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“I can't imagine managing a team-based project without the kind of online collaboration tools PBworks provides.”

Alex Seropian, Founder & CEO

 

Alex Seropian is a legend in the game development world. After founding two famous game studios (Bungie Software, creator of Halo, sold to Microsoft; Wideload Games, creator of Stubbs the Zombie, sold to Disney) he’s now on his third studio, Industrial Toys, which is focusing on designing mobile games for core gamers. A long-time user of PBworks at Wideload Games, Alex brought PBworks in to Industrial Toys before he hired his first employee. Here’s how Alex believes PBworks plays an essential role in collaborative game development:

 

1. What business needs were you trying to solve when you brought in PBworks?

Game development is sometimes complicated. Especially when you are trying to do new stuff. We mix both software development with creative development. And all within the context of turning both of those streams into a game that users will hopefully engage with for a long time. We do this with a team that includes 15 full time staff in Pasadena along with over 50 contractors all over the world. Communication and organization are critical to keeping everyone focused on the right goals - both short and long term. PBworks allows us to create a centralized and real-time 'bible' of our project with transparency for all contributors and stakeholders. It makes an online context for everyone so we all speak the same language, know the big picture and are aligned towards the same goals.

 

2. How were you meeting those needs prior to bringing in PBworks?

Prior to PBworks we would manage individual documents and schedules using a variety of disparate software programs and distributing them via email, ftp and on local servers.

 

3. What other solutions did you consider?

There are other wiki products we looked at.

 

4. What were your reasons for choosing PBworks over the other solutions considered?

PBworks has a great UI, is actively supported and has an API that allows us to integrate even further.

 

5. How did you roll out PBworks to your team?

At Industrial Toys we started using PBworks before we even hired our first employee so it has been a consistent part of our onboarding and process since the beginning.

 

6. How did the PBworks team help you configure PBworks to meet your team's specific needs?

We started with an older version of PBworks. The PBworks team helped us bring all our online content over to the new system

 

7. How has PBworks changed the way your team works?

PBworks has changed our game design process - allowing us to be way more collaborative. It used to be cumbersome for designers, artists and engineers to share their work in progress broadly. But with PBworks wide communication and transparency is automatic. It helps foster more talking, more collaboration and more ideas. It's good for creativity.

 

8. How do you feel about PBworks after rolling it out to your organization?

Great - I can't imagine managing a team-based project without the kind of online collaboration tools that PBworks provides.