The overall process of bug fixing in game dev is done in five steps. In order these are:

Each step usually has its own specialists handling that aspect of it. We’ll go over each of these briefly.

1. Identify the bug

This is usually handled by testers to some degree. Usually it starts by observing some kind of unexpected behavior in the game - a move does too much or too little damage, the game crashes, the wrong animation plays, etc. The issue is initially reported and then it is investigated further to isolate the problem and its exact cause. In some cases like crashing, the development version of game can provide useful information like a callstack or memory dump to investigate. Overall, the goal in this step is to figure out what exactly is causing the bug and write up a detailed report on how to reproduce it so that the right developer knows what to look for in order to fix it.

2. Prioritize the bug

Once the bug has been identified and the cause of the problem ascertained, the production team has to decide how important the bug is. The most important bugs are usually those that stop other developers from working like unavoidable crashes in critical parts of the game. If Neelo and Desmal are both held up by this bug that I’m fixing, that’s three peoples’ worth of working hours who are unable to do other work while I’m trying to fix the bug. That’s a multiplicative productivity loss! As you might guess, this means bugs that break the entire team’s ability to work are the absolute highest priority. Overall bugs generally follow this basic hierarchy:

This prioritization process is called [Triage]. As you can see, it’s a prioritization list that makes a lot of sense if you think about it - the goal is to keep as many developers able to do their work as possible, and then to keep as many major elements of the game working as possible. 

3. Assign the bug

Different developers are responsible for different things. Once the bug has been prioritized, production assigns the bug to the appropriate developer to fix it. The bugs I fix as a technical designer are very different than those an animator or an environment artist would fix. Assigning a design tools problem to an environment artist wouldn’t make any sense. Producers need to know what each person is working on and their rough ability to take on new bugs. I’ve been assigned bugs outside of my expertise in the past because the dev who would normally fix the bug was unavailable and I had the room in my schedule to look at it, even though the producers knew it would take more time for me to fix it than it would for the other dev. The bug was important, I had lower priority tasks, so I got the assignment.

4. Fix the bug

After I’ve had a bug assigned to me, I still need to figure out where it fits into my task list. I’m not idle - I have other stuff to work on too. Sometimes the bug is high enough priority that I have to shelve what I was working on in order to focus on fixing the bug. Sometimes the bug isn’t a bug at all - it’s intended behavior that the QA department just didn’t know about. Sometimes the bug is lower priority, so I set it aside to work on later. It is entirely possible that a logged bug can take months for me to look at because it just isn’t a high enough priority and other things require my attention first.

By that token, sometimes the bug is such a low priority that I never get around to fixing it. Sometimes there’s just a steady stream of more-important tasks and bugs that keep showing up that I need to fix. These low priority bugs are often called “wishlist” bugs because we wish we could fix them, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. On any AAA project, the wishlist is usually miles and miles long.

Overall, this is probably the most straightforward part of the process. I figure out what’s causing the aberrant behavior, figure out what it should do instead, and make the game do that. Maybe it’s because I mistyped the name of the action as GAME_ACTOIN_JUMP instead of GAME_ACTION_JUMP. Maybe it’s because the multiplier was missing a decimal point, so instead of the bonus being +2.5%, it was +250%. Or maybe it’s a super intricate bug that’s dependent on a lot of other factors [like an unexplained crash that happens if the player looks in one direction for several hours on a specific map]. This sort of work is usually handled through our tools, data, or code and probably the thing you are thinking of when you think “bug fixing”.

5. Verify the bug is fixed

The final step after I submit my bug fix is that QA needs to get my changes and verify that the bug is fixed. Sometimes the thing I thought would fix the bug doesn’t fix it. Sometimes the cause of the problem was something that I didn’t think about. Sometimes the fix I submitted fixes the problem but also causes a whole new bug (or multiple bugs) that I will need to fix. The bug fix needs to be verified by the QA testers who also do full regressions of the game (test all major elements of the game in order to make sure it’s all still working properly) on a regular basis. During these regressions it is entirely possible that a previously fixed bug is discovered to be broken again, in which case the bug is reopened, reprioritized, reassigned, and the process begins again.

