Other Duties as Assigned: Drive

The concept of drive popped up on our radar thanks to an excellent book by Daniel Pink with the same name.  The premise of this book is to prove what really motivates people to be great at the their jobs. It is quite a good read and I highly recommend it, not only for the learnings about motivation in the workplace but also as a lens for which game design and player satisfaction and participation can be viewed.

Here is an entertaining summary: 

When evaluating our culture and working to define how we want to improve it the concept of drive plays a critical role. There are several points made here that help inform the way in which we strive to run our studio.  For example, we seek to provide autonomy through our milestone development process by having each developer propose and commit to the tasks that they believe will most support the overarching milestone goal.

There is no doubt that we still have many improvements to make, but ultimately if we are able to create a working environment that encourages autonomy, mastery, and purpose for everyone then as a team we should all be stronger for it. 

What does this have to do with screening and interviewing candidates?  The output of a developer who is properly motivated should look like this:

• You accomplish amazing amounts of quality work
• You exhibit bias to action, and avoid analysis-paralysis
• You embrace innovation, minimize complexity, and fail fast - knowing that it's OK to fail fast for the sake of progress

We look for evidence of this behavior, either in previous jobs or through other personal examples, when talking to our candidates.  The points above represent a developer with drive who should respond well to our culture and environment.

Origin Story: Brandon Dillon, Sr. Programmer | Double Fine

What was your first job in the gaming industry?

I was very lucky to know someone in the games industry at an early age. A close family friend got a job as a programmer at Blizzard when it was still a small company and helped set me up with an internship in the QA department. I was still a teenager and the gig was a dream come true. I was able to parlay that into a programming internship at ArenaNet, which eventually turned into a full-time position.

Did you find it difficult to get your first job given that you had no prior experience?

I just had the incredible fortune to know someone who was willing to extend me an awesome opportunity. It was relatively easy to acclimate, though, as I was intimately familiar with Blizzard’s past games, participated heavily in earlier betas, and was very passionate about learning how game development was done.

What sort of training or education did you complete in advance of applying for your first position? 

I had no special training or education beyond some rudimentary self-taught programming knowledge. The internship was an extraordinary opportunity to meet really talented people and absorb as much information as I could.

What is your job today?

I’m a senior programmer at Double Fine, specializing in engine and tools programming.

For someone interested in starting a career making games today what is the main piece of advice you would offer them?

Make games! Nothing impresses game developers more than a completed work that shows off your skills. You don’t have to be able to do everything yourself, either. There’s a really vibrant indie development scene these days, and you can find like-minded people with skills in other disciplines to collaborate with. TIGsource, for example, is a fantastic community of people helping each other become better game developers.

Other Duties as Assigned: Attitude

Creating games is an incredibly collaborative effort involving tens if not hundreds of people working together to complete complex tasks.  Helping your team hit their stride and find their mojo is crucial yet there are a seemingly infinite number of obstacles that can appear to challenge your success.  One of the most important ingredients in this formula is attitude.

Despite how talented or accomplished any one individual may be, if they are unable to positively contribute to the larger group and set an example for others by exhibiting a can-do and team player type attitude ultimately they will likely cause more harm than good.

The DVD rental and streaming service Netflix pulls no punches in their assessment of the importance of this attribute.  Here is a slide pulled directly from the presentation - Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility: 

At Paragon we have chosen to outline the type of attitude that fits our culture and evaluate all applicants based on this requirement.  Specifically:

• You treat people with respect
• You do not throw others under the bus, and present problems with solutions
• You are motivated by finding the best for the team/project/studio as well as for yourself 

Ultimately we believe that professionalism and courteousness is equally as valuable as skill and talent. We place a great deal of emphasis on this in our culture and we factor attitude in heavily when considering new employees.

Other Duties as Assigned: Passion

As mentioned here, when hiring new employees at Paragon Studios we look for three key characteristics:  Passion, Attitude and Drive.  While aptitude for any given position can be tested with relative ease, evaluating whether or not a candidate is a good cultural fit can be much more tricky. These traits represent the foundation of which our culture is built upon and as such it is supremely important that we understand how well you align (or conflict) with them.

So, what exactly is passion and how do you identify it?  Here is our attempt at writing a tangible description: 

• You are compelled to make great games
• Your thirst for excellence inspires those around you
• You are passionate about your work, taking the time to see it through to completion

Compelled is a great word.  You must.  You need to make games to satisfy your creative beast. You don't necessarily care what types of games they are or what platforms they are on, just as long as they are best in class you are thrilled and in your element.

