The gaming world is easily one of the most competitive domains of digital entertainment in the world. While it is projected to grow at 8.75% between 2024 and 2027, competition is at an all-time high. This means only the most innovative gaming companies with strong team collaboration processes will make the cut.
So, in an environment like this, what does it take to truly make a lasting impact and outdo the competition? That’s a question everyone from Triple-A title companies like Activision and Ubisoft to small indie developers have been trying to answer. With the entry of IT giants like Microsoft and the big daddy of e-commerce Amazon into the picture, the demand for innovation is higher than ever and likely to go higher.
How Can Game Studios Compete? Team Collaboration!
Believe it or not, the single most important testament to a video game’s success is not its graphics or even its price tag. What matters most in the gaming world is that next level of gaming experience. Gamers across the world are willing to invest in brands and buy into their ecosystems not just because the brand sells but also because it promises a new level of gaming experience.
But that doesn’t mean indie gamers have no chance. In fact, some of the most innovative titles in recent years have come from Indie game studies. Titles like Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and Hades are good examples. The common thread in all of this is a two-word mantra – team collaboration.
It’s all about the Teamwork!
The reason why many indie game studios shine out bigger than AAA titles is because of the strength of their collaboration. Innovation and narrative quality are a matter of understanding each other and working in tandem to bring that vision to life. And the bigger your team gets, the more distance there is. On another note, the gaming industry has been notoriously male-dominated and so, gaps in collaborative processes often hinder turning out the best vision and potential of female game developers as well as other marginalized groups like LGBTQ or the differently-abled.
With all that said, the answer to creating gaming innovation and achieving success as a studio hinges on team collaboration. A truly wonderful gaming experience is possible to bring to the screen with a cohesive vision and collaborative development. So, here are 5 benefits game studios can reap from using apps like LEAD.bot to foster creative connections across their dev space as well as other job roles in their company:
5 Major Benefits for Fostering Team Collaboration for Game Studios and Businesses
Global Competitive Advantage
Key Takeaways:
- Innovative game dev teams can take the entire gaming world by storm on the back of an idea.
- Creative thinking demands breaking down conventional ways to create and represent gaming interactions.
- Game dev teams can use tools like LEAD.bot to foster connections in the workplace that enable more innovative thinking and game design.
Gaming is a universally loved hobby. We humans have been making and playing games since before written history could record them. So, when you are sitting on top of a studio with creative thinkers and ideators in it, you can presume you have a treasure trove of limitless creative innovation within your grasp. The only question is how to unlock it.
Well, there are many ways to do that but the foremost among them involves making new connections. A common problem with big businesses and the same applies to mid-to-large scale game studios is that they get trapped within their work silos. And it makes sense that they do, gaming devving is had and people often work endless extra hours just to meet a deadline.
Can Virtual Coffee Chats Make Your Game Devs More Creative?
However, the solution offered here addresses both the problem of tunnel-visioning as well as overworking in one go. Virtual coffee chats – where you get paired up with another person in your organization at random to help your creative devs break out of their work monotony. Just the notion of talking to someone you would not otherwise open up new ways of thinking or looking at a development problem. In many cases, it can also offer solutions arising from a new perspective.
Check out what Sarah Bond, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Game Creator Experience has to say in this McKinsey interview:
So, the thing that I think is fascinating when you watch the gaming industry is, almost every year, there is a game that comes out of nowhere from a team that [was relatively unknown]. And it has become one of the biggest games in the world.
Creating a dynamic and rich environment where talking to other people in your organization is encouraged and fostered can help studios make the most of their workforce’s potential. At the very least, the dynamic social interaction poses new ways to tackle devving problems which devs wouldn’t do otherwise. And that, if it produces one great idea – is well worth the effort!
Just in case you woulda TLDRed – this short will give you the best bits! <3
Long-Lasting Popularity and Market Draw
Key Takeaways:
- Truly innovative games can last forever in popularity and give much-needed popular support even to small game studios.
- Creating innovative discussions through dynamic interactions is a great way to foster ideas that push the gaming envelope.
- Teams that habitually practice dynamic interaction and make organic connections are far more likely to come up with breakthrough ideas.
There’s an unwritten saying in the gaming world – good games never really die out! And if you know your gaming communities, you will know that this is true to the very last letter. One of the best things about making beloved games is that they can last in popularity for years. If you have ever found yourself on a game streaming platform like Twitch or even found your way into Facebook gaming, you may have seen a slew of retro games being played and watched by hundreds if not thousands of viewers.
Indeed, this is the kind of recurring popularity and lasting appeal you can find if you make a really good game. And it can help your studio manifest its biggest potential sell points in the best way. And it doesn’t need to be a blowout idea or something akin to FromSoftware’s Hidetaka Miyazaki (More Dark Souls anyone?) Gaming at the end of the day is about making connections and being able to express oneself and connect with others is the strongest performing attribute of many games.
Can Fostering In-Studio Interactions Directly Translate to Enabling In-Game Quality Connections?
According to this Deloitte Insights blog, “Gen Zs are drawn to gaming for its immersive and social features.” Fostering healthy connections via incentivized gaming cooperation for organic connection-building is a great way to make games last in popularity long after their release.
The easiest way to do this Is to have in-house connection development in innovative ways. Just like the virtual coffee chats we mentioned above, game studios can also opt for the watercooler group chat model. This is where one person, usually a manager or a mod, puts up a discussion topic and anyone who wants to speak on it can. This is an instant great way to come up with new ideas, especially if they opt for cross-team collaboration.
Access to Marginal Groups at a Global Level
Key Takeaways:
- Gaming is universally loved and interacting with diverse people also helps devs come up with new ways to push their creative vision forward.
