Tiberium Secrets postmortem news

By Eric Chou GeneralJist

9/11/23

Preface:

This is from my perspective and may be biased in any number of ways. We had originally planned on doing this at the end of 2021 as core leadership, but due to a variety of factors, it didn't happen. Prime among this, the exodus, which I will cover here, I will try not to do a "history" of our organization, as that is already public on our website. I will aim to focus on the lessons and challenges we faced as a development team. I may refer to our history from time to time to keep things chronological and grounded, so I'd recommend reading that before you read this.

As of this date, two of the key core leadership personnel are no longer in contact, Fandore (creative art director) and Jfod, (narrative director), they both left with their respective projects and departments in December of 2021. They had been with us since 2011 and 2015, respectively.

So, without further ado, The Tiberium Secrets postmortem...

Tiberium Secrets was started by Umbrella Secrets in September 2009, and he was the only member until May 2011. During this time, he took on the entire project, scoping and planning out the entire mod by himself. He originally planned for the ASA - All seeing Army. This was meant to be a faction based on the Illuminati.

Fandore joined specifically for 2 reasons. First, he wanted to divert this direction, as it was dangerous to highlight these themes. Second, he saw this project as one of the few being different from the other mods. For reference, this was May 2011.

Preproduction is traditionally meant to be the most creative part of development. This was not the case for us, as Umbrella Secrets kept tight control of the scope plans and direction of the project. In retrospect, this is something that was a double-edged sword. On one end, design was clear and focused, on the other end, we were very insular. Striking that balance between new concepts and continuing the existing direction would be something I would also struggle with as the project unfolded.

In retrospect, we should have been doing continuous recruitment, allowing people to get in on the ground floors. This did not happen, and as a result of our siloed nature, we would have issues in recruitment. Despite these issues, recruitment had been consistently successful in terms of quality and caliber of applicants.

One of our keys to success and being able to attract and retain talent was our structure. This is critical if you want to make anything for any extended length of time. By structure, I don't just mean the structure and documentation of your project, but the structure and documentation of your organization. I call these documents and people “load-bearing”: just as a building has load bearing walls and pillars, your project and organization will need load bearing people and documents.

From my experience to have a successful and stable game dev team, you need solid leadership in art, administration, and code. A key person underpinning and responsible for each, not just in the management of the department, but in ownership of the tasks and execution. When I say "administration" I mean the business functions: from marketing, to general business, to public relations, to human resources, to management. Yes, a tall order. There is a reason why finding suitable management is always a challenge, no matter your industry. Art and code departments should be self-explanatory; however there is another key insight that should help you. Managers and leads are subtle but different. Managers are administrators, while leads are the best performers you can find. Be it through training, education or self-taught. The best performers may not make good managers. And in fact, are often terrible managers.

Building an effective strategy for all of this is challenging, but I fundamentally believe that your passion will carry you through.

Another lesson I learned is to let passion flow, even if it conflicts with your procedures. You may have a specific way of doing things, I definitely did. From the structure I built, I developed a standardized procedure of recruitment and onboarding for Tiberium Secrets. it went like this:

1. Post a standardized job Ad for each position, by consulting with the respective department lead.
2. Post ads in all relevant online places I have access to
3. Wait for applicants to trickle in
4. Make sure applicants provide their time zone, resume, education/experience, and portfolio.
5. Schedule an audio interview with the applicants we wanted.
6. Extend the contract document to those applicants that we wanted
7. Make sure contract was signed correctly
8. Give the new member access to our central document repository, hosted on Google Drive
9. Give them 1 full week of "orientation time", in which they are not expected to do anything besides getting familiar with our files, project and progress
10. File and document all of this in our Human Resources folder

And this is just our HR process.

I know many of you are not like myself; you're more programmers or artists. but having a person like me take over and lead production, HR, and PR can take a lot of stress off of you, leaving you free to focus on the project itself. I like to tell my department leads, you worry about the product, I worry about the organization.

Many of our community were disappointed and frustrated by our scope cutting, and how we had promised 3 factions, yet only delivered one, which is understandable from a public relations perspective. From a design perspective, most of y’all have no idea just how long and hard it took just to execute one new faction. These expectations and scope creep is a direct result of what I call "the pessimism of experience". We were all new to modding and game dev. Thus we overestimated our abilities, and underestimated how long and how hard implementation would take. People who are experienced know how hard it is, they know the road they took to get them to where they are today, so they are more cautious with their time. And are better in communicating scope creep concerns. However, this naivete allowed us to shoot for the stars.

