Creo que la respuesta es más que clara. La pizza gratis sirvió como método para hacer girar el hamster desde tiempos inmemoriales y es uno de los métodos más utilizados por representantes de recursos humanos que pretenden mantener la motivación y la moral alta. Por favor, evitar látigos y otro tipo de motivadores mecánicos, quedaron en desuso en la construcción de las grandes catedrales en el 1400...

The team would have bite-sized goals set for them. Each would be smaller than expected (to inspire ease of accomplishment) that would be aimed for to inspire clear evidence of growth. They would be larger than day-to-day goals, but smaller than weekly goals. Upon completion, recognition (to highlight personal and group efforts within the team) would be offered.

Keeping the team motivated under time constraints requires a balance of support, recognition, and focus. First, acknowledge their hard work and the challenges they’re facing—people feel valued when their efforts are seen. Then, set clear priorities, ensuring they work on what truly matters instead of spreading themselves too thin. Break tasks into smaller wins to keep momentum and celebrate progress, even small ones. Encourage open communication, offer flexibility where possible, and remind them of the bigger picture—the impact of their work. Lastly, keep morale high with positivity and appreciation. A motivated team delivers its best work, even under pressure.

When time is tight, keeping morale high is crucial. Here’s how to keep your team energized during game optimization: Set Realistic Goals: Break complex tasks into smaller, achievable milestones to maintain focus and clarity. Celebrate Small Wins: Every bug fixed or frame rate improved is a victory—acknowledge and celebrate it! Open Communication: Create a space where team members feel comfortable sharing concerns and ideas.

Establish realistic and measurable milestones that can be accomplished within shorter timeframes. During periods of high stress and high demand, maintaining clear and open communication is essential to promptly and effectively address any challenges or concerns.

I focus on setting realistic, achievable goals by breaking tasks into smaller milestones, making progress feel tangible. I celebrate small wins, like completing a challenging feature or fixing a critical bug, to boost morale and maintain momentum. Encouraging open dialogue is key—I create a safe space for the team to voice concerns, share ideas, and collaborate on solutions. For example, during a crunch period, I organized daily check-ins to track progress, address roadblocks, and celebrate achievements, which kept the team engaged and motivated despite the pressure.

Keep the workload realistic with the time constraints present, without sacrificing too much from the quality of the end product. Consider all the options. Team morale can be preserved as long as they still have sights on the end vision of the game. Driving away too far from the vision the team has decided on wholeheartedly may drive away motivation to keep up with quality.

When making games, there are always more optimizations that can be done. Best ways to motivate employees is to treat them right and respect them. This means a salary to compensate them appropriately and respecting their time. If a time crunch is coming there are only two healthy solutions to actually motivate your team. Push back the deadline because people are more important than profit OR have a pre-existing agreement with your team, driven by the team, around what crunch time means and how they are compensated. Trying to force people to work in an unhealthy habit based on poor planning or time management is a failure of management to do their job, it shouldn't fall on the team to fix it.

To keep the team motivated during time constraints, focus on clear communication, celebrating small milestones, offering support, maintaining a positive attitude, and reminding them of the game's potential impact once optimized.

Everything mentioned here is good, but I'd also add two things: - Ownership: if you trust your dev, show it to them by letting them decide their approach. Set the goal (if it's not already set by a third party) but don't dictate the details. Let them come up with their own plan, and then validate together. - Balance: nothing is more demoralizing than being under pressure while the others are wasting their time. Conversely, seeing the whole crew banding together is great. So encouraging on-site work, team lunches, war rooms, and the likes is good practice. While avoiding overtime as much as possible. All in all: respect and valorisation. Oh and .. shield them from distractions like middle-management and politics.