Poor leadership slows down game development
17 days ago
- #leadership
- #game-development
- #management
- Poor leadership in game development can significantly slow down production, despite technological advancements.
- Seven key traits of poor leadership include failing to understand game development realities, not trusting employees, treating developers as interchangeable, slow decision-making, providing unclear feedback, demanding sudden changes, and vague crunch policies.
- Leaders often lack understanding of game development processes, leading to wasted resources on unnecessary polished demos or concept art that gets discarded.
- A lack of trust in employees can result in excessive approval processes, delaying work and creating bottlenecks.
- Treating developers as interchangeable ignores their specialized skills and experience, leading to inefficiencies when shifting to new genres or styles.
- Slow decision-making and unclear feedback frustrate teams and prolong development cycles without clear direction.
- Sudden changes inspired by other games or media can derail projects, especially if implemented late in development.
- Vague crunch policies create tension, with some employees working unpaid overtime due to unrealistic deadlines.
- Structural reform is needed to improve leadership, but some individuals will always misuse their power regardless of systemic changes.
- AI cannot solve leadership issues; effective game development requires listening to and empowering the actual developers.