Greg Donovan, Senior Producer, Deep Silver Volition

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Из курса от партнера Michigan State University

Game Design and Development Capstone

136 оценки

Michigan State University

Game Design and Development Capstone

136 оценки

Курс 5 из 5 — Specialization Game Design and Development

In the game design and development capstone, you will create an original game from initial concept through implementation and then launch it to the world! Along the way, you will have the opportunity to put your game ideas in front of your peers and for the best-of-the-best you will have the chance to get feedback from game industry professionals. The capstone experience gives you the opportunity to push your skills further and demonstrate your newfound skills as a game developer. The capstone also contains guest talks from game industry professionals at Riot Games, Deep Silver Volition, Iron Galaxy, Radiant Entertainment, Goodgame Studios, Stardock, GREE, Heart Shaped Games, Kongregate, and more.

Из урока

Milestone 6: Ship It!

Rule #1 of GameDev: If you don't ship, it doesn't exist. In this module, it is time to say, "Enough is enough," and ship your game. We're literally asking you to create a final build of something and put it somewhere where the world can see it. That can be Kongregate, the iOS App Store, Google Play or wherever you think is most appropriate.

Marie Lazar, 3D Environment Artist, Goodgame Studios5:49

Eric Arnold, Studio Architect of Programming, Deep Silver Volition7:02

Will Bonner, Associate Test Engineer, Riot Games4:33

Jon Moore, Graphics Engineer, Iron Galaxy Studios12:35

Matthew Vorce, Programmer, Pixo Group4:13

Chris Bray, Studio Head and Senior Producer, Stardock7:07

Greg Donovan, Senior Producer, Deep Silver Volition5:24

Scott Brodie, Founder and Lead Designer, Heart Shaped Games6:16

Jared Riley, Engineering Manager, GREE International18:12

Charles Roman, Senior Software Engineer, Radiant Entertainment3:56

Steven Messinger, Lead Open World Designer, Rockstar Games42:02

Shane McCloskey, Senior Designer, Insomniac Games45:31

Познакомьтесь с преподавателями

Brian Winn
Associate Professor
Media and Information
Casey O'Donnell
Associate Professor
Media and Information

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

So succinctly, I think if you want to get into the video game industry and

production, QA is a great way to get in on the ground floor.

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.

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