WHAT DOES A GAME PRODUCER DO?

Published: Apr 18, 2025 – The Game Producer defines the game vision and leads strategic planning to guide teams, ensuring smooth execution and successful delivery. This position manages all phases of game production from concept to live operations, balancing scope, quality, budget, and timeline. The producer also analyzes player data and market trends to optimize performance, boost engagement, and drive profitability.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Game Producer

1. Game Producer Accountabilities

  • Game Production Management: Manage the production of visually compelling, high-quality slot games  
  • Development Strategy: Define a development strategy for projects  
  • Project Planning: Plan and oversee every game development project  
  • Process Improvement: Improve processes and adapt to team needs  
  • Team Coordination: Coordinate and drive a global creative, design, and technology team to compose quality games within expected time frames  
  • Documentation Management: Create and manage all game production documentation  
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work with the Project Manager to drive all functional output of game production (Creative, Math/Game Design, Engineering, QA)  
  • Outsourcing Management: Manage the deliverables of any 3rd party sources for game production assets or components  
  • Game Launch Oversight: Oversee the launch of the game across distribution channels in coordination with supporting functions (ITO, Account Managers, Marketing)  
  • Performance Evaluation: Contribute to post-launch game performance evaluation and retrospectives for future game quality and development improvement  
  • Process Development: Continuously improve and develop the game development process and best practices  
  • Quality and Efficiency Improvement: Contribute to improving the quality of games, the productivity of teams, and the efficiency of processes

2. Game Producer Functions

  • Result Delivery: Delivering high-quality results, taking features and initiatives from concept to release and beyond.  
  • Roadmap Planning: Collaborating with the game team and the Senior Producer to create a roadmap of engaging game updates.  
  • Team Leadership: Leading and motivating cross-functional feature teams to create amazing features.  
  • Scope and Schedule Management: Working with the development team to have tough discussions on feature scope, quality, and schedule.  
  • Risk Management: Proactively identifying production issues and risks and taking appropriate steps to resolve them.  
  • Stakeholder Coordination: Working with partners in Licensing, Marketing, Community, and Customer Support to ensure every update has a great reception.  
  • Player Insight: Gaining a deep understanding of games and staying in touch with the needs of player communities.  
  • KPI Monitoring: Monitoring game KPIs and ensuring new updates are engaging and retaining players around the world, as well as executing on business objectives.  
  • Live Game Adaptability: Embracing change by building flexible plans and dealing with the unexpected in a live-game environment.  
  • Team Coordination: Coordinating internal and external teams  
  • Team Mentorship: Mentoring Associate Producers and helping grow and develop the production team.  
  • Team Collaboration: Creating and nurturing a climate of collaboration and excellence with the team.

3. Game Producer Job Description

  • Monetization Strategy: Develop a rationale in the form of a library of gameplay options and strategies focusing on monetization  
  • Team Collaboration: Report to the Development Director and collaborate with the game production cells  
  • Multi-project Management: Work on multiple games, from pre-production through launch and into live operations  
  • Production Leadership: Organize and lead the processes necessary for the production team to focus on creating games  
  • Product Launch Oversight: Ensure products launch and operate successfully and on budget  
  • Project Delivery Management: Ensure projects are completed on time, on budget, and to quality targets, and have the tough conversations necessary to rebalance those goals  
  • Release Coordination: Coordinate the team's day-to-day work to find out which releases and updates will be of value to players  
  • Production Efficiency: Ensure that the team completes the entire ideation and production process efficiently  
  • Resource Planning: Work closely with stakeholders and technical leaders to determine the time and people needed to bring a project to completion  
  • Project Planning: Create and maintain project plans, timelines, and roadmaps, considering and anticipating dependencies to ensure successful launches  
  • Stakeholder Communication: Communicate project status, keeping stakeholders aware of potential risks and impacts of future releases  
  • Vision Alignment: Reinforce the project vision and schedule with the team, dialoging daily to keep everyone aligned with the Product objectives  
  • Industry Awareness: Seek to be updated on other companies and games

