The ID@Xbox team gave our community the chance to ask questions that will help them and their teams develop and deliver great player experiences for everyone, and now we're sharing in the hopes it'll help you, too!

Topics range from being approved to publish on Xbox through post-launch best practices, from marketing & sales, to community management & engagement. The Q&A contains something of interest for games in every stage of development!

Made possible  by Juney Dijkstra MSc. - Producer, Game & Player Analyst, Game (Dev) Event Organiser. Thank you Juney.

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com
Discord (most active): https://discord.gg/NBamcKYsP6

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord!

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

The Game Production Discord hosted a panel on Scrum and agile practices in game development, featuring four panelists with varying backgrounds from in- and outside the industry!

Huge thanks to Maurice Kroes from Abstraction Games who housed a session with panellists Jeff Lindsey from Bossa Studios, Kimberly Rodatos from Digital Owl, Barry Anderson from Sainsbury's, Diversive and Selfull. They tackled topics like the backlog, user stories and estimations, discussing their practical implementations, limitations encountered and accompanying solutions.

Made possible  by Juney Dijkstra MSc. - Producer, Game & Player Analyst, Game (Dev) Event Organiser. Thank you Juney.

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com
Discord (most active): https://discord.gg/NBamcKYsP6

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord!

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

The last time we spoke with Callum Godfrey, we had a blast covering the intricacies of game production in an evolving world. This time around, he's joined by Anil Das-Gupta, a highly experienced product manager with an enviable mobile gaming background. These guys give us an incredible wealth of insights around the difference between production and product management, with a focus on understanding the latter.

Callum has worked as a Head of Production at Bossa Studios and done the rounds at EA, Wargaming, Microsoft, Playfish, Activision etc. Meanwhile, Anil has served his time at MindCandy, GREE, Capcom, NaturalMotion and Wargaming, before setting up his own studio, FirstLight Games:
https://firstlight.games/

If you come from a traditional game development background, this chat will be a game-changer. If you're a product manager and wishing there was more understanding and knowledge around the role, the chaps deliver and then some.

Topics covered include:
03:40 Setting the scene: the overlaps between production and product management
07:00 Business-driven product development - is it heartless compared to making games?
09:20 Prototyping and the power of fast feedback and iteration
Product Manager Deep-Dive
13:25 What is a product manager?
18:00 The natural conflict of who is really in charge
20:05 Inserting someone with no game experience into your team as a PM
24:30 The focus on making a scalable business
34:40 The Producer's role and how to work with a PM
36:30 Creative Direction and the Vision - who owns it when you have a PM?
42:00 Lowering risk and rapidly testing game 'improvements' is what PMs do
56:00 Evolving a PM from inside your team - can it work?
61:30 What do you lose if you remove the Producer from the mix?
67:40 Do Indies need a PM?
81:20 When bring in a PM to a PC/console game?
85:30 How to join a team as a PM and win their trust
92:00 How can you learn to be a PM?
Quick-fire round:
96:40 Can Publishers, Indies and a PM all get along?
100:50 Is a PM needed if you're just launching a game and publishing DLC?
102:20 Is a PM involved in the creation of a new game? How?
104:50 How does a PM and a Marketing Team work together?
106:00 Advice on bringing in a PM without alienating the team
107:50 Loot Boxes are evil - the Kinder Egg Controversy
Final Thoughts and farewells

Anil mentions that this is a good place for learning analytics and the like:
https://gopractice.io/

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

Part One of our Podcast Episode can be found here:
https://www.game-production.com/podcast/episode/49b730cf/25-game-production-interviews-renee-wooten-part-1-of-2-associate-producer-at-kingsisle

In Part Two we took a segment out of the chat and based an article around it:
https://www.game-production.com/post/making-space-for-everyone-in-games

