I have been a manager for around 2-3 years. For 2-3 years, I’ve experienced so much in my managing journey, and now I want to share it with you guys.
Keep in mind - this guide won’t be for what to do AFTER your game is done, but rather while it’s in development.
EARLY STAGES
The first thing I do when I want to make a game is, obviously, get an idea. A mistake I am guilty of is making a generic and boring game idea with a generic name. I had an idea for a game named “Luminance Abyss” which had some mechanics that were boring and just used in general.
Don’t make the same mistake. If you want to make an original game idea, you have to come up with it yourself - no AI - and I don’t really like joining other games to check their mechanics because most of the time I inevitably just end up copying the entire mechanic.
HIRING PROCESS
After I got a game idea, I get to hiring people. Usually, I don’t hire people who use ChatGPT or AI to create descriptions. If they can’t bother to make their OWN DESCRIPTION, why would they bother with your game? I only hire this kind of person if they prove to be dedicated and good at what they do.
I also look for inconsistencies in their story or stolen work. If they don’t have a portfolio but have 7 years of past experience, for example, that is really sketchy. I don’t hire this kind of person.
If they have stolen work, I don’t hire them and report them.
A big mistake I’ve seen many developers do is hire ten thousand developers for a game. Posts like “hiring devs 5/10 scripters, 7/8 modelers [etc]” will not only be messy and hard to manage, but the devs will get paid (if there even is any pay) thin slices of bread. I try to minimize the amount of devs, always.
MIDDLE/LATE STAGES
THE MOST IMPORTANT thing in developing a game is COMMUNICATION. If you’re gonna skip over the post or skim through it, please read at least this part carefully.
When making a game, you hire developers, and those developers HAVE to speak and know how to communicate. This can seem really simple, but I’ve had games and opportunities crumble because of the absence of communication.
PERSONAL CASE OF FAILED COMMUNICATION
For instance - I hired a scripter in a RPG I am making. That scripter seemed awesome! Had tons of programming skills, computer science skills, seemed really mature, and just a well-rounded scripter. I took him in. Something felt off, though. When another scripter asked me if I still needed scripters, I accepted him just incase the first one did anything - and surprise surprise: he stopped answering and started ignoring me completely!
Communicating with your devs is also important. Make sure to check up on them for progress often, and express your ideas and opinions for everything development-related.
If all goes well, there is still the final boss - motivation. Most devs join your game because they are motivated to work on it, or passionate (at first). The problem comes in the middle development stage, in which most development goes stale and/or devs start to slow down development rates. This can happen for a plethora of reasons. Maybe it’s because they were on vacation before and not now so they don’t have time? Maybe because they don’t feel motivated to work on the game anymore?
In this case, you have to motivate your devs to keep going. If one quits, that’s most likely all it takes to get the others to quit with them.
Motivation can only take you so far. The rest is discipline.
And don’t focus on two games at the same time. It can be really hard to manage. The temptation to create other games that you have an idea for and like more than the game you’re currently managing? Save that for later.
What do you think is left for me to put on this post? What else is important for managing and owning games? Let me know!