Lifting a tip of the veil: The Production Interview Process

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Jess Avelsgaard interviewing guest Linda Tiger, Paradox Development Studio Black’s Studio Manager.

The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth.

A production thought leader with a love for knowledge-sharing, Linda joined the games industry as a QA Tester in 2002 and has since then been involved in over 30 titles - in production roles since 2008 and for the past 2 years as studio manager at Paradox Development Studio’s Studio Black.

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our Event Producers Angela Dachowski & Jess Avelsgaard and our Supporters ♡

Resources Cited & Recommended

• India GDC Talk on Knowledge & Experience Sharing Initiative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLACDo-Oy4&list=PLup45nWHfVmVBOOv0LkcQPRHvjOTwg5zh&index=20&t=1s
• Leadership Course: UGL in English - All you need to know | UGL-guiden

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Katie Rössler, LPC. Burnout is on the rise and though we are talking about it, we’re not discussing how to prevent or recover from it. During this talk, we discussed what burnout symptoms actually look like, why more people are burning out now more than ever, and steps you can take to prevent it.

Katie Rössler is a licensed therapist specializing in burnout and hidden grief specialist. With 15 years of experience, she is shifting the way we think about and experience challenges in our lives and teaching us to transform our pain into our greatest empowerment.

You can find the Slides here: https://katierossler.com/burnout-culture-notes

You can find Katie through:

• https://katierossler.com/links
• https://katierossler.com/podcast
• https://katierossler.com/the-new-face-of-grief
• https://www.instagram.com/katie.rossler/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-r%C3%B6ssler-lpc-08501933/

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our event producer Albert Bassili & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Striking Distance.

Mae lifted a tip of the veil on the production interview process: How to decode a job description's qualifications and responsibilities to prepare for the questions a hiring manager may ask, and how to approach answering questions truthfully while showing your best self. Bonus: What should you ask in return?

* Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Striking Distance Studios. With over 10 years experience in training, recruiting, and mentoring in gaming, tech, and non-profits, Mae is an avid cosplayer who loves to help people reach their goals.

You can find the Slides here.

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our event producer Mike Thorn & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra & Angela Dachowski interviewing guest Claire Bromley.

The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth.

• Claire is a Producer at Criterion Games, and has an impressive 17 years of game industry experience across PlayStation Studio and EA. Starting in QA and moving over to Production in 2013, she's worked on a variety of AAA titles, including LittleBIGPlanet, Need For Speed and now Battlefield.

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our Event Producers Angela Dachowski & Jess Avelsgaard and our Supporters ♡

Resources Cited

• TED Talk by Casey Brown, “Know your worth, then ask for it”

#talk #AMA #interview #casestudy #gamedevelopment #gameproduction #production #producer #projectmanagement #productmanagement #management #business #businessdevelopment #videogames #computergames #games #indie #AAA #console #pc #mobile #learning #lifelonglearning #growthmindset #growth #professionaldevelopment #personalgrowth #career #careerdevelopment #leadership #community #mentoring #dei #diversity #equity #inclusion #belonging #culture #collaboration #cooperation #team #software #tools #methodology #difficultconversations #delegation #prioritisation #workrelaxationbalance #impostersyndrome

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guests Shams Jorjani, Maria Cornelius and Alex Bolle.

Our latest panel looked uniquely at a chain of three mentors/mentees as mentorship knowledge is passed down and refined across three generations. With Shams mentoring Maria and Maria mentoring Alex, the three panelists discussed their experiences and takeaways from mentorship across the spectrum of professional experience while giving you a framework (and a slight nudge) for taking on your own mentee(s)! The panel is also an excellent opportunity for mentees to understand how to leverage their relationship with their mentor effectively.

• Maria Cornelius, COO at Arrowhead Games Studios, bulldozer for positive change with a passion for developing the leaders of tomorrow.
• Shams Jorjani, Chairman of the Board at Hooded Horse, Shams ran business development for the better part of a decade at Paradox. Today he's the Chairman of publisher Hooded Horse and is about to start a new games studio. Somehow he still finds time to host a podcast about the business of the video games industry.
• Alex Bolle, Lead Producer at Arrowhead Games Studio, used to tame chaos at Ubisoft (lately on Assassin's Creed Mirage), and gave a lot of love for indies in other studios.

