{"id":99858,"date":"2019-09-06T18:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T18:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/350240"},"modified":"2019-09-06T18:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T18:48:00","slug":"dont-miss-gdc-has-launched-a-new-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/06\/dont-miss-gdc-has-launched-a-new-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Miss: GDC has launched a new podcast!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant Shonkwiler<\/a> is a rising star of video game production, having worked on games including Doom<\/em>, Wolfenstein: The New Order<\/em>, and Fortnite.<\/em> He joined Gamasutra editor-in-chief Kris Graft and news editor Alissa McAloon on the newly-minted GDC Podcast.<\/p>\n

Listen now on iTunes<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, and Spotify<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shonkwiler, who recently joined GDC’s advisory board and runs his own consultancy, Shonkventures<\/a>, allowed us to pick his large brain about being an effective leader and producer. He also talked to us about going on sabbatical and becoming a farmer\u2026Here are some highlights.<\/p>\n

GDC Podcast music by Mike Meehan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think [a producer’s role in regards to crunch] is about helping teams understand why it exists, more than it is to eliminate it.<\/strong> I think that is often a goal \u2013 \u201clet\u2019s eliminate crunch\u201d \u2013 but what I can help [you do] is not just straight eliminate crunch, but help you understand why crunch exists.<\/p>\n

…Usually [overwork] isn\u2019t about deadlines. It\u2019s about mis-scoping\u2026you get to a point where you\u2019re like, \u201cI can\u2019t cut anything.\u201d Ok, but can we limit things just a little bit? Can we focus on things differently, and understand that? As producers, it\u2019s our responsibility to make sure our team doesn\u2019t have to crunch or overwork, ever.<\/strong> So if we get to a point where [our teams] are doing that, then ultimately we\u2019ve failed.<\/strong> I know that can sound a little bit harsh\u2026but we have to kind of stand up [to higher-ups] and say \u201cNo, this is the cost \u2013 the human cost \u2013 of what we\u2019re doing, and here\u2019s possible solutions and ways to work through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most important thing\u2026is your communication skills. You have to be able to communicate with people at their level and in their language. <\/strong>I recommend all my junior producers to learn a little bit about coding, learn a little bit about design, art. I\u2019m not asking them to become those things, but at least be able to speak the language.<\/p>\n

I often tell them to do the thing I do, which is like, \u201cI\u2019m not a senior artist \u2013 can you explain to me like I\u2019m five [years old] what mipmaps are,\u201d or whatever it might be. You want start to progress to the point where you\u2019re not interrupting meetings because you don\u2019t understand. So communication is the first one.<\/p>\n

The second one is just understanding that people are people, and that is ultimately our job. Our job is people first. <\/strong>So focus on people and make sure they have everything they need. Another thing I tell people when they become producers or junior producers is, \u201cCongratulations, you\u2019re now the lowest of the low.\u201d People think producers are high up at companies because we\u2019re the people doing a lot of [press] interviews and stuff. That\u2019s actually because the important people can\u2019t stop working to come do the interviews!<\/p>\n

So I say our job is anything from getting coffee to making big decisions. And we do that for everybody, even if they\u2019re considered more junior than us on the org chart. I tell people in a lot of ways, you\u2019re a servant, you\u2019re a butler, and you\u2019re also a little bit of a camp counselor, because people come to you and complain.<\/p>\n

Those are the core basics. If people can understand that, I can teach them how to be at least a decent leader\u2026If you\u2019re not a good communicator and you don\u2019t understand people on a basic level, then you\u2019re really going to struggle to be a producer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first common mistake that I see from people is this over-strict adherence to rules that they\u2019ve created in their own brain. <\/strong>What I mean by that is like, \u201cWe have to be by the letter with scrum or agile, and we have to make sure that we\u2019re doing this.\u201d And that tends to be to the detriment of the team. If we go back to what I said are the core tenets of being a producer, which is about communicating and being this facilitator and a person who\u2019s focused on people, scrum and agile tend to cause a lot of problems when they first come in, and people get angry and frustrated.<\/p>\n

What I say is\u2026we call it \u201cbeachheading\u201d a new practice, where you take a small group of people, and you have them learn that practice, and they can change it based on your studio culture. Then they are your champions bring it out to the rest of the team. So that\u2019s one of the main things I tend to see, is that people are like, \u201cwe decided to become agile, and here\u2019s our super-strict ruleset,\u201d and they bring it in and everything breaks, then everybody\u2019s heads are on fire.<\/p>\n

\u2026The main thing that I usually help my clients focus on is making sure that the team understands why changes are being made, making sure the team understands the goals of that, and then making sure the team actually understands what they want out of these changes.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full episode on iTunes<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, or Spotify<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

For more details on GDC 2020 – taking place March 16-20 in San Francisco – visit the show’s official website<\/a>, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, or RSS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent Informa Tech<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Shonkwiler is a rising star of video game production, having worked on games including Doom, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Fortnite. He joined Gamasutra editor-in-chief Kris Graft and news editor Alissa McAloon on the newly-minted GDC Podcast. Listen now on iTunes, Google Play Music, and Spotify Shonkwiler, who recently joined GDC’s advisory board and runs his own consultancy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}