Which job titles get bundled together in an Indie Studio?

Put your answers to the exercise in here.

Ill throw my 5 cents:

Developer + PM
Artist + PM (rarely, but I have met it in one studio)
Developer + Tech
Developer + Tester
Admin + Community Manager
Tester + Community Manager
Game Designer + Level Designer
Artist + Level Designer
2D Artist + UI Artist/Designer
3D Artist + 2D Artist

Additionally, in a Scrum team:
Project Owner + (Senior) Game Designer
Scrum Master + PM

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Nice work.

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Here’s my proposed structure for a very small studio. Note that many people on the team will need to be responsible for multiple areas of development and due to the team’s size the studio may need to rely on external assets and tools from the asset store:

Artist
Responsible for all art assets. Should also be competent with animation and designing UI elements.

UX Designer
Responsible for designing UI and in-game menu systems, level design and understanding the overall flow through the game. Needs to be a reasonable artist and programmer.

Sound Engineer
Responsible for all the audio in the game. Should be capable of designing SFX and musical scores.

Programmer
Responsible for gameplay programming, AI, tools etc. Should have a stong knowledge of game design theory.

Marketing Manager
Responsible for promoting the game and liaising with press and managing social media accounts.

I see this as the absolute bare-minimum that you could get away with, and still be productive.
Game design should be split between everyone in the team and should be a fairly collaborative effort.

UX design could be split between the team, but there’s a lot to be said for having a well functioning UI in a game and should be handled by someone who knows what they’re doing. I’ve grouped level design into this role as well, since it will make that team member more useful throughout the lifetime of the project.

Marketing takes up a massive amount of time, so having a dedicated person on that front would be a big plus.

I don’t think a team of 5 would be unreasonable for a small studio that is just starting out. I’d say one of these people would have to be crowned “producer” and look after the overall game design and production schedule otherwise things may quickly get off track.

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