think about games? And should it sell? Everything depends on you. For a jam game, as the creation should be a fun weekend with your friends, maybe the people who see it and the purpose should be the same: your friends, having fun. So a couple tweets with images, maybe an Imgur post with a link to the download. For the 3-year endeavor, a team of marketers, outside help, professionals to make the hard sell on big publications. But those won’t come before you make something polished. Those projects take time. And while some say the hype lives on, it’s actually hard to keep it alive. Great article on playing the long game by Tanya Short from Kitfox Games on Gamasutra.

When you start to get further with the development, you can pick out more tools, check out more avenues that fit the posts you make. When someone hollers at you, holler back. Build a community if it fits your game. Look for Youtubers, from lists online and if your team enjoy someone’s content, shoot them a message. Be respectful!

So that’s a lot of info on how to start things off. And that’s not half the battle. Then the real work begins. I’ll leave you off with a few select articles and talks I’ve found on the subject. Again, if you got something to comment on or want to talk about the subject, shoot me a message on Twitter @BeanieDev. Happy marketing!

Juho The marketing trainee

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TanyaXShort/20180928/327255/Years_in_the_Making_The_Long_Game_of_Boyfriend_Dungeon.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisDenby/20180425/316986/Kotaku_is_not_the_answer_strategic_thinking_for_indie_game_PR.php

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2695/the_basic_marketing_plan_for_indie_.ph

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/316705/How_to_market_a_game_with_minimal_budget.php

https://www.patreon.com/posts/18946926

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/6afxr5/marketing_your_game_is_hard_marketing_your_game/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5tyX_IBTXA&feature=youtu.be&a=

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFgXXjoLi8&feature=youtu.be&a=

[bitingmascot-blog]

The importance of other crafts as a game designer

The following text is aimed towards young or aspiring game designers. For veterans, this may be old news or self-explanatory. These are all my personal views and opinions on this subject and there may be way better approaches to game design. But hey, we’re all here to learn, right?

There’s a lot of theory about video game design, the fancy craft combining science and art. It’s a profession that’s been around no longer than 40-odd years and during that time games have evolved immensely, along with the theoretical design behind them. Humans are finicky beings to design entertainment for. We are thoughtful, logical beings for the most part, but we are still driven by our sometimes irrational emotions. “Finding the fun” can be immensely difficult at times when a seemingly waterproof design fails because of unforeseen player behavior. Thus game designers have documented and shared their discoveries and theories to help other designers avoid falling into the same traps.

There’s a huge amount of information to be found about different areas of game design right here on the internet for free. And that’s great! It provides fresh designers an easier path to follow if they want to get into the industry and helps the industry grow as a whole. However, I’ve noticed that as a new generation of game designers is rising, the generation that grew up playing games, many seem to focus solely on the theory of game design. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course it’s good to know the tried-and-true best practices and the pitfalls to avoid, but I’ve also noticed that veteran game designers rarely rely on pure theoretical knowledge about game design alone. Knowledge is power, absolutely, but you shouldn’t restrict your views to just game design.

Think about it. Back in the 70s and 80s the internet wasn’t as popular, or even as functional as it is today and the whole game industry was still in its teeny tiny baby shoes. There was next to no theories about game design or any proven best practices to follow. Despite that we got killer hits like Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, Sim City and Tetris. How did the designers of that stone-age know how to design such unique and well-received games?

They didn’t have much “game design” to look up from. They looked everywhere else. They used their knowledge from other areas of expertise to make educated guesses on what could be a fun gaming experience. You can use almost any kind of knowledge to aid you in game design. Psychology, architecture, history, cultural knowledge, economy, fashion design, anything can be utilized in game design. You just have to keep your eyes and mind open.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to learn about theoretical game design, on the contrary. Using both game design theories as well as knowledge from other areas together is a powerful tool when tackling your game’s design. However, we’re not supercomputers. We humans have our limits when it comes to storing information and applying it correctly. No matter how hard you try, you can’t be an expert at everything. You’re more likely to burn out quicker than expected.

Because there are so many things to draw useful information out of, yet our information storage capacity as humans is limited, I strongly encourage you to find your focus. Game development is a team effort and finding your area of expertise is bound to help you find employment and make those dreams a reality. So let’s get to the point.

It’s important to know what kind of expertise will help you in the area you want to focus on, so you don’t overwhelm your head with superfluous information. Optimize your precious time by focusing on the things that will actually help you.

