Industry veterans Rick Davidson & Tim Ruswick* are joined by Lucy Becker, our Head of Community, to chat about the pros and cons of larger projects.

I’m sure you’ve all received an email from Lucy at some point during your GameDev.tv journey. Lucy ensures the community is happy, well run and loves hearing about your game dev journeys!

(*Rick has more than 14 years experience in the game dev industry, working on IP's that include Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat. He's done it all, from Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director and Executive Producer to GameDev.tv's very own Instructor extraordinaire. Tim Ruswick is a successful YouTuber and indie dev, who's created more than 30 games in the last 5 years (wow!), and joined GameDev.tv as our marketing monster).

Listen to the whole chat here: https://youtu.be/l9ML3RjIriA

Our 'AHA' moments

  • Lucy and her mic problems 😂
  • If you start a longer project, make sure you are motivated
  • Lucy fixes her audio at 19:49
  • Tweet us your project progress
  • Everyone loves Rick’s Dad jokes
  • A lot of people who work at GameDev.tv were our students

Longer Projects vs Shorter Projects (2:13 - 4:54)

Getting started on a long project and making the next AAA game is something a lot of us dream of doing, but you’ve gotta be realistic and realise that doing this on your own is going to be a tall order. Longer projects often require more complex features and you’ll need more people involved to help you see the project through.

It can be harder to remain motivated on bigger projects because there are lots of elements you may find less enjoyable, you just want to get it finished and show the world. At least with shorter projects, it’ll take less time, more likely to be achievable in terms of scope and it won’t take you so long to get it out to the world.

Perfect Team Size and Balance (13:17 - 15:39)

There is no perfect balance on the size of your team, this all depends on the size and complexity of the project.

Some team members may consider 2-4 months to be a long term project, others may think 6 years is long term. You’ll need to have good communication in your team and ensure everyone is on the same wavelength. In terms of how many people should be on the team, there is no magic number. It’s to do with the culture and speed of the team and how it is run together.

What To Do If Your Project Becomes Larger Than Expected (1:15:28 - 1:17:16)

A project is always larger than expected, you have three options. The first option is to scope it out, cut back on some unneeded features and make the game smaller. If you have 10 features, perhaps consider cutting it down to 5. Show your game to people and ask what features they enjoy the most, this will help you decide which features to cut.

The second option is to dedicate yourself to the project, if you are adamant this is exactly how you want the project to be then you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time and effort getting it just right and being aware it’ll consume a lot of your time.

The final option is to quit the project or put it on the shelf, it doesn’t mean you can’t go back to the project in the future. You may have more knowledge and skills in the future that will make finishing the project more achievable.

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Until next time, happy dev'ing!