In the final part of the material about the formation of an indie company, we will talk about one of the most important components of any business, whether it is for the soul or just for the sake of making a profit. Investments, motivation, charisma, knowledge of jurisprudence, a sense of humor – all this will help, but nothing will work if you are alone, and there are no people around you who are ready to invest in the game, time and talent. Exception-if you are a person-organ that can take on all possible roles. That is why this article was written by a recruiter – the main secret in people!
Sergey Volkov, Head of Gamedev Practice in Spice It Recruitment , I learned from representatives and founders of some indie studios about how to find a standing team, how to distribute roles inside and cope with deceptions and a turnover.
They participated in the conversation
Yaroslav Kravtsov, Producer on Smash Bash In the India team. From the issued projects: SkyForge , Allods Online.
Alexey Davydov, Managing Director Flazm Interactive Entertainment UAB.
Ayrat Zakirov, CTO, Ice-Pick Lodge
Andrey Harutyunyan, co -founder and bizdov studio Ellada Games. Project Niffelheim.
Maria Kochakova, Narrative Designer & Indie-Developer in Royal Troupe
Let's talk about hunting!
The search for people for ordinary positions in large corporations is complicated, and the search to where there may be interruptions in wages, and it seems impossible to many at all (not to us, of course!). But personal acquaintances, your popularity “in a party” or the excellent idea of the project is that sooner or later it will attract the right person to cooperation.
Ayrat Zakirov
At the stage of collecting the backbone of the team – personal contacts. Then more traditional paths. Indie is often interruptions with money, so some other resource is needed. A person from the team should be able to say: “Maybe I don’t get a lot of money now, but I’m doing something for the soul or with an sight for the future”.
Or some mutually beneficial “contract”-for example, a person can gain experience in a new area, so he is motivated to active work with a small salary. At some point, the employee will be in the kitchen with friends who bought apartments in a mortgage. And you must "provide" him with good arguments that he is not a fool. Accordingly, from here the types of people are being taken. These are often not very professional specialists, but very enthusiastic people. Usually young and without children.
Maria Kochakova
People in the team are looking for other people. All personally acquaintances or acquaintances of acquaintances. If you are a non -literate introvert, I'm sorry for you. Use services.
Alexey Davydov
I know quite a lot of people from the Russian-speaking indie community. With some guys we have been cooperating out for five to six years. So, as a rule, in all key positions, the needs of the studio are closed. Well, on every profile event type Devgamm, we constantly get acquainted with new people. You never know when you need a new sensible artist, modeller or animator.
► The nearest DEVGAMM will be held in Minsk in November.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
I believe that the most important motivation is a project that has to work on. I am sure that many who are now working on the next clone clone would be happy to exchange their salaries for a place in the tent next to the office Bethesda and the opportunity to attach a hand to the next game in the series The Elder Scrolls. I have the same. I cannot offer the Golden Mountains, because I don’t have them, but I have the idea of a game that I am not ashamed. One hundred people will pass by, but one hundred and the first will come and say that he wants to work on this game on any conditions.
And the most interesting thing is that many such people do not need. There are examples of studios in which only two people work, and they not only cope with all the difficulties, but also make excellent games.
Alexey Davydov
Typically, an indie project makes a team from three to ten people. You can’t go far without technical skills, but personal qualities are also very important. Indie is like a family: there will be no mutual understanding, there will be no project. Everything is very dependent on the tasks and scale, but the fact remains, the indie company is small organizations, often with a flexible schedule and a non-standard approach to management.
Maria Kochakova
We have in Royal Troupe There are always a lot of people – at the moment nine people, including me. Not an office and not a full -time, so you can be flexible. The most important thing is that a person can agree with me. I understood what I was saying, and I must understand what he says.
And so that it does not curtain me. I least need dispersers in the team. We have for the entire development Message Quest There was not a single conflict, I never raised it to my voice (it never occurred to me), I did not lose my temper, did not yell at obscenities and did not roar – which happened regularly in the studio. True, this is after we, at the first team of the team, asked all the debaters to exit.
It is important for me that a person is a good specialist whom I can trust in terms of quality. It often happens that I say: Aleun, draw something there. There should be a closet, scroll and window. Everything else is at your discretion. She draws, I can correct something from the category “here is the gameplay is wrong”, but not from the category “I don't like the color, redo into the pink”. Because if Alena made green, then it is better. She knows better. And we do not swear at all and do not argue.
