Don't Repeat Yourself

When making Indie games, there's a mantra that bears repeating over, again and again:

“Don't Repeat Yourself”

It's actually a corruption of a much deeper truth. If software development excites you, I urge you to read all the gory details about that deeper truth over on wikipedia. (If you want to go read it now, I'll still be here when you get back.)

When making Indie Games, however, “Don't Repeat Yourself” means something different. It's rooted in the notion that (calender) time is the most precious resource. It's the free variable with the highest opportunity cost. The longer amount of time it takes you to do something directly translates into a lesser amount of time you could be working on your next goal.

So what happens if you have to repeat a previous step? Replace an image that's no longer working? Change a sound effect? Rebuild a level? What happens when you have to repeat yourself?

For every repeat, the time you wisely invested into the previous version of that asset is effectively wasted.

You would have been better off using that initial time reading game development blogs. Or meditating. Or playing Dino Switch II.

So what does "Don't Repeat Yourself" really mean? It means that as an Indie, (almost) every piece of content you put time into, needs to ship at some point in the future. It means that each time you touch an asset, you should treat it as the last time you'll touch it before it ships.

Your asset pipeline (as an Indie) needs to go :

Concept -> Placeholder -> Shippable Asset

Cappucino

Contrast that with the apocryphal AAA game producer, “Make three cappucinos... then bring me the best one!”

Of course, what he really means is “Have three baristas separately make three different cappuccinos... then discard the two which aren't as good.”

So here's a Pop-Quiz, are those two discarded cappuccinos wasted?

Some would say “Yes”, referring to the ingredients and skill which went into the preparation of content which will never be consumed.

Others would say “No”, because the producer couldn't know ahead of time which barista would prepare the best coffee. Three times the amount of resources have gone into the production, in exchange for an improvement in quality and a substantially reduced chance (risk) of getting a bad coffee.

Don't Repeat Yourself

As an Indie, where (calendar) time is the most precious resource, “Don't Repeat Yourself” means shipping every piece of content you produce. If you somehow find yourself with 3 cappuccinos, then you're going to be drinking them all!

But does that also mean you need to ship the pieces which didn't work out? Not at all. Because the overarching process goes like this:

• Get placeholder assets for everything into the game

• Without repeating yourself, systematically lift every asset in the game up to shippable quality.
  (Upon completion, your game as a whole ought to be shippable)

• Do a polish pass where you replace only the assets which are (a) quick to improve, (b) have a big impact on quality

• Ship it

And that's indie game development...

Officespace

What makes a great work environment?

I've had a lot of time to think about this one over the years, mostly when working in cramped, overcrowded, smelly, noisy, unsafe or otherwise distasteful locales.

I always used to think it would be in a context of setting up my own team in a new office.  Now that I've gone Indie, that's still true, but it's a team of one.

Space

The most critical element in the work environment is space.  You need enough space to have all your working equipment easily accessible.  I like to have everything already plugged in and ready to go, but switched off at the wall.  And don't forget to move around and stay active, so I've setup a typing station, a coffee station, a thinking station, a reading station, a print/scan/copy station, an audio recording station etc, etc,  each already prepared for a particular type of activity.

If you're a fan of John Cleese, you'll know that low ceilings encourage closed thinking modes, and high ceilings facilitate open thinking modes.  Factor that in the next time you book a meeting room for a brainstorming session (high ceiling) or triage session (low ceiling).

Time

How many times have you heard, "It's done when it's done!"

For many creative tasks, you can estimate how long something will take, but not very accurately.  I find it useful to work in blocks of around ~2 hours. I pick a task I think will take an hour to do, and work on it, until it's done.  If there's still 2 hours left before the next planned disruption, I'll pick another ~1 hour task, and work on that.

It's crucial to finish every day with a win.  Ernest Hemmingway says it much better than I ever could:

"The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. "

Some employers believe in billing for hours worked, and still others believe in crunch.  If you're in a creative industry and you're being micro-managed like that, and want to have a career rather than a burn-out,  I strongly recommend considering your options.

Location

The day doesn't stop when you walk out of your office.  You still need to get home (or to the gym, or to the pool, etc)  How much is that commute costing you in terms of money, time and stress?  Is the parking lot safe? Can you even find a park when you need to? Can you commute when it's raining/snowing without getting wet?

Working from home is great, but be sure to separate work from home with a doorway or even a staircase.

If you're forced to reuse equipment, then create separate user accounts, facebook accounts, email accounts etc, and be sure to log in and out every time you transition from home to work and vice versa.

If you're a real digital nomad, why not setup separate home and work environments on different USB sticks using portable apps?

Ergonomics

There's a lot of literature about setting up your chair, desk, keyboard, monitor for comfort and usability.  It really does make a difference.  If you're still a skeptic (like I was up until recently), just try it for a week.  If you don't see an improvement, you can always go back to your old bad habits.

...And don't be shy, help out a neighbor.  If you see a colleague struggling with RSI, or squeezed in to the wrong sized chair, bring it up, maybe it's something you can help with.

Sound

Headphones are not enough.  You need a reasonably quiet, connected space.  We humans are social animals, so complete silence can be too isolating.  We need to feel connected with our colleagues, and with the wider environment too, but not distracted from the task at hand.

Oh, and a pet-peeve of mine, a place to take private phone calls.  I hate reciting credit card numbers in a hallway frequented by programmers with eidetic memories.

What else?

What makes your work environment great?  How could it be even better?