As a veteran dev, I often see that those newer to game dev and game jams overall have a tendency to insist on original assets in every area. In real terms, this is often a rare case to happen, especially during a game jam, as volunteer workers are unpredictable and sometimes unreliable, especially if both of you were strangers before inviting them to a team.
A common term we use for team members who go silent or MIA is “Ghost”. I had such a case happen in The Last Matches, a game I co-developed for the Winter VN Jam. A background artist who we scouted and seemed decent enough to work with suddenly left the server without an explanation. As someone used to being ghosted, I was disappointed to hear them tell me that leaving a team without notice was something they weren’t aware was inappropriate in “game dev etiquette", so to speak. Here are the two perspectives of me as a developer and as a volunteer artist.
As a developer, I’ll tell you this:
If you ghost a team, you’re putting me and everyone else in a difficult spot to find a replacement in time. We developers keep tabs on people who ghost—a network of indie devs who help each other and also warn each other about people who abandoned the project without a warning, which in turn can ruin your reputation by a lot and make it harder to be invited onto teams in the future.
This affects your monetary gain as well, since who can be sure you’ll stay once paid and not run away with the money?
Often, we just want to be informed of a leave, and if you’re willing to, know the reason for your leave. As an example, I try to adjust and make changes to the project’s management while also keeping you comfortable and your stress levels low. In the end, we put a certain trust in that you do your work.
If you are the one affected by ghosting —
first, calm down and look at your options. If you’re still early in the jam, you might manage to find a quick replacement. If not, opt for assets instead or reuse the given material the vanished team member left behind. Maybe also figure out what the issue with the previous member was that could possibly deter new applicants, such as an impossible workload or certain behaviour among the team and/or from yourself that might have made that person uncomfortable.
In my case, I attempted another search for a BG artist and made myself a backup plan to draw them together with my friend PumpkinSpike in the worst case. Thanks to previous connections, NiAsobu joined our team and filled the spot. Since we knew that she also worked on another project, we adjusted the necessary BGs accordingly by reusing the same room layout and flipping it, redecorating it a bit, and only keeping key elements we wanted to see in a certain background.
Addendum
Having connections is very important in the game development space, as seen from my example. I’m not a social person and most of the time introverted, but I realize the importance of friends and friends WITH connections in specific creative areas help to fill in tight spots. That’s why creating connections before a game jam can be vital to a finished project; you get to know how well you can work together with someone. Even with friends, though, you can start to clash with them and in high-stress phases of a jam project, become estranged from one another. Use any meet and greets to your advantage and join developer servers before a jam begins. Often those communities will be able to help you through road bumps in developments, as we are no strangers to that sort of predicament.
As an artist and volunteer, my advice is:
Never leave without a warning and be sure the workload expected from you is manageable. A newbie to visual novel dev tends to overestimate their ability to keep deadlines and production rates due to unforeseen events such as mental health or shortcomings in their private life. Don’t be afraid to tell the project leader and you should be fine. Most people should understand your situation, either from a personal standpoint or experience.
Is there a specific reason you left? A team member bothers you, maybe even the leader themselves? The workload started to stack up or suddenly switched over to something not described in the recruitment post?
A reason people can ghost is that they feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable facing the project leader with what they see as their shortcomings or to avoid conflict, which in turn creates a spiral of trouble later. If you have tensions with a team member, bring it up to the leader, and you might find out you’re not the only one bothered by them.
Feel uncomfortable with the leader? Attempt to relay your concerns and if the leader doesn’t change, don’t feel obliged to stay. Inform them about your leave—you don’t have to give a reason. Often due to miscommunications and misunderstandings, meaningless conflicts and tensions happen and can be resolved with most people by just talking.
It’s important to remain calm and not accuse each other, as that can only worsen relationships and destroy friendships. Of course, there is no excuse for people who are simply arrogant and abusive towards their team, and in these cases it’s better for your mental health to leave. You signed up for the work you were told and if something obstructs you from fulfilling it, inform the leader(s) and then leave.
A proper project director
has to be aware of human limitations and the health of their team and not push you to work harder and neglect yourself. Not doing this would be a big red flag for people to leave immediately.
Furthermore, all the people you hire are voluntary and can chose to leave once the project is finished unless you keep them closer with monetary incentives or you’re with a group of friends who wish to expand on the game later on. If a person leaves after they’ve finished their work, don’t expect more of them. They came for the work required and nothing more.
If you enforce too much on a single person, don’t be surprised if they stay quiet and vanish. You want 10 sprites with variations and 6 CGs in total from one person? Yeah, scratch that, don’t expect me to join your project no matter how much I like the premise of the story. Does someone think they are up for that task in one month? Maybe, but most likely a definitive no. A jam project can’t and won’t be your Magnum Opus, especially not when you join one for the first time. Many people use jam projects to gain experience and delve into game dev, meaning there is many fresh faces who are naive and think it’ll go swimmingly and easy.
If ghosts and conflicts happen a lot in your team, take the time to self-reflect and see where the issues lie.
Some examples I came across that can also happen to you:
- A team member is too sensitive about critique and goes quiet after that.
- A team member thinks of themselves as a new project leader and wants the story you want more to their liking, which differs from what you want.
- The work mentioned in the recruitment post GREATLY differed from what is given during the jam time or accumulates because the project leader’s scope grew bigger since
- A team member is uncooperative or doesn’t uphold the level of quality others in the team do.
- A team member is too nosy and criticizes the work or quality without the confirmation or consent of the other or chooses a poor choice of words that the recipient sees as an insult.
There are a lot of triggers where conflict and tension can happen, and it’s best to find them early before they can lead to major trouble later down the line; in our case, ghosting or broken friendships. It’s best to be transparent from the start and ensure the people you work with can handle critique and aren’t hostile towards each other when work begins.
When it comes down to it, you have to let go of people for your mental health and that of the team. It has come to cases before where people have been kicked out of teams for their behaviour and trying to besmirch the project leader and team. Often such cases are solved with ease because the team will know better if you mistreated someone based on how you treated them during the time and whether they were also affected by the person you kicked out. While occurrences like that are rare, ultimately they are not impossible. Again, in such times you should remain calm and dispel misunderstandings with clear explanations.
To wrap things up, please be considerate of your fellow teammates, whether you’re a part of a team or leading one. Conflicts and being ghosted are sadly common, but can be avoided in some cases. Please don’t ghost your fellow devs and always try to work things out when possible!