How to Recognize Great Qualities in a Game Development Team

Finding a professional team of game developers that you can trust with your project may be a tricky task, especially because the market today is full of candidates. Sometimes portfolios are not enough to determine whether or not this team is up to a task you’re about to offer.

But there are qualities and practices professional game developers are in line with, and this article should help you recognize them.

Valuable Qualities Evident from Conversation and Portfolio

The first thing you should do when contacting a team of game developers is ask them to share previous experiences and show a portfolio. There are a number of certain skills you can recognize from the interaction and the portfolio they will provide you with.

• Creative skills and the ability to think out of the box.
• Programming skills should be evident from the portfolio.
• Creative abilities are especially important when you choose a game designer for hire.
• Teamwork skills and good communication with the employer.
• Animation skills: you have to like realistic or cartoon-like animations, depending on your project.
• Problem-solving skills. This quality is crucial when unexpected arise and helps the project to move forward at a steady pace.

In these first interactions and after analyzing the material that the game development team has provided you with, you’ll get a general sense of how much you’d like them to work on your project. 

Learn the Practices a Game Development Team Follows

The industry of creating video games has been developing and shaping into a well-defined form for decades. Video games are one of the most popular digital entertainments today, and just like movies or music, the process of creating them has a structure.

When a team of game developers has a plan, a set of milestones, and a determined set of requirements, you can be sure that the project is in the right hands. A team you hired has to share a plan and show you a set of stages they will have to go through until the project is finished and ready to be released.

Usually, a professional game dev company follows a set of seven stages that may take months and longer to complete. 

1. Planning stage is the first step that allows the team to understand the project and its main characteristics. A platform will be decided and the team will determine whether the game will be in 3D or 2D. The idea will be studied, characters will be discussed, and the main gameplay features will be pinpointed. A budget will be estimated and reported.

2. Pre-Production Stage is usually a time of brainstorming and coming up with ideas. Each member of the team works on creating a concept of what he’s about to bring to the game, communicating it with other developers to ensure that everything fits together perfectly in the end. At the same time, you have to be updated on the progress to ensure that all the concepts are exactly as needed.

3. Production Stage is the one where all of the main work will be done. It is the most complicated and time-consuming of all seven. At this stage, the game is in the process of coding and connecting with a script, game design, sound design, and so on. The game world is gradually appearing, main characters and AI are getting ready to play their roles. At the end of the stage, the first playable version of the game should be ready.

4. Testing Stage is the time when testers go through each part of the game, gathering information about glitches, problems, and mistakes.

5. At the Pre-Launch Stage you will decide how to release a game, a beta test may be published to a certain amount of people, and the last fixes and corrections will be made.

6. Launch Stage is the moment of releasing the project.

7. Post-Launch Stage includes fixing bugs that have been reported by players and working on updates, DLCs, and patches.

You Can Always Hire an Additional Game Developer

Sometimes your team is good, but one of the project’s areas leaves you unsatisfied. It is not a rare case when an extra member is added to the process. Sometimes a video game script writer is hired to expand the story and make it more compelling or a composer may be recruited to achieve an atmosphere you prefer. And if the concept of a character doesn’t fit the image you had in your mind, you can always open a contract with a game design company.

Inspiration and Passion are the Most Important Qualities

Ultimately, a team that works with you has to be passionate about the project. Sometimes it may be the most important quality of them all.  You may hire a team with hundreds of projects, and years of experience in game development, but in the end, they won’t care about the idea you want to realize. And sometimes a new company with young developers will be filled with passion to work on a new project, bringing it to success.