Game Production Community Podcast
30 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago -In the hunt for video and mobile game production insights, we talk to as many game producers, product managers, heads of production, studio bosses and other disciplines as we can find. This is all part of our quest to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training. Take a look at game-production.com for articles, videos and more. Don't be a lonely games producer anymore. Looking to get into game production? This podcast is for you.
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Episodes
Production Professionals Interview Series - Linda Tiger, Studio Manager at Paradox Black
March 05, 2024 18:00 - 1 hour - 43.1 MBThis session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Jess Avelsgaard interviewing guest Linda Tiger, Paradox Development Studio Black’s Studio Manager. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. A production thought leader wi...
How to Break the Burnout Culture
February 08, 2024 17:00 - 1 hour - 49.8 MBThis session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Katie Rössler, LPC. Burnout is on the rise and though we are talking about it, we’re not discussing how to prevent or recover from it. During this talk, we discussed what burnout symptoms actually look like, why more people are burning out now more than ever, and steps you can take to prevent it. Katie Rössler is a licensed therapist specializing in burnout and hidden grief specialist. With 15 years of experience, she is shifting the way w...
Lifting a tip of the veil: The Production Interview Process
January 04, 2024 12:00 - 1 hour - 45.7 MBThis session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Striking Distance. Mae lifted a tip of the veil on the production interview process: How to decode a job description's qualifications and responsibilities to prepare for the questions a hiring manager may ask, and how to approach answering questions truthfully while showing your best self. Bonus: What should you ask in return? * Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Strik...
Production Professionals Interview Series - Claire Bromley, Producer at Criterion Games
December 03, 2023 08:00 - 58 minutes - 40.1 MBThis session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra & Angela Dachowski interviewing guest Claire Bromley. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Claire is a Producer at Criterion Games, and has an impressive 17 years of game...
Mentorship - Level up the leaders of tomorrow: Igniting growth in the games industry
November 02, 2023 14:00 - 1 hour - 68.2 MBThis session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guests Shams Jorjani, Maria Cornelius and Alex Bolle. Our latest panel looked uniquely at a chain of three mentors/mentees as mentorship knowledge is passed down and refined across three generations. With Shams mentoring Maria and Maria mentoring Alex, the three panelists discussed their experiences and takeaways from mentorship across the spectrum of professional experience while giving you a framework (and a slight nudge) for taking on your ow...
Cultural Inclusion with Tina Merry
January 03, 2023 17:00 - 1 hour - 42.1 MBThis session featured host Juney and guest Tina Merry, exploring what's meant by cultural diversity plus how our cultural values impact the way we navigate life, including how we communicate, plan and get work done. A game development industry veteran, Tina leverages global leadership experiences to support cultural inclusion, innovation and production excellence particularly when working with distributed teams. You can find the Slides and Handout here: https://tinamerryconsulting.ca/event...
Transitioning into the Game Industry: How a Nurse, Make Up Artist, and Private Investigator got into Game Production
September 15, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBThis session featured host Juney interviewing a panel of three game production professionals who successfully transitioned into the game industry: Michelle Velez of Electronic Arts, Giulia Carlotta Zamboni of Gamera Interactive, and Ariana Marchigiano of Blackbird Interactive, who discussed their background before transitioning into the game industry, what motivated them to make the switch, and how they made it. They’ll talk about what skills they were able to take with them from their previ...
Even Tom Hanks thinks he's a Loser sometimes
August 23, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBIn this episode, Juney hosted a session featuring PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Art Director Scott Davidson. Scott talked to us about his experience with imposter syndrome throughout his career in the games industry. He will discuss the lows, the highs, the times he thought about giving up and how he kept going. Scott also shared useful ways of coping with imposter syndrome, should we ever feel self-doubt throughout our own journey. There was a live Q&A after the event. Slides can be found here...
Imposter Syndrome: Even Tom Hanks thinks he's a Loser sometimes
August 23, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 54.9 MBIn this episode, Juney hosted a session featuring PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Art Director Scott Davidson. Scott talked to us about his experience with imposter syndrome throughout his career in the games industry. He will discuss the lows, the highs, the times he thought about giving up and how he kept going. Scott also shared useful ways of coping with imposter syndrome, should we ever feel self-doubt throughout our own journey. There was a live Q&A after the event. Slides can be found here...
The Importance of Networking with Demi Mark
July 28, 2022 15:00 - 1 hour - 41.3 MBIn this episode, Juney hosted freelance producer Demi Mark! Demi talks to us about the importance of networking in the industry, sharing her story and other success stories, and giving a 101 on why, how and where to find and connect with peers from the game development community. There was a live Q&A after the event. Long form article & slides can be found here: https://demimarkzedzinc.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/the-importance-of-networking/ Please share with peers that could benefit from th...
Playtesting Masterclass with Steve Bromley
July 09, 2022 07:00 - 1 hour - 48.6 MBIn this episode, Juney hosted game industry veteran, games user research consultant, author of the “How to be a Games User Researcher” book and most recently creator of “The Playtest Kit”, Steve Bromley! During this session, Steve offered solutions to many of the barriers to regular playtesting, such as “Where can I find playtesters”, “When should I run a playtest” and “How should I handle player feedback”. There was a live Q&A after the event. Slides can be found here: https://gamesuserre...
