The word “producer” entered our everyday vocabulary in the former USSR around the 1990s. For many, it was associated both with a person who could turn any idea into a product and any person into a star, and at the same time with something shady. Apparently this was because many people back then had a lingering sense that any business was tied up with some kind of crime or vulgarity.
Later, however, the word no longer felt foreign in the language. In film it replaced the position of “film director” (in the sense of production management), and in many other industries the role finally came to mean what it should — someone who helps organize production as a whole, and who enables the team to create the product.
In the game industry, to which I have already devoted many years, this role exists as well. Yet to this day, few could really explain to you what exactly a producer does on a team. People still do not understand the meaning of a producer’s work, and some consider producers to be arrogant, overpaid idlers and budget-burners.
Dan Irish is an experienced game producer (the legendary Myst series was created with his participation, starting from the third installment). In 2005 he wrote the book The Game Producer’s Handbook, which is still often recommended to novice (and not only novice) producers.
I have worked with producers a lot, at one point even performing this role myself, as well as hiring and managing such people. I must say that different teams understand “producer” in completely different ways, assigning this specialist various required skills depending on their own vision.
Several colleagues advised me to read this book, and I also wanted to gather my own thoughts about this position in game companies. The first pages of the book were quite promising, since Dan set out to explain what a producer is responsible for in our industry, what can be expected of them, and what skills they need. And his ideas overlapped very closely with my own vision and experience.
The author lists specific points, most of which I agree with. But for myself, I usually phrase it more briefly. A producer is someone who helps the product happen, within the given timeframe and budget, while keeping the team from falling apart and tearing each other to pieces 😉 In short, this is a person for whom the excuse “that’s not my problem” does not exist.
And it was in this “but it can be put more briefly” that I began to notice some problems with the book. Dan Irish says many correct things, but in my view he goes far too much into detail. Twenty-five pages — a listing of everything a producer can and should do. Thorough, I agree, but it looks more like a checklist of “did I forget anything?” Taken that way, it is useful. But if you want to get acquainted with the profession, it is excessive.
And then it went on:
- What kinds of producers exist in nature, how they differ, and what other important roles there are in game production.
- Twenty-five pages of useful habits that a good producer should have.
- Another thirty pages on how internal and external producers differ from each other.
- How to make presentations.
- What game design is.
- Tools and working with materials — the most useless chapter in my opinion. Not only is reading through a list of existing tools simply boring, but in our industry such a list also becomes outdated instantly. Even if I were to write down a list of current tools today, within a year at least one or two would already be obsolete. So what can you expect from a 17-year-old book? Yes, a producer should know the basic tools, but it would have been better to focus on the problems and tasks those tools are meant to solve rather than on enumerating specific names.
- Briefly (in twenty-five pages) — budgets and finance.
- Working with sound (in particular, how to do orchestral recordings).
- Testing.
- Marketing.
- And several standard project management templates (useful, but with modern tools this is also not very relevant anymore).
Thus, the book turned out to be both very detailed and at the same time very superficial, because the author tries to talk about everything at once. For a beginning producer, this is probably useful — to understand what lies ahead and what must not be forgotten. But for more experienced specialists, most of the book is a stage already passed and a matter of common sense.
Some of the calculations can be used as rough estimates (for example, how to quickly calculate the average production cost based on team size and timeline), but every manager sooner or later arrives at their own formula anyway (otherwise, how would they plan?).
And that is why the book seemed of little use to me. It hardly helps an existing producer make their work significantly better, especially with clear, step-by-step guidance. You may become more efficient in carrying out individual tasks, but if you want to understand how to make a game from start to finish, Alexey Savchenko’s book Game as a Business, which I wrote about last year, will be far more helpful.
Still, Dan Irish’s book contains many points with which I completely agree. I will try to briefly list the most important ones, in my opinion:
- A producer is not a boss, but a kind of conductor of the team, helping it work better and more productively.
- One should not expect team leads to work like regular employees and actively take part in actual production. Their role (and strength) is to choose the best way of working and producing for their team, as well as to grow their specialists into true professionals.
- The best way to manage is not by issuing orders but by inspiring. The best work is done by the one who volunteered to do it.
- When planning work, do not forget to plan time for documentation. No task can be considered complete unless it is reflected in the documentation!
- Strive to minimize the number of crowded meetings: always calculate how much that meeting “cost” you in money (the author recommends counting on average $1 per minute for each participant). If you constantly keep such a calculator in mind, you will realize there are far more tasks where those person-dollars would be better spent.
- One of my favorite quotes about working with a team: “Never lie. But if they don’t ask, don’t always offer an answer.”
Overall, I am grateful to the author for trying to explain who a producer is in the game industry and why the role is important. However, the very same could have been done more concisely. As it is, it feels as though the author himself did not fully understand whom he was writing the book for. And so it turned into a lot about everything, but unclear for whom.
My rating: 3/5
