How to create agile teams and foster the culture of excellence while developing a game

oh wow hello everyone okay sorry I thought we were all sleeping I just thought the party's today now yesterday so I figure you would be a little awake yes we would yeah very good okay cool so let's take that logo out right ah thank you so much for joining me early in the morning where I come from the COA 40 like well where I live in still a 40 in the morning since quite early I'm gonna try to make this short and sweet maybe funny but my experience this is my third Pocket Gamer people don't really laugh at my jokes here I just think it's a personality issue but that's fine bear with me here okay cool so I'm gonna talk a little bit about my experience as a producer creating teams and shipping games so Who am I and why am I here and

not there I'm from Brazil like where is she she's gone there was another Brazilian here I'm from Brazil and I've been working as a game producer for a little bit more than eight years now I had my own studio back in Sao Paulo I sold it I worked in companies like Square Enix and now I am a king there was a bunch of other companies in the middle as well I've worked with video games in Brazil Mexico Chile Germany Sweden and now in the UK I'm based in London and as you can imagine every type of team size color language that you can possibly think haven't heard but most of them yes I've done console games for a PlayStation 4 Xbox one which sounds exciting but it's really crazy work with mobile web Facebook and so and so forth so been doing this for a little bit now and I want to talk about building a team so

please this is all based on my experience these are no rules adapted as you see fit but hopefully there's some inspiration or learnings or takeaways that you can take from all this okay okay there you go guys this is this is it see I'm from Brazil I need these things they're gonna be two quotes I'm gonna share with you today this is one of them and it's it's they're very important for me Simon said it's better to have a great teams and a team of greats and I learned that that's very very true we had there was a company that I work for we had lots of budgets and we could hire like people that were very expensive well I still don't make as much as those people did not even close but they were real superstars they were the best at what they did they make games that I'm a fan I went to the guy at an interview and I was like they made the game that I have the collector's edition that sounds amazing but my experience and after years I found out that it's not about the superstars

it's about your team it's about the mix of people you put together that makes a great team it's not about one it's not about you it's about 80 50 16 I don't know how many people but it's about the group and building successful teams it demands effort so who here is in charge of a team who here is a leader of a team please raise your hand I can't see you because there are lights okay great cool it's super hard right you would agree with me billion team takes time it takes effort especially the right team and there are many categories of what's the right team also depends on what you're building there are a lot of factors that you could combine first of all you need people I mean I believe that people can ship games alone I've seen that but if you want to make the big bucks I've never seen anyone that's

just well maybe minecraft but anyways I've never seen anyone that can do that alone I haven't met anyone in person that could do that by themselves it's about the people you have then it's about the goals and this is super important when you're building a team home a lot of people have their own goals right so let's say that me and Yann hye-young how are you I just recruited you so let's say the young was to be the best sorry developer ever he wants to be able to code in every single engine and he wants to create his own engine a job that's very ambitious and let's say that he lost less how do I say your name laughs very good I lived in Sweden I shouldn't know this but I just okay not that you're Swedish but Nordic anyways let's say he wants to be the best artist and he wants to make 3d beautiful models that's his goal somehow I need to be able to align these goals I want to make a lot of money so I need to be able to outline these three goals and let's say

I'm sorry I don't know your name but the guy from empires and puzzles he wants to be the best game designer ever he's passionate about design he wants to make that economy take we need to be able to align those goals it's about experience now here's the deal it's not about having 20 30 years of experience only that helps these people are amazing by the way but it's about having a mix of that it's about trusting someone that comes for the first time from a different industry who here graduated in games who here study games actually did who here didn't fantastic we actually have the luxury of working in the industry that anyone can work in one of my level designers used to work with fashion which made her brilliant it's a mixture of experiences together along that makes a team rich it's about culture who here speaks English as a first language

native speaker eyes right I feel fools not much right who hears a second language there you go it's about culture so if someone comes to me and say hey you're ridiculous I'm gonna be very sad but I met people that you say that they're like oh cool I'm gonna improve so what do I need to do oh my god it's about culture and it's about expertise it's about having a team of generalists or people that have specific talents is about a person that just do rigs and a person that can do anything from the concept to the end it's about what you're building and who you're building with are you still with me yes we are good furthermore I learned that link that word in the UK now it's about communication you need to talk your team needs to talk see I talk a lot that's why I'm here but they need to be

able to talk between themselves I need to create an environment in which the communication thrives I need to create an environment in which people are not afraid of asking so I'll tell a little anecdote I used to work in a very famous Japanese company and so I used to sit here at my desk making powerpoints and spreadsheets because that's what producers do really and there was this other person sitting next to me right and this person wanted to ask me a question so what would you do hi can I ask you a question that's exactly not what happened I received an email subject question hello Sabrina do you have the file X can you please send it to me thank you it was nothing it was best regards actually what so I'm just giving you an extreme example but teams need to be able to talk to each other I know it's like is great any other messaging is great much easier write it just drag stuff but you need to be able to talk to each other however you see

fit let's talk about teamwork this is my favorite sentence umm apply seing everything in life guys it works but basically you should know what you're working on right so it's much more than just daily stand-ups hi so yesterday I rigged the character and today I'm rigging a character it's much more than this it's showing hey so yesterday I rigged this character I'm having this problem or I found out this or it actually just it's just very cool here people have a look it's about sharing it's about showing it's about ownership success of a team is when yourself the leader of the team can become obsolete people feel ownership of what they're doing right it did come from spider-man it's about feeling that you own what you're working on so you feel

