"Indie Team best practices!"

Indie teams; "Lean & Like minded!"

Below represent a few talking points I will be giving in my presentation lecture for IGDA meetings next month.

Wikipedia describes Indies as: "Small non publisher funded teams." I've found that in building my last 4 Indie productions these 6 Start-Up practices to consider: 1) Keep your team small & lean. Large teams aren't necessarily the most efficient and require more overhead & management. 2) Bring on like-minded individuals. Ownership and multiple "hat wearing" is paramount. 3) Acquire engine and/or tech/tools that will "allow" for your designs/features/mechanics with minimal overhead. 4) "Fast & Cheap" (yes, I said it)! This methodology usually affords keeping things simple & lean. Allowing you greater freedom to move quickly through a pipeline, realizing quicker wins & understanding (allowing "trial and error" to be learned & remedied with minimal risk, burnout and time)! 5) Early research of the best potential funding & distribution channels. 6) get to run time aka vertical slice quickly to start iterating/testing core features, mechanics & pacing.

Now while there may be some debate on these best practices/priorities, I'm curious as to what has successfully worked for you? 

"Understanding who you are is the first step!"

Now I understand that everyone has a little insecurity when it comes to their talents and creative gifts (especially when they compare it to the competition out there in the professional game dev arena). But before you let that spiral you into a deep well of self doubt, understand that you are an individual. There is no one else on this planet like you! Appreciate the fact that while you can always gain more experience, techniques and competencies NO one can be, think or create like you! This is what makes creativity, innovation and style so rich and exciting! It's from this wonderful uniqueness that power and influence comes from an individual (or a collective of individuals pooling their "individual" gift together).
So before you let intimidation and insecurity overwhelm your confidence and your "strike ahead" resolve, appreciate who you are, what you have internally waiting to be expressed externally to many who wish to see your creative uniqueness and individuality. 

Game production is like a Roller Coaster:

"Game production is like a Roller Coaster"

Think of the Game Design Document (GDD) as the shoulder harness, the Technical Design Document (TDD) the wheel clamps, your Team as the colorful car and the steel track as the intimidating Production pipeline!
The first two will keep you fastened in when things start rolling! The third will be around you to support and the last will pitch, yaw and loop you all over the place! 
Game Development can be quite scary and intimidating but like any good roller coaster, its still an exciting and wild ride! 
It's why we always run to get back in line again! 

"Animators, get outta the chair!"

"Animators, get outta the chair!"

Having professionally taught 3d animation as well as directing game animators and motion capture sessions over the years, I still find character animators trying to create complex (or even subtle) movements while "sitting down."
Effective animations come from "feeling" your way through it in order to appreciate (as well as replicate) the right types of weighting, inflections and subtleties.
Blocking/acting out your movements in front of a mirror as well as having access to a video camera (or phone) to record your actions to review and reinforce your understanding (once back at the computer) is highly effective and seriously recommended.
Try and never let yourself become to complacent, familiar or even lazy to the most simplest of motions... Act it out!
The important thing is to not only hit the extreme movements first but to go back and implement the anticipation and secondary movements into your animations as well. There are numerous subtle yet very apparent inflections that will sell a character's movement and story that can't truly be appreciated if you don't take the time to move about and feel it.

Mo-cap obviously has the ability to capture these subtleties but so does your "eye" if you continually train yourself to look for these little gems.
So get out of the chair, feel your way through poses, weight shifting, anticipation and secondary. You may feel horribly silly but it will definitely help your animations not too!