For example, if you want to focus on level design, anything related to spatial knowledge can be helpful. Having the graphical skill to sketch, create and 3D model levels yourself not only helps you test your levels quicker, but also saves the team’s artists a lot of time. Having artistic knowledge about positioning, framing, color theory and lighting is essential to creating visually pleasing environments and also helps you create levels that are easy to navigate for the players. Learning about architecture is certainly helpful when creating urban environments and you can also draw inspiration from real-life architecture from around the world. Knowing about gameplay design is not necessary, but certainly helps you think about what kinds of experiences you want your levels to offer for the player. It may also help you communicate with the actual gameplay designer whose game mechanics you will be designing those levels for.

If you want to focus on gameplay design, programming is a really useful skill that you shouldn’t neglect. If you can program and test your designed mechanics yourself, even with non-optimized frankenstein code, you can save the team’s programmers a lot of time and you can immediately tell if something’s wrong with the mechanic and what should be done about it. Programming knowledge also helps you realize the possible technical constraints that you have to design around and helps you communicate with programmers about how you’d like your mechanics to be implemented. In addition to programming, here is where theoretical knowledge about fun gameplay comes to shine. Fun is such a difficult goal to reach, it’s important to know what kinds of gameplay people find engaging. And if you’re treading on entirely new ground with no theories to back it up, just prototype and test to see if it ticks. Make your own discoveries by doing, rather than thinking.

If you want to focus on system design, like level-up systems, point systems or economy systems, large-scale thinking and structure design are your best tools. It requires you to be able to see the bigger picture, take multiple things into account when making decisions and think how you can create working relationships between multiple complicated factors. And more specifically, knowledge about real-life economies and how they are structured can help you design economies for multiplayer games or other games with complicated economy systems.

If you want to focus on user interface design, graphic design is your best friend. Graphic designers are usually associated with web development or advertising, but the same basic principles apply to user interface design in games as well. Again, having the graphical skill to implement and test your interface designs yourself can save a lot of time from the actual artists.

I’m no expert on this particular subject, but if you want to focus on narrative design, knowledge about history, literature and human emotions can get you a long way. Know which emotions you want to tug with your narrative and how to best stimulate those emotions. Know how it has been done for years in literature and movies and how you could use games as the superior interactive media to offer new kinds of narrative experiences. Literature and movies can also provide excellent examples on how to pace a story, since they’ve been doing it for decades before video games. Playtesting is also incredibly important in narrative design in order to find out whether your narrative nets the wanted results.

Finally, psychology is one of the most important things to learn about and can be applied to almost any area of game design. It’s crucial to know about human behavior, so we can better predict the expected player behavior when designing game mechanics, levels, narrative or almost anything. There are multiple different areas of psychology as well, but learning about human behavior and why do we do the things we do, why do we feel the way we do, why do we react the way we do is super important to game design, I can’t stress it enough. It really helps to get into the mind of the creatures that you’re designing experiences for.

Also, designing a type of game that you’ve played a lot yourself certainly helps, but there’s a chance that you’re going to get locked up in a box of how the game should work. It’s good to know about the delicacies of that type of game, but don’t restrict yourself to making it a “that type of game”. Think outside the box. Think outside the genre. Don’t limit yourself to mechanics and solutions that have already been done hundreds of times before in that genre.

There are way more areas of game design to cover, but you should get the point that I’m getting at. Hopefully those examples helped you grasp the subject a bit better. Whatever area of game design you want to focus on, try to think of existing professions or other related things that you can draw information from. Learning about theoretical game design is important, but it’s also essential to delve into other supporting professions to find new angles and solutions. It’s also important to do things. Don’t get locked up in your designer’s desk filled with papers and plans. Remember to prototype and test your features to get concrete information instead of just educated guesses and theories.

There are tons of ways to approach game design and these are by no means the only or the best ones. I’m still learning myself, and I think we all are. None of us is a perfect game designer. There are tons of ways for us all to improve as designers. But to improve, we must keep an open mind about fresh ideas and new angles. And that’s what I am encouraging you to do here. Don’t restrict yourself to game design, just because you’re a game developer. Look for relevant information all around you. Find your focus and reinforce it with game-relevant information and outside game development as well. And remember to prototype your ideas. Model your own level. Program your own game mechanic. Write your own story.

