Get That Job Daily: How to be an art producer

As part of our New Year, New Job 2014 special, the Develop team will be calling on industry experts to define the various roles available in games development and how to pursue them.

We aim to bring you a new Get That Job profile every working day of this month, starting with today’s look at a role that bridges the gap between creativity and management.

Art Producer

As well as contributing to the artistic vision of a game in development, art producers are also responsible for the day-to-day management of the art teams. This can range from setting the schedule for the production of art assets to organising art review meetings to periodically ensure the game’s design is consistent.

Crucial skills for an art producer include working effectively with other teams, such as coding and animation, and a strong understanding of art pipelines, as well as the associated technical limitations.

CD Projekt Red’s art producer Michal Stec claims there are three key qualities studios require from people in this position.

“Know your game: The enormous number of dependencies in game dev make it extremely important to know the game you’re making inside-out. Read, watch, talk and, above all, play.

“Empower others: You can’t do everything by yourself; make team members responsible for key parts of the development process. Trust the judgement of your team and praise them when their work deserves it. All this will give you extra time to look at the bigger picture and mitigate risk.

“Always tell the truth to the team: People need to trust you in every aspect of their work. Respect them and always be honest, no matter how bad things get. They’ll depend on you to deal with problems, and you’ll be there to take care of them. Just let them know that.”

If you want to get involved with Get That Job Daily, please email Aaron.Lee@intentmedia.co.uk. You can take a look at the Art/Animation vacancies available over at our Develop Jobs section.