I see more and more small indie studios working on their first game hiring producers mid-project. we did the same with Backbone, after almost 3 years of development.

you need a producer: a thread

here’s a small story of my personal struggle as a founder. Nikita and I founded the studio in 2017, it was just 2 of us trying to come up with a game. my full time job was a PM at an IT company, so it was natural that I took on the planning and scheming role.

we started getting more people on board shortly after, and by 2018 there were 8 of us prepping for Kickstarter. we couldn’t find a writer, so I became one. as well as a game lead, PM, administrator for the studio, marketing and communications director, and shitposter on socials.

this happens all the time with small studios - people wearing too many hats. we crunched for 2 months because of it. I was going through the biggest mental breakdown of my life, trying to juggle 10 jobs and not being good at any of them.

eventually, Kickstarter was a success and pre-production started. I decided to focus on just PM and writing, but couldn’t also let go of marketing, as it’s my biggest passion. we needed a publisher, and that meant a shitton of bizdev. so I took on that too.

by the time we were wrapping up the Prologue, which was supposed to get us a publisher, we were 12 people and we were crunching again. in hindsight, it was 100% happening due to bad planning, which was my responsibility. it was really bad. some of us are still recovering.

after signing with Raw Fury, I was starting to realize that this can’t go on. I have to take off that most crucial planning hat or everyone will suffer. so I did, and we asked for more money, and hired a producer - Ishani Birch. it’s the best decision we made as a studio.

Ishani is planning every day of our lives, she has a task list for each team member, she’s following the progress, sees weaknesses in our pipelines, and fixes them. she is the most crucial person on the team. you need an Ishani.

as a founder, you might think that you’re not doing enough. but you’re most likely doing too much. please, for your own sanity, and for the well-being of everyone in your studio, hire a producer.

ps: here’s a job posting I wrote to find Ishani and I still think it’s very good