#Project Management

[prokopetz]

Your project team is organisationally flat? Cool – so is this a "we have a boss in practice, but their decisions can never be challenged or held accountable because nobody will admit that they're in charge" situation, or is it more of a "mission-critical tasks that nobody is excited about doing simply don't get done" sort of deal?

[vampirethetaskerade]

Something wicked this way scrums.

An office comedy/horror game coming your way.

[juh-wasnt-deactivated19691231]

I think I've finally found the words for this thought.

Growing up, I heard the term "expect" used a lot as a demand, an imperative. "I expect you to clean your room", "I expect your homework to be done by the end of the week". This never sat right with me but I wasn't sure why.

As I have grown into risk management, I have come to use "expect" in a different sense, a descriptive sense, with implications of prediction rather than command. I can ask my kid to clean their room, but that doesn't mean I expect it to actually happen. I don't want to get sick, and I can take steps to prevent it, but I fully expect it to happen anyways. This shift in usage, to what I think is a more accurate meaning of the term "expect", has changed the way I speak and think about risks and timelines. I think I sound more gruff and cynical this way, because I think maybe other people hear it as more of a command, but it also simply sounds more assertive, which is important when I'm the only one doing any meaningful planning. I think this has brought a new degree of clarity to my conversations.

[nr1-logo-design-inspiration]

Designer meme 😅

Leave a comment if you find yourself in this meme, and in what position? 💬👇

[askagamedev]

Follow-up on the layoff question, how much influence, if any do devs have on which project within a company they are assigned to if things seem rocky? Say I am in a safe position working on Call of Duty, and the company wants to put me on the risky position on Project Wombat, how much say if any do I have on if I am reassigned?

In such a situation, you have a little bit of leeway (e.g. you can ask and tell your boss that you don't want to change projects) but we're ultimately expected to follow orders. If we don't like our assignment, we are free to find a different job elsewhere. This does include the possibility of lateral transfer within the organization, e.g. somebody at Infinity Ward could apply to transfer to another COD studio if they did not want to move internally from COD to Project Wombat.

In the last time I was faced with such a decision, the majority of the sub-studio was assigned to the new experimental project off of the old mainstay. My time switching over was not so much a question of "if" but "when". I noted this with my boss during a one-on-one and made sure that it was noted in my record, but there was very little I could do other than tender resignation or apply for a transfer.

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[emotionalintellgent]

What Lessons Learned from Failed Programs

Failure often seen negatively can be a powerful teacher offering critical insights into what went wrong and how to improve. Technology and education failure effects analysis in business helps uncover lessons that drive innovation and future success. By studying failed programs such as the Sapien 3 Ultra case we are lessons learned on complex projects to refine processes and avoid similar quotes about mistakes and learning.

[fayrobertsuk]

It's been a long year and it's only February…

Well, it's time to put this out there: I've had a fairly shitty few years (like, haven't we all, obviously), but it's included a long, expensive legal battle against unscrupulous cysts, which is finally concluded satisfactorily save being left somewhat skint on the other side of it. Doesn’t help that said battle meant that I had to move house - not exactly a low activity on the expense and stress scales…

So I'm looking for extra work, to help while we wait for the Luxury Space Communism to kick in (I'd settle for Universal Basic Income or an end to the Housing and Cost of Living Crisis, tbh).

Things I do to a professional standard include:

Creative Mentoring and Tutoring (writing and performance techniques, especially for poetry - bespoke or standard workshops available for groups as well as one-to-one).

Project Management (feeling overwhelmed by a project you want to get off the ground and/ or run within budget and timescale? I can help with that).

Business Change Management (you need to expand or shift your business focus? I can help that happen in a well-managed fashion).

Performance Poetry (got a bunch of poems, 18 years' experience delivering them live, and a nice voice).

Writing to Commission (especially poetry, but I write both fictive prose and essays too).

Voice Acting and Narration (I've acted in audio dramas and narrated short stories, training videos, and so far one documentary).

Book and Pamphlet Production (I operate a small press).

Basic website setup and maintenance.

Training on any of the above.

I have a sliding scale of rates depending on customer circumstances, and you can book me for a free initial consultation via my website: https://www.fayroberts.co.uk/crass-commercialism/services/

And if you fancy just sending me money because you're generous, I have a ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/fayroberts

[phoenixyfriend]

Chef/Diner sims are unironically a great way to teach younger people the basics of project management and planning/scheduling.

