Managing a games company is no different to managing any other organisation, group or project. There are some small subtle difference but in the end to make progress you need to set tasks to complete and deadlines you actually meet. We realised relatively early on we needed a central organised way of ensuring the team knew what was required of them and how much time they had. Welcome to the world of project management.
Drawing from our initial knowledge of tools we immediately set up two different technologies to aid us; Mediawiki and a private Simple Machines Forum. The forum was used for idea discussions and the wiki was used for logging the refined finalised idea. At this stage Deadworld Studios didn’t have any defined set of milestones or direction, however, these tools aided our progress albeit slowly. At the time we were developing another game which we eventually realised was too ambitious so we placed it on hold in favour of a smaller project with a faster turn around period – Root Access.
With the move to Root Access we began to analyse the way we worked and decided to make some key changes.
One last major change that we adopted was monthly face-to-face meetings. Previously we had run meetings using voice communication tech such as teamspeak or skype and, while this did work pretty well, it wasn’t entirely successful. Monthly face-to-face meetings renews any excitement and determination that might have waned over a busy month. After starting the face-to-face meetings our productivity sky-rocketed! It allows us to have a meal and discuss how things have been going and what we plan to do next. Each meeting has been thoroughly enjoyable and productive which leads us coming away feeling excited and ready for more!
That about wraps up the project management aspect for now. Stay tuned for more entries for this ‘Technology of a Deadworld’ series!