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Working with a team
I'm new to the programming scene, and was wondering what working with a team, with a producer, etc. consists of in general? As in, business or communicative aspects. I'd just like a bigger picture on the social aspects of it - so when I do get into it, I have a little better idea as to what I need to do.
As in, questions such as:
- What are the main roles, what to they do, how do they interact, how are relationships formed, etc.
- How does a development team work?
- How does the business aspect of things work? (How does the money/production flow?)
I don't expect a huge, extensive explanation, just would like a simple flow-chart-type description of 'how things work' in the world.
And yes, I know it's a 'newbie' question; but you have to start somewhere, and I'd rather know something than nothing. So if you wouldn't mind could you humor me? (On the other hand I don't mind a 'this is a dumb question' reply, as long as it also involves a 'this is a better question' or a 'this is what you do to find out' answer.)
EDIT: In retrospect, that's probably the most general question I've ever asked. I'll probably just link a forum post. Here!
(...Especially when it deals with one of those social situations where everybody who's 'in the group' knows, and you have to 'figure it out' yourself because it's a social 'secret' and the people who aren't in the know can't be 'in'... Says the Sociologist within me... Hehe.) I bet I sound pretty dumb right now. LOL "There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots" - Despair.com
I believe this is a question with no clear answer, as there can be many answers depending on the company organization. Consider using the forums for this kind of "vague" question. Each of your bulletins have really a zoo of answers.
Will do. Hate forums, stuff gets buried. Oh well. I'll make this a more specific question too...
One approach would be to go and have a lively forum discussion, then come back to UnityAnswers and post a nice clear summary of what you've learned. Just a thought.
Answer by Statement · Jan 07, 2011 at 06:20 PM
Well I will only make a stab at this, there really are so many different ways of considering roles, methods, processes and business models.
- What are the main roles, what to they do, how do they interact, how are relationships formed, etc.
I guess the basic production roles are designers, artists, programmers, music/audio, producers, marketing, testers. Don't forget to have some lawyers available for copyright information and other legal aspects that you might find hard to understand.
Stake holders tell producers what they want, producers carry out tasks to other departments. Marketing work on press and contacts. Designers care about the functionality and general feel of the game and delegate tasks to artists, programmers, audio etc. Artists make art. Programmers write code. That you know. Testers make sure the game is up to standards and that bugs are reported.
Obviously it can be all from a 1 man team to a 250 man team. It depends highly on what you're doing and how much cash you have. It depends on your business strategy, and a lot more factors.
Obviously you can't really be successful with the same process for a 250 man team as you are with a 4 man team. You have to divide work into feasible, manageble chunks.
- How does a development team work?
Depends on the agreed style of work. For example with "scrum" one might work to deliver each feature as complete as they can before moving on to the next. I believe communication between the different aspects of the team is key so there is an overall consensus about how to proceed.
There are some issues with multiple people working on a project in Unity that can be worthwhile noting.
- Unity scenes doesn't merge so only one person working on a repository should have access to a scene at a given time.
- It seems to be a bad practice adding components directly to exported models because changing those assets can have some strange effects. I wont go into depths about it, I'll try to find some links soon after writing this.
- It can be beneficial having a scene per team member to test their work without having conflicts with the rest of the project. Working with prefabs bridge the different scenes together.
How does the business aspect of things work? (How does the money/production flow?)
You probably want some investment to start with, if you're hiring. That often means you have to pitch your ideas for other people to invest money in your efforts, unless you have some money to go around yourself. Once production is complete there is usually a lag of a few months depending on your business model before you start generating income. Digital distribution seems to be a popular choice and a common rate seems to be 70/30 where the distributors keep 30% of the sales and you get 70%.
By far not a complete list but it's something to give some perspective.
Wow exactly what I was looking for. Anything for a small $$anonymous$$m? (say, 1-4 people)
Have short meetings that is focused on what you've done, what you are going to do, and if there has been any problems. Try to keep meetings short. Someone should probably be entitled to have "the final say" about decisions to drive progress forward. That person should consider the whole picture, not his or her own wishes.
Try to set up a list of things you must do, and prioritize them. Try to flesh out features as you go so you don't leave a ton of stuff lingering.
$$anonymous$$eep a clear picture and a clear goal, and make decisions that drive you toward reaching that goal.
Don't base your business strategy on Q/A on internet. Get serious about business and attend some enterprise courses if you are serious.
Answer by Justin Warner · Jan 07, 2011 at 06:21 PM
Killzone 2:
50 Testers 48 Artists 27 Coders Approximately 25 modellers (they said they outsourced, so there was some guesswork here) 17 Level designers 14 Environment artists 13 Producers 10 Other technical (whatever that means) 8 Visual design 7 Animators 6 Special effects (making particle systems and the like) 5 Audio 4 Human Resources 4 IT support 3 Lighting 2 Cinematics 2 Tech art And a partridge in a pear tree 245 staff total
Coded so it keeps format, sorry.
And for where this is from: http://blog.mostlytigerproof.com/2010/09/18/game-budgets-a-powers-of-10-overview/
It shows the main groups of what their is in a professional team, but if you look at the top, it shows you what smaller companies have.
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