4. Game Producer Overview

  • Project Coordination: Work with the Lead Game Designers and the Development Director to meet project scope and milestone schedule  
  • SOW Preparation: Prepare a relevant statement of work for Game Developers  
  • KPI Monitoring: Monitor KPI performance for released games and work with the team to continually update and add features that improve their performance  
  • Postmortem Analysis: Participate in the analysis of successes and failures of games and the planning of the next round of titles to be developed  
  • Live Ops Maintenance: Live Ops maintenance patches for released projects  
  • Platform Management: Console platform management (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony)  
  • QA Supervision: Supervise the Porting's and QA's validation processes and queues  
  • Product Roadmapping: Collaborate with the team to build out product roadmaps for all titles  
  • Playtesting and Feedback: Facilitate and review internal play testing of games, obtain player feedback, and provide suggestions to improve overall game quality  
  • Post-launch Improvement: Utilize analytics and player feedback to make product improvements after launch  
  • Feature Accountability: Accountable for the product and quality of in-game features, including KPI development and backlog, and roadmap  
  • Performance Management: Manage and improve work systems, team performance metrics, and goal setting  
  • Risk Mitigation: Identify misalignment areas in development and develop risk mitigation plans

5. Game Producer Details and Accountabilities

  • Strategic Direction: Set the strategic direction and vision to create the best games by inspiring and motivating teams to achieve their best in the best possible environment  
  • Decision-Making Ownership: Own the decision-making process for all aspects of the games  
  • Vision Execution: Turn vision into ideas, ideas into exciting and successful games  
  • Market Awareness: Be highly familiar with the best product, game design philosophies, and market trends to constantly elevate standards  
  • Vision Execution Management: Drive the effective, smooth execution of the vision  
  • Game Quality Oversight: Oversee game quality, balance, and overall experience  
  • Documentation Creation: Create design documents, wireframes, user flows, and clear feature documentation  
  • Product Roadmapping: Craft and deliver on the product roadmap, such as milestones, deadlines, task prioritization, live operations plan, product backlog management, etc.  
  • Game Operation Management: Ship and operate the game, orchestrating the balance between scope, quality, budget, and schedule  
  • Data Analysis: Analyze data and make meaningful recommendations on game features and improvements  
  • Profit and Loss Management: Manage the game’s Profit and Loss, forecasting, budgeting, and business decisions  
  • KPI Optimization: Analyze and optimize KPIs, UA performance, user testing, lifecycle management, live ops, CRM, and overall retention, engagement, and monetization  
  • Third-party Tools Management: Participate in the management of third-party technology and tools (business intelligence, analytics, A/B testing)

6. Game Producer Additional Details

  • Team Management: Manage, motivate, and serve cross-functional mobile game development teams  
  • Feature Development Oversight: Oversee full feature development cycles, from pre-production to live operations  
  • Project Planning: Create and manage project plans and schedules to yield efficient results of key deliverables  
  • Live Product Management: Manage live products and features post-launch, including theming, writing copy, and maintaining a product-driven vision for live operations events  
  • Process Improvement: Uphold internal production process and procedure while proactively assisting with their improvement  
  • Market Research: Research and keep up with mobile game market trends, patterns, and best practices  
  • KPI Development: Develop, maintain, and publish project KPIs that track project quality, delivery, and predictability  
  • Stakeholder Communication: Establish regular communication with the team and key stakeholders to provide project status updates and to ensure quality standards are upheld  
  • Process Control: Control development processes and plan project development  
  • Gameplay Concept Creation: Create and evaluate core gameplay concepts for games  
  • Cross-department Communication: Communicate with heads and managers of the UA, BI, and Marketing departments  
  • Game Quality Improvement: Improve the game quality at all the development stages

7. Senior Game Producer Essential Functions

  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Work collaboratively with a team of designers, programmers, and artists to clearly define features' scope and schedule  
  • Development Communication: Effectively communicate the development plan to all team members  
  • Impediment Resolution: Facilitate the collaboration between areas, working to solve any impediments hindering the development progress  
  • Daily Activity Management: Manage the team's day-to-day activities and track the development progress  
  • Developer Coordination: Maintain close communication with developers to ensure they meet deadlines, objectives, and quality standards  
  • Stakeholder Communication: Maintain close communication with the project stakeholders and ensure the product vision is clear for the team  
  • Team Motivation: Keep close attention to the team morale and work to keep the team motivated  
  • Feature Development Cycle Management: Manage the entire feature development cycle, from creative concepts to release  
  • Update Production Management: Manage the production of updates and schedules for the ongoing development  
  • Vision Crafting: Work with the executive management team and the game teams to craft the vision for the title, its content, and its systems  
  • New Feature Initiation: Work with the executive management team, the game teams, and the marketing team to initiate new systems and features  
  • Market Analysis and Ideation: Analyze the market for upcoming trends and ideate new games by combining addictive game loops with smart monetization

