W.Soft

My apologies - after writing the first of a series of articles, the whirlwind of life took control of all my time. Crazy work hours and my first child have filled my time. Recently, I was interviewed for GameCareerGuide.com and it occurred to me that the discussion covers a large part of what I've intended to write.

The link is here: http://gamecareerguide.com/features/486/without_a_specialty_the_other_.php and I've pasted the article below.

Without a Specialty: The "Other" Skills Needed to Make Games

In college, at the University of Michigan, Eduardo Baraf was incredulous that there was no dedicated game development organization on campus. So he started one. It was called Wolverine Soft, and it's still alive at the university today.

However, when he started the group, Baraf didn't necessarily know what his contribution might be, because he wasn't a natural artist and didn't really see himself as a programmer either. But he wanted to make games and this would be the start of it. Since then, he's grown through a number of roles, from QA lead, to designer, to producer, to studio head.

In this interview, he talks about how his path through the industry came to be, particularly as a person who was initially worried that he didn't have a proven skill or talent. He shares his advice with other aspiring game developers who are as yet unclear about where they will best fit into the profession.

GameCareerGuide.com: I was hoping you'd tell the story of how Wolverine Soft came to be. How did it start?

Eduardo Baraf: As a kid, video games were my passion. I played games, followed the industry, and dreamed of making my own games. Unfortunately, since I wasn't an artist or an engineer, the best I thought I could do was sit around with other gamer friends and design hypothetical, impossible, best-game-of-all-time games.

When I was accepted to the University of Michigan, I was thrilled. I figured there would be tons of people making games on campus (30,000 students) and a bunch of organizations dedicated to creating games. To my surprise, the only video game related club was the Dr. Mario Club, which literally was a group of people who got together and played Dr. Mario. There were a few engineering groups on campus, but none of them were focused on video games.

Again, lacking any demonstrated skill toward creating a video game, I decided the only thing I could do was start my own group and find designers, artists, engineers, audio designers, and other gamers like myself to make games. At the U of M, you need five people to start a group, so I recruited a range of friends with different skill sets and filled out the paperwork.

We flyered the campus and our first mass meeting brought in 20 or 30 people. It turned out I wasn't the only one looking for a chance to jump into the game industry.

GCG: With Wolverine Soft, you developed a PC game -- tell us about it. Was that the first title you developed or had you worked on independent or hobby projects before then?

EB: Creating a video game from scratch is not an easy process especially with a group of first-time developers. It is even harder with a group of students who have classes, mid-term exams, and other activities. Development at Wolverine Soft was challenging the first few years until we really understood the process as an institution.

One of the key components to the success of the organization during those years was a focus on development, but also embracing the group's love of games. We posted reviews, ran tournaments, brought in industry speakers, and generally did everything we could that related to games outside of development.

Our first project was a 2D, top-down, RPG called Crisis Wolverine: Insurrection Green, which was based on campus life. Evil MSU students were trying to take over the U of M, and a group of campus stereotypes (jocks, druggies, sorority girls, nerds, etcetera) needed to stop them. Imagine Revenge of the Nerds meets Final Fantasy on your Super Nintendo. Concepting the game was easy, but the engineering came slowly. The team was large (about 15), but none of us really knew what we were doing. Progress was slow.

At the same time, there was also a large group in W.Soft who wanted to work on 3D games. After some group discussions Crisis Wolverine was shelved (for the time being), and we moved to 3D Scorched Earth, renamed to Burnt Planet after Wendell Hicken sent a cease and desist. As we already had a prototype actively being downloaded from Download.com, we made a lot more progress. Still, with the departure of the lead engineer, who graduated, this title stalled, too.

At this point, I was in Japan for a year, and the group focused on a few small prototype-like projects and worked on further strengthening the organization. When I returned, I was energized and started up work on Crisis Wolverine again. We were using RPG Maker and had a group of dedicated developers. We still suffered some of the same problems from year one, but the team was weathered and motivated to complete.

