To all team leaders
by Alexander B · 12/01/2009 (8:02 pm) · 29 comments
My name is Alexander. I am a 13 year old boy living in Australia and I recentley presented a game at a major games expo called the egames expo. Thinking my friends would be supportive I went to school and waited for someone to say something. They were not supportive except for a few. One of my closest friends kept on making fun of me telling me my game was crap. I fired him off my team because he keppt bugging me and never did anything. He then did something which has caused me to write this blog.
He told me that I didn't do any work and the 3d modeller on my team did everything. That is so wrong and to make matters worse he told everyone he knew. I have a very talented team. One member is Matt young who most of you know. Another is Jared kidd who some of you may know as he posts a little bit. I have many more talenented members but I will talk about them all later. Jared did all the models for the game I presented at egames. While that is a huge job and I thank him very much for doing so he hasn't done everything which he understands and is just common sense.
But for now this is about team leaders. We are the people that organise everything. We are the people that make games possible. We are the ones that get ahead and usally make sure the game gets made. I want all team leaders to know this and if you are not a team leader, never ever have a go at a team leader telling him that he barley does anything. I actually do programming as well which puts lots more pressure on me so I wanted to beat the crap out of my ex-friend but I always try to be the better person and in this case I think I am.
I can write another 2 paragraphs about this but I don't feel it is neccasary to do so. Please take in what I have posted and I hope you understand how much team leaders actually do.
He told me that I didn't do any work and the 3d modeller on my team did everything. That is so wrong and to make matters worse he told everyone he knew. I have a very talented team. One member is Matt young who most of you know. Another is Jared kidd who some of you may know as he posts a little bit. I have many more talenented members but I will talk about them all later. Jared did all the models for the game I presented at egames. While that is a huge job and I thank him very much for doing so he hasn't done everything which he understands and is just common sense.
But for now this is about team leaders. We are the people that organise everything. We are the people that make games possible. We are the ones that get ahead and usally make sure the game gets made. I want all team leaders to know this and if you are not a team leader, never ever have a go at a team leader telling him that he barley does anything. I actually do programming as well which puts lots more pressure on me so I wanted to beat the crap out of my ex-friend but I always try to be the better person and in this case I think I am.
I can write another 2 paragraphs about this but I don't feel it is neccasary to do so. Please take in what I have posted and I hope you understand how much team leaders actually do.
About the author
#22
Thanks for sharing.
Can you imagine if your friend decides to reply to your comment. If what you say about him is true, then it will probably be real ugly. My point is, I agree with Randy, it's usually not a good idea to publicize personal team issues.
It sounds like you accidentally made a bad call by hiring this guy. And it seems like beside him talking bad about you, he didn't hurt the project, so there's no need to bad mouth him.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Keep up the work and i hope to see a trailer of you game soon ( i liked the War of Today trailer).
12/02/2009 (6:35 pm)
@ AlexanderThanks for sharing.
Can you imagine if your friend decides to reply to your comment. If what you say about him is true, then it will probably be real ugly. My point is, I agree with Randy, it's usually not a good idea to publicize personal team issues.
It sounds like you accidentally made a bad call by hiring this guy. And it seems like beside him talking bad about you, he didn't hurt the project, so there's no need to bad mouth him.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Keep up the work and i hope to see a trailer of you game soon ( i liked the War of Today trailer).
#23
12/02/2009 (10:44 pm)
Man, lol when I was 14 I was writing Donkey Kong in Commador 64 basic. That has been a while.
#24
12/02/2009 (11:20 pm)
Johnny you almost made me cry with your last comment. Did you really like it tho or are you just saying that. Also there is no way he will find this thread. He doesn't even know about this website. He is a lot worse then I am making him out to be belive it or not and he almost did hurt the project really bad so I got rid of him at the right time. However I won't talk about him anymore as long as nobody else does ;)
#25
12/03/2009 (3:13 am)
I really did like it! The game shows so much potential in the level design and gameplay. Are you still working on that game?
