Want help to get your game shipped?
During my 15+ years in the games industry, I have shipped 8 large commercial games (consoles, PC, mobile) and over 30 small games (digital, tabletop, and physical games). Some of my favourite projects I’ve produced are Return to Monkey Island, the Edible Games Cookbook, and Thimbleweed Park.
Contact me & you'll soon breathe a sigh of relief >>What Others Are Saying About Me
I help tame the chaos that is game development
Making games is hard. Most teams face problems at some point during development.
The most common problems are related to time, budget, and/or the team. Here’s how I can help with all three:
Reduce & Eliminate Delays
Reduce Burn Rate
Motivate Teams Effectively
I’m a fluid, practical, realistic, and personal producer who works holistically to reduce delays, burn rate, and team frictions. I’ll get to the root of what’s going on then work with the team to tailor solutions with the minimum overhead to stay on time, on budget, and working as a well-oiled machine. Your team will thank you.
Contact me today to talk about your team’s unique needs >>
I offer the following key services:
Fractional Production
Ongoing part-time work with your team for any and all production needs.
Process Efficiency Audits
Deep dives to address issues related to processes, pipelines, and more.
Team Communication Program Development
Deep dives to improve: the entire team’s game vision understanding; meeting health; and team culture and collaboration.
And More, Including:
Coaching in-house producers. Best practice workshops on production, Notion, and more.
I offer in-person consulting throughout New Zealand and remote consulting worldwide.
I tailor my services and prices for your unique needs.
Contact me to discuss how I can best help you >>
Companies & Organisations I've Consulted For
Jenn's Generally Good Game Production Advice
In this blog, podcast, and YouTube channel I answer questions from game developers about problems their team is having to ship their game on time, on budget, and stay happy. Topics include having short & productive meetings, convincing your boss to fire someone, and much more. If you have a question for me, ask me!
Below are the latest three posts.
A Small Sample of Games I've Worked On
I have 8+ years game production experience and over 15 years in the games industry. Below is a sampling of some of them. To find out about other games, please go to the About tab.
Return To Monkey Island
Producer
Return to Monkey Island is an unexpected, thrilling return of series creator Ron Gilbert that continues the story of the legendary adventure games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games.
Developer: Terrible Toybox
Team Size: 25
Platforms: Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Windows, Xbox Series X|S
Edible Games Cookbook
Producer, Game Designer, Baker, Author
My edible games are a series of fabulous and delicious food experiences to play with friends and family. Think of it like: tasty treats meet good, old-fashioned fun. Some of them are sweet, others are savoury, and they all have one thing in common — you can eat the pieces! In fact, it’s required! A baker’s dozen of these games were collected in a beautiful hardcover cookbook.
Developer: Inquisiment
Platforms: Kindle, Physical (Book, box, and/or cards)
Thimbleweed Park
Gameplay programmer, game designer, producer, event coordination, customer support.
A haunted hotel, an abandoned circus, a burnt-out pillow factory, a dead body pixelating under the bridge, toilets that run on vacuum tubes… you’ve never visited a place like this before. Five people with nothing in common have been drawn to this rundown, forgotten town. They don’t know it yet, but they are all deeply connected. And they’re being watched.
Developer: Terrible Toybox
Platforms: Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows, Xbox One
I can use all this experience and more to help your project!
Contact me to find out more >>
Answers to Common Questions
- The short answer is it’s whatever you want it to be.
- It can be focused help for a short period of time or a recurring check in. Or anything in between.
- Just like hiring a full-time producer for your team, producers can help out on a number of different fronts.
- The difference is there’s no long-term commitment to a full-time employee.
- Further, I’m experienced and you’ll get a lot out of me even with a short commitment
- A game production consultant will be focused on creating a smooth-running, tight, efficient machine of game creation that you can easily maintain.
- Consultants are experts in their field, they can start quickly and will help you in a short amount of time.
- Since a consultant is not part of your team, they can offer a fresh new perspective and can ask questions of team members that you might not be able to.
- Consultants provide a target strike on specific problems without a long term financial overhead.
- Consultants also offer ongoing part-time support to help smaller teams that don’t need full-time support.
- Depending on your project needs, a consultant offers a significant improvement for your game and entire team at a low cost.
- Consultants deliver a cost effective and powerful force multiplier for your team and your game.
- I’m an industry veteran with over 15 years experience making games with small to mid-sized teams. I’ve worked on games like: Return to Monkey Island, LA Noire, Gardens of Time, Edible Games Cookbook, Thimbleweed Park, and more.
- I love being a games producer. That is, I love juggling the details, big picture, and priorities; making roadmaps, databases and documentation useful and understandable; talking to individuals to help them solve new problems; and everything else that helps get games made.
- I’m good at being a games producer. That is, I’ve helped ship over 30 big and small games; team members praise my work; I’m good at getting to the bottom of issues via active listening and pertinent questions; and I shine the spotlight on your team, not me.
- I have a vast knowledge of technical and other disciplines since I have also worked as a programmer, designer, writer, and more. I use this past experience, current best practices, and a little instinct to find efficient solutions that can be implemented and won’t require much iteration.
- I’m professional, but highly accessible and forthright with a kind and helpful manner.
- Through my work, I reduce chaos and allow team members to focus on the work they love doing.
- Not only will I help your processes be more efficient, I’ll also make them more joyful for everyone on the team.
- I believe people come first.
- I believe producers serve people and the game itself in an ongoing balance.
- When problems arise, I believe in compassion and that processes should be blamed, not people.
- When there are successes, I believe in celebrating those who made it happen: both individuals and the team as a whole.
- I believe that you can reduce chaos in game development by planning ahead, predicting what will come, and developing contingency plans.
- I believe in focusing on concrete action items to find possible ways to move forward.
- I believe that every team and game are unique and so need fluid, unique, tailored solutions rather than strictly adhering to a cookie cutter solution.
- I believe in you.
- Over scoped vision and/or feature creep leading to missing deadlines and/or overworking the team.
- Game isn’t coming together.
- Inefficient processes and pipelines leading to throwing away completed work.
- Sprint goals not being consistently met and/or other plans frequently broken leading to a lack of confidence in shipping timelines.
- Unable to stick to the schedule and/or budget on a month-to-month basis.
- Costly problems popping up unexpectedly and too frequently.
- Team has production needs, but can’t afford and/or don’t have enough work to justify a producer permanently and/or full time and/or at a senior level.
- Hiring team members too soon or too late leading to unnecessarily high burn rate or work not getting done in time.
- Unmotivated team with no buy in on the game and/or development processes.
- Team not collaborating effectively in brainstorming, planning, and meetings.
- Team members spending too much time on work they aren’t trained for and/or aren’t good at and/or don’t want to do.
- Meetings are too frequent, too long, and/or decisions aren’t getting made in a timely manner.
Have more questions? I'm happy to answer them!
Book a Free Intro Call >>