In this GDC 2018 talk, Supercell's (Clash of Clans) Ilkka Paananen dives into the management lessons he's learned as a company founder, sharing his experience of building an unconventional organizational structure for Supercell.
Paananen shares his observations after years of leading companies that were structured like most games companies.
Management owned the vision and had creative control, while he wanted to create a structure that would allow talented, creative developers to flourish instead.
He discusses how Supercell challenges tradition and give teams the independence and full autonomy to design games, lead projects and have the final say on whether the company launches or kills a game.
It's an informative talk that's definitely worth watching, so developers shouldn't miss the opportunity to do so now that it's freely available on the official GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.