Agenda
"Follow Me" vs "Go Forward": Field Notes on Leading Game Teams
Grzegorz Wątroba (CEO / Tech Director, Soft Crunch Games)
Pass Type:
Academic Pass, Festival Pass, Game Changer Pass, Indie Pass, Start-Up Pass -
Get your pass now!
Track:
Production & Team Leadership
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Speaker shares an example-driven leadership toolset for leads, producers, and studio heads managing the uniquely diverse teams of game development, drawing on sixteen years and more than twenty shipped projects. He argues that leadership is service rather than authority, and shows how a servant-leadership posture raises both performance and happiness. He covers the essential qualities of an effective leader, how to introduce change by starting with why and moving gradually, and why team building is an infinite game with no finish line. He introduces antifragility (building teams that grow stronger from challenges through blameless retrospectives, knowledge overlap, and a barbell strategy) and completion urgency, where "almost done is not done." Throughout, he draws on real situations from his own career as both leader and team member, offering practical techniques attendees can apply immediately.
Takeaway
Attendees leave with concrete techniques to lead diverse development teams: applying servant leadership, introducing change by starting with why, running blameless retrospectives that build antifragility, and driving completion urgency through the pile-of-sand strategy, each illustrated with real situations from sixteen years across twenty-plus shipped projects.
Intended Audience
This session targets current and aspiring team leads, producers, technical directors, and studio founders across all disciplines of game development. No prerequisite knowledge is required. Attendees with direct leadership experience will find the frameworks most immediately actionable, while newer leads gain a practical foundation for building high-performing teams.