You have this much time to do a thing. This part can be done and sit indefinitely (prepping ingredients). This part needs to be addressed within X time upon completion or there are constraints (taking it off the burner). These two parts need to finish within two seconds of each other (the food of the first will start to go cold) but they take different amounts of time to complete so you need to plan out the order in which you start them. You need to order in new ingredients and the resupply takes time so you have to factor that into your planning, because sometimes multiple tasks require the same ingredients and you only have the one unit left.

You juggle timing, supply, consequences, prioritization, lots of stuff!

Maybe business schools should just require undergrads to get a neopets account. They do have an entire economic simulator with stocks and shops and so on ...

[blubberquark]

Looking for Group

Somebody posted on Discord

Does anybody want to collaborate on a [game] project?

but nobody answered.

Nobody said yes. Nobody said no. Nobody even asked follow-up questions. And yet, people in that server really do want to collaborate on games and projects. What happened?

Obviously nothing happened because the asker did not specify anything. What kind of project? With who? For how long? What should I bring to the table if we collaborate? I don't know. I was busy anyway. Maybe I can set up the asker with other people, who weren't busy. But this is not an isolated incident. Every day, thousands of people ask in chat rooms, forums, and mailing lists "Does anybody want to collaborate?"

Answering with yes is a risky move. Imagine being on the other side, and somebody asks an open-ended question... Imagine being on the other side of "I am having a software problem, can anybody DM me?"

Nobody wants to be on the hook to be somebody's personal tech support without at least knowing the kind of problem, and nobody wants to commit, even tentatively, to a creative project. It's kind of a red flag. What can you do to allow others to message you, to just tentatively get you to agree, to just agree to ask you for more details of your project? What should you do so people who say yes don't feel like they are wasting their own time, and yours?

1. Scope

The most important thing to communicate is scope. It's less important what kind of creative project it is, but how big. Is it an ongoing side project? A weekend? A couple of hours a week for a couple of months?

There is a world of difference between "Does anybody want to collaborate on a weekend project?" and "Does anybody want to collaborate on an epic story with 20 characters, multiple storylines, lore, 50 hours of side quests, and 800 pieces of unique loot?"

2. Stakes and Commitments

The next most important thing is commitments. This is doubly important if you are working with friends. Sometimes you want to collaborate on Ludum Dare, and if your partner is busy on that weekend, you'd rather know now. Sometimes you want to submit a demo of your game to some kind of competition or showcase, and it has to be ready at a certain point.

Sometimes you are really putting your heart and souls into a project, and your friend is just in it "for fun" and thinks you are ruining his fun by taking the project seriously. Your "One Story You Had Inside Yourself" can be your friend's "Learn C++ in 21 Days". Your "ticket into the glamorous games industry" can be your friend's "goof off with blender for a couple of hours and then try a different hobby".

It's important to talk out stakes and commitments with your friends, because you might be able to rope in a friend into a project without doing this. You could rope a friend into your project and he starts resenting you a bit because you are gung-ho about art, and your friend just wants to spend time with you, and you are exacting and controlling and ask him to revise the dialogue/animations/3D models he contributed.

If you are talking to strangers, you can't rope them in. They just won't agree to work with you without details.

3. Skills

If you are asking for collaborators in a programming discord, chances are you will get replies from other programmers. Chances are, wherever you ask, your post will be seen by many people who are good at the things you yourself are already good at. Are you a programmer looking for programmers, or a programmer looking for level designers and artists?

There are many reasons for three programmers or three pixel artists to work together, but by and large, you need people who complement your skill set, but fit into your work flow. If you are working with Unity3D, you probably want to work with 3D artists who have rudimentary knowledge of git and C#, even if they aren't supposed to code, and you need rudimentary knowledge of their modelling software and workflows.

So when looking for people to work with, you need to tell them what you can do, what you can't do, what you want them to do, and how you want to work together.

4. Topic/Idea/Design/Genre

This is point #4. This is deliberate.

You could probably take the previous 3 points and cobble together a "looking for group" post. People rarely do that. They usually have an idea they want to realise. Ideas are a dime a dozen though, and you can still pivot later, after you have found your group members.

It can't hurt to include this. What kind of project do you have in mind?

5. Management and Art Direction

There is one more big thing to consider: If you already have a project in mind, you are taking control of the project. You are the boss, you decide that you are looking for four people to collaborate on a science-based dragon breeding MMORPG, any four people who sign up know what they are getting into. It makes sense that the topic is not open for discussion. It also makes sense that you are the project manager, because you made a list of skills and work that needs to be done, and you have worked all this out already.