That last one was a metaphor if you didn’t catch my drift.

- Toni / Designer

[bitingmascot-blog]

Lovable characters in video games

So, you saw him or her on the screen. You thought they looked kinda cute. You pay a bit closer attention to them as you progress through the game. Suddenly, they say something or move in the ways that make your heart skip a beat. If this character is playable, you most likely start to fancy them over the others. If this character is a part of a story, you eagerly progress through the game to get more info about them and look for opportunities to interact with them. The way you feel is perfectly normal. Most likely, this is also what the game developers wanted you to feel when they were creating this character.

Sometimes we - the developers - want you to fall in love with the characters we created to make your overall experience throughout the game as personal and meaningful as possible. The features that trigger your interest towards a character may come from various places, such as from the way they look or their mutual interest in something you like. These features about the characters are all intentional and designed to pique your interest in one way or another.

I’d love to explain some of the things I’ve learned about character creation over the past few months. I’ve made a couple characters full of thought and detail for our current game we have under development at Biting Mascot. Creating these two characters in particular taught me a ton, and I feel like I’m ready to share some of my thoughts with you.

So, with that, let’s get into the tips and tricks I found extremely useful for creating lovable characters:

Know where they are coming from…

In order for characters to have a reason why they do things the way they do, they need a backstory. Our past pretty much determines our current behavior and beliefs in real life, and this should be the case for fictional characters as well. This makes their actions not only constant and relatable, but also believable. This is important in order to make the character feel like they are a part of the universe and not just some random mob giving you directions or mindlessly following you around. Give the characters a reason to have habits and beliefs. A past life.

…and where they are going

This is really important. You have to figure out what it is that your character desires. This alone determines the sole purpose and the reason of existence of the character in your game. It doesn’t have to be anything big. For example, a simple craftsman could desire to produce quality armor for his customers, and that’s their passion. Something that keeps them going. You could also give them a child or a pet that they need to look after, and that could be the reason why they need to keep the shop running. It can be anything you want or what the game needs, really. Whatever it is, it’s bound to make your character more interesting straight from the get go.

Know what makes them unique

Depending on how deep you want to go with the character, you could think about these little subtle elements about them that set them apart from the rest of the crowd. Do they adjust their hair frequently? Do they walk around drunk all the time? Are they afraid of pigeons? These could all be features that do not occur anywhere else in your game, and thus the people who play the game will talk about “that one guy who was afraid of pigeons”. Especially when they can’t remember his name. One thing is, that abusing contrarieties when designing these features sometimes works out the best. For example, there’s this very tough and bulky bad guy in the enemy team… and he just happens to have a soft spot for ice cream cones. He can’t help but run after an ice cream van when he hears one, no matter what kind of evil activities he was in the middle of. It makes him pop out and seem more natural. No one’s bad to the bone. And on the contrary side, no one’s all happy and pure either.

To make the characters seem more down to Earth, I’d suggest going by something like 85% evil or good (depending on the character) and 15% on the contrary side. I feel like any more or less than that could easily become confusing or too extreme for the character to seem realistic or relatable anymore.

(I have a really funny “real life” reference of this that I want to share. Think about a girl who always wears make up to school or work. One day, she shows up not wearing any, and she might look a bit odd or even ugly to you. Now, think about another girl who never wears make up. One day, she shows up with mascara and eyeliner on, and she’s suddenly the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. This is exactly what playing with the contrarieties does. The good becomes the bad and the bad becomes the good for a moment. You suddenly hate the good guy for acting worse than they normally do and adore the baddie for showing signs of improvement and effort.)

Match their looks with their personality

This is the final part. You need to think about how the person you created would look like if they were alive. For example, if they were in a war before, they might have some unhealed scars. Or if they always get their clothes from their older siblings, the clothes could be way too big for them. Things like that. Before the details though, you of course need to know the basic things like their race/species, age and gender to start building their figure. Maybe you want to make them slender if they enjoy activities that require agility. Maybe you want to make their fur really rough if they are not interested in grooming themselves. Keeping things simple and realistic for the most part when deciding these things is going to make your character just that much more believable.

Making a character physically attractive is all up to you, though. You have to decide whether or not this is something you want to do with your character. If you do want to however, knowing your game’s target audience is going to help a ton. Making a character match their desires in real life is sure to keep a player hooked just a while longer. I wouldn’t want people overdoing this though. You CAN get attracted to characters without them running around almost naked. Just saying.

