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Vancouver-based developer founded in 2020

A change of pace

Our focus is on sustainability of development in an exceptionally volatile industry; 15 years of experience across various platforms, genres and team sizes have helped inform our process and strategy.

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Drastically extended planning, integrated creative structure and meaningful products impact not just game quality and financial renewability but developer engagement and well-being.

Mission

The goal of Fragless Designs is to create meaningful video game experiences via sustainable development practices. On the surface this sounds idyllic but behind the scenes a lot of work, process and experience have been put into planning a model we expect to succeed.

To be clear we define sustainability as follows:

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  1. Projects follow a consistent, specific structure from pre-production to post planned well out in advance.

  2. The work to be done on each project meets Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose standards for all team members.

  3. The products generate sufficient income to live comfortably for the whole team (industry standard wages or better).

The Problem

For a line of work as exciting, creative and flashy as game development appears to be on the surface, the numbers and anecdotes turned prevailing opinions speak to a contrasting reality.  For such a technically demanding field it's been a damning symptom of the industry for careers to average around 6 years. To be doing this for more than 10 years makes you the exception and over 20 a rarity; If you have worked in game development yourself we have no doubt that you have your own list of possible and likely causes that eject all but the most hardcore from this business.

Understanding the knot of problems in such a complex process like game creation is no small feat; Again, most don't stick around to understand what's going wrong, only that somehow game development is clearly not meeting their needs. Without getting into detail, the following problems are some of the more common issues we've looked to resolve in our development structure:

  1. Overtime - Working unplanned and extended hours in order to meet criteria.

  2. Job stability - Lofty goals, no safety net and little understanding of how games sell.

  3. Healthy collaboration - Constant conflict between disciplines and clashing goals.

  4. Purpose in product - While there are a few exceptions, most don't believe in or consume their own creations let alone see the impact of their work in a meaningful light.

Vision: A reward in itself

          Each carefully planned, wholly unique product vision entails a new set of distinct challenges; The stage is thoroughly set for team members to autonomously create and manage their own solutions.

 

          As the games themselves also seek to impart players with meaningful substance beyond a simple pastime, our overall objective is for the team to be motivated and rewarded intrinsically alongside financial comfort and renewability.

To learn more about our development model and its approach to sustainability, contact us to further discuss our philosophies and development model.

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