Game Design is a Team Sport
Game Design is a Team Sport
Game Design is a Team Sport
Jason Ward
Building and managing a team to design and publish games is a complex process. While many designers go it alone, there often comes a time when growth is inevitable. This article has recommendations for what software products are most useful for organizing game design amongst a team.
Hot take… The best games are never the work of one person. Heck, even the best game ideas rarely come from a single designer.
Game design is an iterative process that requires the knowledge, experience, and imagination of a team. Even when a single designer has an idea and drafts the first version all by themself, many of the best changes and updates come from peers, playtesters, and editors. So, while one person often gets the most credit, if they are wise, they will share the limelight with those who made their ideas better.
Therefore, experienced designers often plan for ways to collaborate, knowing that getting other designers involved is easier when the proper tools are in place. With the bevy of software suites out there right now, it is cheaper and easier than ever to get one for your budding game design collective.
The Proper Equipment
For simplicity, I rate collaboration tools in four ways: communication, design, organization, and tracking. In terms of rating these tools, I’ve rated each from 1 - 10 for effectiveness. I have also rated the tools described based on their cost. Since most of us are doing this in a non-professional capacity, cost is always a primary consideration.
General-Purpose Tools
All three of these tools offer pretty good value for the money, but one rises above the rest. It is worth noting, in terms of collaborating on visual design, that they all need something to augment their capacity/ability. None are strong in this regard, and each would benefit from being paired with Adobe Suite, Canva, or Affinity.
Basecamp (7 out of 10)
Basecamp became a travesty about seven years ago. It went from being the most usable and versatile project management software in the business to being little more than an afterthought. The usability tanked when they changed their UI a few years back, and based on my informal poll of people who have used it recently, it is just “meh.” It does offer several of the features of the other general-purpose tools, but not enough of them to truly compete. All that said, it might be the best option in terms of specifically tracking tasks and to-dos, which is where it excels.
Cost: 8 ($15/month/user)
Communication: 8
Design: 1
Organization: 9
Tracking: 9
Dropbox (8 out of 10)
DropBox is pretty good software, all things considered. But it doesn’t offer anything special. It’s not as full-featured as Google Suite, and it doesn’t shine in any category other than Organization. That said, for the cost, if organization and sharing of information is your biggest concern, it’s top-notch! It also offers many of the services that Google Suite does, but they are more rudimentary and a bit harder to use, in my opinion.
Cost: 8 ($15/month/user for teams)
Communication: 7
Design: 6
Organization: 9
Tracking: 7
GSuite (9 out of 10)
Google Suite does pretty much everything, aside from being a full-fledged visual design studio. Between Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Meet, Slides, and the like, there isn’t much that you would need that it can’t do. Even better, it is device-agnostic and works everywhere (even offline)! They even have Jamboards that allows you to prototype things in real-time with your team. Throw in Spreadsheets to organize and track activities, and it really is a no-brainer. The cost is also incomparably low. The only downfall is that you’ll need a separate design suite for finishing visual work, but that is true across the board. GSuite does offer more in the way of collaborative design than its competitors, with Jamboards and Slides specifically.
Cost: 10 ($6/month/user for business)
Communication: 9
Design: 7
Organization: 10
Tracking: 7
Augmenting Your Tools
Each of the above software options is good when compared to using nothing at all. They all have strengths that will amplify your team’s ability to collaborate. Just adding the ability to co-edit text, schedule meetings, track tasks, and store documents is a huge step up from what most of us can do on our own.
But, if you are looking to take the next step and improve your collaboration, here is the full range of tools I recommend.
Google Suite Plus…
Using GSuite will allow you to do everything you need to run your business, collaborate with others (internal or external), run meetings, store documents, and communicate effectively. It really can do nearly everything! I use Google Sheets for budgeting projects and task management. Google Slides is great for very rough design mockups. You can even manage your domains here. To this, I recommend adding the following:
Discord as a primary tool for engaging with external audiences and building community. It can be free, and many gamers are familiar with it already.
Mercury is the best banking solution for managing finances. It has no extra costs, and everything is completely digital.
Canva or Affinity for creating professional-grade game products.
DocHub (GSuite plugin) for getting signatures digitally.
WPEngine / WordPress for building and managing a website.
This group of software products has been all we have needed to effectively manage Accidental Cyclops Games from a collaboration and business perspective. Of course, once you start making money, you’ll need PayPal and Stripe accounts to integrate with Mercury. You might also consider Shopify if you sell online AND need to manage your shipping. All in, with everything discussed above, we pay about $120/month for services and fees for a two-person team that uses freelancers regularly.
Knocking it out of the Park
Because of our tools and our ability to organize effectively, we’re able to bring stellar games with a large reach to market. This year we’re crowdfunding Surviving Strangehollow, a 5E supplement designed by a team of more than ten professional freelancers (in addition to us). It will feature amazing creators such as Ed Greenwood, James Haeck, and Elisa Teague (among others), and we've been able to manage those relationships responsibly by using the above suite of services/tools.
This IGDN blog article is brought to you by Jason Ward of Accidental Cyclops Games. If you want to get in touch with the contributor they can be reached at ward@accidentalcyclops.com or visit their website at www.accidentalcyclops.com.