Senior Producer

Ronald Haupt, Firemint

I’m a senior producer at Firemint.

My responsibilities lie directly with our clients - the publishers. I liaise directly with their producers, and together we are the conduit between the vision, the project and the team that will actually make the game a reality.

I am also a team manager. We don’t have a project manager so a couple of us tend to absorb that role.

"Whether you are a programmer or artist or anything else, there is a level of talent that needs to be displayed before anybody will take you seriously and look to hire you".

Listen to the interview:

What do you do?

Projects consistently change during the development phase, so there are constant trains of thought going backwards and forwards on how we can enhance games. I deal with that on a daily basis. I also take care of the additional quoting, scheduling and feedback on current projects and new pitches; as we are always involved in simultaneous projects. Daily, I do the rounds of the current projects that we’re working on; to make sure that both the development and feedback stays on track.

We have a team of about 20 people, but they do not all work on the same project. Depending on the actual project, the team sizes for individual projects tend to vary between three to about eight / ten people.

We have about four projects running currently. On average, our projects last anywhere between two and six months.

How did you get to where you are today?

In my case, I guess I’m one of the lucky stories. I never started out in games. I did a mid-career swap. I started by contacting industry related people and firms; sending out emails to look for someone who was willing to give me a break.

I started out in software. To begin with, I worked for an ISP on both their database software, and post coding software. Previously I had worked on the sales and support side of the business, but one day it dawned on me, that this was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I’m one of those avid game players, who wanted to spend a lot of my spare time playing games, so this seemed like a natural change.

What skills are necessary for you to do your job?

Having a sales background was definitely a big plus for me, as my role is client-facing. To do this, you need to have an easy-going demur and you need to be able to communicate very well.

Understanding the business as a whole is also crucial. I had to experience every facet of the business, so that I knew first hand what it meant to be an artist, what it is to be the programmer; what their roles are and how all these little wheels mesh together in the big machine, so that at the end of the day we can produce a product: a game that will give hours of fun and exciting moments for young (and old!) gamers! It was a worthwhile exercise and invaluable experience.

To be successful in my position, you will need to understand the business as a whole – the development process; what’s involved; timelines; what potential problems there could be; and where to throw up red flags. At the end of the day you are still a salesman, as you still pitch to publishers. In the pitch, you sometimes take the publishers’ own idea and feed it back to them in a clearer light, while still being something that will still fall in line with what the technology can achieve.

My job also requires management skills, as you have a team to consider. You work with a lot of people - other project managers, lead designers, lead programmers and artists. You need to be able to work with and manage these people at every level. So management skills are a definite necessity.

How important was your education/training?

My education and training, in this case, didn't have anything to do with my work in the games industry. My training was all hands on - a ‘sink or swim’ scenario. I got dropped in the deep end very early by my employer, so he could see what I could do. Could I handle the pressure? Could I pick up on all the little nuisances that you’ve got to work with? It was a very hands-on experience in my case.

Where do you see your career going?

I’m pretty much as high as I can go, as far as a producing role is concerned. From here, the only natural step would be, to move over from the developer side to the publisher side, for added experience. Alternatively, (and we always joke about this), in a couple of years, who knows, I might just decide to open up my own development studio!

I enjoy what I do very much. It’s a passion, and you’ll hear everybody in the games industry, say that. It does require a massive amount of commitment, and there is always a creative flare which must be present; but these are the things that make me want to get up in the morning. It’s the whole reason why I look forward to my day.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to enter the games industry?

The first thing is to make sure that this is really what you want to do.

A lot of people say that they play a lot of games, so it just makes sense to them to work in the games industry. But there is a lot more involved than just playing games. The whole development cycle can be very intense for a lot of people. So you have to know what’s lying ahead.

Whether you want to be an artist or a programmer, there are various routes that you can follow into the industry. But the one thing you need to do is to try and experience as much of this industry as you possibly can. Don’t look to specialize at the early stage. Just try anything and everything.

You need to build up a skill set that potential employers can look at. Above all else, there is a level of talent that needs to be displayed before anybody will take you seriously and look to hire you.