responsible for delivering when you have a team that's committed equality things go smooth who here has ever had a team that never had problems thank you because if you raise your hand you're a liar and I will call you out and I will point fingers because I'm not afraid but it's about getting responsible for it.death testing their things before committing it's about doing that it needs about aligning alignment is key so many problems comes because we're not aligned because designer wanted it is this but there was no scope for it and this friends because developers thought it was like that but because there was no acceptance criterion the story is because the artist wanted to do like this and the camera maybe didn't support there too much draw calls I don't know but you have to be aligned team culture is fundamental Oh God time okay building a

team culture is fundamental so I'm gonna go through the next steps real quick because my time is running out and I talk a lot so first of all one-on-ones with everyone what is it 101 is when you sit with another person no no no with you and we talk 101 and she shares her deep secrets and regrets and we bond and we have a drink well that as well but we'll do later but basically is talking to people on a one-on-one basis so today I have a team of 23 people right I don't have time to sit with everyone every week it's impossible but I did at least once sat with one of them individually presented myself made myself available and then encouraged their leads to be the ones talking to them by weekly weekly however you see fit it's about having fun so here I was telling the goals of this project we're gonna deliver from A to B and this amount of time here's the milestone plan no this is happening someone raised a hand

easily are we gonna have fun of course but it's not only about me going and buying lunch for everyone because that's called bribing I do that as well well whatever it takes but it's about hanky as a team you know it's about going and each won't pay for their own doner kebab and we just talk and we just bond it's about going out and playing I don't know arcades it's about many many other things knowledge sharing which is super hard but who here has never been in a situation in which developer got sick no one knew what they were doing cuz it wasn't their own branch and no we can't deliver problem right he's like yeah happens to me quite often well not anymore because at least another person needs to know what's going on pair programming guys if you have the time highly recommend game James game jams and hack days be creative together in a team so

it's very stressful to ship a game when you when you're very committed and you have big bucks to make and you have big goals you you have to be very focused that's why it's super important that the team gets creative together as a group and they solve problems together a team wall so it's not about putting them on hot stones on the wall I do that of course it's not about putting the sticky notes I also do that but it's about letting them put pictures of me they're photoshopped in whatever gorilla head it's about letting them own something which makes it home which makes it their space creative mentoring and shadowing is also very important it's part of my job to coach and mentor but it's part of my job to find them people that will make them better don't make them enrich the team you're with me I have two minutes so we're gonna run this is the second quote I mentioned have you met this guy have you heard of him before no Stephen yeah so

he said the intelligence the ability to adapt change we use agile because we want because it's cool right it's fashionable but also because we need game development changes when you make the first document into what you ship the product a lot of things have evolved hopefully so why do you do that and there's two reasons which happened already so incremental deliverable with an iterative process yeah I learn a lot of big words basically you need to be able to have a game process development in which you can make changes without people suffering in the end you also need to be able to break down complex things into smaller things and deliverables you see with me yes good job look at that slides problems no process is easy right so I'm going to talk quickly about planning sessions dynamic backlog and process feedback I know times running let's talk about planning who does planning so my planning sessions did they take from 15 to 20 minutes what you

plan you dictate no I plan but first you need to have clear team roles who does what who's the lead who is in charge of writing the stories who breaks down the subtasks who does what who's the scrum master if you have one what is the goal so what are we doing for the next two weeks what are one week whatever you need to be able to tell them that's the first thing you say by the end of the Sprint we're gonna do that then make them empowered I tell them where do we need to go they tell them they tell me how do we get there I don't know how we're gonna get there I don't know how to code I can't draw I can make designs I'd said it makes powerpoints and spreadsheets they tell me how to get there good facilitation I'm there to ask questions I'm there to help I'm not there to tell what to do and I need to be specific and ask questions make sure they understand what they have to do make sure I understand how they want to do it I'm running I'm running dynamic

backlog always prioritize so at the office nowadays I have like an extreme maybe not this big this is like wow little bit smaller than this with the priority this is the number one priority but this task takes about two hours to make I don't care this is the number one priority and make sure your team is the one saying I don't care to a point they understand why that stories on the fly to your backlog I don't follow scrum by the book if something needs to be changed mid sprint any change made sprint it has to be a very good reason for it but if there are new things our improvement things then we added at a backlog and then we figure out when we're going to do it based on the priority of things keep it updated acceptance criteria everything keep it updated what are we doing how are we doing are there questions add it there keep it there and easy access to everyone yes I am

like auntie jeera now in this project right auntie hand soft or whatever Trello will remember where it is and let people know where it is auntie no post-its I don't know how you want to call me whatever and the beautiful feedback who here loves feedback you're a bunch of liars we are all bunch of liars first keep an open dialogue so don't come and attack you made a mistake well let's have a conversation we're professionals yeah process focus is very easy to give personal feedback I can come to him looking in with the big cameras like that's a big camera but it's not about the cameras about the picture how we take the picture why we take the picture it's about the process it's about improving together good mediation oh and remember facilitate things help people say what they need take cultural differences we took to account the word in English might not be

what you think it it's maybe it's wrong I have loads of problem you look at me like oh yeah she speaks English I actually thought I did until I move to the UK and I figure out I don't but that's the importance it's important for you to take that in consideration sometimes it's not what they mean keep it short and sweet like I did not here today yes sorry I'm almost done four things that I want you to memorize one talked a lot they need to talk you need to talk be available empower your team yes it's a buzzword part of the people but it is true if they don't feel like they own what they're doing they won't be committed make your goals clear make sure they know what they have to do and why why and take into account teen culture where they come from what they do their expertise is what clashes and what doesn't find that goal in common and adapt your process to your people

and to your project you have to don't follow anything by the book what worked King in January in the team that I had will not work that King in when are we September with the thing that I have right now because they're different people we're doing different things or not whatever work with me five years ago doesn't work now I'm a different person so please take that into consideration thank you I don't have any time for questions right [Applause] [Music]