It seems to me that this is very important – to indicate the boundaries of the right one, but otherwise give a person freedom. We are indie – we all want to prove ourselves here. There were times when the animator Julia said: I will not make a somersault, he is not needed here. And I said: okay, you know better, Yul, we can do without somersault. Or, for example, Yul, please make Madel's funny attacks. And Julia herself already comes up with that Madeline rushes with a fried leg and eats the cake to improve his health.
The principles of choosing people in indie are quite simple.
► no, no and not again! No pink cabinets!
Yaroslav Kravtsov
I like the saying "Throw everything on the wall and look that it will stick". In indie development, it does not matter what kind of people come to you. It is important what people remain. If only they were not a burden, but they could benefit the project.
Ayrat Zakirov
Since indie teams suffer from lack of money, personal qualities come to the foreground. We need motivated people who are ready to “tighten the belts” for the sake. But it also happens that there are also seasoned professionals who are so “downshift”.
But we weak to be able to?
To form an indie team is a special skill that requires a thoughtful approach and strategic thinking. If the budget allows, you can hire a fairly large number of specialists where everyone will be responsible for a narrow piece of work, but, as it has already been repeated many times, indie most often has problems with financing. And then the task of the main thing is to find those who at the same time draw and write, and invents.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
The whole point of the little indie team is that you are not sitting a little gear in a huge conveyor, and you yourself find yourself this conveyor. If in a large company you can always say that this is not my zone of responsibility, and let that guy do this task, then in a small company such a focus will not pass. Of course, the general separation of responsibilities is inevitable. Programmers are programmers, and artists are artists. But nothing prevents the programmer from showing artistic taste when transferring art to the game, and the artist think about the technical side of his art. With this approach, you can grow in a very cool specialist.
► so India studios do not work!
Ayrat Zakirov
Typically, the roles of "humanitarium-technic" are preserved. But in general, migration from the region to the region is observed. People usually gather enthusiastic, ready to try new and unknown to them.
Alexey Davydov
The smaller the team, the more valuable the station wagon. As a producer and the designer, I never stopped before you throw a sketch or crept something (while everyone is sleeping). Verserial people are always a plus.
When you have been busy with one business for a long time or for many years have been performing similar functionality, you may be caught up with burnout or degradation. If you are full of strength and just want to try to do something without looking back at the majority, then the traditional distribution of roles will work. Especially if you zealously protect your contribution to the development of the game.
Maria Kochakova
We have a professional division. Each of us is special in our field, and we combine the fruits of our work. It turns out synergy. I can say from myself that I would really not like it if someone wanted to climb into the script or texts. Or, for example, most likely, I will not let anyone comment on the sound if I am pleased with the work of the sound. If one team member is dissatisfied with the work of another, he can tell me about it. I can listen to the arguments and ask to redo it, but I may not listen, because it suits me as it is. We have a very funny tyrannical democracy. Everyone has a word and opinion, but mine is the main thing. I am not that I constantly use it, but sometimes I use. And then this is the opinion of the producer, not the screenwriter.
A great option for an indie team is to find remote employees. In the regions, not such overstated requests, but with the widespread development of Internet technologies of the problem in obtaining the necessary knowledge and skills at all. In addition, many Moscow and St. Petersburg programmers or artists will be more willing to take out to outsources, which will come to terms with the schedule from 9:00 to 18:00 in the corporation. No time is spent on the road, and there is no need to wear a tie.
Maria Kochakova
We have everything according to the remote. It is convenient. You can work with the artist from St. Petersburg and the composer from Minsk. Geography does not impose restrictions. There is nothing complicated. Usually enough correspondence. Sometimes we arrange calls, sometimes confer-collars. I love more from the video when people can be seen, but just in a voice – the experience of a big.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
I see no reason to refuse a person to want to work on the game only on the basis of the fact that he is in another city. We already live in the future, when remote work is in the order of things. This is a large company in the office, because the better you explain the task for him, the fewer problems when he makes it. And in the indie company, each employee has enough independence and responsibility to develop a task from grains of TK. From practice, I recommend that you arrange regular fees and calls of commands in order to quickly synchronize on current issues. Communication in Skype and Tasks is, of course, good, but something new and important is regularly detected on such calls.
