So, You Want To Be a Video Game Producer?

When I first started thinking about making a career out of working in games, I thought I needed extensive technical skills and at least a handful of programming languages in my pocket to be able to break it into the industry. I spent a lot of time in the library reading about software development and learning and trying things out whenever I had time to spare outside of school.

However, when I landed my first gaming-related internship, I realized that extensive technical skills are not by any means a must for working in video games (unless you want to be in a technical role, of course). “No problem” I thought, I will become an artist or a designer! Both disciplines that are very centric in making games but do not necessarily require as deep of a technical knowledge of programming. I was excited, this seemed like a great path forward for me. That was, until I realized both disciplines required creative talent, which I felt I was lacking just as much as any technical skills.

So, there I was thinking “How can I make games with no technical skillset or creative talent?”

Then I learned about the producer role. “A leadership role that focuses on keeping things running smoothly” with no unique skill requirements aside from being able to understand a little bit of this and a little bit of that and keeping things on track. “THIS IS ME”, I thought. The one without special talent or skills! The one who’s job it is to ensure the other talented people around me would have the best setup to do so!

And so, I set out to become a video game producer.

Now, after working as a producer for many years, I have to go back to that producer role description. I realize how narrow my perspective of game development roles was back then, and I am glad I’ve had a 180 degree shift on my view on these things as I’ve gotten more seasoned with game production and development.

Because of this personal learning curve, I figured I’d share some of my current takeaways about what the producer role is all about. This can hopefully help someone else who’s currently pondering pursuing a video game producer career.

What the role actually is and entails

Video game producers are project leaders.

I read this analogy a long time ago, so I do not want to take credit for it, but I thought it did a great job in elaborating on the above:

“Think of video game production and development as a giant ship, in which all the different disciplines, such as art, design, and programming/engineering work to make sure the ship moves ahead, stays afloat, and the engines keep running. Well, the producer is the captain of the ship – the one who lets the crew of the ship know where the ship is intended to go, in what schedule, and what is needed in order to get there. The captain also ensures the ship stays on course and course-corrects whenever needed to make sure that the ship eventually reaches the harbor as planned.”  

While game development has actually very little to do with ships, I personally think the description is pretty fitting. Video game producers are project leaders, meaning their responsibilities consist both of operative oversight and management of the project, as well as often of managing the team itself – if not directly, then at least from the standpoint of setting the project direction and making sure the team knows what needs to be done and when.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the producer is making all these decisions and making plans alone. Producers often work hand-in-hand with other disciplines to get expert input on timelines, feasibility evaluations, and creative ideas. This is vital, as all of these need to guide the decision making the producer does for the entire team. Producers also work often with the organization’s leadership - meaning the folks who mandate and sometimes finance the games - to make sure that group has visibility and say in things, even if they are not involved in the day-to-day of the project.

Career path & title development

It’s very important to understand, that as the gaming industry is still relatively young, there is a lot of discrepancies between titles and actual responsibilities in different companies and even different studios within the same company. So, there is no universal guideline for title development across the gaming industry. It is very likely that a title in one company might mean something different in another one, and also the same title might have a different influence/authority level between different companies.

That being said, based on what I’ve seen during the past years in different companies, here’s a relatively common title path for a producer – starting from entry level, and progressing up to the bit before exiting the operational side completely for organizational leadership roles or similar.

1. Project Assistant (or Production Assistant)
2. Project Coordinator (or Production Coordinator)
3. Project Manager (or Production Manager)
4. Associate Producer
5. Producer
6. Senior Producer/Lead Producer
7. Executive Producer/Production Director
8. VP of Production

Key skills to master

I will be writing up a more detailed follow-up article on this topic to elaborate on the below, but here's my top 5 for key skills to master as a video game producer (in no particular order):

• Project management methods and tools
• Communication & people skills
• Problem solving skills
• Lightweight technical skills
• Gaming interest

How to become one

This is also something I will write about in detail in future articles in this series.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in working in games in general, have a look at my earlier article “How to Land a Job in the Video Game Industry”.

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If you’re still reading, congrats. This was a longer one but I hope it was insightful and worth the time. I would like to invite my producer colleagues to chime in with any additional thoughts in the comment section as I do acknowledge that there’s big differences in the producer role between different disciplines, companies, and studios.

Also, a special shoutout to my dear friend and amazingly talented colleague Kelsey Mabbott for helping putting this article together. You're a true gem!