Making Game Development Work: Two Examples From Our Incubator

Sustainable game development has no single formula, but practical lessons emerge from how working developers manage creative labor. A January 2021 feature from Gamecity Hamburg's Games Lift incubator draws on conversations with two participants running very different projects: Hannah Paulmann, project manager and 3D artist at Curvature Games, and Julia Reberg, a solo developer building the roguelite strategy sim Alchymia. The goal is to address the industry's persistent problems of failed leadership and excessive overtime by distilling their experience into a list of working principles.

Curvature Games has three full-time members and eight contributors in total, and is building the ambitious VR exploration title The Amusement. Its approach centers on hiring through prior working relationships and shared vision rather than CVs alone, and on flattening hierarchy so ownership is shared and criticism flows both ways. Rather than formal leadership, one person "wears the hat" for each broad development area and tracks its progress. Weekly meetings for control, feedback, and planning are considered worth the time investment.

Both developers stress discipline in managing doubt and time. Reberg commits to a finished basic design and focuses on implementation, while Paulmann logs sudden creative ideas for later instead of acting on them immediately. Reberg uses fixed milestone dates, schedules demanding cognitive work before noon, and treats home-working days as normal workdays with tracked hours and a firm stopping point. Paulmann separates tasks requiring different modes of thinking and hands off creative work on meeting-heavy days. Both rely on chat, wikis, and digital whiteboards. On burnout, Curvature admits imperfect overtime prevention but states that overtime is not included in salary, and staff who log excess hours are encouraged to rest.

The piece closes optimistically, arguing that sustainable development is achievable if creators can thrive while pursuing their ambitions. It is anecdotal and limited to two Hamburg-based teams, offering qualitative guidance rather than data. Page sidebars indicate later developments, including the release of The Amusement and the opening of Games Lift 2026 applications, offering five teams 15,000 euros each plus workshops and mentoring.