November 09, 2006
Eastern Europe cost advantage shrinking?
I've talked to more than one developer who had most or all of their staff, particularly programmers, in Eastern Europe. According to Anton Bolshakov of Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, however, the cost advantage is gone. India and China continue to attract attention as sources of lower-cost development.
-Michael
Posted by MichaelHeller at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)
October 26, 2006
Final Fantasy XII producer speaks
GameSpot has published an interview with the producer for Final Fantasy XII, Akitoshi Kawazu. FF XII seems to be building a good buzz ahead of its release in the US.
He became producer in mid-stream when the previous producer had health problems. He discusses this unusual challenge, as well as moving from a director to producer role and getting the team through the grueling middle phase of development.
-Michael
Posted by MichaelHeller at 03:48 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2006
Project management in games
This is a subject near and dear to me, as project management has been a focus of my career.
Gamasutra recently posted a summary of a relevant talk by LucasArts' Chris Williams at the London Game Career Fair that just completed.
One passage of interest:
"(Williams) says that crunching for more than two weeks out of an eight-week period is a failure on the part of the project manager. 'If we’re smart about our development tactics, then we can deliver the game on time,' he says. 'It shouldn’t be typical that you’re working 60 or 70 hours per week on a regular basis,' he says, recommending that developers who are in that situation ought to look for another job."
Fortunately, none of us have worked anywhere where that happened...
Extended crunch is fundamentally an issue of scope, schedule and resources. Peel the onion on those, and you surface factors such as feature creep, productivity, and estimating skill. Project managers need to track vs. the plan and identify issues and potential solutions.
The ability of project managers to control the situation, however, varies with their role. Some have the authority to determine the "development tactics" and make decisions on things like scope and personnel, while others must rely on their communication and influencing skills.
Ultimately, successful project management depends on the project manager's ability to effect change, either directly or through receptive line and executive management.
-Michael
Posted by MichaelHeller at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
Chairperson Update: October 06
I've been talking with Scott Russo of the Producer's Guild and he wanted me to put the word out that the Producer's Guild has a new media division that provides support and resources to producers of interactive content (which includes serious games, educational games, and entertainment). I am sending the application and member benefits to the mailing list and will also be posting this on the website. Please contact me directly if you have questions about this.
Also, I have compiled a list of production blogs that you might find interesting, if you have any others to add please let me know:
Clinton Keith, High Moon Studios
Noel Llopis, High Moon Studios
Juuso Hietalahti, Polycount Productions
Stuart Roch, Treyarch
Clay Dreslough, Sports Mogul
Hope everyone is having a good year, I see lots of interesting discussions happening on the mailing lists. Don't forget the forums are also a good resource for you to utilize. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to email me at heather at mediasunshine dot com.
Posted by HeatherChandler at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2006
Communication Tips for Game Producers
When I started in the industry, there was little information available on game development and less on game production. I didn’t know what was expected of me because I hadn’t come up through Q/A or had the benefit of working under an experienced producer. There I was, getting my first break in the industry as my company’s sole producer and I had no idea what to do. So I did what anyone else in this position would do – I panicked.
Then I went looking for information on how to be a game producer.
I found myself asking, “What does it take to be a good producer?” Should I have more technical skills? What about team building or scheduling? Given the lack of best practices and industry-wide processes (with the exception of a few GDC whitepapers), I relied on other industries for information. I read books on project management, software development, construction, film production, and sports management. I read anything I could get my hands on.
What I found between them all was one common theme – communication. If you’re going to work with people to accomplish any type of task, you need to be able to communicate with them. It doesn’t matter if it’s verbal, written, hand signals, or even telepathic. As producers it is our number one priority to communicate with our team and stakeholders. You need to be able to get information into the hands of others. This is the way that you as a producer will properly set expectations for your project.
Bill Petro understands this need and has recently written an article for Gamasutra entitled “Communication Tips for Game Producers” You can read the full article at the following link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060905/petro_01.shtml
-Craig
Posted by CraigDerrick at 03:05 PM | Comments (1)
August 29, 2006
Intro and Outsourcing
Hello. I'm Michael Heller, and I will be contributing to this Production SIG blog along with Craig Derrick and Heather.
Most recently, I was the project manager on Eragon at Stormfront Studios. Prior to that, I spent many years managing technology projects and products at companies including Apple, HP, GM Hughes and Charles Schwab. I studied electrical engineering and computers, but my interests include everything that's necessary to get a product out the door and make it successful.
As for gaming, my passion began with oldies like Trek-80 on the Sol computer and the Fairchild Channel F console. I wrote several games for the Apple II. Today, I am an avid console and PC gamer, and I struggle every day to find time to play some of the best from multiple genres.
For this first post, I'm highlighting some recent content about outsourcing. The use of outsourcing in game development seems to be growing, driven by a desire to lower costs ("your mileage may vary", as they say) and the sheer volume of assets now used in many games.
From a production standpoint, this shifts some of the challenge of managing internal resources and/or a primary developer to managing multiple company-to-company relationships, often across thousands of miles and many time zones.
GDC recently had their Game Outsourcing Summit. Although I didn't see any silver bullets, those in production might at least benefit from reviewing some of the checklists in the slides. Gamasutra also had write-ups of the presentations by Rajesh Rao (Dhurva Interactive) and Shiraz Akmal (THQ).
Comments are welcome: war stories, lessons learned, etc.
-Michael
Posted by MichaelHeller at 05:06 AM | Comments (1)
August 21, 2006
So You Want To Be A Producer
Hello everyone. My name is Craig Derrick and I'm one of the bloggers for this site. Similar to Heather, I've been working in game production for over ten years and have had the opportunity to produce many games with a variety of different publishers (some still around, some not) and developers (most still around, a few not) over the years.
More recently, I've been involved in the development community by participating in the AIAS & IGDA, sitting on the advisory board for Full Sail and the Albany, NY IGDA chapter, speaking at GDC, and helping out wherever I can. If you want to know more go ahead and Google me. You'll find all the other sites where I talk more about myself. :-)
But not here. Here I get to talk about game production. Or at least what I think I know of it. I'm going to use this space to put up articles that I find of interest (and that I hope you will too!) rant a little, answer some of your questions, and maybe, just maybe, provide enough information to make your job just a little easier.
So, let's start at the very beginning. What does a game producer exactly do? If you're already a game producer you've no doubt answered that question before, but recently Gamasutra posted an article by Marc Mencher entitled "So You Want To Be A Producer" that briefly summarizes it.
This article is obviously intended for those looking to become a game producer, but it's also a nice summary of all the things that are generally expected in the role. It's good to have articles like this to reference so I can actually see if I'm doing the same job everyone else is doing.
You see, I've answered this question plenty of times myself, but only recently have I boiled it down to this one line:
"A producer's job is to set and meet expectations."
To me, that sums it all up. You set expectations with your publisher, your developer, and yourself. If you can't meet these expectations then essentially you're failing at your job. How you go about setting and meeting expectations falls upon your style and authority, but never forget that you're the person that everyone looks to understand what's best for the project.
Interestingly enough, I had this conversation with an industry friend the other day and he boiled down what a game producer does to one word: auditor. In his mind that's all we do. We examine, verify, and correct issues.
What are your thoughts? Is there a way to sum up what we do?
-Craig
Posted by CraigDerrick at 01:50 AM | Comments (2)