You can build efficient dev teams through lightweight Agile methods and practices.
Developing video games is hard - we all know that - but our core belief is that great leaders can transform the work place into something fun, lightweight as well as increasing productivity at the same time.
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Agility and empathy are key for great leaders working with game development and we are continuously updating our methodology to ensure awesome deliveries without crunch.
Valle del Elqui, Chile
May 2022
What we Offer
After 13 years managing some highly experienced dev teams in established studios like Riot and Aquiris, Rafael have learned a lot and created his own Agile method, which has been implemented in around 10 studios since he founded nomz consulting.
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He believes that his impact can be much bigger in the gaming industry by sharing and implementing his best practices with key partners and even a short burst - like 3 months - can be enough to help transform your teams' performance.
Nodes
As the Lead Producer, I need that my producers ensure delivery excellence in every single corner of development.
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Definition of Done (DoD):
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They facilitate well the teamwork through effective dailies and other routines;
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They understand the differences between Scrum and Kanban to choose efficiently the most appropriate;
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They work as nodes to align the work between different teams efficiently;
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They understand their delivery rate / capacity through efficient estimations.
Ownership
As the Studio Head, I need that my studio leads own their stuff, as we are developing a complex project that need many leaders.
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DoD:
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All producers understand their work as Delivery leads and inspire the studio with stable processes;
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All product managers understand their work as Product leads and inspire the studio with outstanding vision;
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All studio leads understand their work as Craft leads and ensures great delivery rate in every part of development;
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The team is broken in meaningful Squads that work smoothly as they are well sized regarding project needs.
MVP
As the Lead Product Owner, I need to ship frequent minimum viable product iterations, as well measuring its success.
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DoD:
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Every team member understand the importance of MVP into studio culture;
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The product backlog is a live artifact, well managed and refined properly with other studio leads;
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The product roadmap is a live artifact, well managed and refined properly with other studio leads.
Zero crunch
As any Studio Lead, I need that my team keep delivering great stuff, but well managing them to avoid crunch moments.
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DoD:
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Crunch is not acceptable into the studio and everyone has a high quality of life, without crunch;
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They deal within the tough development challenges calmly and solving greatly the problems in a frequent basis;
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Studio leads have great development metrics to enable dev team predictions.
Creativity has a lot of uncertainty to it - and that's fine.
For sure each production phase has its own challenges and your leadership needs to deal with it. We are used to see studios suffering to define and lead each development phase efficiently.
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As an example, when your project is in pre-production phase it's normal that uncertainty is high both in game design and technology. Deep diving into your project assumptions can help you understand your players.
We wrote an article on LinkedIn about this:
Trusted among Industry Leaders
Rafael Sales, nomz founder, is a seasoned Game Producer working with game development for 15 years. During this time he have worked and learned a lot with some awesome teams into extremely experienced studios and publishers.
There he had the opportunity to understand how mature Agile development structures works, both on big teams (60+) as well on small ones (10-).
What our Clients say
Rafael is very pleasant and easy to work with and always has a great attitude. He's prestigeless and always looking out for the people around him. He has a lot of knowledge about different agile practices and team management.
I'm happy to have had the opportunity to work with him and get to know him.
Joakim Höglund, Studio Head
@FunRock
Rafael Sales is the kind of Professional that makes you feel like you've just read and learnt an entire encyclopedia after talking to him, with only a few hours per week he impacts our production routine here at Flux Games in a wonderful positive way. Hiring his consulting services was one of our most right decisions we ever made.
Stiven Valério, COO
@Flux
Rafael has impeccable work ethic - he's a hard worker, very proactive, always trying to do his best, to learn and to be better at his job. He has very good understanding of software development methodologies and is especially proficient in implementing and managing QA processes. He is a sweetheart, a great guy, open to feedback, cares about the project and his team.
Mark Venturelli, CEO
@Rogue Snail