Alexey Davydov
With a certain experience of such work, I do not see much shortcomings here. Now the startup infrastructure has greatly simplified many aspects of this interaction. There are Dropbox, Basecamp, ASANA, GIT, Slack and Skype at worst. Except that a drink of champagne on the day of the release from one bottle will not work.
Ayrat Zakirov
If we talk about outsourcing, then this is commonplace cheaper. But it is also worth considering that not all talented people live in Moscow and are able to get to the office. Now the level of Internetization is such that these people can work completely calmly remotely. Of course, this is not applicable to all professions.
Scandals, intrigues, investigations, or everything in your hands!
Work in indie is primarily built on mutual trust. The industry is very narrow, and the chances that you will not meet the one who deceived you or suddenly left at the important stage of the project development is almost gone. There can be only one practical advice: to calm down and continue to work on what you believed in, invested and spending strength and time.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
Everything happens, and whether it will still be. I believe that in order to solve problems they need to be caught at an early stage, and for this you need to be such a person who will not be afraid to talk about problems, but at the same time will not whine for every trifle.
Alexey Davydov
Trust, respect, conscientious attitude towards teammates. In the long run it works great. Our industry is small, everyone knows everyone, the reputation plays a huge role. After some time, even the need for prepayments and advances disappears. It is enough to discuss the details in the mail, and the gears begin to rotate (“Write yourself – we will count it later”).
Andrey Harutyunyan
For all the will of God! No, there are no guides. It all depends on the specialist. The fluid in the indie studio is a normal phenomenon, and you can only fight it with the level of wages-if there are such opportunities. Usually they are not.
Maria Kochakova
You need to work with those who you trust. If you do not trust – intuition, for example, beats the alarm – it is better not to work. And always record agreements in writing. It soothes everyone. Yes, there is no time and desire to mess with the contract, but a letter to the mail, placing points over I, can always be sent. And everyone will be calm that everything is negotiated.
As for the loss of faith, this is one of the most undesirable situations that can only work out in an indie studio, where all the work is built on love for the project. The project will hold on to you, your charisma, your approach to management – these components will fall, people will leave. Everything is in your hands – to fix everything or just wave your hand and with the chosen degree of emotionality to say goodbye to those who have lost your faith in you.
Yaroslav Kravtsov
If the team has disappeared into the project, then this is not the problem of the team. You need to return faith, taking actions with the project itself. The easiest way is a filth, after which a release appears on the horizon. But if someone wants to leave, because something was crossed inside him, there is no point in keeping him and shaking each other's nerves. It is better to take inevitable immediately, bypassing the preliminary stages of denial, trading, anger and depression.
Alexey Davydov
For a small command, the saying “on the crossing of horses is not changed” is very important. The price of replacing the host, and sometimes the only programmer on the project is to rewrite the game from scratch. So here, again, as in the family, the price of each individual is higher. But in life everything happens. The market dictates new rules, and now with someone it turns out to you on the way. We try to part https://sister-site.org/jinx-casino/ with friends, it happens that we resume cooperation after some time.
Andrey Harutyunyan
All unbelievers must be released. Hire new ones. Timbilding for an indie studio is to go to the bar and drink. Usually this is not motivating people to work on small projects. The desire to prove yourself and play an important role in the whole project for employees of the Indie Studio is much more important. It also plays an important role for creating a portfolio in case of a device in a large company.
► NIFFELHEIM should become, as the brothers-creature, Andrey and Eduard Harutyunyana, “serious role-playing game for boys” should become.
Maria Kochakova
I don't know if my team believes in the project. It is important that she believes in me. To do this, you need to observe agreements and achieve results. I notice that when I do nothing on the project for a long time, he freezes without me – this is an inevitable evil. I might like the team to be more initiative, but I myself will not let anyone steal. So everything is fair. I would really not want to lose the trust of the team. I would try to do everything possible to restore it.
* * *
How, I hope, it becomes clear to everyone and to each of the article – making games great, easy, pleasant and extremely healthy for health! I am sure that many of you, inspired by what you read, will release world hits of indie scenes in a few years! Hurray, comrades.
P.S. I think it will be useful to remind you that you can give your hits to the author