Production 101 – #4 Role of an External Producer – Part 1
An introduction to the role of external producer in game publishing.
Discover the dynamic role of an external producer in game publishing, overseeing projects from pitch to launch and fostering collaborations with third-party developers.
Dive into the essential skills and pathways to becoming an external producer, including the importance of communication, financial acumen, and understanding of game development processes.
Explore a day in the life of an external producer, facing unique challenges such as balancing creative ambition with market demands, managing cross-cultural teams, and ensuring project timelines and budgets are met.
Welcome to the Production 101 series, where we dive deep into game production. This series is about uncovering this professional discipline’s mysteries, providing a platform for newcomers and seasoned professionals.
In this edition, we will cover the role of the external producer.
In part one, we will cover:
Role Overview
The role of an external producer in game development involves various duties that go beyond the usual scope of internal production.
This professional oversees the development of a video game, working in partnership with external entities. They are pivotal in guiding the creation and publishing of video games through collaboration with third-party game developers.
Typically employed by game publishers, external producers play a crucial role in fostering a game’s development from the start. They are responsible for various duties, from the initial pitch to the final submission.
Occasionally, larger development studios might take on external production tasks to expand their scope of delivery. For clarity, this post will mainly focus on publishing.
Being an external producer involves diverse skills, including communication, negotiation, project management, and leadership. These skills are crucial in linking the development team’s creative goals with the publisher’s commercial aims, ensuring the game succeeds critically and commercially.
External producers foster mutual trust and understanding of the project, keeping everyone in the loop and facilitating the best decisions to balance quality, budget, and timely delivery.
Key Responsibilities
An external producer is at the heart of a game’s journey, acting as the crucial link that marries creative ambition with what the market desires. They play an essential role from the get-go, from pitching ideas and gaining the green light to new games to assessing potential projects for their market appeal, the audience reaches, and how well they fit with the publisher’s collection of games.
These producers are also at the forefront of choosing third-party developers. They’re making the big calls, diving deep into a developer’s skills, creative outlook, and track record to ensure they match the publisher’s aspirations and standards.
As the vital conduit between the game developers and the publisher, external producers ensure that the publisher’s vision, requirements, and benchmarks are communicated to the development team. They ensure that the game meets the publisher’s expectations in quality, content, and timelines and resonates with the audience.
Like other production roles, external producers are project managers at their core. They’re wizards at juggling production plans, skilfully managing schedules and roadmaps to keep multiple projects on track, each with its unique deadlines and demands.
Contract negotiations and management also fall within their domain. This involves hashing out details like milestone achievements and payment timelines and ensuring everyone sticks to their bargain. Their knack for negotiation sets the stage for the development journey.
Budgeting is another critical task that starts early on. It’s all about predicting costs, from external expenses and travel to licensing fees, even when the final game’s outlook isn’t fully formed yet.
A critical checkpoint in their role is overseeing development milestones, ensuring everything aligns with the set criteria to keep the project moving smoothly, and ensuring the flow of payments and the project’s continuity.
From a commercial standpoint, external producers ensure the game strikes the right chord in branding, audience engagement, and market fit, maintaining solid relationships with all partners involved, from publishing businesses to IP holders.
Risk management is an ongoing task, where they keep an eye out for potential hiccups that could throw the project off course, working proactively with the team to steer clear of these risks.
Their ability to keep everyone, from developers to marketing teams, on the same page through effective communication is crucial. Managing expectations and smoothing over conflicts is all in a day’s work.
They’re also responsible for showcasing the games to a broader audience, including the press and consumers, and navigating the product through platform-holder submissions to secure approvals.
Lastly, they offer a guiding hand to the development team, sharing market insights, creative feedback, and assistance with overcoming any technical or logistical hurdles, all to help the team deliver a stellar product within the set framework.
Path to Becoming an External Producer
Becoming an external producer in a game publisher often involves diverse experiences and skills. While individuals in this role typically share a passion for gaming, the paths they take to reach this position vary widely, reflecting the multifaceted nature of game development.
Educational Foundations
Many external producers start with an educational foundation related to business, computer science, or digital media. Bachelor’s degrees in these fields offer a solid base in game publishing business aspects. However, it’s common to find external producers who have pivoted from seemingly unrelated fields such as development, marketing, or procurement. These backgrounds contribute unique perspectives to game publishing, emphasising the importance of a broad skill set that encompasses project management, communication, and critical thinking.
Early Career Steps
The first steps into the gaming industry often begin in entry-level positions. These roles could range from game testing, which provides an intimate understanding of the nuances of game design and player experience, to development or product management roles within a game studio or other publishing roles, offering insights into game publishing’s technical and business aspects.
Skills Needed to Become an External Producer
If you’re interested in working as an external game publisher producer, you need specific skills. Let’s break this down into bite-sized pieces for easy digestion.
Firstly, you’ll need previous exposure to either internal or external game development or publishing. This includes getting your hands dirty in live games or services, which is no small feat. Moreover, it’s vital to have experience in nurturing relationships. This means building and managing connections with studios, vendors, internal teams, and other external collaborators.
Your communication game needs to be verbal and written, with stellar time and project management abilities. Have you shipped console & PC or mobile titles? Then, you’re on the right track. A detailed understanding of these platforms is a must. Predicting the quality and potential hurdles throughout all product development phases is a skill you can’t do without.
Financial acumen is non-negotiable. External producers monitor the budget from the publisher’s perspective to ensure the development stays financially sound, making strategic calls to ensure investments pay off. You lead budget and scope expectations within your projects and communicate with executive management. A solid grasp of profit and loss statements and other accounting artefacts is critical.