#26
12/03/2009 (3:22 am)
Thanks so much for that. It made my day :) Well It is on hold at the moment as it is to big a game for my team to undertake now but I will finish it one day
#27
Having worked on a few AAA titles myself and having to deal with some people with differing opinions on how game play and game mechanics, art , animations , etc should work/look is a tough thing to do as a Team Leader or a Producer.
One piece of advice that I can give you would be to always try to remain as professional as possible and never publicly or privately badmouth another team member at all and take all negative comments about your game and put them into a list and then step back and read through them and decide which you need to consider as bugs.
IE: if they say your game looks like crap maybe your artwork needs to be improved more or if they say your control scheme s**ks maybe it needs to be redone.
Triple A titles are always raising the bar for graphics and unfortunately most end-users will carry this bar over to Indie games and expect a much higher quality then what most Indie/Hobbyists can produce/deliver.
I've worked on a few titles that I feel were not done very well and could have been done better but all I did was give as much feedback to the team as I could to help try to improve it and I highly recommend asking your team for feedback on the game and not specifically just their parts by having them do this you can get a better feel for how your team is liking how the project is shaping up and maybe even improve areas.
Basically what I'm saying is take the negatives and consider they may be correct and try to improve the areas of your game that they are calling out.
12/04/2009 (12:50 am)
Not to beat a dead horse but Randy's #1 rule is always a good thing to follow.Having worked on a few AAA titles myself and having to deal with some people with differing opinions on how game play and game mechanics, art , animations , etc should work/look is a tough thing to do as a Team Leader or a Producer.
One piece of advice that I can give you would be to always try to remain as professional as possible and never publicly or privately badmouth another team member at all and take all negative comments about your game and put them into a list and then step back and read through them and decide which you need to consider as bugs.
IE: if they say your game looks like crap maybe your artwork needs to be improved more or if they say your control scheme s**ks maybe it needs to be redone.
Triple A titles are always raising the bar for graphics and unfortunately most end-users will carry this bar over to Indie games and expect a much higher quality then what most Indie/Hobbyists can produce/deliver.
I've worked on a few titles that I feel were not done very well and could have been done better but all I did was give as much feedback to the team as I could to help try to improve it and I highly recommend asking your team for feedback on the game and not specifically just their parts by having them do this you can get a better feel for how your team is liking how the project is shaping up and maybe even improve areas.
Basically what I'm saying is take the negatives and consider they may be correct and try to improve the areas of your game that they are calling out.
#28
Now I'm just working on a game for the iPhone trying to get myself known to actually have built a game.
12/07/2009 (11:55 pm)
Man, your 13 and run your own team? Your lucky other people your age nearby you are interested. I'm 14 years old and I get a few people asking me if they can help... I show them what to do, and they say "Meh, too difficult. I don't know what the heck to do." And that is even after I show them what to do.Now I'm just working on a game for the iPhone trying to get myself known to actually have built a game.
#29
@Alex - then thing to take away from this is that different people can do different things. When things fall out in a bad way just sweep up the pieces and move forward. Otherwise it's too easy to let things discourage you, and that leads to failure. Keep up the good work.
07/08/2011 (9:54 pm)
I'm 43 and have friends my own age who want to help. You give them a task and then wait a month, maybe two. Then you throw up your hands, roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. You just have to know the people you are working with and what level of responsibility they can handle, then give them something that fits. Ultimately I end up doing the programming, 3D modeling, texturing, sound, music, level design, GUI design, GUI art, scripting and I make the coffee. Sometimes I can get help testing. What's a person to do? And even with testing, sometimes it takes two weeks and six phone calls to get any feedback.@Alex - then thing to take away from this is that different people can do different things. When things fall out in a bad way just sweep up the pieces and move forward. Otherwise it's too easy to let things discourage you, and that leads to failure. Keep up the good work.
Torque Owner Jim Kaiser
JDK Ventures
Anyway, the important thing here is experience. Take in everything you can, throw out the negatives & keep the positives...and go on from there.