On the final note about the looks, try to focus on bringing out the character’s personality as you design their movement, postures and facial expressions. Study how your character would respond to hate and love, or how they would look like if they are thinking about something very deeply, for example. There is a reason why we do these actions and gestures differently from each other in real life as well, and that is all caused either by our instincts or because of our pasts. Our own backstories.

The Final Note

All in all, you want your characters to not feel out of place. You really want them to feel real. You want the player to feel like they really are alive. The more the character is going to be relevant to the story or gameplay, the more you should put time into creating a meaning for their existence and reasons for their actions. Get to know them. Study them. And bring them to life.

So, now. Go out there and create characters so irresistible that people can’t help but fall in love with them. Make them fall in love one way or another.

- Susanna / Artist

[bitingmascot-blog]

Explaining technical things to non-technical people

I find that in game development I need to often explain technical things when working with design and art. I have been told that I am good at explaining technical problems and whatnot to our artists and other non-technical people, so I decided to write a blog post about my experiences with doing so.

Explaining and teaching someone is largely a matter of communication. The problem with trying to communicate something technical is that technical things are generally explained in technical terms. If you don’t understand these technical terms, it can be hard to understand the technical subject being explained. Fortunately, the thing with problems is that they are solvable.

When you start explaining anything you should assume the person you are explaining things to knows nothing about the subject. If you know the person well, you might have a sense of how much they understand about the subject. This can help a lot, as you can explain the subject through any common ground you share. For example, if you understand anything about art when explaining something to an artist, try to explain things through art.

It can work both ways too. I have had people explain non-technical subjects to me in a very problem solver-sort of approach and that has helped me understand better. Everyone learns in different ways and people have very different ways of seeing the world. You should try to pay attention to the person you are explaining anything to and try to find the way they learn best. This is why I find teaching intriguing. You can learn a lot about the way someone thinks, while trying to explain something to them.

Also, something I have noticed when explaining things that are harder to understand, is that people often don’t say when they are not following anymore. It is very easy to zone out and miss a technical explanation if you are tired and it’s a difficult subject. Try to be patient. Getting frustrated will only make them frustrated as well.

Pay attention to their body language, so you can spot when they might get distracted. One sign is when they keep nodding and staring at something emptily. They probably are lost in thought. I find asking questions keeps their attention in these situations or gets it back. It is generally good to keep asking questions to prevent them from zoning out. Maybe just keep checking in with small questions that don’t necessarily even require an answer. “Right?”, “You got that?”, “Makes sense, right?”. If they have to answer just some yes/no questions, they will have much easier time paying attention.

On the subject of questions, you should let them ask you questions as well. If they look like they want to say something, give them an opportunity to do so and listen. I often see teachers who keep on explaining without letting the students get a breather. I try to avoid this as much as possible. You don’t need to be talking all the time. Let the information sink in as well. They won’t have anything to ask before they understand what they are asking and what to even ask about.

When you are done explaining, it is good practice to make sure they actually understood what you were explaining by asking them questions. Maybe ask them to explain back to you what they understood, so you can gauge their understanding. You can then try to help them understand the parts they might have gotten wrong. This sort of interactive learning works quite well in my experience and you can’t get quite the same results from watching a tutorial online.

At the end we are all human. Communicating thoughts is hard. You probably will not make others understand what you are trying to explain on the first try. Don’t get discouraged! You probably didn’t learn the subject on the first try either, so be understanding. Remember that you will learn a lot too when teaching others, so happy teaching!

- Roni / Programmer 

[bitingmascot-blog]

Good communication builds great team spirit

The coffeemakers are warm. The mysterious magic is completed. The team is ready. Welcome to our development blog, everyone!

I’m happy to announce that this year has started very well for us. We have two projects underway and while the weather is very cold, the sun shines brighter every day and the motivation of the team is high.

One thing Kajaani game development community prides itself in is the support. Students, developers, indies and startups receive a lot of advice and support, which makes this a pretty good place for anyone who wants to work with games now or in the future.

How is this achieved? By giving back to your community. In these blog posts we will write monthly thoughts on things that we think others might find helpful or thought-inducing. It is our way of “giving back”.

Today’s topic is communication.

Game development is cross-disciplinary work. This means that one discipline of work is not enough to make games: people with wildly differing skill sets are all working towards one project, and can often have differing opinions on how to achieve the best end result.

