The cost of lies..
I realise this is a fairly negative looking title for a blog post but I promise it’s not as dark as it seems.
“What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories? In these stories, it doesn't matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: ‘Who is to blame?’”
Chernobyl - HBO, 2019
This quote may sound dire but in the context of game development it reflects a quieter but equally damaging phenomenon: self-deception within leadership.
When we make games it’s all too easy to lean on internal narratives that shield us from hard truths. Over time, this can warp our decisions and damage trust.
We can ignore data that contradicts our vision or overlook problems that feel too costly, or even impossible, to solve. It’s often easier to stay in denial, especially when others reinforce that narrative.
These lies build up over time and, all too regularly, lead to catastrophic failures of projects.
So, what can we do to prevent this?
A culture that welcomes truth
Studio leadership and the culture they breed are critical factors in ensuring the best decisions are made.
Recently there have been stories of ‘toxic positivity’; where studios have built and reinforced an internal narrative that everything is perfect. When we hear these stories, they usually come from individuals who knew something was not right but their cries went ignored.
Sometimes these individuals are seen as dissenters and non-believers when it’s usually quite the opposite. People who are passionate and raise concerns in a constructive way are usually doing so because they care and they want to do everything they can to inform the best decisions for the game.
It’s imperative, as a leadership team, to create a culture where people can discuss concerns openly without fear of retribution. Further to this, those concerns and issues have to be listened to actively even when we may initially disagree with them.
There may be a fear that encouraging regular discussion of concerns could lead to a negative atmosphere in the workplace. While this can be true and ‘dark clouds’ in a studio can spread, this scenario is almost always due to concerns not being listened to, engaged with and responded to with clarity and candour. If there is frustration and disagreement within the team then it’s up to the leadership to work out what is causing that and what needs to be done to understand it and resolve it.
Trust the experts you’ve hired
If you’ve hired talented experts, trust their expertise. Ignoring it undermines both your game and your studio culture.
Fostering diversity of thought within a studio allows you to leverage the varied perspectives of individuals with different experiences. If you trust and utilise all this knowledge you will make better product decisions.
If you ignore the team and dictate solutions, eventually the team will stop sharing their perspective and, instead, get quietly frustrated before they either leave or create a little ‘dark cloud’ of their own.
This isn’t to say that you need to do everything that every single member of staff tells you. Design-by-committee has pitfalls, but curiosity and engagement lead to better-informed decisions.
Track risks, even if you don’t like them
When you have a culture of candid communication and you’re actively listening to the experts amongst your team you’ll still end up making decisions that are not aligned with certain team members’ views.
Sometimes, even after reviewing all the data and hearing every perspective, your decision will still diverge from the team’s. In this instance you have to be cognisant of the risks in the decision you’re taking and communicate what and why back to the team.
Even if you don’t believe the risks to be big or scary, you have to remember that, to some of the team, they are. You need to actively show that you’ve heard the team’s concerns and that you’re aware of the risks they’ve raised. As development continues, you should be regularly reviewing your position against those risks and be ready to make changes to the plan if the risks become issues.
There’s nothing worse than pivoting too late due to an issue that the team screamed about and you chose to ignore. Don’t be on the receiving end of ‘I told you so’.
Sometimes you’ll make a decision that’s counter to the majority of the team and everything will work out better than they expect. This is great but being right does not mean you’re immune to being wrong. Work with the team to understand why this decision worked out, re-evaluate and re-align your assumptions as a group to make more informed decisions going forward.
Listen to your players
Your players are the best litmus test you have. Test early and test often. Gather feedback and understand what is and isn’t working. Bring them on the journey and your game will be better.
When reviewing player feedback always try to pair it with analytical data. Player opinions can be hard to parse and data can help you understand the real reality of the situation.
Even with data it’s important to look at player feedback from a first principle perspective. What is the fundamental issue that they’re raising? As an example; If they are saying “time to kill needs to be longer” do they actually mean “I feel like I die too quickly and I’m unable to counter-play”?
If your data is showing a sharp drop off after tutorial but none of your players are talking about the tutorial.. maybe the tutorial isn’t the issue. Maybe players are realising during the tutorial that the game isn’t for them.
Engage with the players and try to understand the fundamentals of what they’re frustrated by or what they get value out of. Bonus points if you can teach your early players to think and give feedback like this.
If you receive overwhelming feedback that you disagree with, don’t ignore it or pretend it will just disappear over time. Similar to your expert team, if your most engaged and passionate players are telling you things you need to listen and understand why. If you don’t want to action the feedback because it doesn’t match your vision, that’s fine but you have to track the feedback and understand the consequences.
TL;DR
Foster a culture of open, candid communication. Listen actively to concerns and understand them before setting a course
Understand that concerns and risks aren’t damaging, they’re valuable data points
Communicate with your team, trust their collective experiences
If you can’t ignore your gut, acknowledge and track the risks raised with your team
If the risks become issues, act quickly. Hope is not a strategy and Hope-based development is a path to failure
If your gut pays off, understand why and realign your team with that information
Listen to your players and data, explore the fundamental issues beyond the superficial feedback
Great games aren’t built on perfect plans, they’re built on honest conversations, tough decisions and the willingness to change your perspective as you go.