When I first joined my former company, everything started out on such a promising note. We had sufficient funding, a good team of developers and a viable plan to get our first game out. We were planning to make a casual game with a 2 year production schedule- which at the time certainly seems a viable target. Most importantly we did not start out with a plan that was too ambitious to begin with.

There are no easy answers as to why the team failed and I certainly don’t have the full picture. There are probably things happening behind the scenes up with the higher management which I don’t have a clue about. The only answers I can give is the view from the ground and hopefully a precautionary tale to help other development teams avoid the same fate.

In hindsight, I guess the biggest mistake was putting the wrong people in key positions on the development team. To this day I could never get over the irony of putting applicants through a stringent selection process for junior positions while at the same time appointing inexperienced personnel to positions of responsibility and authority in a seemingly haphazard manner. It was not for nothing the development team wasted countless man hours on making and remaking the game and remaking the game some more just for good measure.

It was pretty clear to the senior developers early on that the game we were making was facing some very serious issues which needed to be resolved. After months of having their complaints fall on deaf ears, some of the senior guys got tired of it, decided enough was enough and tendered their resignation.

From there onwards, it was downhill all the way.

We weren’t a big company by any measure. Total staff strength probably ranged in the mid thirties with the bulk of it comprising of developers (artists and programmers). At one stage, we were averaging about one resignation a month.

It normal for any company to have people come and go, but to have that high of a turnover rate for a company our size, there was definitely some issues going on. Unfortunately the upper management didn’t seem to notice or care that there was a lot of senior people leaving one after the other. I guess they figured those guys could always be replaced.

In singapore, this is not an uncommon attitude. But what most people never realizes is that everytime you have a staff leave the team, there are many hidden costs incurred. E.g.- whenever someone decides to leave, you almost always lose at least 1-2 months worth of productive time out of them. You can especially write-off the month where they are serving out their notice period.

So the new replacement comes in and once again you have to spend anywhere upwards of a month to get this guy up to speed. On top of that you’ll probably need a few more months to build up the rapport and teamwork. So conservatively speaking, up to four months worth of productive employee time could be lost just out of one guy leaving not to mention the damaging effect on team morale.

And this is if the guy leaving hands over everything nicely before leaving. Just imagine people on the team leaving almost on a monthly basis.

Anyway by the time the closed beta of the game was almost out, it was clear to everyone, there was serious gameplay issues. Bluntly speaking, it simply was not fun to play. We even compiled a list of suggestions on ways to improve gameplay which unfortunately was once again swept under the carpet. At that point I came to the same conclusion as all the staff who had left- the company was going nowhere. Management was simply not interested in resolving deep seated issues afflicting the company. The fact that nothing had been done to find out why so many people are leaving was proof enough. Completely disregarding the lack of gameplay on the game we were making was just the final nail in the coffin.

This here is probably one of the most pertinent article I’ve come across dealing with the issue of staff resignation. An article which I am pretty sure management is totally ignorant of.

Finally, less than 6 months after I left, news came that entire development staff was let go. Stay tuned for part 3 as I draw parallels between my former company and the government of Singapore.