Jenn's Generally Good Game Production Advice

Want some bad game production advice? Complicate your code unnecessarily! What does that mean? I’ll give an example from when I was a programmer and we put in an elevator that had multiple floors, an NPC inside, lights, and many more complications. Using the elevator example I discuss what happened, how it happened, why it was a bad thing, how you can recover if this starts to happen to you, and h...

Conflict sucks! But small levels of conflict can also help your team innovate and make amazing games. So how do you fix things when the conflict is getting out of control and your team aren’t working together effectively? Focus on curiosity and success. We’ll examine what’s unlikely to work, what you should focus on, and key steps to deal with conflict constructively. The key steps are connection,...

To decide or not to decide. That is the question! You’ll never have 100% information. Even with hindsight all you can see is the results of the choice that was made. So how do you know when to just choose something and move on versus deliberate and/or wait for someone else to make the decision? Today we’ll be asking lots of questions that will get you thinking and help you figure out a plan of att...

Am I a good games producer? What does one actually look like? And if I’m not good, what can I do about it? This is a special post with a question I ask myself. Hopefully by the end, a bunch of your self-doubt will be banished along with my own self-doubt. Become a better games producer today! We’ll look at what a games producer actually does; then talk abut different types of measurements you can...

Stop staying awake at night worrying!! Create a risk register to help track all your game development fears. Game development is very stressful and there are a lot of different things that can go wrong. Those things might mean your game will suck, development takes longer than expected, team members quit, and more. In the worst case if you don’t predict risks and take steps to address them, your g...

Game Jams get people making a game in a very short period of time. Usually people run out of time and their final game is a far cry from their vision. Production can help you figure out what you can fit and and gives you key beats to reach for. To make a game in 48 hours or less, you need to be focused on your goals and shipping the game. Production is like project management for games and it can...

Do you keep missing sprint deadlines? It happens a lot in game development and you might have given up trying to fix it, but I’m here to offer a very large number of ways to finish your sprints. In this video, we’ll look at all of the many reasons why your team is failing to hit sprints and give practical tips and steps you can take to fix the problem. We’ll start with considering new tasks appear...

Ever had to deal with a creative director or CEO who kept changing their mind? In this post I’m talking about exactly this situation. I’ll give tips and techniques to reduce the frequency and impact of all the changes, so you can keep the ball rolling and ship your game. Tips to reduce frequency include: changing how you respond to feedback; getting the creative director more involved in the day-t...

It feels great to mark a task “done”. But what does that mean? Is it something that can be shipped in the final game, something that is barely functional or something else entirely?! Not knowing what “done” means for different tasks can cause many problems from team frustrations to missing deadlines to wasted work. My system is to create a degree of done chart with multiple levels for different di...

Often people say that to be a good producer for a discipline you need to have been in that discipline yourself. People also might think you can’t do a good job as a producer if you don’t play the genre of game that you’re working on. But you can’t do all disciplines and play all game genres!!! So how can you be a good game production? I turn traditional advice upside down and discuss how it’s a su...

As a game producer with over 15 years experience in the games industry, what’s my favourite production hack? When you hear what I say you’ll either thing I’m lazy or a genius, you decide! Game production is often about a lot of grunt work without many hacks. My hack relies on the facts that there is no perfect way to make a game, game terminology is inconsistent, and plans always need to change wh...

Are you close to shipping your game, but super unmotivated? It seems like the end should be the easiest part of game development, but unexpectedly it’s one of the hardest. I’ve come up with a bunch of ideas that individuals, teams, producers, artists, animators, and people with buying power can do to motivate everyone. Most of them are meant for the end stages of a game, but many can be applied th...

Is someone on your game team driving you crazy due to their erratic performance? This person is obviously not pulling their weight and is meaning your beautiful work is getting thrown out. What can you do when you’re not their producer or manager and you can’t fire them? This video includes the prep you need before getting started. You’ll learn how to be calm and get change to happen. The video is...

Is your game producer or production team overworked and in need of support? What can you do when you’re not a producer? Obviously you update your tasks/tickets with the current status, but what else? This video will give clear actionable things you do, including an early warning system, creating time estimates, checking priorities, auditing your processes, and coordinating with other teams. We’ll...

Are you a game producer who feels guilty when they’re not working and things are inevtitably quiet? It’s actually a sign that you’re doing a good job in production! After you’ve celebrated that, I’ve got 8 easy things you can do from relaxing, grooming backlogs, playing games, top level planning, research, and more. This talk will level you up as a game producer so you’ll be an expert in no time....

How do you accommodate one person’s needs amongst everyone else’s needs in a game development team? This video has practical advice and ways to avoid kneejerk actions that cause more problems than they solve. Sometimes the needs are about mental health, sometimes physical and sometimes just preferences. One of the most important things to do is talk to everyone on the team to understand their indi...

Do you have too many long game development meetings where nothing happens? Are you worried that meetings are stopping you from making your game? Find out how to make meetings more productive, fun, and shorter. This practical video breaks down steps you can do before, during, and after the meeting. I’ll talk about meeting purpose, duration, attendees, how to stop long conversations, finishing on ti...