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The FANTa Project is currently on hiatus while I am crunching at work too busy.

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The game director is typically the highest position on the team. The title is also commonly known as “Executive Producer”. The director is the person directly responsible for all aspects of the entire game, from the core game design to the story to the technology to the business plan. As you may imagine, that’s a lot of responsibility for one person to do (especially on AAA games), so the director surrounds herself with capable and experienced developers who function as her surrogates in making decisions in specific areas like technology, art, design, etc. while she can focus on the bigger picture elements like the schedule, the project scope and major features, the marketing plan, etc.

The AAA game director almost never gets directly involved with the day-to-day or individual elements of the game’s development, simply because she doesn’t have the time to do so. Most of her time is spent coordinating with the subteams, making sure that they all have what they need to work, are properly tasked out, are not blocked, and that any dependencies they might have are taken care of. The game director is also the main point of contact for any sort of licensing deal - if we’re making a Batman game, then it’s the game director’s responsibility to juggle the needs of the game with DC Comics’ license requirements.

As you may have surmised, game director is a pretty big job and primarily involves dealing with people. If you’re a game designer at heart, you can see how being director might wear on you if what you really is want to be directly making the game content. Sometimes game directors will actually go hands-on and do that - situations like that often describe the director as “micro-managing”. This is because the director is supposed to delegate responsibility to other team members and trust them to do the work right. If the director is fighting down in the trenches, she’s not seeing the bird’s-eye view of the battlefield. It can make it more difficult to make good decisions that affect the entire team if she’s worrying about the color of the font on the tooltips.

Most of what a game director does is track things in spreadsheets and go to meetings. Lots and lots and lots of meetings. But the core idea is that she provides an overall vision and direction for the project and does so by assigning tasks to people. The overall efficiency gain from ironing out the kinks in the schedule and keeping the team working smoothly is (theoretically) much greater than the gain from doing the specific game development tasks individually. You should be able to see why somebody would leave the job to go back to “actually making games” if it doesn’t suit them. It’s certainly not a job for everybody.

This week we continue the Design Phase of the FANTa Project!

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You basically have two main options. You can either try moving to a different state and going for the entry level producer job you want, or you can stay where you are and try to get a job that will help you get the experience you need to get the job that you want. They are both viable ways into the game industry, but the risk/reward ratio is very different for each choice. 

Most of the time, the “minimum 2 years experience” bit is more of a guideline than a hard and fast requirement. My first industry job also “required” two years of experience, but I had never had a full-time industry job before then either. The hiring manager counted the project work I had done while in school towards that experience in terms of being willing to give me a phone interview. So… if you truly believe you have what it takes to do the job and you’ve got some project experience from school and such, then you could take the risk of moving to a state like California or Seattle without the safety net of a job, and hoping to find one after arriving there. You could also try finding a job doing QA or customer service and try to transition into an associate producer role. I know of a few producers who have managed to do that. Of course, doing this could also end very badly for you as well - you could be stranded far away from your friends and family without a job.

The other major option is to get some project management experience in a software development environment. Find a job as a producer or project manager at a software or app development studio locally. Most cities will have some sort of project-based developer of something. Find a job doing that, ship some products, and try to learn as much as you can. You can also get certified with Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification to help establish your skills as a producer. Then, once you’ve established yourself as being able to manage a schedule and ship software successfully, you can try switching industries and aim for a position in the game industry. This is a safer option than the previous one, but it also requires you to play the long game. This choice will require some serious patience.

Ultimately, it’s a question of balancing the risk you’re willing to take with how soon you want to try to get the job you want. The more appealing a candidate you are, the more experience you have, the less risky a blind move becomes. You could also try something like applying to some game companies and footing the bill for your own interview and relocation expenses if you really want the job, and then moving only if you get an offer. Unfortunately, most studios just aren’t willing to pay to relocate an entry-level employee. Your only real options when separated by geography are to foot those bills yourself, or to become a candidate worth relocating.

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There are multiple levels of the producer career track, just like there are different levels to programmer, artist, or designer. Producer titles vary from place to place and can get a bit weird. Usually entry level producers are production assistants, junior producers, or associate producers. Mid-level producers are often called producers, project managers, development directors, or other such titles. At the top end, you have senior producers, executive producers, game directors, project leads, and still sometimes just producer. 

