I have been employed in gamedev for 14 years :) I feel like I should write a couple of words on this occasion, so here's a chaotic thread of notes and unsolicited advice 1/n

By the time your game is published, the rules of the market will change, the competition will change. In conception, your game has to be at least two steps ahead of your competitors. Better than what's out there right now is probably worse than the sequels. 2/n

I look back at the way I was two years ago, I'm like "DAMN, I was so DUMB". There is a recurrence in this, and gnaws at my heart to know that my future self will look at my contemporary myself and be like "DAMN, I was so DUMB". 3/n

When it comes to getting things done and quality, there are a lot of ways and rules of thumb like "done is better than perfect", etc etc. I believe quality is a function of getting feedback and having time to apply it. So the faster I do a thing, the more time to polish. 4/n

The worst possible place to be, quality-wise, is to gather feedback, have solutions to make game better, but not be able to, because there are still features that you *must have*. In a place like this, I prefer to cut those *must have* features. 5/n

On that topic, you've screwed yourself over if the cost of supporting a feature and removing a feature are both high. Thus, I make my features, primarily, >easy to remove<. 6/n

Avoid misguided "elegant design". I sometimes felt so smart when I came up with a system that solved many problems in many places. This is wrong. Anything goes belly up, you're now officially screwed, because everything is tied together, and you can't change any single part. 7/n

Communication is key. But even more important: knowing what you don't know. If you're up the ladder, you don't know what's going down in the trenches; vice-versa - specialists rarely have access to strategic data, and it's easy to get frustrated when the ship pivots. 8/n

High management is responsible for maintaining two special communication lines: one, where managers disclose what are the key strategic powers that influence high level decisions; second, where specialists can safely and freely raise concerns. 9/n

A year ago I've begun to casually ask people at random: "what's the single biggest problem/risk that our game is facing?". It seems everyone's on the same page about this, but these tend to be HUGE. I've isolated and addressed two such HUGE issues, each fix took half a year. 10/n

Have mentors. Network and seek out people who you can ask when stuck. You need someone to reach out to in every area you're responsible for. HR, design, art, law, whatever. If you don't have a friend - hire an expert. You can't afford not having someone to ask for advice. 11/n

I've grown to hate the word "later". It's unspecified, it's unaccounted for, it's unscheduled, and it makes design fuzzy. If I can't have a specific deadline, I'd rather not have a feature at all. 12/n

When it comes to promotions - of any kind - there is only one way I see working well. First gradually give a person the added responsibilities, then promote them. No one becomes a manager overnight. It's a year-long process. 13/n

Managing projects and managing people are two distinct competences. Do not assume that someone who can >get shit done< can automatically >get people to get shit done<. 14/n

When it comes to inspiration, my patron saint of good management is monsieur Gustave H. 15/n