Accessibility as Success Criteria: Building accessibility from the ground up
February 08, 2022 16:00 - 1 hour - 42.3 MBIn this panel, host Juney invites four experienced accessibility professionals to guide us through the process of planning, budgeting, implementing and testing accessibility features from the ground up in both new and ongoing projects to make better and more welcoming experiences. Our expert panellists: Ally McLean: Senior Producer at Mighty Kingdom Tabby Rose: UX Director at Mighty Yell Brannon Zahand: Senior Gaming Accessibility Program Manager at Microsoft Jonas Lundqvist: Senior Dev...
Fireside Chat with Maria Cornelius, Operations Manager at Spotify
November 30, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 51.4 MBDuring this Fireside Chat, Juney invited her guest Maria Cornelius, Operations Manager at Spotify, to talk about supporting and scaling large teams & organizations in ever-changing industries. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥: Operations Manager at Spotify. Former Business Developer and Operations Manager at Paradox Interactive. Experienced small businesses owner. Passionate about digital entertainment and the complex relationship between creativity, business and technology. Loves books, gaming, whiskey...
A Day in the Life of... Community Managers! Panel
July 23, 2021 15:00 - 1 hour - 51 MBFeaturing 3 community managers with varying backgrounds, we explored a community manager's goals, how they achieve these, how this benefits a game production and how we as producers can help facilitate their work. With community managers from AAA to indie, a plethora of interesting perspectives emerged as we spoke about their road to the industry, their studios, their everydays and goals. Raccine Malcolm: Freelance Community & DEI Manager, Founder of Games Community Garden (formerly Games ...
A Day in the Life of... Producers! Panel
June 28, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 47 MBA panel featuring 4 wonderful Producers working in the games industry, with highly varying backgrounds: From years of experience to education & culture, and from studio size & composition to role & responsibilities! Topics ranged from their road into the industry, what production looks like at their studio, tools used and best practices. Esmeralda Hoffman: Producer at Silver Rain Games, currently working on an EA Originals project. Contributed to several projects varying from Indie to AAA t...
Games Industry Recruitment panel - Game Production Discord
June 24, 2021 08:00 - 56 minutes - 39 MBThis session featured three industry recruitment experts from vastly different backgrounds to talk about the do’s and don’ts when looking for a job in the games industry. Throughout the panel, our host Raven asked the panellists to tackle topics the community requested, including but not limited to: the key traits & experiences of good candidates, good CV practices, and some common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid. Many thanks to our wonderful panellists: Maja Żmijewska: Lead Operations Mana...
ID@Xbox Game Dev Q&A - Game Production Discord
May 29, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBThe ID@Xbox team gave our community the chance to ask questions that will help them and their teams develop and deliver great player experiences for everyone, and now we're sharing in the hopes it'll help you, too! Topics range from being approved to publish on Xbox through post-launch best practices, from marketing & sales, to community management & engagement. The Q&A contains something of interest for games in every stage of development! Made possible by Juney Dijkstra MSc. - Producer,...
ID@Xbox Game Dev Q&A - Game Production Discord
May 29, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBThe ID@Xbox team gave our community the chance to ask questions that will help them and their teams develop and deliver great player experiences for everyone, and now we're sharing in the hopes it'll help you, too! Topics range from being approved to publish on Xbox through post-launch best practices, from marketing & sales, to community management & engagement. The Q&A contains something of interest for games in every stage of development! Made possible by Juney Dijkstra MSc. - Producer,...
Scrum & Agile Practices in Games Development - Game Production Discord
May 04, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour - 77.5 MBThe Game Production Discord hosted a panel on Scrum and agile practices in game development, featuring four panelists with varying backgrounds from in- and outside the industry! Huge thanks to Maurice Kroes from Abstraction Games who housed a session with panellists Jeff Lindsey from Bossa Studios, Kimberly Rodatos from Digital Owl, Barry Anderson from Sainsbury's, Diversive and Selfull. They tackled topics like the backlog, user stories and estimations, discussing their practical implement...
2.6 Game Production Interviews: A Product Management Masterclass with Anil and Callum
July 18, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 77.4 MBThe last time we spoke with Callum Godfrey, we had a blast covering the intricacies of game production in an evolving world. This time around, he's joined by Anil Das-Gupta, a highly experienced product manager with an enviable mobile gaming background. These guys give us an incredible wealth of insights around the difference between production and product management, with a focus on understanding the latter. Callum has worked as a Head of Production at Bossa Studios and done the rounds at ...
2.5 Game Production Interviews: Renee Wooten (Part 1 of 2), Associate Producer at KingsIsle
July 05, 2020 19:00 - 1 hour - 61.7 MBThis episode, Renee Wooten was an exceptional guest. Renee has a keen interest in accessibility and inclusion, as well as solid experience with customer and community-facing roles. After gaining a Game Design Bsc from Full Sail University, she started her inevitable climb to production stardom with KingsIsle Entertainment, based in Austin, Texas. Renee has worked on the Live Service MMO Wizard101 for the last 3.5 years. We split the episode: part 1 is production focused, whereas part 2 is ...
