The video game industry, while it may not be the target environment for some members of the class, is software industry nonetheless, and it experiences the same struggles of project management as any other business. With some of our most recent reading focused on what defines failure and where it may come from, I thought it’d be good to discuss some significant failures related to management.
There are many lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of video games, especially from a project manager’s point of view. Bioware stands tall as one of the most notable video game development studios in the past two decades, holding on to a large number of notable franchises, such as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and more. Bioware recently released a game called Anthem, which was met with lukewarm reviews due to a wealth of bugs, poor design choices, and a dodgy launch.
The development horrors behind the game that led to such a mess were revealed by an article by Kotaku, which sheds light on the horrid management and development practices enforced by the company. The entire 7 year life cycle of the game’s development was marred by constant indecision over what the game ought to have been, sudden changes, brutal crunch hours (that sometimes led to employees collapsing in tears in the office), and a general resentment between employees and leadership. I would suggest reading through the article, because the tale of Anthem deserves its own textbook on how NOT to manage projects.
Similar issues led to the shutdown of Telltale Games, a studio known for creating single player narrative experiences and spawned a subgenre all their own. The company exploded in popularity with their release of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, a game set within the universe of the popular television show. A GameInformer article tells the story of how Telltale’s success caused it stretch the studio and employees so thin that it eventually collapsed in on itself. Similar to Bioware’s story, mandatory 80 hour work weeks for employees, sudden changes to projects, and deadlines that were far too tight to be feasible led to project after project with lower and lower review scores due to ever decreasing quality.
In the wake of so much failure, especially amidst large, professional companies that have decades of experience, one has to wonder how to learn to be a successful project manager on your own. Gamasutra is a hub for game developers and features blog posts from developers in large studios and indie studios. Their topics include some of the finer details about game development, but many blog posts are about project management as well. Sara Casen’s blog post tries to break the notion of required crunch time for developers, and how a better work environment leads to more productivity. Similar articles can be found with some more searching.
I encourage the paging through of Gamasutra’s blog posts to see some ideas from actual developers who have seen so many projects fall apart due to improper management, and you can take these lessons with you when you encounter a management task in the future.
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