I’m not the best at working with a codesigner, but I’ve definitely learned some things along the way. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do and it takes work on everyone’s part to make it work well.
Choose a Codesigner for the Right Reasons. In the past, I’ve tried to work with people on the games I’m working on because I like them as a person. While this is an alright reason to choose someone to work with, it’s usually not a good enough reason to motivate everyone to work together well enough to actually finish a project. Instead, you can choose a codesigner based on what you want the person to do in the partnership. For instance, if you’re not great at figuring out the numbers for a game, getting a person that loves working in spreadsheets is a good start. Being able to tell the person you’re asking to codesign with you the exact reasons why you chose them is usually a great way to start working together and it helps them know
Have Roles for Each Person. If each person has a specific role in the project and they know what they’re going to be doing from the start, this really helps as each person can take ownership of their area of expertise. Once a person has a feeling of ownership in the project, then it’s way more likely that they’ll work on it and make progress.
Give One Person Authority. If one person has the authority to hear what everyone thinks, then choose the direction the project will go in, it’ll make stalemates happen less often. Just having someone that’s willing to make a decision can make things go so much faster. This could be done in a variety of ways, as well. One person can have final say over the whole project or each person involved can have final say over their area of expertise. For example, the person working on development should hear what everyone has to say about the balance of the game, but that person gets the ultimate choice on how to solve the balance issues.
Meet on a Regular Basis. This is really critical when working with others. If you set up a weekly meeting, you can talk about each person’s current progress, priorities, and issues and get everyone on the same page. If someone doesn’t know you need their help or has forgotten, having a weekly reminder means that you won’t get too far off track. It also helps motivate some people to have a regular meeting to talk about progress, as then they want to have something to talk about.
Check in Regularly. Knowing how others communicate is really difficult sometimes, so reaching out to another person to find out what they think every so often really helps. This can happen during regular meetings, but it can also happen periodically between people. Making sure that everyone feels like their voice is heard and they’re supported helps fix and identify problems early.
Be Willing to Change. Not every idea is going to work out! If using slack to communicate isn’t working, try something else. If one person handling the development is too much work, divide it between multiple people. If you identify an area where no one has expertise, one person could learn or you could discuss bringing on another person to the project. Being open to change means that you can hopefully find what works best for everyone involved!
Have a List of Project Goals. If you start a project with a list of goals that you want to achieve and everyone agrees to them, it’ll mean that you’re more likely to all be on the same page and have the same idea on what the project will be. If there’s an area that comes up that you don’t agree with each other, it’s also nice to be able to check what the project goals are and have those help decide the direction of the project. For example, if the goal is to make a gateway game and there’s an argument about the development of the game, referring back to the gateway game goal can make one choice the obvious one so a decision can be more easily made.
Have a Way to Check Project Status. It’s really easy to let other things take over your life. Being able to go somewhere and find out what needs to be done and what decisions have been made makes it a lot easier for everyone to stay on track.
Think About what is Really Important. Why are you working on this project with other people? Are your actions supporting what is important to you? In the past when I haven’t been able to get someone to see that my way was the best way, I try to take a step back. Why do I think my way is the best way? Is it really that important to get my way in this or would letting someone else be happy and allowing us to move on be what I really want to happen? Usually, the issue I’m so passionate about being right on isn’t actually that big of an issue and doesn’t matter all that much, so letting someone else choose will at least let us move on to something else.
This post was inspired after participating on the Time Management Session of Game Design Live Chats! You are welcome to participate or simply listen in whenever the time fits in your schedule. Click here for our calendar of events.
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Straight forward, practical suggestions 👍