It launches into the discussion quite suddenly! During this segment, we talk about:
00:00 Being a woman in the games industry
05:00 Resources out there to help with learning
06:40 Bias and advantage
10:20 Wanting to be understood is different from "wanting attention"
13:20 Safe spaces: what they are and how to create them
17:15 Spreading awareness and giving time to process
21:30 Leadership responsibilities
24:00 Intentions and shared experiences
28:30 Women in leadership
30:50 Unlearning
32:00 Be clumsy but learn
33:30 Final thoughts (for now)

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

JOIN US:
Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This episode, Renee Wooten was an exceptional guest. Renee has a keen interest in accessibility and inclusion, as well as solid experience with customer and community-facing roles. After gaining a Game Design Bsc from Full Sail University, she started her inevitable climb to production stardom with KingsIsle Entertainment, based in Austin, Texas. Renee has worked on the Live Service MMO Wizard101 for the last 3.5 years.

We split the episode: part 1 is production focused, whereas part 2 is focused on being a woman in the games industry. Renee has been kind enough to contribute an article on the subject which we will link to from Part 2!

Topics in Part One include:
00:00 Intros
03:10 What Renee brings to the job of game production
08:00 Empowerment and enrichment
11:50 Communication across teams and titles
15:00 Inclusion and accessibility
21:20 Was life as a producer as expected? (Spoiler: no)
24:55 Creative input and leadership
26:00 Taking advantage of the Game Design BSc
27:50 A Day in the Life
31:00 Listening to feedback from internal and external sources
35:00 Deep-dive into Wizard101 - Intro
37:00 Child Safety and Production concerns
41:20 Ever feel like a spare part?
43:20 Data-driven decision-making
47:10 Project management for features and content work
52:30 Hybrid methodologies
55:00 The voice of the game - who owns it?
59:20 How to face the noise near milestone deadline day
62:20 Retrospectives - do them
64:50 Advice on forming strong relationships with the team and leads
68:20 The hardest part of producing the game
69:25 2 headlines and leadership support
73:40 Mentorship
(We took out a bunch of talking at this point and that forms Part 2!)
75:15 Why be a producer?
83:20 What does the future hold?
85:05 How everything affects everything else when you are making a game!
88:20 Farewells

Renee mentioned a few things while chatting that you might like the links to.

Darksider Post-Mortem:
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/119736/Postmortem_Highlights_Behind_The_Scenes_of_Darksiders.php

Crucial Conversations:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-Conversations-Talking-Stakes-Second/dp/0071771328

I mentioned Blood, Sweat & Pixels:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sweat-Pixels-Triumphant-Turbulent/dp/0062651234

As well as the SpecialEffect charity:
https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a pl

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

I wanted to try something a bit different with this episode: this is the first of a short series of interviews with recruitment professionals in the games industry. Our goal is to find out what recruiters seek out in potential game producers from associate to EP and beyond, from product manager to project manager. We also want to know what’s changed during coronavirus and how they see recruitment changing moving forwards. 

Simon Hope from Aardvark Swift joins us in this episode. Aardvark is one of a handful of rock solid game recruitment companies in the UK and were the first that I know of to start a game-production-specific newsletter with jobs, advice and relevant news, along with a recent podcast. I was really pleased with the topics we managed to cover in this session, as well as the generous insights from Simon. Please enjoy.

You can visit Aardvark Swift here:
https://aswift.com/

Topics include:
00:00 Intro
08:10 Advice for people who are trying to become producers for the first time
10:40 Can an Associate Producer come straight out of University?
13:50 Advice for those stepping up to Producer
15:20 Role differences between pc/console & mobile
19:00 The most difficult production roles to place
21:20 The traits of a successful producer
24:50 Senior levels
28:00 Support for producers moving up
31:10 How the industry is shifting
34:00 The impact of covid-19 and remote working
38:00 Care & Health and a producer's responsibilities
43:00 Handling different needs and standardising time in/out
45:20 Why would anyone want to be a producer?
48:50 Long-term relationships
50:20 Studios returning to work: how will they handle health and dynamic teams?
58:00 What is next for Aardvark Swift and Simon?
61:00 Farewells

