About this role

You’ll run a small team of designers, programmers and artists against a deadline that is set at the start and does not move. On the last day there has to be one finished, playable thing worth showing — not five at 80%.

If your team is improving a game already in the bay, the deadline is the tighter one: “better” has to be demonstrable.

Every team either builds a new game for Obsidian or takes one already running in the bay and makes it better.

What you’ll do

Run the sprints

Run sprint planning, standups and retros.
Keep an accurate ticket board, with a clear Definition of Done on every ticket.
Track what is in flight, what is blocked, and what is quietly slipping.

Own scope and schedule

Own what ships against a fixed end date, and make the cut calls early enough that they are decisions rather than casualties.
Keep a schedule that reflects reality, and escalate risk while there is still time to act on it.
On a polish project, define up front what “done and better” means.

Keep the team moving

Coordinate dependencies across design, programming, art and audio.
Run interference so your team can stay in the work.

Playtest and report

Run playtests with real groups, and triage what you see into prioritized tickets.
Prep builds for demos and the end-of-program showcase.
Take part in 360 reviews, and report on your team’s performance to the Executive Producer.

You pick the tools

There is no mandated project-management stack. You choose what your team runs on and you own it.

Be warned that the fanciest option is rarely the right one for a nine-week project — a well-maintained Google Spreadsheet has outperformed heavier tools here more than once. We care that the board is accurate and that the team actually looks at it. How you get there is your call, and “I ran it on a spreadsheet and it worked” is a perfectly good answer.

What we’re looking for

Required

DigiPen graduate — any graduating class
Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating a team project through to a shipped, playable state
Comfort making scope decisions under a deadline, including telling people their favorite feature isn’t making it
Clear written communication — most of your output is tickets, schedules, and status that other people have to act on without you in the room
Willingness to give and receive direct feedback in a 360 review culture

Ideal degree tracks

ideal, not mandatory — a strong producer from any track is welcome

BS in Computer Science and Game Design
BA in Game Design
BFA in Digital Art and Animation

A master’s degree in a related field counts the same as the tracks above — an MS or MFA is equally welcome.

Preferred

Served as producer or team lead on a GAM team project
Experience running sprints, standups, and retros in a real team setting
Familiarity with Unreal Engine or Unity pipelines — enough to know what you’re scheduling and why a task is hard, not to write production code
Experience coordinating across disciplines, especially art and audio, where handoffs are easiest to drop
Interest in location-based entertainment and physical venue constraints

What you’ll learn

Producing against a fixed, immovable ship date with a team you didn’t pick
Making and defending cut decisions, then living with them
Running playtests with real paying-customer groups and turning messy human reactions into a prioritized backlog
Coordinating a production pipeline across four disciplines at once
Reporting up to an Executive Producer — writing status that’s honest about risk without being alarmist
What location-based entertainment demands that a screen-only game does not

Compensation

Total hours: 180 hours
Hourly rate: $23.50 / hour
Total earnings: $4,230.00
Expected pace: About 20 hours/week, roughly 9 weeks
Payment: Bi-weekly, direct deposit
Structure: 1099 contractor

The 180 hours are the commitment; the calendar is not. Twenty hours a week for about nine weeks is what we expect in practice, but the weeks don’t have to run consecutively and the pace can flex. We set a schedule with you at the start and work around holidays, travel, and your other commitments.

This is a part-time, paid position and does not include benefits.

How to apply

Apply for this role.

Email [email protected] with Producer in the subject line. Send all four of these — an application missing one of them is hard to act on, and we would rather not have to come back and ask.

01Your resumeAttached to the email — PDF preferred.
02Your GPARequired. Include it in the email body.
03A link to your portfolioA video reel and a portfolio site are preferred. Make sure everything opens without a login.
04Your general availabilityThe days and hours you can be on-site and reachable, so we can plan collaboration and playtesting around the people on your team.

Apply — Producer

Opens your mail client with the details pre-filled. Attach your resume before you send.