Supergiant Games on the principles of development and caring for employees: "Our whole journey is a megamarathon"

For 10 years in the industry, Supergiant Games has become one of the most notable indie studios. Competent management helps the company to stay afloat and develop games like Bastion and Hades. Management does not force employees to overwork, but at the same time forces all team members to take regular vacations.Supergiant shared her principles in an interview with Kotaku, which was published last year.

However, in the wake of new interest in the studio and the upcoming The Game Awards, we remembered him and decided to highlight the main thing: the basic principles that the company adheres to when working on its games.

• Each employee is required to take at least 20 paid days off per year. This can be a full vacation or individual days in any of the months.Supergiant opposes sending work emails on Fridays after 5 p.m.
• It is still possible to share urgent news or tasks for the next week, but it is not recommended to involve colleagues in the workflow.Employees are allowed to work overtime only if they want to.
• At the same time, additional sprints should not have “wave effects” on the entire studio, forcing others to work beyond the norm.Employees can come to work at any convenient time and adjust their schedule so that they have time for family and friends.
• “Individual game development is a marathon, not a sprint.

At the same time, our whole journey is a megamarathon, in which the criterion of success for a particular game is our ability to live another day and make another game after that,” explains Supergiant screenwriter and designer Greg Kasavin.

All these principles, as well as the experience of developing previous games, helped Supergiant when working on Hades. The game was originally released in early access, and therefore the team had to constantly release updates.

As a result, Hades sold over 1 million copies, received critical and player acclaim, and was nominated in eight categories at The Game Awards.

Also on the topic:

• Hades sold 1 million copies, 30% of which were in the last four daysTransistor is out on iOS
• Indie developers vs. Valve: how independent studios met innovations on Steam
• Is there any news?