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Games are known to pique human interest as they create enthusiasm and induce the fun element. Today, even the eLearning industry has incorporated gaming techniques to make learning content entertaining and to ensure better retention of information by learners.
With the constant growth in the gaming industry and the intense competition, it has become necessary for gaming companies to provide customers a top-notch playing experience in order to build a dedicated and loyal user base.
In order to get the most out of a game development team, project managers must skillfully engineer processes and manage the scope to bring the game design vision to reality. A project management tool helps game project managers plan, allocate and execute work in an organized way.
You can perform a project management tools comparison for identifying a management tool that best aligns with your needs. Let’s look at the best practices for managing a game development team in order to successfully build an appealing and robust game:
- Hire a good team:
The prime necessity for developing a great game is hiring the right people for the job. Most of the time a game developer is required to fulfill multiple roles in the development team, so the project manager must judge them well in advance for their flexibility.
It is important to understand the kind of experience a candidate comes with and whether or not they will be able to live up to the role they are being hired for. Make sure they have good time management skills so the project stays on track.
- Define roles and responsibilities:
Once you have recruited the right people, it is important to align the team in order to clarify the visual overview of the game. Project managers must clearly define roles for every team member and explain their responsibilities within the project.
Failing to do so will create unnecessary chaos as a game development project is a collaborative activity. Since team members are relying on each other, it is necessary for them to know what is expected of them and be accountable for delivering it on time.
- Be clear about deadlines:
When you’re developing a multi-faceted game, project deliverables keep changing based on the feature test done at every milestone. There may be recurring changes which demand new elements to be added. To ensure this doesn’t derail the project, it is crucial to clearly state deadlines for every phase of development.
At the same time, a project manager should maintain a good balance between being firm and being intolerant as game development is a creative process and pushing team members can be counter-productive for the quality of product.
- Be open to outsourcing:
It is not always possible to have a specialist for every element in-house as they may not have an extensive role to play. For such processes which are indispensable but not lengthy, you can opt for outsourcing opportunities.
This has a huge advantage as you get to work with an expert in the field to deliver the best possible results but you do not need to hire and regularly pay them like a team member.
- Foster collaboration:
As stated above, game development requires a lot of coordination between project team members. For effectively managing and ensuring great results from a game development team, project managers must foster collaboration between team members.
This reduces dependency on the manager and team members learn to help each other out. This also allows them to learn new things from each other in the process.
Conclusion:
When forming a game development team, it is crucial to ensure that you have a clear understanding of project roles and required competencies before recruiting and delegating tasks. Are there any other aspects of managing a game development team that we haven’t covered? Let us know in the comments below!