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Hello.
My name is Greg Donovan.
I'm a senior producer at Volition.
I started working in the video game industry in early 1999.
I was hired into the marketing department of a now defunct publisher, DHQ.
I functioned in that department for about a year.
Quickly realized that I wanted to go in the development side of things and
was able to transfer to production,
still working under the guise of a publisher who was there until 2004.
And in late 2004, transferred to Volition, where I am now.
And I've been working there since October of 2004.
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I have most recently been the Senior Producer on Saint's Row 2 and
Saints Row: The Third.
It's not uncommon for people to ask if I knew I wanted to be a producer growing up.
The answer is no, I wasn't smart enough to realize that there was actually
an industry behind making the games that I loved growing up.
As a matter of fact,
I graduated from a small liberal arts college in philosophy and English, and
at best, I could say that helps me refer to pedantic illusions at dinner parties.
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So if you don't, I still don't really know what I want to do actually.
Point is, is that being a producer is something that's like working with people.
It's a big part of it.
Hopefully there's some encouragement there in knowing that you can come from
a very different background and still be a producer in the video
game industry if that's what you're looking for.
A quick follow up question is, what is a producer?
What does a producer do?
And that is a very, very difficult question to answer because depending on
what studio you're working at, the responsibilities are far and wide.
For example, some studio's producers are effectively designers.
That's not what we do here at Volition.
Some producers at other studios are effectively pure project managers.
That's not what we do entirely here at Volition.
And even here at Volition, we probably have at least
a dozen producers ranging from senior to assistant.
And like anyone, our strengths and weaknesses are varied.
We like to focus on certain areas.
But more at the senior level I think, on paper, the producer's job and
responsibility is to
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help the team deliver a high quality game within certain business confines.
Most specifically budget and time, and that's a very, very difficult thing to do,
and we are also tasked with working with the team to schedule fun.
And if you know how to do that please contact me,
because we haven't figured it out very well.
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I like being in the role of production because the responsibilities and
challenges and problems are so varied.
One day you very well could be working with a designer
on how to improve the mechanics of a game system.
The next day you could be very well working with the marketing department
on what questions should we ask folks when they're interviewed by the press for
the game that we're working on.
And everything in between.
What I like most about it is having that wide variety of
problems to solve when working with smart, creative people and
the best way to actually solve those problems.
People also ask like what's the best way to get into the games industry?
I can talk specifically from the production point of view,
there's a couple of options to pursue.
Number one is quality assurance or testing.
Usually you can get in at the QA level.
If you haven't had experience and
often times, it's not uncommon for studios to hire within.
And sometimes in the production role, they'll look for quality assurance.
We do that a number of times.
If you're looking to get something a little bit more under your belt before
you actually start applying, getting, becoming a certified scrum master or
familiarizing your self with standard project management tools and
artifacts like agile scheduling is also something that we would look for
in potential entry level candidates.
And getting back to what I talked about how I was a liberal arts and
went to a liberal arts school is, I made fun of it a little bit, but
it really helped when it came to critical thinking and exposing me to other ideas.
And I learn new things every day in this job, on how to do better at my job.
And that background actually helped me understand that my point of view of how
things work and should work are not always the way they should be, and
sometimes they're actually quite wrong.
And that has helped me get better,
I think, at working with people that come from different backgrounds and
have different points of views of how to tackle various projects.
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Getting certified in Scrum Master or other project management applications can help.
And I think the key thing is never give up, keep trying.
And if you have contact in the industry, talk with them about getting the word in.
Talk with them and see whether or not where they work have internships.
We actually have a number of internships for a variety of positions.
That's a good way, so the avenues are there and I think if someone who
is really dedicated to it and wants to succeed and get in they'll find a way.
Brian WinnAssociate Professor
Casey O'DonnellAssociate Professor
