in GamesIndustry.biz At September's HR Summit, organizational psychologist Graham McAllister gave a talk titled “Adjusting Game Vision: Its Role in Team Effectiveness” to help studios maintain a clear vision of what they're creating. We looked for ways to improve your game by doing so.
McAllister previously founded Player Research, a user research and playtesting studio, in 2012, but left the company in 2019. He then founded TeamSync, a studio specializing in keeping teams aligned during development.
After asking the audience for three things they think will increase a studio's chances of success, McAllister suggested that a creatively aligned team is the most important indicator of success.
The focus of McAllister's talk was to emphasize the importance of alignment of a game's vision, but also how studios can determine if they have alignment, and if they don't. It also gave an insight into what you can do to change that.
What makes a development team successful?
In his talk, McAllister referenced the Game Outcomes Project, a large-scale survey of game developers conducted between October and November 2014. Although this project is nearly a decade old for him, it focuses on ideas that are still relevant today.
He specifically highlighted the fifth part of the project in his talk, where participants were asked about how they worked as a team and their results. The report listed 40 factors in order of importance based on the responses received, with top of the list being “having a well-articulated vision.”
Below are the top five findings.
Great development team…
- “Have a clear shared vision for the game design and development plan, and a passion for that vision.”
- “We are cautious about making development changes that significantly deviate from our vision.”
- “We have team members who support the decisions that are made.”
- “Avoid shortening working hours and working long overtime”
- “Let’s create an environment where people can safely take risks and say what they need to say.”
During his time at Player Research, McAllister often asked studios a simple question: What kind of games were they making? The answer depends on the studio's creative staff, including its director, CEO, and lead designer.
“I always thought, 'That's interesting, they don't seem to know what kind of games they're making,'” McAllister said.
He further stated that this observation and data collected through research are two of the first things that prove that lack of vision when creating games is a major problem.
More broadly, it turns out that this is “not just an issue for the gaming industry, but an issue for the gaming industry as a whole.”
How can the vision of the game be lost?
McAllister gave a speech explaining that when a studio starts to grow, the vision for a game usually loses alignment; the more people there are, the more likely it is that the vision will be lost. I started.
“Typically, the team is pretty small at the beginning,” he explained. “The conventional wisdom in the games industry is that the vision for the game at that stage is very clear. There are a few people who have been working on it for a while and say, 'What are we going to make? We know what we're doing, we know what we're doing.
“But as soon as the studio expands, there will be variations in vision within the team, and those variations will be very strong.”
He added: “Depending on the person being onboarded and the person doing the onboarding, their identity and organizational storytelling can inadvertently change the game.”
McAllister emphasized that when multiple studios work together to develop a game externally, it's easy to lose the vision of the game when it's developed by different teams, primarily based in other countries.
“When you add publishers, co-developers and investors, it gets even worse,” he continued. “There aren't that many people as you move up the hierarchy, but the problem is that the power they exert is absolutely huge. And if this person is paying for the game, they're They tend to get what they want.”
“That's the problem with team alignment: You're aligned internally, but there's an outside force that's communicating the vision across boundaries, and that communication itself creates problems.”
Studios benefit greatly from having a clear vision of what the game should be during development.
McAllister said, “There's no conflict within the team, low lag, good communication, a very focused player experience, and making the game keeps people healthy and happy.” “And there’s a good culture at the studio, and more people will want to join.”
What happens when vision deteriorates?
Problems with coordinating the game vision between development teams can result in a negative impact on the game. McAllister detailed several examples, including BioWare's Anthem.
In his talk, McAllister cited a 2019 Kotaku report that looked into what went wrong with Anthem, highlighting internal issues within the studio and why the game was launched largely unfinished. Featuring interviews with developers who provide explanations.
“Conflicts happen because we don’t know what we’re building.”
“If you read that article, you'll see that all the problems surrounding the production of 'Anthem' were almost entirely human problems,” McAllister said, explaining that a lack of vision was the cause of those problems. I emphasized one thing.
“Staff reported that yes, there was friction and there was conflict. But the root cause was, 'We don't know what we're making. We don't know, so that's our reason.'' There's conflict, people crying in parking lots, things like that. [from stress]”.”
McAllister summarized that this is also the root cause of other problems such as failed launches and a culture of crunch.
“All these things happened because of lack of vision,” he said. “Yes, we can fix them, but we have to address the underlying problem [of vision alignment], that's what I really want to fix. ”
How can studios solve the problem of misaligned game visions?
According to McAllister, there's no easy answer to fixing a misaligned game vision. He emphasized that this is more of a human issue than a gaming industry issue.
Investigate the cause of human error
Investigating sources of human error can help studios determine what caused visual failures during development.
“When investigating human error, always start at the far end of the axis,” McAllister says. “Don't start by investigating what went wrong within the studio. In our industry, it's all about leadership at the edges.”
McAllister noted that in the current climate of layoffs and studio closures, leaders are not prioritizing alignment of vision when building new studios.
“There was a post on LinkedIn that said, 'If I were to start a studio again, this is what I would do, and here are the lessons I learned,'” he noted. “When I read these lists, I never saw vision adjustments benefiting.
“Your main job as a leader is to set the conditions for success. Your job is to set the conditions for things to succeed and then take the reins.” [it] In the right direction. Yet those who believe their 'lessons' – there is no real evidence for any of it, it is just an opinion of what they have seen. ”
McAllister continued, “Today we're talking about visual alignment, but historical alignment is an interesting question because what each person sees and the reasons for past failures are not the same. It's an adjustment,” he added. problem. “
address communication issues
While there may not be a simple answer for studios to deal with vision discrepancies within their teams, McAllister has found that language is often an issue.
“When people talk, they think they're communicating, but they're actually not,” McAllister points out. “Words are ambiguous, that's the problem. And words are ambiguous because we're different. You have different identities, you have different cultures, you have different experiences, and what we can do about it is… Nothing. But that's why we interpret things differently.”
Implement a shared mental model
McAllister said there's “no way to really check visual integrity,” but being aware of team members' thinking and how it impacts the shared vision of the game is a good start. It will be.
“Mental models are what's in my head and what's in your head,” he explained. “But shared mental models are what's in our heads. Each person has an individual mental model about the game they're making and what their team is doing. Shared mental models are crazy. We don't know what's in them. That's why we designed shared mental models to deconstruct games.
“Each person has an individual mental model of what the game they're making and what their team is doing.”
Using shared mental models within a game design team is a way to “structure your thinking and organize what's going on in your head,” McAllister said.
“If you want to see what we're doing, you have to look inside your head. But how do you actually do it? 'Are we in agreement?' What is the mechanism for saying “How do I know if I have consent?” ? ”
Before working with the studio, McAllister asked them if they were on the same page and they responded that they had a common clear vision. Most of the time they didn't, so this is a red flag for him. Instead, we should ask how far off it is, he said.
McAllister's talk ultimately emphasized that resolving inconsistencies is not the only priority. It's also about being aware of it, communicating with each other, and making sure everyone is on the same page before the game enters the development stage.