Remote Development - How to Work Effectively from Long Distance - Extra Credits

How do you go about making a game if all of the members of your team live in different parts of the world? Also, we've got our good pal Nick Trio back to help us with Guestart again. Say hello. [Music] We've received many questions on the topic of making games with distributed and remote teams. Like, how exactly can a team function, let alone function well when all of its members are scattered all over the country or even around the globe? How does communication work? What about oversight and iteration? Are there tools to help manage this? Are there drawbacks to this approach? But the truth is, we've never really had to run a remote team. I mean, we make extra credits with the distributed team, and James has worked many gigs as a remote specialist, but none of us have had to actually organize or run that kind of dev team. So, we're calling in an expert. This is Cade Hendris. He's the senior designer on Ark Survival Evolved, and he has had way more experience with this than we have. Thank you, Cade, for helping us to make this. So, let's start by asking why. Why even hire a remote

employee? Surely, you could find somebody willing to move or somebody local who could get the job done just as well, right? Surprisingly, the answer to that isn't always yes. And even if the answer is yes, it might not always fit your timeline or your budget. You could spend months looking for just the right person to work on site when the animator or concept artist or programmer or modeler of your dreams is waiting in Colombia or France, ready to pour themselves completely into your project. This talent pool should not be underestimated. Recent years have seen a large uptick in game companies using outsourced help in order to capture talent, meet deadlines, fill difficult positions, or just save some money on an overdrawn budget. With modern technology for long-distance coordination with applications like Slack, Skype, and Discord, it's actually very easy to communicate, share files, exchange ideas, talk, do video conferences, and more. And then there are people who simply work better on a non-standard schedule when they can keep their own hours in the comfort of their own homes or offices. And allowing that type of

person to work remotely can result in far greater performance from them. So that's the why. But now let's talk about the far more interesting question of how. The first thing you're going to have to do is let your remote worker know what's expected of them. If you want them working 9 to5 with the rest of the team, that's fine. If you just want to give them tasks and have those tasks be done by some deadline, that's fine, too. But it's important to be clear and specific about those expectations. It's easy to fall out of the normal flow of an office when you work remotely, especially with no direct oversight or the atmosphere of a company workspace. Once goals and expectations are clear, you've got to set up a clear chain of reporting. Make sure that your new hire knows exactly who they should report to and that you integrate them as much as possible into the pipeline for their work. This is standard practice for getting any new employee up to speed, but it's even more important with a remote worker. It keeps them engaged and it ensures that they're getting the feedback they need in order to feel like they're contributing to the overall project and it helps them to know who to go to if there's something they're struggling with. Establishing dependencies is a core part of this.

It's essential to make sure that your employee is aware of who they're going to be depending on and who is dependent on them. If two programmers are working on different elements of a linked feature, or if a designer and a programmer are both working on implementing some new asset or gameplay mechanic, they need to be working together. They've got to be communicating and asking for minor changes back and forth without any obstacles if they're going to be able to iterate quickly inside the chain of communication. Make sure that the pipeline for asset submission is not only clear but easy. If you're using SVN, Perforce, or Git, make sure that the new employee has access to those from the start and that they're familiar with how to use them. If they're not familiar, then give them the resources they need to become familiar. And don't be surprised if they've got to ask a few questions or if they make a few mistakes early on. Make sure that any company specific check-in practices you have are made clear so that nobody gets confused. Once the new employees work has been checked in, have them tell somebody who can doublech checkck it for them as soon as possible. This feedback loop is valuable and it helps both employee and

employer to see the actual tangible results of the work being done. The more frequently this happens, the more comfortable both parties will be. Deadlines are even more important with a distributed team. Now, we all know that game development is a world in which deadlines are frequently broken. Projects or features getting pushed back in the middle of development is practically the norm. This makes deadlines all the more important for an indie team and even more so for a team that employs remote workers. Because it's extremely easy to look at a task and underestimate the amount of time it's going to take, or to look at a loosely set deadline and decide, I can sneak in a few more games of Overwatch. I mean, the boss isn't here watching me. So long as you don't push them too hard, you can be a little bit more stringent with your remote workers on deadlines. I mean, make sure you are setting realistic deadlines. Obviously, don't give them impossible goals you hope they'll magically achieve somehow, but give reasonably strict deadlines and make sure to check in often and get status updates. Because sometimes having somebody help you stay on track isn't a bad thing. The temptations of a home office are many. Finally, let's talk

about morale. This is essential for any workplace, but it's probably the most important thing on a team that's new to game development or made up of entirely distributed workers. Schedule weekly meetings that bring in all the members of the team to talk about upcoming deadlines. Talk about the exciting new features that have made it into the game, the work that's been done, or maybe just to chat about life. If you have a playable version of the game, use those opportunities to sit as a group and play test, discuss deadlines, find out anything that might be blocking people on their tasks, and get status updates. Just having a time each week where you feel like you're working together rather than each in your own little silos across the world is hugely important. And blocking out time for communication between everybody is equally so. In addition to this, make sure that there's a space where your remote employees can be socially active with the rest of the employees. Make a channel or a room in a messaging program without strict rules where people can share funny stories, pictures of cats, silly videos from the internet, that kind of thing. This may sound trivial, but making sure your remote workers are

engaged with the rest of the employees will foster a sense of community and camaraderie that'll make for a much better workplace in general. I've seen places where every remote worker is in a Skype chat or a Google Hangout, which is displayed up on a big screen TV in the main office, and anybody can pop in or out as needed. They can chat, ask questions, show off what they're working on, and get immediate feedback on their tasks from anybody in the office. It was actually really clever. Also, don't be afraid to pitch in and buy your remote workers the things that they need to succeed. It benefits both of you for them to have a decent work PC or a dev kit. Heck, maybe even cover their internet and phone bills. This makes sure not only that they have fewer obstacles between them and their work, but it also extends an olive branch as an employer that shows that you value them. Nine times out of 10, they will make up that investment by going the extra mile with their work just because they care about what they're doing and because the company has shown them a little love. Hopefully this gave you guys some ideas for how to better manage your remote workers or some insight into some good practices for getting the most

out of a distributed team. This is a really big topic that merits a lot more exploration, especially as it becomes easier and easier to do and do right. And without it, so many great projects would never come to light. Thank you for joining us and see you next week. [Music]