We are looping back to point #2 here. Why should people commit to your project if you are holding the reins? What do they get out of it?

You should communicate as early as possible what the creative freedoms are, what kind of tone you want to pursue, and how free your fellow artists are to express themselves.

In a commercial project, you can have control because you pay people. If you are doing a game jam project, or just any unpaid hobby collaboration, you should consider giving the others some creative freedom.

In a game jam, you could just decide that somebody else gets the creative control when you pivot to a different idea. In a large, commercial project, it makes sense to delineate how much creative freedom an individual artist has. In an open-source project, the maintainer can just review a patch and decide not to use it.

Ideally, you should communicate early on how weird or wacky you want the result to be, whether you want something with broad commercial appeal, with a sombre and serious tone, or if anything goes. That would be a bit much for the initial post, so just give a hint whether this would be a good project for somebody who really wants to put pigs and frogs in every game, or a good project who wants to make a character based on her ex boyfriend that the player can shoot in the groin. Sometimes people have the most specific ideas...

If on the other hand you have no idea what kind of creative direction you want to go, maybe you shouldn't go this route at all. If you want to give creative control to a yet to be determined team member, why not join another team instead? If you don't know where the project is going, you can't really plan who and what skills you need anyway.

Examples:

A good request for a collaoration reads a bit like a dating profile or a job ad. It covers the five points mentioned above.

Hey, I am Robert, art director and senior gameplay programmer at Blubberquark Software. I am fluent (among other languages) in Python, C#, Lua, and Haxe. I would like to join a team working with Unity3D, libGDX, löve or Flixel for the upcoming Ludum Dare game jam, in the Hamburg area. I like to use Blender, Gimp, Wings3D, ASEPrite, TrenchBroom, LDtk, Tiled, Ogmo, or Crocotile 3D. I also learned some 3DS Max and Cinema4D in university, but I don't have a license for those.

Here's a fictionalised version of myself, looking for a game jam team. To be clear, I am not looking for a team, but if I was, I'd make sure I don't need to learn a new set of tools for a weekend game jam. I'd try to make sure we all know how to use the engine, and we all know how to use the same source control, and we can all build and run a project before the jam starts. I wouldn't want to do a Ludum Dare remotely, so all this goes in there.

Since this is about Ludum Dare, scope and stakes are clear, and the skills I would use are in there. Skills that are irrelevant to Ludum Dare are not mentioned. Topic and creative control will depend on the jam theme, which is TBD.

Hello, we are Jim (programming) and Julius (level design, turn-based games expert). We are working on a fantasy JRPG called "animecha generica" that we hope to sell on Steam. We already have a gameplay prototype with placeholder characters and pixel art, but we would like to work with a skilled artist to create more interesting character designs and expressive/emotive portraits for the conversation system. If you join us, you would create characters, character portraits, quest lines, and dialogue, and we would split the revenue thee ways. We are also looking for a musician (work for hire basis).

This sounds like an early-stage commercial project. There is an engine and a prototype, but the design seems to depend on the content, and the developers are looking for somebody who can contribute the content. The scope sounds rather large (probably at least 5 hours of gameplay, maybe more) and the time commitment would be full-time until release. The artist they are looking for would do a little bit of everything, from art direction and narrative design down to art assets, and there would probably be a lot of overlap between the roles of two developers and the artist. Everybody wears multiple hats.

This sounds really risky, and the success of the project would depend on none of the three developers screwing it up.

Hi, I am Takeshi Kovacs, and I am making a new game engine based on Vulkan rendering, with its on scripting language, but optionally scripted in Python or C#. If this sounds interesting to you, I would like to work with you on a small game project of your choice, and help you realise your game design to test the viability of my Vladimir-and-Estragon Engine. Pick any weekend game jam of your choice. Pacific Time Zone only.

This seems low-pressure, and of limited scope. It could be a good after hours project, but it's probably not necessarily a good fit for a beginning programmer. You'd learn a new and unproven engine and scripting language. Apart from wasted time, it can't hurt that much to try. If you are a beginner, you could try to implement Pong or Tetris with Takeshi's help.

If you take up this offer, you would enjoy significant creative control, but the main objective would not be to produce a game for people to enjoy, but example code, or a game mechanics as a proof of concept for the engine.

