We speak a lot about life/work balance, huge teams and crunch, but we never speak about how some teams overcome each of these. The truth of the matter is there is only one thing that can break down all of the aforementioned barriers to creating a great game and that is Team Motivation.
There are really 3 ingredients needed:
1) Hard Work and Dedication
2) Passion for your project
3) Activities and team building events
Seems simple? No way. Just trying to get a 100+ person team to show up on time every day is difficult enough. Each of the above items is difficult in their own way and each company handles each of these items differently and gives each of the companies their personality.
I believe that number 1 and 2 many times end up being combined, because if you have a game demo or product that looks great, plays great or is otherwise accepted universally by the team then you automatically get 1 and 2.
So what happens when the game is not where you want it to be, or it is early on in the project cycle? Well here is where number 3 comes in. At every opportunity in the project you need to show what the team has built. Many times there are people on the team that just don’t get the day to day coverage of progress that some of us enjoy. Therefore, they just don’t continue to be excited about the project.
On my team we show the product, after each milestone, significant or not, to the entire team over some food and drink in our conference room. It is almost like a press event or party where the team can ooh and aah and ask questions. Others on the team are also commenting on what they see and that can be helpful to the artist, coders and designers working on the levels shown. I can’t think of a better way to not only catch people up on where the game is at, but also get them excited about the work ahead. Keep in mind that people need to see something. Just like the age old “the publisher won’t be excited until we show them something running” quote I have heard too many times to count, the team needs to see it as well.
What are some other things that can be added to Activities and team building events?
- Bagel or Donut day or BOTH!
- New Movie release outings
- Sporting events, like soccer or basketball
- Company wide get-togethers, parties and events
I still think the most important team motivator is showing off your work. When the team and others outside the team are praising what the team has done, the feeling can’t be matched.
So what happens when this process breaks down and what causes it?
The 3 killers of team motivation are:
- Missed Milestone
- Long hours
- Team members not showing up
- Donuts or Bagels not showing up on schedule (the only thing that can kill my motivation)
- Bad publicity or negative publisher communication
So, bottom line:
- Show your game early and often to get people excited about the game
- Feed the team donuts
- Don’t miss your milestones
- Feed the team bagels
- Show your game some more
- Go on a fieldtrip
- Show the game
- Quickly deal with bad PR and negative publisher communication
Love to hear your thoughts on this. What do other folks do to motivate their teams?
