Lean Game Studio

Creating a Lean Game Studio is not easy.

Here “lean” means a systematic method for minimizing waste without sacrificing productivity. This is a helpful target for new company’s since there are so many alluring paths to explore as your company grows. Focusing on lean helps to minimize distraction.

Here are my 2-cents based on 18 years in the industry. This plan is not perfect, but its a great start.

Inc docs (with 100 word tldr per)
Holocracy or something less wild
Create culture
Scrum guide doc
Coding standards with example
Continuous integration
Mentor ship
personal development
Salary talks
Hire
Software
  • Unity – Create the game
  • Visual Studio – Program C# code
  • Gitlab – Version control C# code (and code reviews)
  • Unity Cloud Build – Build the game
  • Jira – Manage features/bugs
  • Google GSuite
    • Gmail – Manage emails
    • GCal – Manage schedule
    • Google Docs – Create files
    • Google Drive – Manage/share files
Company Structure 
Depending on company goals, the total size of your team will vary dramatically. The following example assumes a team size of about 10 staff.
  • CEO
  • BizDev – Outside-facing promotions, partnerships
  • OfficeManager – Inside-facing for daily operations
  • HR – Recruiting & staff development
  • Team
    • Product Owner
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Artist
    • Programmer
    • Programmer
    • Programmer

What about interns?

What about contract-based employees?

 Vision & Roadmap

  • Company Vision
  • 12 months goals
  • 1 month meetings
  • 2 weeks sprint