People can start as grunt worker producers and work their way up, or they can start in a different profession, become a manager, and switch tracks to production instead. Producers are basically managing people and making sure they stay productive. The job entails getting the right people together for meetings, making sure that blocked developers become unblocked quickly, keeping track of the schedule, helping to evaluate which issues take priority, and making sure everybody has what they need to keep working. There’s a lot of crossover between what a lead does and what a producer does, which is why executive producers are often former lead designers, programmers, or artists. Having a background in engineering, design, or art helps producers understand the nuances of the challenges that the team is facing.

Got a burning question you want answered?

So… a couple of things here. 

First, you (and they) really shouldn’t conflate design to art, especially if you are studying animation and modeling. There isn’t just “programming and everything else”. There are four primary disciplines when it comes to game development, and each one fills a critical role in the creation of games: designers, artists, programmers, and producers. The programmers create the tools, the artists create the assets, the designers create the content out of the tools and assets, and the producers keep everyone on schedule. Lumping them all into a single group is naive. Games have come a long way since the 80s where you could have the programmers do everything, or even the 90s when most of the design work was handled by the artists and programmers. Today, we have a lot of specialists on very large teams in order to get all of the work done.

Secondly (and to answer your question) mostly no. While your mileage may vary, in all of the studios where I’ve worked or know of, neither the design side nor the art side are ever considered less worthy of respect. After doing 80 hour work weeks, it becomes very difficult to look down on someone who’s shared that kind of experience with you. There will always be some elements of consideration when it comes to skill, but that is usually a question of experience more than a given specific discipline. Someone who’s been working on games for a long time will obviously have more skill working with different systems than a newcomer, but we all generally respect those who work hard and get things done. We all need each other to survive and ship the game. The only way you won’t get any respect is if you don’t do your work and pull your weight. If we both get in at the same time each morning and I’m staying until 10pm every night while you take off at 6:30, you can probably bet I’m going to feel a little put off. Aside from that, I just want you to be good at your job (giving reasonable estimates, delivering what you say you can do on time, etc.), no matter what it is.

Finally, there is one particular area where the different disciplines vary greatly that can be construed by some as respect - compensation. Of the four disciplines, programmers are generally paid the most. Salaries for the most senior developers of any discipline tend to converge in the same six digit range (USD) so they end in a similar area, but salaries are much more disparate at lower levels. Entry to mid level engineers earn a lot more than entry to mid level artists, who tend to earn more than entry to mid level designers and producers. Most of this is due to the transferability of the skillset - an engineer tends to have more lucrative options than working on games since they have a tangible (and difficult-to-obtain) skillset that is useful and in demand in a larger number of other industries. Lower level artists and especially designers have dramatically fewer such options.

I don’t, sorry. Games are so varied in their scope and size that there really aren’t isn’t any easy or clear template. You’ll have to write your own.

Just remember, when you’re planning a game, you need to break down all of the tasks involved. Start from the largest part, and then break that into smaller pieces as you go. The important thing to remember is that you literally cannot take anything for granted. Everything must be accounted for. What you need to know is who is doing this system, what is entailed in the task, how long the task will take, and what sort of constraints are needed. 

At the very least, your bare bones production plan should detail:

You can always go back and adjust the plan, but there’s one thing you absolutely cannot do - you can’t go into it with a big blank in the schedule and say “well, we’ll figure this out later”. That’s not a plan. That’s a waste of time and money. You want to know exactly what you can and can’t do with the time, budget, and people you have available. The best producers leave as little to chance as they possibly can.

Yes. There’s an extremely important role in the industry that requires very little in terms of design or technical skill, and that’s as a game producer. These are the people on the team whose job it is to keep everyone else working and productive. And while they don’t have to be the most technical or creative people (though it helps), what they do need is relentless dedication and a great grasp of the schedule. While an artist might be responsible for that great vista you see, or a designer might be responsible for that tear you shed from that cinematic, or a programmer might be responsible for those responsive controls, it’s the producer who is most responsible for putting that game into your hands in the first place. The producer’s primary role is to get the game to ship.