We are making an open source shmup written in libGDX. We are always looking for new contributors. We have 100 stars on GitHub, and 50 players, according to our analytics. For the next release, we would like to add new levels, new power-ups, more ships, more content. Play our game [here] or build it from source by [following] [these] [instructions] [(Outdated Wiki Page For Ubuntu 20.04)]. If you have experience with Steam Workshop, talk to us on [our Discord].

This project has a medium scope, semi-mature code base, and low time commitment. You could probably contribute some content, or a patch to the engine, and nobody would really rely in you to stick around. On the other hand, you have little influence on the overall game design. You could certainly try: You could make a pull request that completely re-vamps the gameplay, but at that point, you might as well start a hostile fork.

We at secret studio are making otome dating simulator. Want to have demo ready for PAX Moonbase. We are looking for multiple character artists who can draw our characters on-model on a work-for-hire basis, and two additional writers for our writing team. We are looking for candidates who have experience with authoring systems like twine, ink, Ren'Py, Visual Novel Maker, or RPG Maker. Experience with YarnSpinner is a plus, but not required. You have the opportunity to design your own otome love interests and story lines. You will be expected to work under our creative director.

Like the JRPG example above, this is a commercial project with a large scope and fixed design, but these people are looking to hire more people who wear fewer hats each to create content quickly. This looks like a job ad for a paid position. It should be! You would have some creative freedom, but since this is a commercial project, you will have to stick with the marketing demographics and write romance storylines for girls who like boys, and any ideas you want to convey have to fit into that framework. It looks like they are using YarnSpinner and an undisclosed game engine, and they are willing to teach you how to use their tools on the job, but they seems to expect a writing background, and some prior experience in the tools/workflow/production side of visual novels specifically.

Hi. My name is Jeff. I work in theatre and I produce radio plays. I have podcasting and sound recording equipment at work. I play the guitar, badly, and I can borrow an old Moog synthesiser. I want to collaborate on a game project, by producing foley sound effects, or recording short stings and jingles. I know some QBasic from back in the day, but I haven't programmed much since then. I have licenses for Ableton, Photoshop, and Autodesk Maya.

Jeff is looking for a group. Jeff is not looking for a big commitment. He is willing to help a project out. Jeff has listed some skills and things he could contribute to a project. He is not looking for a new full-time job, but maybe a paid side gig.

Hi. I am Raven Siege Tank Banshee Medivac, a sophomore student majoring in computer science and underwater basket weaving at New England University, Arkham. I can use Blender, Photoshop, and and Logic Pro. I would like to help out with an open-source game project. I would also consider doing a puzzle platformer together. I know some PyGame.

There is almost but not quite enough to go on in this one. In what capacity would Raven work in a collaboration? What kind of scope is right, here? Maybe Raven would like to work on that shmup written in Java, but as far as the puzzle platformer is concerned, we don't know why Raven can't just make it solo with PyGame and Photoshop.

TL;DR

If you want to find people to work together with, you must communicate scope, commitments, and skills you need and skills you bring to the table. Explaining what kind of idea you want realised is also important, as is creative direction, but not as important as the first three. Your post should look like a job ad. Read your post and think if you would join that project or ask that person to join yours.

[prokopetz]

I totally understand the sentiment behind applying the "I want shorter games made by people who are paid more to work less" meme to tabletop RPGs, but speaking as an editor and project manager, convincing tabletop RPG authors to write less is often precisely the problem. Like, no, Steve, a special ability whose mechanical effect is "you get to reroll a die" doesn't need 275 words of flavour text. Put the worldbuilding bible down, Steve – don't make me get the garden hose.

[tlbodine]

Conquer Your Writing in the New Year

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This bundle includes interactive worksheets and plenty of additional links and resources to help you get started and keep going. Perfect for the start of a new year, or any time your motivation starts to flag!

[datamodel-of-disaster]

At this point I’m wondering if it’s a curse.

I’m in year 2 at my current job, which was actually awesome the first year I worked there, we’re barely past January now, and… it sucks.

The people remain great, the boss is still probably the best boss I’ve ever had my entire career, the work itself is actually interesting… and yet.

Budget cuts and dwindling staff are making it nearly impossible to do a good job. I’m the only functional analyst on 3 major impact projects and the only analyst doing RUN management and RFC/RFI tickets for our finance department, and all the deadlines converge because we have only 1 dev team and 1 sprint planning for everything. It’s the job of 2-3 people and I’m on my own. My two (2!) coworkers are similarly overloaded.

