Interview Aaron Dordi

I had the chance to interview with the Project Lead for Siege of Inaolia, talking about game design as a whole and what his experiences have been, this is what he had to say:

First off could you explain a bit about yourself and your work? (Name, a bit of background info, Position, Title of the game, and what the game is)

My name is Aaron Dordi, I am situated in Dubai and currently studying for my degree in Interactive Animation in SAE Institute. The majority of my spare time is spent as a Project Lead/Manager and Prop Modeler dedicated to my brainchild, Siege of Inaolia, which I hope one day will evolve into the game that redefines the way Survival Games are played with its unique blend of action, co-op, survival and character progression mechanics.

As a project manager what is your job as a whole?

My job encompasses a wide variety of tasks which include prioritizing and distributing tasks, offering solutions to problems any team member may face, recruiting new members, deciding which features and fixes go into each release, article writing and community building on IndieDB.com, ensuring smooth communication and efficient workflow with each member.

What is the hardest thing that you have overcome as a project Manager?

Due to the fact that my entire development team is international the biggest hurdles (because being the project manager there isn't just a singular 'hardest' hurdle) that I've actually overcome is finding team members that are as dedicated and passionate about creating games as I am that are willing to actually put aside their spare time in an effort to create a very ambitious game. Another problem is actually enforcing deadlines as personal life can get in the way and that of course takes priority and I can never forget the most annoying problem of them all, that problem being the actual organization of monthly team meetings, as you can imagine the different time zones do cause quite a problem there.

What is the best experience you have had making your way to where you are now?

The best experience is probably playing every incarnation of the game, there's nothing better for a gloomy day than an iteration of a video game that you've put your heart and soul placed into your hands a close second would probably be the random fan praising the game or even the length personal message from time to time  for an indie team it really means a lot not only to me but the entire team as at the end of the day the game is created mainly by the amazing talent I've somehow managed to convince to get on board, I just tie them together.

If you could give advice to new students who are pursuing a career in game design what would it be?

Try something different, if you notice that a particular genre has dried up start thinking of what could reinvigorate that particular variety of game, start small with your ideas but then slowly evolve the idea and stick with it, remove the clutter and crappy ideas till you've come up with a near perfect concept and then stick with it, development is more of a marathon than a sprint.
Oh and Coffee, lots of it.