Thanks again to Simon and the team at Aardvark Swift!
https://aswift.com/

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

JOIN US:
Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

I'm very grateful to Chris Sykora to find the time to chat after a busy week at Yager in Berlin, where he has served as an Associate Producer for a year. Yager has given us its namesake, as well as Spec Ops: The Line, Dreadnought and The Cycle. Previously, Chris worked as a QA Lead at Konami and EA, a project manager at Accenture, Epsilon and Wargaming, as well as as a brand champion and Google marketing campaign specialist. Chris has had an interesting entry point into game production and I very much enjoyed talking to him all about it.

Topics include:

00:00 Intros
07:20 The benefits of having a project management background
09:10 Leadership
11:00 Support for producers at Yager
12:30 Life as an Associate Producer (AP)
16:00 Traits, Skills and Guilds for APs
22:00 Agile & Story Points
25:00 The Cycle - Game Deep Dive
including:
31:40 A Day in the Life of an AP
34:00 Advantages of having a marketing background
37:00 Did Chris ever feel like a spare part? Trello board
40:00 How does he plan?
45:00 Giving an example of when planning failed
52:00 How to build a good relationship with the team and peers
53:40 Hardest part of making the game
55:00 Player feedback and how to focus on features
58:00 If you could go back and change one thing..
63:00 Spec Ops and other games
General Q&A:
64:20 Advice for College students - get yourself a background
68:20 Why would anyone want to be a producer?
70:40 Pressure, Resilience, Mental Health and asking for help
74:30 The future for Chris
76:00 What training would he advise? Toastmasters!
80:00 Remote teams and working from home - his experience and insights
87:10 Farewells

Chris mentioned Toastmasters and the Cycle Trello board whilst chatting. Here's the links to those:
https://trello.com/b/6LuxGQiP/the-cycle

https://www.toastmasters.org/

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

JOIN US:
Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

Our guest today is Chris Keeling, Executive Producer at Street Smarts VR and living in Orlando, Florida. Previously, Chris has had a myriad of impressive roles, including Product Director at Wargaming, where he was the first American to join the Eastern Europe-centric company at the senior level. He was Program Manager at Full Sail University, leading the Game Design Bachelor of Science department on behalf of almost 2000 students. Chris served in the US Army as a Sergeant First Class for 23 years, with 10 years of active duty. He has been a game designer and writer and worked on titles such as Panzer Elite, America’s Army, World of Tanks, Master of Orion and World of Warships: Blitz for mobile.

In this episode, we talk about Chris's experience in the military and how that helped shape his approach to production leadership and training. We delve into his thoughts around the Game Design course, then plunge headfirst into Masters of Orion and its path from free giveaway to refocusing it to be a paid for product. Chris believes that producers cannot graduate from college, but should gain experience within game development before being supported and trained as producers. We talk a lot about that too.

Topics include:

00:00 Intros
12:00 Producers need experience in game dev first
15:40 The importance of holding Product Vision
19:30 From writer to producer
22:50 VR, AR, MR
24:00 Game Design BSc
29:30 VR production
32:30 Experience before production, training and support required
41:40 Master of Orion deep-dive
61:02 Movies and Games
65:00 Market Research & Player Types, Feedback and Bias
73:00 Back to Master of Orion for some final questions
74:00 Is Chris still in gaming?
78:20: Educating producers
80:20 Game Crunch and producer responsibility
91:00 Farewells & Wise Words

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

The transcript can be found here:
https://www.game-production.com/post/anthony-kyne-podcast-episode-full-transcript

This being my second ever attempt at recording and editing a podcast, be kind and feel free to give advice! Our guest today is Anthony Kyne, a Lead Producer at Mediatonic Games. They’ve made games such as Gears Pop!, Murder by Numbers and the upcoming Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, which looks awesome. Anthony has worked on titles such as Madden, Championship Manager & The Sims. Unlike nearly every Producer that I’ve met or stalked on LinkedIn before now, Anthony has worked in games as both a lead designer and senior programmer. This gives him a unique understanding of making games which I’m looking forward to delving into. He was Lead Designer on Championship Manager game back in 2009, which saw the franchise finally rise to become a viable alternative to Football Manager.

