Why did I pick game production?
Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios
shakes dust
Welcome back! What was meant to be a short break while I had a busy week at work turned to be many busy weeks… which was later combined with the fact I was out sick. Thankfully, things have calmed down and I’m feeling better, which means it’s time to get back to writing.
The other day I was chatting with a student about my role as a game producer, and they asked me why I choose to be a producer and not another role.
It’s a good question! As the work of the producer can seem like something “invisible” in the final product compared to something more immediately obvious like art or audio, it’s natural for someone who’s new to game development to wonder about the appeal of the role.
While this will be just a blog about my personal story without much actionable advice, given the name of my blog it definitely feels appropriate to to take a moment to write about it. Why did I get into production, and what do I think is great about the role?
Did I always want to make games?
Before I talk about game production, it might make sense to go back a bit further and talk about game development. If you’ve wondered if I always knew I wanted to make games, the truth is, the answer is yes!
It’s common to hear people talk about how they did not realize that games was a viable career until later in their lives, but in my case, I always knew it was a viable career because my parents worked as programmers for educational games when I was kid.
Even though they eventually moved on to other non-game jobs, I still had the spark to learn programming and make games, especially as I fell in love with PS2 titles like Kingdom Hearts and Shadow of the Colossus that showed me what was possible in the medium.
While I enjoyed messing around with languages like Visual Basic and programs like Game Maker, I had subconsciously assumed that I’d have to wait until I was a “real” programmer working with a “real” team to make a “real” game. But, all this changed with the rise of indie games, free tools like Unity and documentaries like Indie Game: The Movie that opened my eyes to the possibility that I could make cool games, right now! And, all I needed was patience and determination.
I spent my high school and early college years mostly making games solo with the exception of the occasional game jam to mixed results — while there are people I’m friends with to this day, there were also some teams that I shudder to remember… During these years, I appreciated the freedom of solo dev but also became conscious of its limits, and had to cancel many projects that I realized that went way over what I could achieve by myself.
Leaning into production
Meanwhile, I was studying computer science in college. It was super satisfying to learn more about programming after being self-taught in high school, but as I finished the introductory courses and began taking project-focused classes, I began to realize how much I enjoyed (and was pretty good at!) being the guy responsible for setting up meetings, ensuring everyone had clearly assigned tasks and finally sending our deliverables on time.
I was also able to apply these skills as part of our college’s game development club. As a member I got to help out organizing activities such as talks, workshops and our local Global Game Jam site that hosted over 150 attendees at its peak. I eventually became the club president, with which I was able to propose new initiatives. One of the iniatives I’m most proud of was the “development team”, an activity were people with no previous experience formed teams and received the guidance they needed to release their first game over a semester.
As part of the club, I met the awesome people with whom I eventually started an indie studio called Smarto Club. As with any small studio, I had to wear many hats, but I always particularly cherished my producer hat. After years of solo dev, I was amazed at how much further a team could go by working together, and as a producer I realized I could enable the alignment and clarity between multiple people to make sure we successfully completed these projects. And with two commercial titles and many smaller ones released, I think I’ve done a good job of that!
What do I enjoy about production?
One of my favorite series is Shirobako, an anime about a studio that makes anime. It’s not the only anime that covers the topic, but what made it stand out to me is its great characterization of how many people it takes to make a single episode of animation, and the human element needed to make it all work — you can have the most talented people on the planet, but if the communication breaks down or there isn’t trust or clarity, you won’t make it to the finish line.
Unsurprisingly, another reason I love the series is that the main character is a young production assistant struggling to find her footing in the industry. The series has a lot of wise words that can relate to any creative industry, but in particular watching the main character’s journey in discovering why production is her passion is why it sticks with me all these years later.
Games are made by people, and the more time I’ve spent immersed in game development, the more I’ve realized that what I cherish the most is not the resulting game but instead the people who make the games. There is an enormous amount of complexity that goes into making a game, and I love learning about different disciplines so that I can become a bridge between them.
I see my role as producer as enabling these people to do their best work, and while there are still talented people making cool games, production is the place where I want to be.
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