2.5ii Renee Wooten (Part 2 of 2) - Being A Woman in the Games Industry: Making Space for Everyone in Games
July 05, 2020 19:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBPart One of our Podcast Episode can be found here: https://www.game-production.com/podcast/episode/49b730cf/25-game-production-interviews-renee-wooten-part-1-of-2-associate-producer-at-kingsisle In Part Two we took a segment out of the chat and based an article around it: https://www.game-production.com/post/making-space-for-everyone-in-games It launches into the discussion quite suddenly! During this segment, we talk about: 00:00 Being a woman in the games industry 05:00 Resources out the...
3.1 Games Recruiter Insights - Simon Hope from Aardvark Swift
June 24, 2020 13:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBI wanted to try something a bit different with this episode: this is the first of a short series of interviews with recruitment professionals in the games industry. Our goal is to find out what recruiters seek out in potential game producers from associate to EP and beyond, from product manager to project manager. We also want to know what’s changed during coronavirus and how they see recruitment changing moving forwards. Simon Hope from Aardvark Swift joins us in this episode. Aardvark is...
2.4 Game Production Interviews: Chris Sykora, Associate Producer at Yager
June 23, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBI'm very grateful to Chris Sykora to find the time to chat after a busy week at Yager in Berlin, where he has served as an Associate Producer for a year. Yager has given us its namesake, as well as Spec Ops: The Line, Dreadnought and The Cycle. Previously, Chris worked as a QA Lead at Konami and EA, a project manager at Accenture, Epsilon and Wargaming, as well as as a brand champion and Google marketing campaign specialist. Chris has had an interesting entry point into game production and I...
2.3 Game Production Interviews: Chris Keeling, EP at Street Smarts VR
June 10, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBOur guest today is Chris Keeling, Executive Producer at Street Smarts VR and living in Orlando, Florida. Previously, Chris has had a myriad of impressive roles, including Product Director at Wargaming, where he was the first American to join the Eastern Europe-centric company at the senior level. He was Program Manager at Full Sail University, leading the Game Design Bachelor of Science department on behalf of almost 2000 students. Chris served in the US Army as a Sergeant First Class for 23...
2.2 Game Production Interviews: Anthony Kyne, Lead Producer at Mediatonic Games
May 28, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 65.6 MBThe transcript can be found here: https://www.game-production.com/post/anthony-kyne-podcast-episode-full-transcript This being my second ever attempt at recording and editing a podcast, be kind and feel free to give advice! Our guest today is Anthony Kyne, a Lead Producer at Mediatonic Games. They’ve made games such as Gears Pop!, Murder by Numbers and the upcoming Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, which looks awesome. Anthony has worked on titles such as Madden, Championship Manager & The Sims...
2.1 Game Production Interviews: Callum Godfrey, Head of Production at Bossa Studios
May 26, 2020 14:00 - 1 hour - 75.1 MBThe transcript can be found here: https://www.game-production.com/post/callum-godfrey-podcast-episode-full-transcript This being my first ever attempt at recording and editing a podcast, please forgive the obvious amateurish mistakes! However, that is made up by the quality of our first ever guest, Callum Godfrey, Head of Production at Bossa Studios. You might know Bossa from Surgeon Simulator and I am Bread. Previously, Callum worked for Wargaming Mobile as an Exec Producer then Head of St...
1.3 Risk Management Walkthrough
May 23, 2020 12:00 - 39 minutes - 27.5 MBAlthough I have added this as a podcast episode, you might be better off watching the video of me going through the spreadsheet tabs discussed here! Or grab the files below and travel the journey with me.. https://youtu.be/PljB6IBZW2w Part 3 is a walkthrough of generating a Risk and Issue Log that you can download and use/abuse at your leisure. Here's the links to those files as promised: Excel https://1drv.ms/x/s!Aqnki7UtWwaHrWlhLwLMNYCyOKyu?e=TGjb0E Google Sheets https://docs.google.com/...
1.1 Risk Management for Game Producers
May 23, 2020 11:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBA general chat around risk management for those involved in making video games. This is an introduction to the topic and is aimed at game producers. Topics covered include: - Why should you take risks and issues more seriously when making a game? - What does risk management in the gaming world look like? - What are risks and issues anyway? - Why Risk and Issue logs are so useful - How to tie in to Leadership meetings to really make this all useful - Complexity of game making affecting risk...
1.2 Risk & Issues Examples for Game Producers
May 23, 2020 11:00 - 41 minutes - 28.4 MBPart 2 goes into more detail on actual risk and issue examples. I have based the categories on the only current academic research I could find on the topic. You can read that in full here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262250152_Risk_Management_in_Video_Game_Development_Projects Topics covered in Part 2 include: 02:39 High level risks 06:19 Staffing risks 12:32 Schedule & Budget Risks 19:20 Inadequate specs (I decided to skip talking about Design specs here as that deserves its o...