In this episode, we talk about Anthony's experience as a designer, coder and producer. We deep dive into The Golf Club to use as an exploration of production methods. We talk about pods, cancelling all meetings, how producers need to be leaders and a lot more.

This time I have added the topics as chapters in the podcast so hopefully you can see them when you download this!

00:00 Intros
11:25 Advantages of coming from a different gaming background
21:10 The bare minimum of a Producer - traits, experience & skills
28:40 Agile methods - new concepts, prototyping & tech demos
34:36 Play your own game!
38:49 Producers - the good, the bad but always leaders
46:10 Earning Trust
49:00 Production Deep Dive: The Golf Club
86:12 Meetings, meetings, meetings
89:11 Why be a producer?
92:03 What's next for Anthony?

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gameproductioncommunity
Website: https://www.game-production.com

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

The transcript can be found here:
https://www.game-production.com/post/callum-godfrey-podcast-episode-full-transcript

This being my first ever attempt at recording and editing a podcast, please forgive the obvious amateurish mistakes! However, that is made up by the quality of our first ever guest, Callum Godfrey, Head of Production at Bossa Studios. You might know Bossa from Surgeon Simulator and I am Bread. Previously, Callum worked for Wargaming Mobile as an Exec Producer then Head of Studio at Wargaming Helsinki. Callum has found the fun at such esteemed gaming companies as King, EA, Microsoft, Playfish, Activision and Codemasters. He has dwelled mainly, but not exclusively, within the mobile gaming space for the last decade.

In a very long and interesting chat, we cover the following topics:
04:20 What makes a natural producer?
08:38 The hierarchy of production roles in modern game development
12:30 Your potential career path and specialisation
17:25 Diversified roles and skillsets
19:00 Agile servant leader role

We talked for a long time about mobile game development and the differences between that and PC/console.
21:00 The differences between developing on mobile and PC/Console
30:10: Habits, addiction & dopamine, oh my
36:00 Complexity and scale of game dev now
41:00 The difference between making a product and a game
46:20 Innovations in mobile
48:00 Big data, grinding and mobile games = maths
54:20 Monetisation strategies
57:40 Can mobile games be as 'pure' as PC/console?

We then skipped around some areas around production roles and skillsets.
58:40 What is a Program Manager and what do they do? The importance of communications as a core skill.
62:20 A maturing industry
66:00 What was the Head of Studio role in Helsinki all about?
68:50 All about the production role at Wargaming, working with mobile product managers and a lot more about mobile Product Managers
73:30 A lot of discussion around project management and what is expected of producers

Ten minutes of quickfire questions to end off.
83:30 Callum's 3 biggest joys and headaches at Bossa
90:20 Do successful producers need to be obsessed with games?
93:26 Advice for new producers on what to do and what not to do
96:00 Did Callum have a clear career path in mind when he started?
98:05 Future plans
99:50 The question he wished I had asked him: Should producers have budgetary responsibilities? (Spoiler: yes)

We would love feedback - leave it anywhere we can reach it! For more articles and interviews with producers and others in the games industry, check out:
http://www.game-production.com

ABOUT GAME-PRODUCTION.COM
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

Please visit the website, which exists as a place to gather and chat, swap ideas and learn from each other, accumulate expertise and even accreditation. We are gradually building a library of podcasts, videos, training, articles and guides. Please join us.
http://www.game-production.com

FOLLOW US:
Facebook:

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”