We completed the title the following spring and distributed it throughout campus. The game was a hit, is still actively downloaded, and has since spawned a sequel.

GCG: I know you worked as a tester at Atari and then worked your way up quickly to be lead tester. What did you learn from those experiences?

EB: Working QA at a large publisher teaches you a lot. I had always played games, but testing them builds your eye for polish and defects, and develops your understanding of games as a product.

Testing a game that isn't complete taught me about the development process and how a title comes together. I saw engineering issues, art issues, design issues, and how they were resolved and integrated into the build. At a large publisher, I also got the opportunity to play games from countless developers and different genres, many of which I will never touch again. I believe this gave me a much wider breadth of game design and development understanding.

While working at Atari, I also had the chance to work on site with Epic in North Carolina on Unreal Tournament 2004 and with Firaxis Games in Maryland on Sid Meier's Pirates. Both of these experiences gave me an opportunity to see the big boys at work.

Aside from all the test and game playing experience I gained, I also learned about the bureaucracy and process of a publisher, wrote countless emails to producers and creative services, worked with management, ran large teams of testers, and supervised the department. All these tasks built my skills as a producer, a communicator, and a manager.

GCG: After your time in the QA department, your job titles started to lean toward project management and production roles. What made you head in that direction?

EB: Actually, I would say my work at Wolverine Soft and Theorysoft had me pointed toward project management and production roles. My experiences in QA simply gave me the foundation in product testing and industry understanding that put me in a position to apply those skills professionally. I've always been caught halfway between design roles and production roles, but as much as I believe I'm a solid designer, I know I am an outstanding producer.

As cliché as it is, when I was running development on Crisis Wolverine and Dark Alloy, I instantly knew that working with talented individuals to create something fun and compelling was what I wanted to be doing for the rest of my life.

GCG: When we spoke earlier, you mentioned that when you were a child, you didn't necessarily feel like you had a talent that you could show to other people; you weren't a sports star or a natural artist or a musical genius. But in the workplace as an adult, you found you were extremely good at producer-like roles, which are jobs that don't really have a demonstrable talent associated with them either. Can you talk a little bit about this? How did you know you were right for a producer position?

EB: Yeah, as a kid I felt as if I wasn't good at anything. There was no skill I had that I could demonstrate to other people to wow them. It actually depressed me for a long time -- I was driven but without outlet.

Again, as mentioned above, I didn't realize I was good at being a producer or wanted to be a producer until I was doing it at the U of M. Looking back to when I was in high school, there were many things I did which I know now to be production skills. I was a big talker and found myself moving between different types of high school groups easily. I had a mix of friends from athletes, to academic heads, to punks, to gamers. I was comfortable communicating and associating with all of them.

Even though I never really strived to be a straight A student, I was very organized with my work and got along with most of my teachers. I was a self-starter and each year I had some new "business" to make money to buy video games. Over the years, I had small gigs shoveling driveways, catering parties, and cleaning garages.

When you're young, none of these skills pop out at you as being impressive (unless you happen to strike it big), but they are all signs of production skills.

GCG: What advice do you have for other students and industry newcomers who aren't sure yet what talents they have that pertain to video game development? How can they figure out their strengths and then demonstrate them?

EB: If you're an artist, engineer, or audio designer, chances are you know what skills you have and how to apply them to getting yourself into the game industry. If you have design skills, production skills, or marketing and management skills, it can be much more difficult to wrap your brain around.

My advice is:

Game and follow the game industry. Easy stuff. Everyone has their favorite review site (IGN, Gamespot, 1-UP) but don't forget digest sites like Kotaku.com or industry insider sites like Gamasutra.com and Next-Gen.biz. Be passionate, and be an expert.

Get involved with a group making a game or a mod. Groups like this can be found everywhere from high school and beyond. It doesn't matter if you can't model or use action script. Get involved with the design, the web site, testing -- whatever. The more you are exposed to game development, the more opportunities you will have and the sooner you will figure out your place in the process.

