Why People From Small Towns Make Good Video Game Producers
Growing up in my small, isolated town, it didn’t even occur to me that there were people who made video games until I was almost thirteen. More importantly, I didn’t know there was a job called producer, much less what a producer does. Although I didn’t grow up thinking this was my dream job, there are several ways that living in a small town prepared for the responsibilities of a producer.
In one of my production classes, our professor gave a few short guidelines for how to be a producer. Every class we start off with these reminders to remember what our priorities are. There are a couple of guidelines that I can relate directly back to my upbringing in the middle of nowhere.
Get Shit Done On Time
As much as I adore Hallmark movies, they have it wrong. They always show the city slicker girl coming in and loving the slow-paced country life, but life in the country is anything but slow. Small towns demand punctuality. If you are late to meet someone, you can’t blame it on traffic. They just drove the exact same road you did and there was nothing on it but a dead raccoon.
There are less believable excuses when it comes to not reaching your goals. You can’t blame your lack of competence on outsides forces because your stakeholder or their cousin is probably your next-door neighbor and can see you sunning by the pool when you have work that was due last week.
Small towns hold you accountable to yourself. You can’t put things off or make excuses. The only action item is to do the work and do it on time or else people you don’t want to know about your procrastination will hear about it. Your reputation sticks to you and you will lose opportunities.
Keep Your Team ‘Fed’
Unfortunately, this does not mean keep a stock of chips and cookies readily available. Producers need to keep their teams working and supply them with the assets and information they need to do their job. There will be times where some teams don’t have a lot of work on the backlog and producers will need to keep them productive.
My town didn’t have any specialized hobby or craft stores. When my friends and I wanted to take up a hobby or make something for school spirit, we would have to wait several days or more until we were able to get the supplies we needed. We learned not to be idle in this time period. We would do extensive planning for our crafts or dive deep into research to learn as much as we needed to executive a craft perfectly so when we finally obtained the materials we desired, we could jump into it without hesitation.
A good example is Haberdasher’s proof of concept technology milestone. We had a team full of Level Designers with no assets or direction to build levels. With my Level Design lead, we launched a small campaign to collaborate on paper maps and do quick prototyping in the engine with them. By doing these paper maps, the level designers were able to keep their creative energies high and get into a workflow even though we didn’t have any actual assets for them to work with. It also helped because it meant every Level Designer had the opportunity to present their ideas to the team.
The ability to get shit done and keep stakeholders aware while people still like you
This is something tough to learn. Yes, there is usually a quick and efficient way to accomplish a goal, but you might have to piss off a few people to do it. You chose this option and you may never build back those bridges you burned. On the other hand, if you take the time to assess personalities and what people want and appreciate, you can be much better off.
Picture this: it’s your first day of high school. You are feeling great, got all your buddies in your first class of the day, but oh no, you are too excited and ignore the teacher when they try to call the class to attention. You roll your eyes when they get mad. You just made an enemy. In a bigger school or area, this would probably suck for a couple of months, but in a small town, there’s only about one or two teachers to a subject. Chances are, you will have that teacher for a class nearly every semester until you graduate. Do not piss them off or your life will be hell.
As many country songs lament, everyone is famous in a small town. If you do something stupid, everyone will know (Like seriously, I can’t stress this enough). As you grow, you have to learn to be more diplomatic in your actions to help protect and save the connections you make.
Beyond these lessons, a person learns to care about their neighbor. A person isn’t born kind but learns about the people around them. Producers may not have to be nice to do their job, but it surely helps the lives of the people who work alongside them. Small towns may be small, but they have more than enough to offer those who are willing to learn.
