Commitment

In videogame development, (almost) any element of the game needs to be created from scratch. Every pixel requires someone to draw it, any action performed by a character needs someone to animate it, any event needs to be coded, any sound effect must be composed, and the list is long. It is not by chance that the inclusion of digital contents in movies led to a large increase in cost.

Cohesion

Any activity that is shared among different people requires the group to hold together on the common goal, especially in a small group where each person is responsible for a key element of the project.

To develop a game requires weeks, or months, more reasonably. During this period, any sort of problem that arises can hinder the course of the project: the code doesn't work as expected, graphics mess up when imported in the engine, design questions with no clear answers, for example.

If all the team members don't support each other and cooperate in such tight spots, the project can easily turn into a failure, with the consequent loss of time, money, and more important, team morale. When things go bad, you simply need the right people around you, who can provide constructive criticism and help team mates to make the best use of their talents.

The first experience of one of the authors with an indie team risked to turn into a complete failure, with the consequent loss of time and money, when the professional we were supposed to work with decided to quit. When that happened, we all felt very bad and our morale was as low as it could be. If it wasn't for our friendship as a group, we couldn't have reached the goal to make that game anyway!

Software development methodologies

Videogames are software, of course, and software has proven processes and methodologies that increase the chance of reaching one's goal while minimizing waste.

There are several methodologies to develop a software, each one with its own pros and cons. Agile software development is a very popular software development methodology among today's game developers, based on an iterative and incremental approach, where teams periodically examine the short term progresses of their work and set new short term milestones according to their results. You can find resources on Agile development at http://agilemanifesto.org/.

Discipline

When developing a game, there is never enough time. The iterative nature of the creative process implies that it is very likely that the project's initial schedule suffers delays and missed milestones.

It is thus very important that each team member is well organized with his work and is able to advance his work day by day. This is especially important when dev teams work remotely, which is often the case with indie projects.

People who have freedom to work on their projects as they please tend to postpone work for other activities, with the consequence that project deadlines may be delayed leading into a disaster.

Be sure that the people in the team are reliable and will take their responsibilities seriously.

Professional training

Whenever possible, look for people who have degrees in their field. There are many skilled people who are self-taught, and experience is what counts more in the end. Still, a good formal training helps people learn fast and overcome their limits due to lack of experience.

A general rule is that, when building up the team, people covering the key roles should have previous experience working on a project in the same or a similar position. They should at least have already worked on a true project, working in a team. The reason for having experienced people in key roles is that they can provide reliable previsions when drafting the schedule of the project. They know what they can do and the time it takes to do it. Inexperienced people, on the other hand, could underestimate their assigned task, with the result that the project deadlines fail and a new schedule needs to be made.

It is also true, however, that once the key roles are assigned to experienced people, hiring talents, even with few or none experience, can provide an invaluable resource for the team on the long run.

Passion for games

Well, it is very easy to understand that to develop games for a living, it is important that those who are part of the team love videogames. We have spoken about the high level of commitment required to achieve important goals and the need to make a lot of personal sacrifices. Out of our personal experience, it is very likely that a brand new dev team interested in developing videogames will be asked to do other things in order to be able to develop games, such as working on web sites or other kinds of non-gaming apps to support their business.

If these people are passionate about developing games, it will be easier to commit themselves to things which they don't really like doing, having their main goal in mind. Otherwise, they could simply give up, for working takes away the most important resource from people: their time. Indie game development is an opportunity to turn a passion into a profession, but only if you can give the time it takes!