And that is just one factor in this matter. The turnover rate of our industry is high – people come and go, and every time someone does, the dynamics of the development group shift. Different personalities from different backgrounds are one of the most amazing aspects of game development. Sometimes, however, these personalities can clash and cause damage to the entire team.

Good communication is invaluable. The subject of communication within a game development team is one of my favourites, and for a reason – we are constantly trying to improve our own communication culture. (We are not perfect, but having a sense of humor and learning attitude helps!)

There are many benefits that follow when you nurture the communication in your team. People tend to feel more comfortable giving and receiving feedback when they know that condescending, sarcastic or mocking feedback is frowned upon and encouraging, factual, solution-oriented feedback is appreciated. This increases the amount of feedback, which results in a better end product.

Good communication involves not only constructive criticism but also giving credit where credit is due. Praising people for a job well done will make them feel appreciated, which helps with the good ol’ motivation. It also helps battle the impostor syndrome, something that is a fairly common phenomenon in the industry.

(If you’d like to read more about the Impostor Syndrome, or would love some pointers in overcoming it, this is a great article to check out: https://www.fastcompany.com/40421352/the-five-types-of-impostor-syndrome-and-how-to-beat-them )

Finally, good communication culture ensures that people know what they should be doing and when. A person can’t meet deadlines if they are not aware they exist.

So, in three simple bullets:

Give positive feedback

Give constructive criticism

Inform clearly and often

I personally think there is no “one size fits all” in how to build a respectful communication culture for a team. Teams are wildly different, after all. What I can share are things that have worked for our team – costs nothing to try if they could work for you too!

In regards to positive feedback, try to give it as often as possible. Whenever you see something you appreciate, let the person who made it know. On a bad day, it can make a huge difference in someone’s life to hear a random compliment. On a good day, it still doesn’t cost anything.

Also, don’t limit your compliments to the people they are about. Talk about people behind their back. Say positive things about those you look up to. If all of us would take a moment every week to appreciate aloud someone we think is awesome and cool, I think that the world would be a better place.

When it comes to constructive feedback, there is no way around it. It’s part of not only making better games, but also becoming better artists, programmers, designers and producers. Now, positive feedback is usually easier to give than constructive feedback, but both are needed. If your dev is an engine, positive feedback would be fuel and oil, and constructive feedback would be maintenance and improvement.

When giving constructive feedback, try to be as clear as possible. What should be improved, how and preferably why. “This is crap” does not count as feedback. “This looks like crap, because the anatomy of the left hand is off” is a bit closer. “The forearm of the left hand is a bit too short, and the fingers are rather stiff to be natural. Could you try to take a reference photo of your own hand in the same position? The left hand is at the front of the picture, so it will be a rather focal element of the picture” is what I’d recommend myself.

Granted, that last one is quite long, and saying it aloud takes maybe 20 seconds longer than the first option. However, thorough feedback like that saves a lot more time than 20 seconds from the artist, who would have to spend perhaps full days in trying to decipher what exactly about their work is the “crap” you mentioned.

I want to encourage people to give more feedback to their fellow developers, but with the reminder that you should try to give almost equal amounts of positive and constructive feedback. Granted, in some situations, there are more positive things to say, and sometimes the need for a constructive approach is bigger. But when it comes to the big picture, don’t stay in one corner – balance it out!

Upon receiving constructive feedback, remember that it is not an attack towards you as a person. There are merely things you need to change in your work, nothing more serious than that. If you disagree with the person giving feedback, try to get a third or fourth opinion. There is absolutely nothing wrong in asking for more feedback about your work.

Try to work on your skills on receiving feedback, and try to put every piece of feedback given to you into action. Some might be things that take time – don’t give up. Do your best to improve, it will definitely show in the long run. If you can utilize the feedback you receive, it is an excellent tool for your own personal growth.

Last but not the least, the team should make sure that all the information needed for the development process is available for everyone. Everyone needs to stay up to date with the features and schedule of the project. Use project management tools, use meetings, use Slack – anything to make sure that your communication travels from one person to another. This might be a no-brainer, but every now and then I still run into some situations where the primary form of communication has been “I assumed”.

If you have any stories, questions or comments about communication, let us know! And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter. In newsletters you’ll receive a monthly bullet list of what’s going on in our office and how our games are doing.

Until February!

- Sera / Producer