Gavin GouldenVarmennettu tili

Something that has been on my mind for a while, as discussed on Character Art Podcast episodes, and seeing an article that sparked my interest – specifically about the role of leadership in #GameDev and the transition from content creator to manager 1/n

However, this does point to an issue that is incredibly difficult to prepare yourself for, and that is the secondary skills beyond your art and – eventually – those skills becoming your main tools as the actual getting your hands dirty takes a backseat. 3/n

To be honest, I'm totally happy being a lead and, frankly, my day to day work leaning more 80% management stuff and 20% hands on – but it certainly is a mind fuck as you begin to transition out of being an artist 100% of the time. 4/n

More or less, you've devoted all of your time to becoming the best artist you can be and assume each 'ranking' in the company just means that person is a better artist. But the truth is that the higher you get, the less you should produce. 5/n

Behind that art, though, you are developing these other skills that you generally do not get trained how to. It becomes a skillset developed over time, years of working with other departments, seeing life cycles of games, and the experience as a worker 6/n

Those skills, which I'm sure there's a technical term for, get stronger as time goes on and the transition from “art all day” to “manager” means you can use those skills to enhance the output of your team, such as: 7/n

Direction - While you create art, you are learning how to deal with clients (your boss or otherwise) and the expectations of quality at large scope, not just a portfolio piece. As well as how art fits into gameplay and tech requirements. 8/n

Process – Generally, you're going to get out of touch with what the kids are doing. But. You do possess the ability to see what's important for the project, what the weak spots are, and making calls on best practices for a unified workflow. 9/n

Priority – Over time, honestly, you'll see where to be cheap. Knowing not everything goes out the door polished, you begin to learn where to spend the time and what can be lost in the trade off for time to make other things better. 10/n

Scheduling / Budget – Multiple projects in and you learn to set quality bars, and measure the average time it will take per asset. From here, you can begin to set out a healthy course for your team and predict headcount / cost. 11/n

Essentially, you learn on the job how to sharpen these skills because they are specific to your job. You get better at the trade, you can predict the timing, you know that designers want x and what a visual target is, but then there are things like: 12/n

Difficult Conversations – You need to keep things on the level, and professionally correct situations that will hurt the team, or the project. This is usually something new to leads and – honestly – something that makes many uncomfortable. 13/n

Defending the Team – If you handle scheduling, you most likely also need to work with new requests to make the team not overworked. This is difficult because everyone wants the cool thing – but learning to say “Yes, and...” isn't easy. 14/n

Tasking – You manage what assets go where, who is responsible for which asset, if someone is getting bored making hair for months, who needs a challenge, who needs to improve on x. It becomes a skill to recognize opportunities for growth 15/n

Delegation – Possibly, the most common weakness in Leads as you need to learn to let go of ownership and stop being the point person for all possible things. It's easier said than done, but can be an opportunity to grow a team member 16/n

Reviews – Multiple times a year, you will need to sit with your team and give them formal feedback that affects salary and helps chart career growth. It is incredibly important as you can set goals, record progress and talk 1:1 17/n

Hiring - You need to sift through many portfolios, do the interviews, and ultimately be the final say on who joins the team, who ultimately joins the company for years..18/n

Skills like this usually come from internal and external training – and some aren't actively used until the time arises (i.e. under performance), and become a big part of the job. Some like it, some don't. Personally, I do – but it's been a transition 19/n

My point being – consider your path from all angles. If the idea of dealing with people more than art sounds horrible, you may be better suited as a Principal Artist where it's more about best practices and mentoring 20/n

For me, the reason why I like it is that I get joy out of being the support class (I play a Medic) and feel that I have a bigger impact on the games development by managing a team more than being a single artist. 21/n

Still make art and try to stay relevant – but my first love is game development and feel that I can be a more effective problem solver / contributor in that way (and do art when I can to scratch the itch or try new things for fun) 22/n

While I still make art professionally, it's become more important to me to give the “coolest thing” to my team and I can stick to smaller tasks while doing the manager stuff most of the time. 23/n

If you are considering the role, sooner or later, take this into consideration and try to get ahead of the 'no training' thing. Read books (Crucial Conversations, Subtle Art..., etc.), ask questions at work, and start to see things as a team 24/n

If you are a lead, I would encourage the transparency to your team to serve as a mentor. I've had great bosses in my career that helped shape me and understand the job before I became a “Lead” 25/n