Leading the Line

The entertainment-based nature of the games industry can often cause its leaders, especially those at high-profile studios and publishers, to garner reputations that take on a life of their own.

Some games industry leaders are seen as benevolent figures, who shelter their developers from the industry’s more barbaric and ruthless practices, while cultivating a work environment that allows everyone to creatively shine. Others are viewed as almost cartoon-style villains, whose primary motivation is to increase profitability, no matter the cost and whose level of passion for games is often brought into question.

Naturally, the truth often lies somewhere between these two extremes, but how do games industry leaders themselves view their role and how do they deal with the difficult decisions they have to make?

Regardless of whether someone intends to become a leader from the moment they enter the games industry, once you reach the point of leadership, there are a range of important qualities you have to develop in order to be an effective leader.

“Foresight for planning ahead and thinking about years into the future, not just the immediate time ahead.” says Olly Bennett, CEO of Teesside-based studio Cardboard Sword, elaborating: “Things will inevitably change, but being reactive is more efficient than starting from scratch a lot of the time, even if the reaction to change happens to be starting from scratch!”

Bennett also believes that having the right mentality is key: “One of the important skills, and struggles, is staying positive. People look to you for status updates, and if you can find the positives during the negative times, it'll keep morale up and help people stay motivated. I've failed in that area before, which was not a good time for anybody.”

Tom Beardsmore, CEO and co-founder of Coatsink, believes that it’s important to work on developing “empathy, patience, awareness of the big picture, lack of ego and, as things grow, foresight”.

“Leaders need to have a passion for the medium, to be people-centric and you need to have a clear product vision.”, says Dave Bailey, CEO and co-founder of Mediatonic Games, “Games are complex products and one weak link can cause a fantastic product to fail, so you need to be detail oriented too.”

In addition to developing new skills, being a good leader in the games industry also involves being open to learning from others.

“All of the leaders that have directed me in my past roles have influenced me in some way, with good or bad lessons.”, says Bennett, though he identifies fellow Cardboard Sword founder Aidan Howe as the most important influence on his leadership style: “He's blunt and sees things from perspectives that don't always immediately occur to me. His input has definitely been a combination of reassurance, character development, reflection on lessons learnt, and the occasional slap-round-the-face when I've not been my best.”

Bailey credits Activision Europe founder Geoff Heath OBE as being a major influence: “I was doing an investor fundraise from wealthy individuals early in my career and I wanted to walk away from a Venture Capital Investor because I didn't think we were ready for institutional finance yet. Geoff warned me never to burn a bridge, so I allowed the VC to take a very small stake. Two years later, I needed millions of pounds to grow the business and so I went back to that same VC, who signed the deal.”

A key question for all leaders, especially those who have come up through the ranks, is how close they are to colleagues they once worked alongside now they are in the boss' office.

“I try to be as friendly and open as possible but it's difficult the larger the company gets.”, says Beardsmore, continuing: “I have a lot of colleagues that I'd love to get to know better, but I simply lack the time, and I know they're already extremely busy. Still, I feel very grateful to be working with all of them.”

Bailey has encountered similar issues: “It gets harder as the company grows and now that we're nearing 300 people in lots of locations it's impossible to know everybody. I deal with this by doing all hands presentations and regular mass emails, and I try to be really honest with everybody and talk in plain English.”

Naturally, one of the reasons this relationship is so important is because, like all managers, games industry leaders regularly face difficult decisions impacting their employees.

This is true of what Bennett describes as the most difficult decision he’s had to make to this point, which occurred early in the life of Cardboard Sword: “We were already paying ourselves very little, but at one point in our company history I had to ask people that had risked everything to join me, to work on things they didn't want to work on, while also not being able to pay them for four months in a row over the Christmas period.”

He adds: “That was a real low point and I felt like a huge failure that had let people down. It was essential survival tactics though, and due to everyone's sacrifices we came out on the other side, and now things are stronger than ever.”

Beardsmore can’t identify one particular decision as his most difficult, but picks out deciding whether to cancel projects: “This is very difficult because you know the decision will negatively affect the people who've invested time and energy into it. Most of the time the overriding factor in making the decision was financial, but as the company has grown, we've based decisions more on whether we think a project has true potential or not.”

Bailey echoes the view that ending the development of a game is usually one of the most difficult decisions to make, adding: “Thankfully we've never had to let large numbers of people go, but letting anybody go is always really hard.”

Currently though, games industry leaders are facing a new, unprecedented challenge in the Coronavirus pandemic, which has forced them to adapt the way their studios work.

“We were already a remote-working company, so the immediate and business-focused concerns were not massive.”, says Bennett, continuing: “However it was in our team and contractors that we've seen the most significant issues: suddenly having partners and children at home all day, some having to home-school, some being ill, and plenty of increased distractions.”

“We're able to work from home and although it's harder to communicate, we're doing it and things are going well.”, says Bailey, adding: “We've not let anybody go or furloughed anybody, even where there are roles which are less busy than they would be if we were together in the offices.”

“All of our challenges have been technological, providing all of the system access and software to our team remotely and securely.”, says Beardsmore, “Projects have not been affected negatively yet, though there are some inevitable communication-related delays.”

In the current situation, it’s more important than ever for games industry bosses to act as strong leaders for their developers and, who knows, perhaps once the world returns to somewhere near normal, the difficult decisions game industry bosses have had to make will change how they’re viewed going forwards.