Behind the scenes: How teamwork and strategy have sustained Clockmaker for over a decade

Anna Bobrikova is Project Manager at Belka Games.

The Clockmaker project is currently among the top-15 grossing match-3 games in the US, according to Sensor Tower.

It was first launched more than 10 years ago as a browser game for social networks, but today it's a cross-platform product with an audience of millions and a distributed team. Its unique setting, unusual meta, and well-designed match-3 levels have won the hearts of players all over the world. 

The past decade has seen the project experience various stages - revenue fluctuations, process optimisation, team expansion, and multiple releases. Nowadays, Clockmaker is Belka Games' flagship project.

Have we reflected on how exactly we've managed to preserve and develop such a multifaceted project? Naturally. Spoiler alert: everything comes down to the team. 

Team structure

These days, project management is based on a matrix system comprising eight mini-teams. In charge are the executive producer and project manager, who are supported by functional leads and team leads.

The entire project is made up of eight mini-teams. I'll go into a little more detail about how they're structured and their areas of responsibility. 

● The four feature teams. These groups work on a turnkey basis, answering for the full development cycle - from the concept, all the way through to release and A/B tests in production. At the head of each team is a team lead and a game designer/feature owner, who coordinate the developers, testers, artists, and other specialists. 

● The match-3 team. This group designs levels, develops new mechanics and balances, and tests the difficulty curve. Frankly, the match-3 team has such a vast array of tasks that I could devote an entire article to them alone. 

● The two operations teams. One works on offers and live ops that don't require a constant flow of new content. The other, meanwhile, creates live ops, which calls for the regular addition of new stories and graphics, such as collections, temporary towns, and mergers. 

● The technical team. While not as obvious to players, their work is crucial. After all, they ensure version stability, SDK integration, access to new platforms, and technical support for the project - these guys have a lot on their plates! 

For each team - art, programmers, testers, animators, etc., the project has a dedicated functional lead. They're tasked with team members' development and improving the quality of their work. They lend their expertise to the key stages of work and systematise approaches across the whole project. 

Why so many teams? 

It's simple: this setup allows for speedy iteration and overlapping development. While one mini team is still busy writing and breaking down the ToR, another is already merging a feature into the main branch. This lets us launch monthly updates with new mechanics and improvements. 

How do you strike a balance between deadlines and quality?

The Clockmaker team balances speed and quality in development. Features are launched quickly, but only after hypothesis testing. If the viability of a hypothesis is confirmed, tweaks and improvements are planned separately. 

Essentially, the constant balancing act between speed and quality is the secret to the success of fast yet effective development. 

So, how do we keep things balanced? We manage this thanks to a set of rules that we do our best to follow: 

1. Start planning even when you only have the name of a new feature. As soon as it appears on the road map, the team lead starts planning and evaluating its scale and risks.

An experienced team lead can envision the scale of a feature right away, as well as whether the producer's and project manager's expectations for the required version are realistic.

The sooner it becomes clear that additional time or professionals are needed or that a feature cut is required, the more likely the feature will be launched when we want it. 

2. Predict potential difficulties. Our development process has several stages for synchronising all team members about what they'll implement (and how), what difficulties might arise, and how to overcome them.

The more questions are asked and negative scenarios are foreseen, the more time will be saved in the future. The best solution to any problem is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. 

3. Assemble the first development build as soon as possible. This allows you to quickly gauge the viability of a working hypothesis. This sometimes translates into lengthy polishing - and sometimes even into the decision to scrap the feature in question. 

4. Filter the feedback. The process of reviewing development builds is designed to collect as much feedback as possible from plenty of people. This is necessary to ensure you don't miss glaring issues and can solve them before release.

Moreover, it's a big task for the feature owner and mini-team lead to pin down and take into account what really matters in terms of the feature's performance while isolating what exactly will increase the time and risks of a late release.

5. Be a team player. While it's true that our mini-teams operate as separate structures with their own plans and tasks, together, we form a team working on one large project with a unified goal. At times, it's worth stepping in to help a mini team if they really need assistance and are busy with something of a higher priority than your own task. 

6. Don't face problems alone. If a team lead has exhausted all the ways to optimize development but the Gantt chart still isn't in line with the deadline, then it's time for them to seek help from the PM and other team leads. 

7. Be result-oriented. The result trumps the process. A flexible approach helps find solutions. Where appropriate, we may even contradict our own methods if doing so allows us to achieve the required result. 

8. Stay focused on milestones. The whole team should know when we're putting together the dev build, when the release candidate needs to be ready, and the planned release date.

Knowing this information makes it easier to gauge which task should take the highest priority at any given moment. Aside from this, every member of the team knows that it's possible and necessary to ask their team lead about priorities if they have any doubts. 

9. Meet your deadlines. Meeting deadlines is critical to minimise cascading delays. Therefore, we attach great importance to the absence of so-called "red" deadlines for tasks. Team members should inform managers if they're not keeping up with a task and how far the deadline may be shifted.

This is because delaying one development phase means stealing time from the next one down the line. This chain reaction steadily pushes back the timeline for a given feature's development.

We do, of course, weigh up the risks when planning tasks to make small timing shifts permissible. Nonetheless, the more closely we stick to our deadlines, the more accurately we can predict the final result. 

10. Never give up. Even when it seems like the situation is out of control (or soon will be), don't give up! Instead, seek solutions and set up a team to do just that. 

A team's culture is the cornerstone of its success

I've already touched upon how we work with the team in the points above. However, this topic deserves a spotlight. 

How do we focus the team, build trusting relationships, and increase engagement? A lot has already been said and written about this. Instead of rehashing everything that others have already said, I'll just go over what I consider particularly important. 

Putting a team together 

What matters to us at this stage is selecting and finding the best of the best in order to keep the bar high and raise it even higher. Think of a soccer club which tries to assemble as many star players as possible so that they each strengthen one another and move the club forward to new victories. 

Naturally, the skill sets of team members can vary depending on experience and grade, and there are tasks of varying complexity. We evaluate candidates' work based on their current situation and give them the opportunity to develop further and increase their expertise.

We mix tasks, use a simple and transparent grading system, and enable horizontal rotations and vertical growth within the project. 

Feedback 

An important condition for any kind of progress is the constant exchange of feedback and dialogue with management. Regular one-to-one meetings, monthly performance statistics, biannual performance reviews, and a culture of open dialogue all play a key role.

Everybody should know where they stand on their path of development and what is expected of them. This also works in the opposite direction - the team are free to voice their feedback on their managers' work and processes. This dialogue fosters a culture of healthy and effective cooperation. 

Cooperation and support

For us, "team culture" is much more than just a buzzword. It covers crucial things such as mutual respect and joint decision-making. 

In practice, this means there are people responsible for decision-making at different points and stages of development. All of these people are open to discussion, and any team member can express their opinion or draw attention to any problem they see. This way, everybody feels their involvement, and we have the opportunity to consider more nuances and make the right decisions.

This approach allows us to increase the success rate of the features we release, reach the targets that we outline, and avoid critical issues with players misunderstanding features at launch. 

Result 

Joint efforts create an atmosphere in which everyone is focused on achieving common goals. Our team loves their project and strives to develop it while maintaining a high level of engagement. 

To summarise, I'd like to go back to my statement that everything truly comes down to the team:

• A well-formed team. 
• A result-oriented team. 
• A team provided with good management and clear processes. 
• A team who are constantly growing and developing. 
• A team who love their project and play games themselves. 

We believe that with these approaches, our "ship" can expect a lengthy voyage with plenty more releases and cool features ahead.