My Production Philosophy

This Philosophy is founded on three pillars: People First Mentality; Sturdy, Efficient Conversations; and a Non-Newtonian Fluid Scheduling System. Overall, I strive to effectively support teams with these pillars to keep people motivated, informed, and prepared.

People First Mentality

Check-in with my team over the course of a project. I take the first value of the Agile Manifesto "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools" very seriously. My check-ins will take place with team members as a group and individually on how they are progressing with tasks and see where I can provide support at every stage of the game development process.
Use a holistic approach with check-ins. While it is important to stay on task, people are more than just the work they do. I'll ask not just "How are you doing?" but "How are you feeling?". This helps me to view the overall morale of the team, and whether or not we need to rebuild motivation.
As I do production work, I keep this quote from Kristen Halloran (who I had an amazing opportunity to talk to about their work as a producer) in mind: "You have to meet people where they are at and work with them through whatever they are going through."

Sturdy, Effective Conversations

Call meetings with purpose and agenda in mind, and I won't invite members to the meeting who won't gain anything from being there.
During meetings, keep the conversation on topic as much as possible, and make sure everyone who wants to provide input is heard.
Ask questions for anything that doesn't seem clear until I fully understand. How does this work? What does that mean? Continuous growth is key!
Maintain a safe space to ask questions about anything (no such thing as dumb questions).
Be constructively honest. Another quote from Kristen Halloran that I keep in mind for this point was when they told me to ask myself "What do I want to be told if i was in that situation?”
Take a page out of the book of improv! Finding connection and common ground with others to understand where they are coming from and meet them there. "Yes, and!"

Non-Newtonian Fluid Scheduling System

Firstly, a Non-Newtonian fluid is something that is both solid and fluid at the same time. In elementary school, you might have made a form of Non-Newtonian fluid called Oobleck!
Like how Oobleck is both solid and fluid at once, I try to schedule milestones ahead of a planned deadline so that we have wiggle room. This wiggle room can be used for any issues that arise and need more time to fix, rebuilding motivation or morale, and a transition period if we happen to finish a milestone early. With this mindset, I am able to follow the Agile Manifesto's last value "responding to change over following a plan" quite easily.
My production process is actually extremely similar to Jenn Sandercock's. She describes it in an article written by Danielle Riendeau as, "start[ing] with a gray box or thumbnail version of the entire game that was fully playable just three months after [her team] started pre-production. [They would] then work...to improve all of [their] art and animation. And [they would] repeat...this as many times as [they] could..." This is understanding of MVP is reflective of Henrik Kniberg's skateboard method visualization. Working with this kind of MVP/Early Testable Product production cycle (barebones but functional gameplay then building upon it) is the most effective game development process I have worked with.

Thank you to Kristen Halloran, Jenn Sandercock, Henrik Kniberg, Rebeccah Bassell, Abby Sherlock, and Aaron Thibault for sharing their production secrets.