We used to have 10 analysts and 5 project managers. Now there’s 3 analysts and 2 project managers, for the same amount of work.

I’m not sure how long I can keep doing this, and this was the job I actually thought I’d be able to stick with long-term. I liked it here.

Just… fuck, you know?

[taylorannnx]

I need to gush about my upcoming game

[Alt text: A graphic with floral corner borders in the bottom left and top right corners with Chefs de Partie written in the center. Above the title reads hashtag Chefs de Partie. Below the title reads served on January 24th 2024 only at DriveThruRPG.]

Chefs de Partie is a co-op minigame for your ongoing RPG campaign that runs on Iron Core. Gather your party and cook a meal together, narrating your successes and failures with either heavenly or disastrous results.

This one page game includes the core rules (written by me) and six recipes that demonstrate how the game interacts with four different systems: D&D 5e, Blades in the Daek, Fate Core, snd Lasers & Feelings. The recipes are written by some of TTRPGs rising stars (literally my dream team!!!):

Austin Taylor, of Secret Mysteries of Nerd Histories fame whose game design you'll have seen in Deimos Academy and Til the Last Gasp

Basil Wright, a Storytelling Collective 2023 Creative Laurette and game designer of Pelegos

Danny Quach, author of Digital THICCNESS, AP superstar, and Roll20 angel

DT 'Honey' Saint, whose food based TTRPG contributions I've admired since she DMed Spice of Life at Roll20 Con three years ago, and whose charity work "Honeybunches of Hope" is incredible

Erin Roberts, a game design role model of mine whose name you may know from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

Poorna M, one have of Weave Games, who recently made one of my all time favourite games, a Christmas rom com duet called Love is on the Cards with her design partner Armaan Babu

As if that wasn't enough, we've got the one and only Nala J Wu on graphic design (they have perfectly brought to life my vision of a restaurant menu for the layout) and Marielle Ko from Tales of Sina Una as our editor!

Biggest one page RPG? Maybe (it's A2 dimensions)

Most designers on a one page RPG? Possibly

But cooking is best done with friends and I've implemented that philosophy throughout the creation process. I'm so freaking hyped to bring the world this game (the recipes range from brioche cinnamon rolls to podi masala dosa) because the dish descriptions are something incredible!

My hope is that we reach 51 sales* in the first month. With royalty split and $3.95 per sale, my writers should make $0.10 a word if we reach our target goal. I've priced this so everyone gets paid fairly.

*at full price. There will be options in the game description to buy the game for 50% or 100% off because games shouldn't be gatekept by disposable income.

This game is a little silly downtime activity and I love every contribution with my whole heart. I'm so excited for it to release next month and I hope you consider buying it if you can!

[bubsmiraculousau]

how are y'all organizing your au stuff? i tried milanote but found out the storage for the free version is kinda trash so i made a notion account... we'll see how well this works for me!

apparently it can also be used collaboratively? it's only me working on mine for this project so i probs won't use that part lol but it is intriguing...

i have a lot of notes that i've taken on my phone and shoved into a google doc of bullets so it's probably going to take foreverrrrr to organize them so im procrastinating lmao <3

[skullchicken]

'Dreaming small' is a skill. And a necessary one.

When it comes to creative projects (and many other kinds of projects), dreaming big is actually extremely easy. It's easy to have dreams of a trilogy of fantasy novels or a ten hour video game or a prestige movie, where said dreams are mostly made up of a *feeling* of bigness and epicness and choice cool scenes of the most heightened emotions which don't have to fit together into a coherent narrative... because they are dreams. Dreams famously fall apart when you try to apply logic to them after all.

You can easily be a fireworks of big ideas, but the other half, (scratch that, the other 75-90%) is execution.

So, ironically, to be able to dream big, you first need to learn how to dream small. (If you want to actually finish your projects, that is. If you'd rather just daydream, that is absolutely valid!)

When I squeeze my dreams, what actually comes out? Meaning, when I try to put the scenes in order and build up to them, when I ask myself "alright and what happens then?" over and over again, what am I actually left with? Do I need 1000+ pages to get there or would a twenty minute episode worth of script at least get one of my cool scenes realized?

Perhaps you'll need several dozen projects to get a story from beginning to end. Maybe less, maybe more. But there will be one project where you finish and something in your brain will probably click. You'll maybe think "oh. I know how to reach the end, now. I know how to build the bridge over the chasm."

And then you can dream bigger.