Hi Guys, just wanted to share a Q & A I did recently with Gizmodo about developing games as a husband and wife team: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/01/the-couple-that-codes-together-stays-together/ Might be an interesting read for some of you, I know there are a few of us "couple" developers out there
Oh to be so lucky to have a partner who codes (or designs) Good work! Just like the couple who made Incredipede - http://northwaygames.com/
I also participate to the lundum dare with my girl friends This was our first game jam for both of us. http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-25/?action=preview&uid=19352
Hey guys, sounds like you have a similar story to us. I had to chuckle when I read your comment about someone being in charge... That wouldn't fly at our house/office!
Imangi studios (Harbor Master, Temple Run) are also husband and wife. I have read their story in book called Appilionaires.
Glad to Know... I knew that I couldn't be one of the only ones - half of a dev team that's also a couple. I used to work at a company that had two couples, both working on the same game. One of them was an artist/video couple, the other was designer/designer. They seemed to handle it really well, but then again, I wasn't at their home to see if they argued. Have you guys found it to be a benefit or an obstacle? Have you found that work leaks into your personal life and vice-versa? Thanks for sharing the Gizmodo interview!
I always suspected there was quite a few of us out there We haven't really had any major issues (knock on wood) in regards to it effecting our personal life, we've always been pretty good at separating work from personal stuff, and also my partner splits her time between Games for Gummie and another small business so it's not always 100% game dev all the time. raekess , ColeyWoley, Hercule, Would be keen to hear how all you other couple dev teams out there are doing Maybe we should start some sort of Facebook group or something...
We've worked together from home, and in a big (400+) company as well. We've done the same job on different teams, and Starky was kinda my boss for a long time. Now we have ownership of different areas, but that really doesn't stop us arguing it out if we think the other one is doing something wrong. Or could be doing something better... One of the biggest fights we've had in our 20 year marriage was about lightmap settings! We try really hard to have some time in the day where we are only working, and don't talk about home/family etc, and some time in the day where we aren't allowed to talk about work. I'm really not ready to talk about character controllers until I've had at least one cup of tea I do find pretty hard to keep work and home life separate, and I know Starky does too, because he keeps harping on about physic based rigid body solutions first thing in the morning... So yeah, a facebook sounds like a good idea to me
We are currently planning on establishing a game company with my wife. I'm currently unemployed and working on my first personal game project here at our home office. My wife is on parental leave taking care of our two daughters. We are writing our business plan and doing the calculations etc. The aim is that the company would be up and running in March/April. I would work there full-time and my wife would help as much as possible. Then when kids are a bit older, my wife would start working full-time as well. We are both gamedev beginners so there will be some interesting times ahead...
My girlfriend and I have developed two games, and while there have been arguments over the game, it has been successful overall and we both enjoy it as a hobby. One of the balancing acts that we have found is to have predefined times when we don't work on the game. For us, that is weekends. On weekdays we really get deep into the game, but on the weekends we try not to work or talk about the game at all. Of course, that changes with crunch periods but hopefully we've scheduled things well enough in that the crunch time does not last too long.
We haven't had any issues either. Granted, it helps that we both have our areas of expertise and tend to be pretty reasonable. There's a lot of trust that goes into it as well. I trust him to do his best at his parts and when he's helping me with my parts, and vice versa. I've also found that listening to what he's trying to say rather than what I'm hearing (does that make any sense at all?) plays a huge part in keeping things on an even keel. We also make sure that we express our appreciation for each other and the work the other has done often. Heck, I'm going to have to blog about this. And I think a Facebook group is fantastic. I'll look into it if ya'll are really interested? I still have some work to do on Squink's FB timeline, but I'll definitely look into it this week. Yay! I'm excited!