- Mobile Game Design Essentials
- Dr. Claudio Scolastici David Nolte
- 1586字
- 2021-07-23 14:16:07
The game producer
The producer is responsible for keeping the project on time, in budget, and top quality. The term producer was introduced by Trip Hawkins to Electronic Arts in the 1980s. His vision was to bring some of the qualities of music and video producers to the video game industry. Today, a producer manages schedules, costs, and resources, keeping the team on track. The producer will take the design document and build a timetable with milestones, as well as a list of assets needed to complete the game. He is also responsible for getting what the team needs in a timely manner.
Typically, the producer is the liaison between the team and any corporate entities, such as a publisher, marketer, and financier. This may involve negotiating contracts, licensing, and the like. The producer coordinates the actions of the dev team to hit milestones, he checks the quality of work, and manages the testing team. He will oversee any localization that is needed.
Even if no third-party publisher is involved in a project (as it usually is for a mobile indie team) the producer covers a vital role for the success of the game.
Indie development is subjected to the most unexpected events: other paid jobs could take time away from game development, money could be scarce until the game is shipped, the game could fail for some reason and not provide income, team members could become undisciplined if they are not hired with a contract, difficulties could arise when working remotely if an office for all team members to work together is not available, and so on. If the producer can deal with such issues, only then can an indie team can reach its goal of making games for a living. The producer should be prepared to live in crisis management mode: he is the chief fire fighter and train's the engineer, keeps the project on track by fighting fires as they arise and preventing them as much as possible.
Keeping things organized
A good spread sheet or database program will help with this task. Microsoft Excel and Filemaker both can serve in this purpose. Another option is to use a project planning program, such as Microsoft Project. If you are working remotely, with team members in different locations, be sure to pick a software package that allows you to publish to the web.
Filemaker also provides web hosting with their server software. Both Filemaker and Project will require you to set up your own host server. There are pre-configured hosting servers, such as FMGateway.com, that provide complete hosting services for a monthly fee.
Another inexpensive solution is to use a spread sheet in MS Skydrive (formerly Windows Live) or Google Docs. They are free, but lack the robustness of dedicated project management software packages.
Key questions of a producer
The producer must keep three questions clear in his or her mind to fulfill his/her duties:
- What are we building? It is important to have an exact answer to this question throughout the development process. The team should have access to up to date documentation at all times.
- Who is building it? The quality of the product is directly related to the skills and talents of the team building it. Be honest and objective when evaluating the team's skill sets. Although, traditionally the producer does not hire and fire team members, it is the producer's responsibility to keep upper management informed of any personnel change recommendations.
- How will we build it? Software development, including games, has proven procedures: we suggest you do some research on the most popular techniques and talk to your team. They may have used one or two in the past and may have suggestions.
As we will see in the next section, the producer needs several distinctive skills to accomplish those duties!
Skills for all!
The skills required by the producer to accomplish his/her duties are as follows:
- Cat Herding: The producer's key skill is that of cat herder or human relations management. A development team is made up of a wide variety of personalities that think about solutions to problems in a very different way: a programmer may have a different approach to an artist. The producer's primary goal is to keep this group of individuals functioning as a team. A good catchphrase is "commitment over ego". The producer can't let personal pride cloud their judgment or let a dispute with a team mate derail the project.
- Scheduling: The producer writes and maintains the project schedule, so it is very important he/she understands how successors work: task A is dependent on task B which is dependent on task C. He/she must be able to arrange a correct and effective working pipeline.
- Budgeting: Along with making a schedule, the producer will write up a budget. This is especially important when using outside parties or independent contractors to supply assets, such as graphics and sound. It will fall on the producer's shoulders to negotiate bids with these suppliers. The producer must monitor costs to make sure the project stays in budget. A typical problem is that a team requests numerous changes to an asset, such as the graphic of a character. Sometimes, it is the producer's job to say "it's good enough".
- Production Management: After the schedule and budget are set, the producer makes sure milestones are hit, and that the game's quality is as high as the schedule and budget allow. A useful tool for this is regular team meetings, where completed work can be reviewed by the team and milestones set for the next meeting.
A word of warning on team meeting: have an agenda written up ahead of time and circulate this to the team prior to the meeting. This will help keep the meeting on track and as brief as possible. Remember, while in a meeting, little or no actual work is getting done.
- Arbitrate: As with any group effort, there will be disputes within the team. The producer needs to be on top of any possible conflict and should find a resolution as quickly as possible. Remember that you have a team of brilliant people who may not have the best social skills. Be kind, but firm in your decisions. The success of the project rests with your management skills.
- Negotiating: The producer is responsible for any contract negotiations with publishers, marketers, financiers, and the like. Learn how to read a contract; lack of this skill alone can turn a great project into failure. When in doubt, do research! Talk to a lawyer if you can afford one. An entire book could be written on this subject: look online for sample contracts. If you don't understand something in the document, ask.
- Quality Assurance expert: The producer will be responsible for finding competent testers, as well as scheduling the testing around project milestones. The producer is responsible for getting the testing results to the correct people so that any necessary fixes can be implemented.
All the tasks the game producer accounts for, is shown in the following figure:
Who is the producer?
You may have deduced that there is a lot to learn on the job. Luckily, other professionals have figured this out and education in this role is available through institutions of higher learning. Many colleges and universities offer certification in Software Production Management as well as Computer Science.
Business administration is an obvious choice, but also training in game design and development, production and more specialized courses in animation, music, or scriptwriting can help to gain a foothold in the industry.
It is definitely worth considering spending the time and money on nailing down the basic skills before joining the school of hard knocks. It will save you money and can pay for itself during your first project from the mistakes you've avoided.
As a producer, be prepared for a high level of stress, lack of sleep, and possible burnout. You are everything to the team and they will look to you for solutions, resolutions, and endless snacks and drinks. Along the high demands come great rewards; however, the satisfaction of a successful product is priceless.
So keep smiling, get as much sleep as you can along with some exercise and a healthy diet. Take up a sport, learn to meditate, find some old comedies on the tube. Find healthy ways to relax and stay balanced.
There is a prime example of this from a project one of the authors worked on, a few years ago. He took the position of producer with a couple of fellows who had financing, but little game production experience. He arranged for a seasoned team with many games under their belts to handle all aspects of the project.
Unfortunately, the partners decided that they would save some money by handling some of the asset production themselves. They tackled a challenging area: motion capture, and character rigging. After they delivered the goods, the programmer determined that formats were wrong for a mobile app; the game choked on all the data in the files. Fixing the files raised the cost over what the developer was going to charge; a classic example of false economy. Eventually, the game did go to market and it was fun, but it was late and over budget. This could have been avoided by checking with the developer on what their requirements were, instead assuming that the bosses knew best.
More on the role and tasks of a game producer can be found at the following link: