In the lead up to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki, which kicks off tomorrow we dropped by IGDA Finland Leadership day also taking place in the city. The event highlights how games companies and teams are built in addition to promoting healthy work cultures to build better games.
One such talk was given by Psyon Games co-founder and COO Valtteri Lahti, aka Wanda O Rly. The talk, named ‘The art of alignment – stakeholder management in games production’ kicked off with some insight into stakeholders and how it’s important to understand who, and what those stakeholders expect.
Much of the talk was built on this infographic which showcases how different parties may expect different things from a developer. Pleasing one may not align with the needs of another, so ensuring that developers are aware of the end goal for each party involved is critical for success. For example investors will want to see scalability from your game as it is a promising indicator that in the long term they gain a return on their investments.
O Rly noted that developers should excel at stakeholder management because other parties involved may want to try and take the lead. “You really need to ask yourself, are you in a creative collaboration or are you doing work for hire?” O Rly notes the former as being the better option as it allows for greater creative freedoms with everyone working on the same page despite their own personal goals perhaps being something different.
The talk encouraged developers to take action and identify stakeholders and learn to understand their interdependencies. Developers should try to identify these aspects early in a project and bring up discussion points, then, only when everyone’s goals are aligned, development can get underway with stakeholders being involved throughout the process.
