[Share a Draft] So they made you a lead; now what?

[Oliver Franzke]

Hi guys.

With this article I hope to help people who were recently promoted or hired into a leadership position. Upon reflection about my own experience I realized that I really wasn't prepared for this role and after talking to a bunch of people I realized I'm not unique in this regard.

My goal was to write a document with lots of practical advice. In a way I wanted to create a guide I wish I had access to myself a few years ago.

I'm really curious what you guys think about it. Your feedback is (as always) greatly appreciated.

http://www.altdev.co/?p=31187&shareadraft=baba31187_53ce124498889

Thanks!

Oliver.

[Jorge Rodriguez]

I enjoyed this one so I put my feedback in this Google Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BIgtGxhSZoror8RIuFOF7XaOWRZJ6-dxnlR_ciMV4uw/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you don't mind that I copied it into a Google Doc, but I find it very easy to do paper editing there. It's a mix of idiomatic fixes and composition suggestions.

PS I loved Broken Age.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AltDevAuthors" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to altdevauthor...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Jorge "Vino" Rodríguez
[ Tw | Fb | G+ | Ht ]

[Oliver Franzke]

Oh man, thanks Jorge! That is super valuable feedback and I'll certainly integrate it into the next draft / release version. :)

[Alex Moore]

I meant to reply yesterday; I haven't really got a great deal of feedback on the article other than to say it's very good.

My experience mirrors it quite closely, though I was quite lucky to be made the lead artist and designer on a PS One game, way back when the team size was only 7. The biggest difficulty came when it was assumed that, because I'd lead small teams, I'd be able to lead big teams without any additional training. The jump from a team of 20 or so to 80+, split across multiple sites, was enormous and I really struggled, asI think all the leads did (by that point at least the team was big enough for me to just be the lead designer though and leave fairly ropey art abilities behind!).

For the article itself, all I'd suggest is scattering a few pictures throughout it or possibly even breaking it into two parts, purely because it's quite long to get through in one sitting (it's very well written though and broken up nicely).

Alex

[Shawn Kirsch]

I agree, great article.  I like how you talked about leadership being different deepening on the company.  I've seen many different types of leaders and as you state, it's largely based on what the company needs at the specific point in time.

One thing you might be able to add in there is how you dealt with your previous relationships.  For instance, one time we had a lead be promoted from within, but he wasn't quite ready, and his nervousness about performance effected the friendship/trust that you talk about.  It really changed everyones relationship with him.  Not sure if it's relevant, but just an idea.

Shawn Kirsch

www.shawnkirsch.com

[Oliver Franzke]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

@Alex: Yeah I was wondering about the length myself. It would be pretty easy to release the intro and definition as one part and then the learning section and starter-kit as another part.

Adding pictures is a good idea, but I'm having a hard time thinking about images that aren't cheesy stock images. Do you any thoughts on what might work?

@Shawn: That is a great question! I started out in a leadership position when I joined Double Fine, so unfortunately I can't really say much about this topic. I'm curious though did the situation resolve itself in the end?

[Shawn Kirsch]

basically the friendships ended because he was very worried about doing a good job, and he wasn't able to handle both of those things at that point.  It was difficult, but it definitely goes to say turning into a leader make you change your ways some.  Ultimately we had a chat and we're friends now, but for a while, it was really difficult taking on that position and all the responsibility that came with it.

[Oliver Franzke]

That is really unfortunate. I feel like this could have been prevented with proper mentoring...

[Tino van der Kraan]

Thank you for sharing your lessons and experience as you grew into your leadership role. A lot of it sounds familiar and I recognise some of the problems and solutions that you have outlined.

I'm writing this from the perspective of an independent game development alumni that graduated last year from NHTV's International Game Architecture & Design course. Throughout that experience, I've been fortunate to lead several teams in learning environments called 'Game Labs'. These have provided me with a lot of situations to learn some of your lessons quickly. Currently, I've co-founded a game studio called SassyBot Studio and providing guidance to several interns and freelancers. It takes a lot of mutual trust to delegate work to others but as a result I have found that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

What you mentioned about transparency really resonates with our studio. I'm finding it very valuable to allow the people I work closely with to understand my concerns and that I understand theirs. Together, we try looking for the best solution. Starting up an unproven game studio comes with a lot of problems and making the people you work with understand these problems, dilemma's and particularly the implications of certain choices will help them understand the resulting decision. We are also very transparent on our financial situation and always set up an agreement with those we work with outlining a few studio guidelines, what we expect, and what those we work with can expect in return.

Whilst reading I've also found a number of small typo's which you can find below:

Dealing with difficult ...
... common since most ... (the 's' in since is in bold)

I could have sworn to have read another missing word somewhere in the latter part of your article but I can't seem to find it any more. Regardless, this is a very nicely written piece and has given me some things to work on.

Thank you very much for sharing this Oliver.

Cordially,

~Tino van der Kraan

[Oliver Franzke]

Thanks for the feedback and for sharing your story! :)

--