[casual_games] TOW: Work/Life Balance

[Bryan Wagstaff]

Mostly it is about project management.

 

I've been at my current studio for six years, and observed two managers work
on similar projects.

 

One manager I have worked with has had only one moderate project crunch
during that time, the other projects have had no significant crunch.  He is
zealous about scoping and cutting features down to the bone.  Some feature
meetings we come out of it feeling like we were drowning puppies, but we
know that if we didn't have those meetings our QoL would suffer.  When on
his projects I know that if I put in an honest effort, I can work 40 hours
each week and go home.  I don't need to worry about overtime because he is
protecting it for us.  Sometimes we may put in a late night to finish the
sprint, but we know we committed to a well-estimated chunk of work; if hours
go over the sprint that person knows for next time that they need to improve
their estimating skills.  With a well-managed project we can see during
sprint planning that we are working on the most important features, we can
commit to a sprint, finish it strong, and know that our game will be great.

 

Another manager at the studio has had similar projects, but every single one
of them for a half decade has had bad crunches.  He is not so zealous about
scoping and cutting.  He lets features come in late, and there are many
features he refuses to cut because he deems them essential.  I never had a
meeting with him where I felt like we were killing good features. He has a
hard time saying 'no' to designers.  He doesn't make the hard choice to kill
good features so we can focus on the best features.  We had minor features
implemented before major features were touched.  The core game mechanics
were still shaky but particles looked great.  We couldn't tell if the
networked simulation was going to even run, but chat was solid. On his
projects I knew I'd be working Saturdays and having dinner (and sometimes
midnight snacks and breakfast) at the studio.

 

Amazingly, a few people in upper management still attribute the results to
luck (manager A had 'easier' projects, manager B had 'harder' projects) but
from my perspective it was entirely self-determined; the manager determines
the fate of the team by enforcing strict limits on the design, getting
reasonable estimates, properly scheduling tasks so the core features are
done before the fluff, and otherwise following good project management.

 

I feel the QoL issues are mostly controlled by the project managers, second
controlled by the developers making sure they put in a solid day's work, and
have only the smallest degree of luck or external factors involved.

 

 

 

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Sheri Rubin
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2012 12:58 PM
To: casual_games at igda.org
Subject: [casual_games] TOW: Work/Life Balance

 

Hi All,

It's time for another topic of the week. This time on Work/Life Balance.

Work/Life Balance. It's not totally a myth. But with summer fast approaching
(E3, kids out of school, etc.) it can start to seem like an impossibility.
What advice can you give for achieving work/life balance?Are there things
you incorporate into your life that make working and living easier? If you
work in an office are there things you do to make sure you can still enjoy
life and get things done that require "normal business hours"? If you work
from home, or are running the business, how do you keep yourself from
working all the time? Are there things you do to ensure your employees or
team members have some semblance of a life?

As always thanks for responding and if you have topic submissions please
send them to me at sheri at designdirectdeliver.com.

Stay awesome!
Sheri

-- 
Sheri Rubin
Founder and CEO

Design Direct Deliver
Website: http://www.designdirectdeliver.com
Email: sheri at designdirectdeliver.com

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