Production Department
If you're interested in project management, task assignment, being in-charge, and leading a team, this is the department for you! Our Production Department teaches our members how to organize, manage, delegate, and lead a team to success.
We'll cover a wide range of topics, such as how to care for your team of game developers, what resources you can use to manage tasks, how to schedule meeting times and rooms, and more!
What do we do?
We offer workshops to help members develop their team management skills. From 2022 and onwards, all workshops will be conducted in person in the game lab.
We also offer production counseling on how to jump-start your development team and how to resolve any hardships you encounter during the production process of your game. Drop by during Office hours or message us through Discord if you have any questions!
What do we teach?
Most our workshops will emphasize team-building skills and work management strategies. Specific to production in game development, we will cover:
Project Pipeline
Task Delegation
Maintaining and Setting Scope
Production Documents and Planning
Team Communication
Team Motivation and Morale
Task management using Trello and Excel
Industry Advice
There's a strong emphasis on collaboration and participation to enhance communication skills. Otherwise, these workshops function very similarly to lectures.
Industry Relevance
If you pursue a producer role in game development, jobs with an emphasis on production include, but are not limited to:
Project Manager
Producer (general or specialized)
Production Coordinator
Content Coordinator
Outsource Manager
Software and Tools
Here are some of the applications we use for work in the Production Department.
FAQs
What is a producer?
Producers are the heart and bones of a development team. While the other developers are stretching their creative muscles to build the juiciest game, producers need to keep the blood fresh and hold up the structure of the production pipeline. A producer helps to oversee the production schedule, set and enforce milestones, motivate your teammates, and keep the communication flowing.
What skills do I need to become a producer?
The only requirement is having empathy towards your fellow team members! The most important things are being conscious of how your words and actions affect others, and learning to listen to your team.
Is being a Producer the same as being a Director?
Although a person can take up both positions, the responsibilities of a Producer and those of a Director aren't exactly the same.
While producers focus on team management and organization, directors lead the creative vision and direction for their game. In the industry, "Game Director" is a position earned with experience and expertise, whereas "Producer" is a line of profession that includes junior-level positions.
Do I need to be a multi-disciplinary learner to be an effective producer?
Being knowledgeable in different aspects of game development (2D game art, character writing, SFX design, C#/C++) is tremendously helpful when you're a producer on a team, but it isn't a mandatory requirement. As you work with different teams, you'll naturally build up your understanding of different disciplines - most importantly, knowledge about the game development pipeline.
You don't have to learn everything, but knowing different creative disciplines will help you communicate with your teammates and maintaining your team's creative process.
My team is falling apart! What do I do? ):
Every team is unique, and there's no definitive answer for how to lead a team. But if a team you're leading is having a lot of trouble working together and getting things done, or you foresee this happening later on, we recommend you stop by our Office Hours or contact a Production Officer through Discord so we can help you out!