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our Event Producer Albert Bassili & our Supporters with a special call out for Angelo Diktopoulos ♡

Resources Cited & Recommended

Maria Cornelius’ Mentorship Framework: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qkzlpYiUQMIvNt8luRgZX_CYtTfY2aAjrJGvAwIqt-8/edit#slide=id.gcb5028ab6d_1_42

#mentorship #mentoring #mentor #mentee #industryexperience #industrygrowth #generationalknowledge #talk #AMA #interview #panel #gamedevelopment #gameproduction #production #producer #videogames #computergames #games #indiedev #indie #AAA #console #pc #mobile #learning #lifelonglearning #growthmindset #leadership #community #projectmanagement #productmanagement #management #team #dei #diversity #equity #inclusion #culture #collaboration #cooperation #business #businessdevelopment #careerdevelopment

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured host Juney and guest Tina Merry, exploring what's meant by cultural diversity plus how our cultural values impact the way we navigate life, including how we communicate, plan and get work done.

A game development industry veteran, Tina leverages global leadership experiences to support cultural inclusion, innovation and production excellence particularly when working with distributed teams.

You can find the Slides and Handout here:
https://tinamerryconsulting.ca/events/cultural-inclusion-for-game-producers/

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our event producer Fitzgerald Lewis & our Supporters ♡

Resources Cited & Recommended for further study:
Driven by Difference - Dave Livermore
https://davidlivermore.com/driven-by-difference/

Expand your Borders - Dave Livermore
https://davidlivermore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Sample_EYB.pdf

The Culture Map - Erin Meyer
https://erinmeyer.com/books/the-culture-map/ 

CQ related blogs and general resources:
https://tinamerryconsulting.ca/blog/
https://davidlivermore.com/blog/
https://culturalq.com/about-cultural-intelligence/blog/

CQ Research:
https://culturalq.com/about-cultural-intelligence/research/
https://culturalq.com/products-services/assessments/cultural-values-profile/

Assessment/self guided development journey (or reach out to Tina directly!):
https://www.learncq.com/cq-pathway/

Link to complete a culture profile using Erin Meyer's model: 
https://hbr.org/2014/08/whats-your-cultural-profile

Geert Hofstede - The 6D model of national culture
https://geerthofstede.com/culture-geert-hofstede-gert-jan-hofstede/6d-model-of-national-culture/ 

Hofstede's country insights and comparison tool: 
https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

This session featured host Juney interviewing a panel of three game production professionals who successfully transitioned into the game industry: Michelle Velez of Electronic Arts, Giulia Carlotta Zamboni of Gamera Interactive, and Ariana Marchigiano of Blackbird Interactive, who discussed their background before transitioning into the game industry, what motivated them to make the switch, and how they made it. They’ll talk about what skills they were able to take with them from their previous careers, share some of the hurdles they had to overcome, and discuss what they’ve learned about what it’s like to work in games coming from very different industries.

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our event producer Kaz & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

In this episode, Juney hosted a session featuring PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Art Director Scott Davidson. Scott talked to us about his experience with imposter syndrome throughout his career in the games industry. He will discuss the lows, the highs, the times he thought about giving up and how he kept going. Scott also shared useful ways of coping with imposter syndrome, should we ever feel self-doubt throughout our own journey. There was a live Q&A after the event.

Slides can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dOqiQXRCLnw-Q8XzEAJxWRDKpq0ms4lw/view?usp=sharing

Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of our event producer Kaz & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

In this episode, Juney hosted freelance producer Demi Mark! Demi talks to us about the importance of networking in the industry, sharing her story and other success stories, and giving a 101 on why, how and where to find and connect with peers from the game development community. There was a live Q&A after the event.

Long form article & slides can be found here: https://demimarkzedzinc.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/the-importance-of-networking/

Please share with peers that could benefit from these expert insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of Angelo Diktopoulos & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

In this episode, Juney hosted game industry veteran, games user research consultant, author of the “How to be a Games User Researcher” book and most recently creator of “The Playtest Kit”, Steve Bromley!

During this session, Steve offered solutions to many of the barriers to regular playtesting, such as “Where can I find playtesters”, “When should I run a playtest” and “How should I handle player feedback”. There was a live Q&A after the event.

Slides can be found here: https://gamesuserresearch.com/gpc/
Transcript can be found here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1055908/10930310

Please share with peers that could benefit from these expert insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of Angelo Diktopoulos & our Supporters ♡

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
Our Vision is to enable games industry professionals to plan better, lead better and stop the crunch culture, through building a community of support, knowledge and training.

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.

ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”