The more I interact with people online the more I see how crucial nowadays to have good writing skills. Even though we have fancy apps and video calls now, text still remains the main method of information sharing. The ability to write clearly and concisely is essential for success and efficiency. For everyone in general, for remote workers especially.
In a remote or hybrid work setting, where face-to-face communication is not always possible, the ability to convey ideas and information through writing becomes even more important. In a remote work setting, written communication is often the primary means of conveying information and ideas. If your writing is unclear or difficult to understand, it can lead to misunderstandings and delays in the development process.
Effective written communication is also essential for creating comprehensive documentation, including design documents, technical specifications, and project plans. Clear and concise writing ensures that everyone on the team understands the project goals and requirements.
And for some reason — a lot of game development teams ignore that. I often hear “We already have a game designer. Let him write all the documents. I’m a programmer/manager/artist, I don’t write. I write in Slack.” Nope. Not good.
I don’t believe only a game designer should write. Everyone should do their piece of work including correct descriptions in JIRA and pieces in documents because it’s just one of the ways to communicate with your team members.
During game development — team collaboration skills are most important than anything else. The clearer team member can share their thoughts the more creative things team can implement in their game. Or more iterations can be done during the same time period, which also makes the game better, the team happier, and the company richer.
The main reason why people resist new things it’s because they are… new. They have to do and learn something new, in a situation where everything is fine already. That’s common behavior for the vast majority of people and it’s OK. To get used to a new habit — it needs to be small (not scary), regular, and encouraged. Luckily, It’s not really hard to change existing processes and deeply involve everyone in development step by step. For smaller teams, it’s faster, for larger ones — it might take some time to train the whole hierarchy, but the result will be too noticeable.
Here are three tips I can recommend to use to increase your team writing skills:
1. Change the mindset to view writing as an important part of the job.
Yeah, it might sound like a piece of common internet-guru advice, but switching from “I’m a programmer, I code” to “I’m a programmer and I’m making a game. includes not only writing a code”. If you’re a lead or manager — please promote this to your colleagues if you’re a team. It’s teamwork.
In most cases, tasks done by someone in the team are passed to the next developer to do something else with this work, whether it’s art, code, or even production plans. So, work is not only to do tasks but also to take care of others and provide clear instructions for the next one in the line (and for you in the future as well).
“Guys cared for me and provided all the required information for my work so I also take care of them and will write some descriptions”.
Encourage → More practice → Better results.
2. Provide clear and understandable documents, tasks, and technical assignments for your team.
Here’s where game designers and managers initially must show examples of well-structured texts everyone should follow. It’s always easier to follow an example than do something from scratch.
More understandable → less scary → less resistance to do → more practice.
3. Ask for writing small texts from day one.
Often when I interview someone I ask for a short text about something to see the way how clearly candidate can express his or her thoughts. It also shows them that writing will be a part of their daily work.
Small texts are not scary → getting used to writing.
Step by step, more team members start to write for others as part of their daily work. As a result — developers will receive clear and understandable descriptions of things they need to work with. Managers will receive a clear understanding of what was done per each task. Game designers could focus more on actual design documents and leave technical and art parts for corresponding specialists and departments.