It is essential to know platform holders’ operations from concept to release and understand first-party requirements, submission and approval processes.
Being a self-starter is critical; you should be comfortable working independently or as part of a team. A knack for unravelling complex issues, alongside exceptional oral and written communication skills and analytical and problem-solving capabilities, is crucial.
You’ll often juggle multiple projects simultaneously, requiring seamless interaction at all organisational levels. Adopting a culture of openness and mutual respect is vital for facilitating communication at every level.
Lastly, a firm understanding of contract and procurement basics, including the differences between fixed-price, time and materials contracts, and statements of work, is indispensable.
Day in the Life
A day in the life of an external producer in a game studio is a multifaceted journey through coordination, creativity, and crisis management. Let’s walk through a typical day, highlighting their unique aspects and challenges.
Morning: Kick-Off and Coordination: Over coffee, check emails, project management tools and bug reports for updates, ensuring they’re on top of any urgent issues. Fistbump the associate produce and validate they have everything they need to start their day. Check the FTP for the latest build from Developer A. Make sure the build runs on the dev kit. Check-in with QA to ensure they have the build and are already working through the test plans. Discuss with the QA lead the bugs the developer has requested waived. Dig into why the development kits needed for Developer B have not been delivered.
Mid-Morning: Deep Dives and Decision Making: Review the last milestone submitted by Developer C. Compare the submission against the milestones schedule and Statement of Work. If inclined, send an approval email and process the invoice for payment. If not, document the shortfall and discuss a remedy with the developer before formal rejection. Update the project plan accordingly and format it for inclusion in the upcoming status report. Work on the concept approval deck for the new game and fold in the feedback from the consumer insights and product teams.
Lunch: A Quick Breather and Networking: Lunch might be brief, but it’s a critical time for informal networking and team building in the lunch room or playing a game. Use this time to personally connect with publishing team members, foster a positive work environment, and build rapport. This informal interaction can be vital for morale and often leads to creative problem-solving insights.
External producers offer a guiding hand to the development team, sharing market insights, creative feedback, and assistance with overcoming any technical or logistical hurdles. This helps the team deliver a stellar product within the set framework.
Afternoon: Problem-Solving, Progress Checks and Dog and Pony Show: Meeting with the associate producer to review the screenshots requested by the marketing team. As they are not entirely up to snuff due to the stage of development, strategise with the associate producer ways they can compose the screenshots to cover up the placeholder art but still capture the action. While there, discuss progress on the associate producer’s Individual Development Plan and make sure they schedule their next mentor meeting. Be the first one in the board room to prep a play-through demo of the latest working build from Developer A for the head of sales and marketing. Hand them the controller. Smash the demo. With a captive audience after the successful demo, casually float the new game concept to gauge interest and early concerns.
Late Afternoon: External Communications and Wrap-Up: Meet with the licensor to discuss ways to improve approval cycle times. Have a call with legal to discuss a development agreement amendment to cover a scope change with Developer B. Have a call with that same developer to continue negotiating the scope change and schedule impact. Call the developer rep at the first party for a status update on the final submission and to assess their willingness to waive the bugs proposed by Developer A. Check in again with the QA lead to determine today’s progress and get a peek at the yet-to-be-published bug report to circumvent any surprises. Try to beat another level in Developer A’s game.
Evening: Reflection and Preparation: Before closing the day, review the day’s achievements and challenges and prepare for the next day. This might involve updating project documentation, setting up meetings for the following day, or simply reflecting on strategies to enhance overall performance.
Unique Challenges:
Navigating the complexities of resource and budget management can feel like walking a tightrope for an external producer. You’re often caught in a peculiar spot—lacking direct control over the developers’ resources and budgets. Yet, it’s your responsibility to ensure the project doesn’t spiral out of financial or resource-related control. It’s a delicate balancing act, ensuring the project adheres to its constraints while working from the outside.
The role of an external producer is a study of constant balance. Building rapport and enforcing legal obligations with development partners sit on one side of the scale, while on the other side, you’re juggling feedback from seniors to avoid scope creep. You’re in the trenches with your developers, urging them to meet deadlines, yet fully aware of and empathetic to the personal toll of crunch time. It’s about striving for the best possible product, even as you reconcile with the certainty of shipping with some bugs.
Time zone challenges add another layer of complexity to project management. Rarely will you find yourself in the same time zone as all your team members. This geographical spread can turn scheduling meetings, updates, and urgent communications into a jigsaw puzzle, where finding a time that suits everyone can feel like a Herculean task.
Aligning the game’s vision among diverse stakeholders—developers, investors, and publishers—is akin to conducting an orchestra where each section has a slightly different score. Every party brings their own set of expectations and priorities to the table, making harmonising these views into a cohesive vision one of the subtler yet critical challenges an external producer faces. Feedback from non-technical stakeholders can particularly seem like a minefield, where suggested changes might appear trivial but are, in reality, substantial undertakings.
Cultural differences represent both a boon and a challenge in game development. Working with teams from various cultural backgrounds can significantly enrich a project, bringing in a wealth of perspectives and ideas. However, this diversity also challenges aligning work ethics, communication styles, and expectations. For an external producer, navigating these differences requires sensitivity awareness and a willingness to adapt and find common ground.
If you see omissions or have suggestions, feel free to comment below.
In part 2, we conclude our look into external producers with:
Tools of the Trade
Importance of Communication and Collaboration
Impact and Outcomes
Challenges and Rewards
Future of the Role