8. Game Producer Role Purpose

  • Brand Alignment: Fully understand the Business Division’s current brand development strategy and determine the game’s direction and style based on the BD’s product strategy  
  • Framework Design: Be responsible for designing the core framework of the game product and promoting the project establishment  
  • Gameplay and Systems Design: Be responsible for the core gameplay and systems design  
  • Development Environment Setup: Build an environment for game development and help improve production workflows  
  • Game Design Quality Management: Be responsible for managing the quality of overall game design (including core gameplay, system, stats, etc.) and detailed user experiences  
  • Business Model Development: Be responsible for developing the game’s business model  
  • Team Leadership: Lead a team of members to ensure the project objectives and deliverables are achieved  
  • Talent Development: Attract, develop, and inspire high performers and create a culture that motivates and retains talent required for success  
  • Market Analysis: Analyse and judge market (potential) demand to determine product direction, the core gameplay, target user positioning, etc.  
  • Project Management: Draw up and develop a project, analyze the scope of the project, and manage the high-quality project, able to solve problems during the project  
  • Resource Coordination: Set up a project team and coordinate the integration of internal resources, and ensure that the project is implemented  
  • Milestone Tracking: Initiate and track all processes, ensure timely delivery of milestones while safeguarding the quality of work  
  • Team Training and Motivation: Train and motivate the team to improve the quality of games, the productivity of teams, and maximize team members’ potential and passion

9. Game Producer General Responsibilities

  • Beta Planning: Drive the planning and coordination for the team's Beta/Flighting efforts  
  • Test Program Management: Partner with internal and external teams to help build and maintain a predictable Beta/Flighting Test Program for releases and products in development  
  • Playbook Creation: Create and maintain the Beta/Flighting Test playbook  
  • Participant Onboarding: Create and maintain the process for selecting and onboarding participants  
  • Feedback Integration: Create and maintain the process for collecting feedback and integrating it into workstreams  
  • Workflow Tracking: Track multiple workflows in parallel, anticipating issues and proactively resolving them  
  • Cross-team Collaboration: Build relationships with internal teams as well as with external partners, delivering a coordinated effort on overlapping work and creating solutions where conflict arises  
  • Player Experience Design: Define player-facing presentation and flow of electronic table games to achieve best-in-class player experience  
  • Player Advocacy: Oversee and guide the development teams during the design and implementation of games, representing the player’s perspective  
  • UI Feedback Integration: Incorporate player feedback into the user interface  
  • Vision Documentation: Work with project management, game and platform developers, and product management to develop and document the overall vision, scope, and high-level requirements of projects, and regularly provide checkpoints for feedback  
  • Risk Management: Work with the project manager to identify and communicate project risks and instigate contingency plans  
  • Project Pitching: Craft and deliver compelling and comprehensive project pitches, in collaboration with game teams

10. Game Producer Duties and Roles

  • Roadmap Coordination: Coordinate with leads to update the project roadmap and long-term feature schedule to ensure that project goals are completed on time  
  • Meeting Management: Effectively schedule and drive meetings, assess prior requirements, and ensure goals are clear and followed up on  
  • Risk Resolution: Identify, escalate, and help resolve risks that may be blocking the team from hitting their goals  
  • Milestone Communication: Understand and communicate project milestones, deadlines, risks, and stakeholder feedback to team members and studio leadership  
  • Leadership: Lead by example while looking for positive solutions to all problems  
  • Requirement Gathering: Help define, collect, and organize requirements with new projects developed with multiple stakeholders, including external partners, business, development, and operational teams  
  • Goal Alignment: Ensure that the goals, scope, and product/delivery domain are understood by everyone involved  
  • Team Coordination: Coordinate with internal and external teams to ensure every goal has clear ownership, that dependencies and timelines are clearly defined and understood  
  • Delivery Monitoring: Follow up with each team and the project owner to ensure delivery is on time, in scope, and approved by the project owner  
  • Team Assessment: Assess the team's maturity, health, and composition to ensure that the team is set up for success  
  • Relationship Building: Build strong relationships with partner teams and craft working agreements to manage joint projects  
  • Cross-functional Ideation: Create and contribute ideas to areas beyond the immediate ownership across different teams and disciplines  
  • Change Management: Track and manage with the project owner any change requests in scope and deliveries, including late or cancelled deliveries, and facilitate and provide guidance on how to resolve any conflicts in regards to those changes
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