Act Now, Apologize Later

Recently, we have been getting closer to finishing a project and I have been noticing more and more that the Rockstars on the team are those that do what they want regardless of what their peers aka coworkers think. For instance, if you are constantly given tasks that feel under-rated and lower-profile then there is a likeliness that you will continue to be given those types of tasks unless you take initiative.

The best method of doing this is finding an area of the game that you feel you can specifically, significantly improve that is a major aspect of the game and also requires the type of skill that a more senior developer would have. You know yourself that you can handle this type of work but maybe you do not have much of it in your portfolio. This would be Zbrush/sculpting work for artists and more high-level scripting for level designers. These are usually seen as the "cool," "portfolio," and more respected jobs.Point out this to your lead or senior developer that you work with, and tell them that you would like to take on that task. They may be a little hesitant at first, but from this point on you should constantly have confidence and reassure them that it's going to get done and be good work. Take your time and make sure you do actually do a good job, and expect some naysayers /hating from other developers if they haven't been issued those types of tasks themselves.

This can be a risky maneuver, because if you under-perform then you will build an instant reputation of not being the most skilled and wasting production time. This is especially true if it is later on in the project, which is when most new developers like yourself will be being brought onto a project. So, make sure that it is something you can handle, first. It is like in the movie Three Ninjas, where the sensei says: "Never fight unless you know you can win." If you find yourself in over your head, do not give up but go home and cram the necessary information to be able to get you by, by searching online forums and tutorials. But, if you are able to achieve success then your reputation will be boosted and there is likelihood that you will be trusted with more high profile tasks in the future. It is a snowball effect.

Many studios will be testing you the moment you join a team, progressively giving you more advanced tasks and "capping" you at a level that they find that you are comfortable with. But, to be honest many studios are bringing in a slew of devs at the end of the project to get all of the tedious work finished and save the more juicy stuff for the senior and more established developers at the studio. So, if you want to break out of the grind you're going to have to try and pull off a tactic like this.

This method is known as "Act now, apologize later." If you know what you're doing is right and can get something accomplished, others may not be able to see the end result and may not have faith in you, so they will give you resistance at first and may even be annoyed with your aggressive and quick-moving style. But, if you prove them wrong and get the job done and do it well, you can "apologize" and at that point they will not care that you stepped outside of your bounds because they love your result so much. If you mess up then you will still be apologizing, but the apology will probably not be accepted.

-Ken