While the following doesn't relate to game mechanics, it does relate to Dynamight Studios as a company. I've seen a problem repeated time and again when a start-up is successful and becomes a larger.
When a company is a start-up the people leading the company are also managing it. And as managers they need to make decisions that affect the company direction - they make many decisions every day, the decisions are small (relatively speaking) and don't really have that dire consequences (again, relatively). What's needed during this start-up phase is drive, vision, passion, excitement and technical capability - all traits of a good leader. This is where Dynamight is now and all of us who have pledged have believed, and are trusting Dynamight to produce.
But a leader can't produce a good product. All those above traits are not traits of a good manager. Managers need to be careful, precise, risk adverse, studious. Unfortunately these traits don't get people interested in a product.
Take a look at two very successful start-ups - SpaceX and Tesla. Elon Musk is a brilliant leader, but he is a crap manager. In SpaceX he passed the management to Gwen Shotwell. Here you have a fantastic leader, a fantastic manager and a company that is doing brilliantly. With Tesla, Elon has maintained a hold over the management - because of ego, I think - and the company is in the press for all the wrong reasons.
Where's this discourse going? I hope Dynamight and Fractured are wildly successful and if that happens the company will grow and will need to evolve. I hope when that happens that the start-up team are able to truely look at themselves and, if needed, say, "I'm a leader, not a manager, and there's no shame in that." And ensure that the right people are in the right positions.