- Game studios can foster diverse work cultures fostered by interactions that create a healthy workspace where new ideas can emerge more organically.
- Understanding marginal perspectives can help game designers work them into the narrative, technical design, and even the underlying ideology of a game more organically.
One of the best things about gaming is that it is open to everybody. Despite the gender, ethnicity, and physical condition of a person, anyone can pick up a controller and play. This universal accessibility is one of the strongest assets a game studio can tap into. And the way to do it is by enabling more organic connections within their organizations. Employee engagement activities like virtual coffee chats and watercooler moments open up the domain of discussion and foster organic brainstorming. People enthused about a project will naturally share non-confidentiality-restricted details with their colleagues and in many cases, people from special groups like LGBTQ+ or differently-abled might have a fresh take on gaming accessibility.
As an example, check out this Forbes books author showcase of Dr Songyee Yoon, author of Push Play: Gaming for a Better World
Dr. Yoon is hopeful that Push Play will pave the way for a more diverse and equitable tech community in which women and marginalized groups aren’t discouraged from pursuing their STEM passions. After all, games only get better with more players.
“As humans, we need to play to grow, to adapt, and to survive,” Dr. Yoon said. “Video games offer an open field for exploration and creativity. Each day brings new global challenges, but through play, we discover countless opportunities to enhance humanity’s journey on this planet.”
Similarly, once a game studio commits to bringing more diversity into its creative vision and technical design, it opens up many doorways to creating welcoming spaces for marginal gamers. Something as simple as in-built text-to-speech for gamers with vision issues. Or something like highly adaptive game controller setups like macro keys for persons with specific disabilities is a great way to push the envelope on how people approach games and invite more people to play and connect with others!
Endless Monetization Options
Key Takeaways:
- In-game innovation is only part of the equation since there are many other ways to make titles innovative.
- Devs can consider monetization as an example and crypto-based interactions to fuel their in-game economy, community, and other aspects of their game too.
- Creating new ways to develop game-led communities is a great way to foster innovative business models while staying true to gaming itself.
The gaming world has been plagued by many unfair monetization in the recent past and it has turned many gamers away from beloved titles and made major studios sweat and scramble to save their audiences. And while monetization remains a touchy topic, creative monetization, like the one offered by Nithinan Boonyawattanapisut of noted AAA game studio Axion Games, is well worth vying for. Check out this piece from Inc.com about this entrepreneur’s venture in the gaming and cryptocurrency space.
Their new game Evergleam Hill, combines “gaming, advertising, [crypto]currency, and everything in between.” And while OG gamers might take a tentative step back at this development, the future of gaming looks bright, especially for talented developers and modders if they can get their own NFT-fueled space for funding game communities and ecosystems.
The summa cum laude of these kinds of endeavors is that there is a lot of innovation possible in the gaming space and not just in the game itself. Gaming is about community, interactions, and accomplishment shared with others. Creating such a space using cryptocurrency is only one of the many innovative ways game studies and gamers could shape the future of gaming worldwide.
Limitless Cross-Platform Innovation Potential
Key Takeaways:
- Combining cross-platform play including AR and VR offers limitless potential for innovation.
- Using these tech options in-office particularly to foster work connections can create unique moments and opportunities for developing ideas.
- AR and VR tech or even cross-platform innovation between mobiles, tablets, and laptops offers a lot of innovation options – all of which can be fostered by innovative work interactions between devs.
Now, we are truly verging into innovative gaming territory. While AR and VR are still janky when it comes to converting a game experience, they do have their unique space in the gaming world. And there is a lot of room for expansion, particularly if you consider the role AI could play here.
Further, using gaming and intractable media to educate children has also long been in the pipeline. Companies that can generate team collaboration values to innovate on these fronts stand to gain a lot and also foster a worthy cause. In fact, it is possible to foresee interactive learning and gaming blending and fostering a new way to learn that breaks the dullness of ordinary classrooms. In some cases, it may even be possible to leverage these technologies in poor economies with the help of a few generous donors (think Bill Gates of Microsoft?).
Moreover, going from traditional screen-based gaming to immersive gaming also offers tremendous options not just for innovation but also for collaboration within the game studio itself. Just as virtual coffee chats bring people from different departments together and watercooler moments are a common platform for spurring unsiloed discussions, cross-platform interactions may become a new way to ideate, innovate and ignite industry-leading ideas. The choices are endless and every one of them has a fairly beautiful horizon to offer. Everything begins with creating the right environment to bring innovative ideas to life via increasingly organic and interweaved team collaboration.
How Should Your Game Studio Approach Team Collaboration?
Collaboration is an organic process when it comes to dev teams. However, there is always the need for fresh air in a gamer’s sweaty room. Apps like LEAD offer exactly that – a way to unshackle from the monotony of forced tunneling to meet deadlines and ensure projects remain on track. While that is important, everyone can agree that breakout ideas are worth the sacrifice of operational tautness they come at. So, the best thing you can do for your game dev team and game studio is to get an employee engagement app like LEAD.bot.
LEAD.bot is a team engagement platform available on Slack and Teams. It is an all-in-one team development software with features like virtual coffee chats, buddy programs, birthday celebrations & work anniversary celebrations, new hire onboarding programs, and Pulse Surveys.
LEAD.bot also offers cutting-edge Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) for big enterprises and institutions. Executive to mid-level managers use ONA to gain highly actionable insights and build strong workplace connections. Using this app enables developing innovative employee engagement ideas to connect employees and foster better organizational health, employee retention, and overall performance with this simple app!
LEAD.bot is a product of LEAD.app and we also LEAD.bot’s sister app Sunrize which showcases workplace attendance by graphs right on Slack! Book a demo now!
