A producer’s role can be seen as the glue that holds the other games development disciplines together. Among the tasks performed by a games Producer are tracking the current state of the games development, making sure the teams schedule of tasks is kept up to date, and liasing with the games publisher. A good producer will always have an idea of how complete the game currently is, and should therefore ensure that forward progress is always being made.
The most important skills for a Producer are proven project management skills, but this does not necessarily mean management of a video game project. If you have been responsible for keeping track of tasks and ensuring that members of staff are kept productive then this is arguably more important than an encyclopedic knowledge of games, though obviously knowledge of how games are put together will be an advantage.
Here’s a breakdown of the kind of skills you should consider acquiring if you want to be a Producer.
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Project Management : Being able to demonstrate skills in putting together a project plan, estimating time schedules and tracking the current status of tasks is most important, but hard to show in a CV if you don’t already do a similar job. Having some kind of recognised qualification in project management is probably the best solution to this, as is the ability to use schedule creation software packages such as Microsoft Project.
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Ability to Communicate Concisely : A producer may often have to relate progress information from the development team to company management or a publishing partner. Since the latter group of people might not necessarily understand the more technical aspects of game development such as programming, it is the Producer’s job to translate the information provided by the developer into a concise status report for this audience.
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Chairing Meetings : Games development usually entails many meetings to discuss solving development problems, current project progress and the like. It is often down to the Producer to chair these meetings, making sure the discussion sticks to an agenda of topics and doesn’t meander off on a tangent. They are also usually responsible for typing up the minutes of these meetings and distributing them to the team for review.
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Mediation : On occasion a Producer may find themselves in a position where they have become a mediator, having to resolve issues between two parties with a clear head and objectivity. This could be between team members, or to calm relations between the developer and publisher. These cases of disagreement should be rare occurrences though, especially if the Producer is doing their job properly in the first place.
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