Your love of the job is infectious and you inherently inspire those around you. You are never satisfied with good enough and are always looking for ways to further iterate and improve on your work. Coworkers notice this behavior and the entire team becomes stronger for it. 

You care greatly about what you work on and always follow through on your responsibilities. You take ownership over your tasks, and regardless of how many other developers touch the given content or system in question you stay engaged and dedicated from conception to validation by the player.

Still a bit unclear?  Here is an outstanding example of exactly what passion looks like:

Being Elmo is now streaming on Netflix, and I highly recommend it.

The truth is being passionate about making games is quite possibly the main thing that keeps many of us going.  This site paints a rather optimistic picture of what it like working in the games industry as it is a reflection of my own personal experiences.  What is undeniable however is that making a commitment to create games for a living introduces many unconventional challenges to individuals and families alike.  

Projects are often cancelled causing months or even years worth of work to be completely lost. Studios can close up shop at a moment's notice causing former employees to potentially uproot themselves and their families.  Competition is fierce, some positions are scarce, and the promotion you believe you deserve may not happen or be possible regardless of your level of effort and dedication.

It stands to reason then that in order to have long-term success as a game developer above all else you must be passionate about making games.  Completing games, especially online games as a service, is a marathon not a sprint.  Passionate people finish marathons.  

These are the types of people we like to work with.

Blue Ocean Development

Part of the value that I hope our website can provide is the ability to shed some light onto the types of things developers and studios must consider as they conceptualize, develop and release their games. By briefly peaking into the mind of us crazy folk you can hopefully come away unharmed, and with valuable information that serves you well in your pursuit of success in the games industry.  Along those lines this post reveals one of the most critical decisions that a game company must make when deciding on which type of game to fund next.

Pioneered in 2005 by authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy designed around creating an opportunity for large growth and profits by finding uncontested market space and owning it, rather than the more traditional route of a head to head competition that most companies take.  At least that's the dry business-y-esque definition for it.

I however like to think of it in terms of sharks.  Big scary sharks with teeth the size of hockey sticks. You see, the red ocean is red because it's a crowded spot, like Cancun on spring break, and this mass of bodies has drawn the sharks out in force as they mercilessly feed on people and fish alike!  Meanwhile off in the distance a giant blue expanse sits untouched yet seemingly unattainable.  

Blue Ocean Development represents the bold decision to take the road less traveled and swim for calmer waters.  Just one year after Blue Ocean Strategy was published the gaming industry took note of as Nintendo revealed that this strategy was applied to create the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii, which we now know of course are both wildly successful products that defied all initial expectations.

To help illustrate the difference in this approach let's look at a chart comparing the two strategies: 

The first three rows seem pretty self-explanatory.  What about that value line though?  An important part of the Blue Ocean Strategy is that it assumes value is added inherently by innovating, so long as you are innovate to the approval of your customer.  So while a red ocean product will likely need to grab players through increased production values and scope, a blue ocean product must instead focus on delivering something new.

When talking about these two strategies it's easy to naturally be enamored with the blue ocean underdog approach.  Truthfully though both options carry incredible risk and although either can be equally successful the most common approach is to fight the red ocean.  When millions of dollars are on the line it may be better to challenge the devil you know.  You know?

Mapping to the chart above, here is a real world example between two incredibly successful titles that could not be more different from one another:

Again it is worth mentioning that there is inherent risk in either approach.  Red oceans are popular for a reason.  There is an established player base willing to spend a bunch of money to play the games that they love.  Public figures showing undeniable success and live products that can be played and experienced serve as an invaluable reference.  But the competition is fierce, the barrier to entry is steep, and the space may already be overcrowded.

Meanwhile, entering a blue ocean is no cakewalk either.  With no proof of an existing market nor access to a blueprint for repeatable success your largest battles may need to be fought before the development of your title even begins.

Don't be too discouraged though, as success can be found!  Here is one final batch of examples to show that each path is viable and can be achieved:

At this point you should have a basic understanding of the difference between these two strategies, the risks associated with each, and several real-world examples of success. Perhaps in a future post we'll run a hypothetical game concept through the red vs. blue ocean filter and demonstrate how this process can add insight and strength to your product design and pitch.