As you can probably tell, we did things a bit differently than the other mods in our space, beyond that, we looked towards the future of the Command and Conquer franchise, which is exactly the opposite of what most of the other C&C mods were doing. I've harped before on the place of nostalgia in our community, so I'll leave it at that on this point. Nevertheless, this is one of the things that made us stand out. For most of our existence, we were ignored by the conventional C&C modding community. I would surmise that this is because of our very direction and focus. The original purpose of Tiberium secrets was to add new factions, and we did our best to do that.

The other thing we brought to the table, that is usually overlooked in modding, is lore. We introduced oodles of lore; this feature was something that has been well documented as something that both attracted people as well as set us apart. There is a reason why story is king in most creative genres. In games, Code is usually king, but nevertheless, I'd recommend you keep lore in mind, no matter your development stage. Something that C&C did well is that it understood the relationship between story and gameplay. Most games prioritize one over the other. Having them work hand in hand is critical if you want to recreate the balance and success we've tasted.

I could go on and on about the success we've had, and the people this project has allowed us to network with, but that is all well documented, and isn't likely as interesting or helpful to you, the mod maker or indie developer, but I'll just say this, you know how they say, it's not what you know but who you know? well it's both, it's about what you tell who you know. It's about building a community, building relationships. At the end of the day, it's all about what you can build, and who will go on that journey with you. At the end of the day, you know how they say it’s about the journey not the destination? Well development is about the experiences you have not just the end product you make. If I could go back in time, and tell myself just how hard, crazy, cool, and rewarding Tiberium Secrets development would have been, I would not believe myself. I would not believe all the things that have happened, the good and the bad, the frustration and the joy.

Another thing that I should touch on is, why mod? This is ModDB of course, but many people choose to go the indie route, bypassing and looking down on mod makers. Well, modding will allow you to create around established limitations. This is a critical problem solving and critical thinking skill that will serve you well in life, if learned, and applied the right way, and of course, we mod for the passion, for the honor of our beloved franchises, but what does that really mean? what does it break down to in a job interview, or in terms your friends outside of this field can understand? It's about inspiration, inspiration so powerful it facilitates and encourages new adaptations–new and old growth–of a game franchise.

I know full well that Tiberium Secrets has left its mark, not just on me and the people who were here, but on the industry. I see it every day in the new waves of RTS games that are returning in this renaissance. I hear people talk about it, and see discussions online. So, as we end this chapter in the history of Honor Games, know and understand what I call, "the paradox of creation": Creation doesn't happen in a vacuum, doesn't happen out of nothing, it happens as a reaction to inspiration, it happens as a channeling of our emotions of our life's purposes. It happens to solve a personal problem we have. The cycles of creation continue far beyond the boundaries of our lives. So, if you are starting or continuing a journey of creation, know that you have my support, and know that no matter what you create, or how you choose to do so, it will leave a mark on your life, and everyone your creation touches. So, knowing that, be responsible for what you bring into this world. Because if you don't, it may be tainted by negative passion, and once that happens, it usually stays in that energy form.

I could go on and on about how Tiberium Secrets has changed my life. (And yes, I've even written a book on this very topic.) Yet it's more critical for me to try and pass on the legacy that the Tiberium Secrets core leadership team has started. So, if you are a leader anywhere, keep in mind that what you should be focusing on in this industry, in this day and age, is not control of your people, but how to be a responsible leader. This weighs on me every day, every damn day, how to do the responsible thing for my people, for my community, and for my world. I know we are making games here, but what you are really doing, at all levels of creativity, is you are making culture. This is not just the export of the Western movie industry; it’s what games are to us, and to our successive generations.

So, as I promised to answer, what happened to Honor Games? Why did two of our best people leave? They were people I used to call Friends, and if you know me, that means something. Sigh, well, they were uncomfortable with my mental health diagnosis, they found it too risky, and the fallout of each episode was too high a cost.

And yet, more and more research has linked mental health with creativity. We didn't just lose the movers and shakers of Tiberium Secrets, but of Honor Games as well. And if Umbrella Secrets is out there, I hope your life and health stabilize, I know the sacrifices you made to get us this far, I paid that price too. But in our sacrifices, we forge new connections, new ideas, new seeds, so the future can play out as it needs to. In making the circuses of our modern age, we know where we've been.

As I end this document, I urge you all to take stock of what you have, be grateful, and work to build the life you want for yourself.

We will try an indie version Tiberium Secrets in the future, what I call Equation of Humanity. But if you've made anything, you will know that there is magic in the act of creation.

Thank you all for continuing this journey with us. We would not be who we are, without all of you out there. And to those struggling in silence, to those who develop alone, I tell you, I am here for you, and if you want to talk about the cost of progress, I know full well–let me know.

And now,

"Faith before fortune “~Nod