Your Studio in 3 Numbers (Be Brutally Honest)

Hey All!

Imagine this:

You’re leading a team of devs. Maybe there’s 5 of you. Maybe there’s 200.

Everyone’s busy. Jira is full. Slack is on fire.

But if you’re honest… the game isn’t really moving.

I’ve seen this pattern over and over in game studios.

From the outside everything looks funded, staffed, and “productive.”

On the inside, leaders are stuck in planning, teams are shipping assets into a void, and morale is quietly tanking.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

It’s not because your team isn’t working hard.

It’s because you, as a leader, are fighting the wrong problems.

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The 3 numbers that quietly predict success

Grab a notepad and rate your studio on three things, 1 to 5:

1. Vision

2. Scale

3. Workload

How to rate yourself:

1️⃣ Vision (1-5)

Ask: “Do we really share the same game in our heads?”

1: If you ask 5 people “what game are we making?” you get 5 totally different answers.

5: People across disciplines can describe the same core experience, who it’s for, and why players will love it.

If your team doesn't share a north star, any “velocity” you see is fake. You’re just scattering effort.

—

2️⃣ Scale (1-5)

Ask: “Have we earned the right to be this big yet?”

1: Tech foundations and tools are not working well AND/OR we aren’t able to align a team this size to the same vision AND/OR the game experience doesn’t match our stated phase of development (the game wins here AND/OR the systems and processes we use are not supporting the scale of the team

5: Tech, tools, alignment, actual game experience, and work systems are solid enough that adding people actually speeds you up instead of bogging you down.

Headcount doesn’t fix broken foundations. It amplifies them.

If your systems are weak, every hire multiplies confusion.

—

3️⃣ Workload (1-5)

Ask: “Could we keep working like this for a year?”

1: Nights, weekends, crunch “just through this milestone” forever. People are exhausted, but it seems necessary and anyway, how would we manage without it?

5: Sustainable pace. People know when to stop. You could run this way long-term without burning anyone out.

The trap with overwork is that it feels necessary and heroic…

…but after a few weeks, the data is clear: you’re actually going slower than if you never crunched.

—

What your lowest number is trying to tell you

Look at your three scores for Vision, Scale, and Workload.

Circle the lowest one.

That’s what you need to start addressing right now.

These problems don’t go away or solve themselves as you keep going. 

They get worse.

- If Vision is lowest, no amount of sprint planning, reports, or extra people will save you. You need painful alignment conversations, not more tasks.

- If Scale is lowest, you’ve probably hired past your foundations. You don’t need “more bodies,” you need a small strike team to fix core tools, the game itself, or processes.

- If Workload is lowest, your team is paying with their health and focus. You’ll ship more by slowing down, prioritizing brutally, and actually cutting scope.

Those three numbers will tell you way more about your future ship date than any burndown chart.

—

If this hit a little too close to home, you’re exactly who I recorded this week’s episode for.

On our recent episode, I break down:

- The 3 leadership mistakes quietly crippling game studios

- How to tell if “fake progress” is happening on your team

- What to do if you’ve already over-hired

- Why crunch almost always makes you slower (with data, not vibes)

- How to actually use this Vision/Scale/Workload check

Listen to: “3 Leadership Mistakes Quietly Crippling Your Game Studio”

https://urlgeni.us/youtube/fyZC4l

Respectfully,

Ben C.

P.S.
If you want to solve problems like vision, scale, and workload as well as many others, I’ve recently created a Game Dev Leadership Accelerator. It’s for leaders who feel stuck, unable to have the positive impact they desire. But that impact is possible, and you can be the one to bring it to your team and game.

If that’s of interest, sign up here and we’ll reach out to see if the Accelerator is a fit: https://forms.gle/nqRTUvgFrtdYuCbr6