Rock Bands and Judo

We are a rock band. I use this comparison a lot when talking about the Pod & Rodney team. We get along really well, we joke around and have fun and know when to be serious about a particular subject. We all work hard and have fun while doing what we love. None of us are here for a free ride and we all know that an indie game is a lot of work and time dedication, otherwise the project will simply never come to fruition.

One of our biggest inspirations for team building and responsibility management is Valve Software. They have no hierarchy of management, no job titles, and everyone has a hand in every aspect of their game's development. We pride ourselves in contributing to this tradition with our humble indie game's team philosophy.

Another strong inspiration to our development lately is a book by 37signals called 'Rework'. This book is fantastic for anyone interested in starting their own business, especially in software development of any kind. One of the chapters talks about 'Judo Solutions'. Judo Solutions are elegant and simple solutions to complex problems. If we run into something that is slowing down our progress substantially, we consider whether it's worth keeping and then if it's a necessity, we consider the simplest and fastest solution to fix it. This by no means suggests that we are making a less than high quality product, but it does get things done and allows us to properly prioritize our time.

With these changes in our approach we have progressed more in a matter of weeks than we have in that past few months. This is our first game and we have spent a lot of time learning from our mistakes and building a style, much like a rock band.