We believe our best work is going to be the product of many varied and unique voices. We want to design and develop games that are greater than the sum of their developers. This means we need to have a culture of collaboration, open candor about progress and results, as well as productive conflict resolution when differences inevitably arise. This means we want to lower barriers between disciplines and encourage crossing those boundaries. This also means we need a culture of transparency so that everyone working together has reasonable opportunity to contribute to ideas and make their decisions with full context.

Many of us are interested in multiple facets of the game development process. One of the primary values we can offer people here is to encourage them to explore these facets with the help of peers who are experts in those areas. Working here should be an opportunity to be inspired and informed by those peers, broaden a skillset of interest, and to see that work reflected in a shipped product. For many, it is also inspiring to teach others and to build team strength by lifting up team members. In the long run this focus on sharing knowledge will make all of us better and more well-rounded game developers.

At the most fundamental level this means absorbing accountability for the quality and craftsmanship of the work being done. This can manifest as taking initiative to get an important effort started, or really buckling down to fix a lingering issue, or proposing cuts for the sake of project scope. We believe that accountability includes keeping development sustainable, and that no one is asked to burn themselves out for the sake of the project. True encouragement of accountability is also encouragement of leadership. We believe this accountability fosters a deeper sense of empowerment and accomplishment in our people and is the way to work effectively in an environment of rapid creation and perpetual challenges.

Ultimately, we are making games for our players. While it is important to reflect those games off our own desires and interests, in the end the thing that matters is how we make our players feel. Our hopes and desires might serve as the initial starting point, but it is player experience that acts as our compass. This means we need to empathize with their perspective, respect their emotions, respect their time, and respect their interest in us and what we do. We might set off on a path thinking we are making a certain experience, but player feedback will give us clarity and resolve toward the final goal. In the end the feedback we receive from our audience will be the true measure of our success.