Opinion: Game Producing Needs Fresh Ideas

In a newly submitted Gamasutra Letter To The Editor, game professional Tim Carter has taken issues with some of the concepts of game producing raised in Marc Mencher's recent article on the subject. Carter comments in his letter: "This article just spouts old, stale ideas of what producing means", suggesting we need to move to new ideas of what a video game producer should be doing. He continues: "Questions just leap out from it. Such as, why are you using a waterfall production method when you are prototyping?" "I remember a game programmer on Slashdot saying that if you do this, you might as well write "And here the miracle happens" right on the MS Project plan spreadsheet. There has been so much talk about how backward this practice is and here this fellow is writing it down as if it were etched in stone by God." Carter adds: "Also: we are moving to an outsourcing model. When the bulk art, programming and QA gets outsourced, eventually the only ones left in the centre will be the core leaders: lead programming, lead design and so forth. The days of the team being as important as the vision are numbered." "In the future, individuals will come together and teams will be custom-built for a project. And yet this article goes on as if this rumbling in the future is a mere illusion." His conclusion? "Anyway, with costs and team sizes exploding, and products becoming more and more stale, we need some fresh thinking on this." Do you have anything to add to this debate? How will the role of the game producer change, and how quickly are game production methods actually changing in the game biz? Please submit your comments via the Gamasutra Letter To The Editor interface, naming your studio affiliation in the letter if you wish it to be credited - we'll run the best responses.