For a gaming company, having a strong team structure is extremely important.  Within the team structures chapter, it says that, “Your objective is to create an environment where all individuals are able to contribute to the very best of their abilities” (412).  There are so many different ways that team members can contribute to the overall production of a game.  Members of a developing team all bring different skill sets to the table.  There are members that focus on sound, art, level design, narrative, etc.  This is so the people can focus on one main skill and do it well.  Because there are so many different departments within one gaming company, communication between the different departments is essential. During group projects, I feel like communication is the most important thing.  If team members can’t, or don’t know how to communicate effectively then there is no way for each person’s skill sets to be used to its maximum capacity. Members wouldn’t be able to let the others know how much time they need for certain things, or what they are even skillful in.  With poor communication, nothing really gets done, and people can be stuck doing aspects of a project that they don’t do well in as opposed to working in an area where they can strive and can bring the most to the table.  Not only is it important to use everyone’s skills to the overall team’s advantage, but each member has a unique perspective on situations and can also bring that diversity to the project.  A huge problem in the gaming industry is the lack of representation and diversity in games, and that could very much stem from the fact that members of a game developing team either aren’t diverse, or their diversities aren’t being used in a constructive and innovating way.  There are many examples where there are misrepresentations of people within games.  I feel that that is something that could have been easily avoided by making an effort to engage with the people that are to be represented in a game.  Not only engage but listen and learn from their perspectives to create games that are true to the people and cultures.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. CRC Press, 2019.