Look for internships with small developers or large publishers. One summer I was able to get an internship at GT Interactive, a publisher and distributor of games, in the marketing department. I have no interest in marketing, but it was a chance to see how that aspect of the industry did business. I still have contacts from that experience. While at Mind Control Software, where I was the studio head, I brought on dozens of interns from high school and college to help out. Some tested, some helped with operations, and some helped the art team. I think they all learned a ton about making games.

Consider QA. While it's not the most luxurious job, and certainly not a requirement to get a position in production, it is a great opportunity to learn about the innards of the game industry. I hired three producers while running Mind Control Software and all of them had a background in QA.

Work hard, have a good attitude, and learn to network. They may just be your friends in college or your bodies in QA, but they'll move into the industry as you do and become peers at other companies (and potential employers).

Get any job. Unless you have an amazing art portfolio or your own game demo, a company is much more likely to hire an employee that has previous work experience in a professional atmosphere than someone straight from school.

GCG: What are the job prospects for someone who wants to become a producer at the entry level? What do they have to do or show before they're ready to apply? What kinds of previous experience might be seen as a bonus in an associate producer applicant?

EB: Things have changed as the game industry has become an $18 billion a year industry. Projects are larger and more complex, and there's more and more pressure for them to be delivered on time and on budget. As such, developers and publishers are increasing production presence on a team.

For many companies, production assistants, assistant producers, associate producers, team coordinators, and junior designers are entry-level positions. Internships are regularly available, and QA departments are frequently farmed for production talent. 

Any experience leading a team, running an organization, or working with cross-discipline talent is a plus. Any experience working in a team environment or a game or multimedia project is a plus. QA experience is a plus.

GCG: What do you think are the benefits of being a producer?

EB: Being a producer gives you the opportunity to work on games and work with talented specialists. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better than seeing a project move from cradle to grave and being the glue that gets it through the process.

Also, more than other groups (QA aside), producers are often able to work on multiple titles at once. This is great for your resume but also helps break up your workload.

As a producer, everything you do improves one of your skill sets, whether it is communication, management, or organization skills. Producers can often progress upward in the industry at a faster rate than some specialist-based skills.

Another benefit is that production is often the path to upper management and executive positions.

And while many developers would argue this is a bad thing, being a producer usually means you have a lot of influence over the design and look of a game. The process of managing scope and meeting client expectation leaves freedom to design.

GCG: What is the most challenging part of being a producer? What are the un-fun parts of the job?

EB: Waiting and having to be patient. As someone who "does nothing" in the development process, producers often find themselves waiting for a build, or an asset, or an engineering task to be completed. It's critical that a producer learns how to work with his developers and knows when to hound and when things just take time. Everything else can be challenging but nothing's outrageous. Many producers have a challenging time with confrontation and personnel issues.

GCG: Tell us something about working in game development that you wish you had known a year ago.

EB: This is a hard question. I'm always learning new things about development and production. Every new person you work with requires a new nuance of management and production skills.

If anything, I would say that I wish I knew I would hate working from home a year ago. My most recent position requires a lot of contractor management and high level development and documentation. One of the plus sides of this was that I was able to work from home for an extended period of time. The thing is, I can't stand it. As much as I'm good at production and client management, the thing I enjoy most is working with other people in a collaborative office environment.

GCG: What games are you playing now?

EB: Having just had a son, this is a bad time to ask me that question. I was raised on Nintendo so I still love playing their franchises (most recently Super Mario Galaxy). I'm an active PC gamer and most recently have enjoyed The Orange Box and World of Warcraft (thrilled for Star Craft 2).  I also have been playing a lot of NY Times Crosswords on the DS with my wife.

When I can't play games to completion, I do my best to stay current with the major titles on all consoles, reading reviews, playing demos or the first few levels of a game. Lastly, I do my best to stay current in the casual space.

Note: views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and are not necessarily those of Wolverine Soft.