VtM: Bloodlines 2 - Production in the Age of COVID-19

Production in the age of COVID-19

Hello All - my name is Austin Maestre, and I am a producer on Bloodlines 2. I'm one of the newer producers at HSL, but I have been in production roles for about six years. In my experience, production can be a bit of a black box - in or outside of the games industry - so I want to take some time to share a bit about the role and how it has changed during the pandemic.

First, let me acknowledge that the following breakdown of production is based off my own - and some friends' - experiences and that there may be things that don't apply to everyone who has ever worked in production. I intend to do my best to accurately paint a picture of production that fits with general understanding with a hint of personal experience.

What is Production?

At its core, the role of a producer is to make sure the game/project is completed and delivered. While the baseline seems simple, it gets increasingly more complex and ambiguous as constraints are put on the project. For example, in the pre-production (planning) phase of any projects work has to be to done to figure out: what is the intended scope/size of the project, how many resources (people) do we need to complete it, how long should it take us, what will the cost look like? These are all questions that production is often responsible for figuring out the answers to and then creating a plan informed by them.

Unfortunately, no project will ever stick entirely to the estimated time, cost, scope, or resourcing in each project plan. Maintaining, changing, and updating this plan - in real-time - is akin to being a bus driver on a crowded bus, where there's no clear road to your destination, and most of the passengers have thoughts on how to get there. In some cases, the destination isn't even really known. Continuing the bus analogy - it's the job of production to listen to those giving directions and then filter, mediate, and align those voices to one direction; while also marking it down on the map so everyone knows the plan.

Each studio will define the responsibilities of production or project management differently. This is where the ambiguity comes in. At some studios, there is only one producer who oversees high-level planning and project maintenance. At the same time, each department (ex: animation, engineering, UI, Narrative) take on the planning and delivery work for themselves. At other studios, there is a robust fleet of producers that are helping on all levels, from specific teams to large chunks of the game, to the entire studio. Since there isn't a single standard of what a producer's day-to-day responsibilities are, it's often up to individual producers to figure that out as they go. The resulting scenario is frequently a mix of concrete "paperwork" type stuff and filling the gaps for the project or studio as needed. Because in the end, a producer's job is to produce.

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mercy said:

I was wondering if vampires are immune to viruses, like the Black Death, Ebola?

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