本文原作者：Matt Suckley 译者ciel chen

想让任何商业化的企业运转起来都需要大量的人力和诸多的几率。

所以手游产业当然也不例外，他们为世界各地成千上万的热门提供了动态且多样化的职业角色。

因此，PocketGamer.biz已经决定通过一系列定期的访谈来庆祝这一游戏盛世——每周，我们都会和游戏行业不同领域的专业人士进行交谈——可以是游戏设计、美术、或者PR——为的是能了解他们是如何在游戏这个领域获得工作的。

很显然，每条职业道路都各有不同，不过目标都是为了让人们拥有一种技能、资历和报复，让人们在这样的职业角色中找到自我——以及我们如何能在这份工作中有所收获。

这一次访谈，我们把焦点对准了Peter Willington。他曾经是PocketGamer.biz姊妹网站Pocket Gamer and AppSpy的记者兼评论员。现在他跳跃了不同行业之间的栅栏，进入到了游戏开发行业，在位于布里斯托的Auroch Digital担任了游戏制作人。

Tablet Gaming(from nerdsmagazine)

PocketGamer.biz: 来跟我们讲讲关于你现在的职业角色以及这个职业角色需要具备的能力是什么。

Peter Willinton: 在Auroch Digital我是一名游戏制作人兼市场经理。市场经理，闻名知意：我为公司确立市场方向以及为我们将采取怎样的方式达到我们的市场目标下定义，然后再和我的大学校友Jake Connor（我们的游戏社区经理）一起开始去实施这些计划。
我们目前正在抓紧在Steam平台上发行我们的最新游戏——《Ogre》——，这正是我们的职责所在，所以最近我们俩都很忙。

作为一个游戏制作人，要做的事可以根据不同游戏工作室之间的不同的团队规模、进行中的项目类型不同、公司文化不同等因素而有着很大的差距。

在Auroch的日常就是，我会很团队一起进行游戏检测，以确保产品的顺利生产，并同他们一起从头到尾地进行项目规划。

并且我要确保游戏的开发按照原计划有条不紊地进行，和我们的客户和股东互通有无等等。我很幸运能同Ilse Marshall以及Nina Adams一起共事，在我们三个人的努力下，我们为工作室的生产过程定拟定了一系列标准。

同时，我也参与了其中的一些项目，以在代表着管理层的利益（保证开销在预算范围内）的同时还能代表玩家利益。（做出一个品质优良的游戏）

我就站在游戏开发的网中央，了解各方的需求，为杰出的人才提供最好的环境让他们发挥自己最大的才能。

在我们已经公开的游戏项目中，我目前手头上的工作是《Dark Future: Blood Red States》（我们对经典桌游《Gmaes Workshop》的改编作品）的制作，不过我所参与游戏制作中还有更多的游戏是我迫不及待想要展开讨论的。

你是如何得到这份工作的？

在我成为一名游戏制作人之前，我曾经是Pocket Gamer的副主编，并与AppSpy的直播平台合作，为Pocket Gamer指引了发展方向。

这让我在管理、带领数字化项目、合作并寻求扩展自家品牌、理解游戏产业的各种不同需求等这些方面积攒了大量的经验。

我决定让我的职业生涯向一个不一样的方向发展，这个方向是建立在我的专业基础之上，而游戏制作人就是一个不二之选。

我好几年之前就知道Tomas Rawlings是Auroch Digital的创始人，而且也经常在布里斯托而的游戏中心见到他，所以当这个在Auroch任职的机会出现时，我毫不犹豫地抓住了。

你曾经想过你会做这份工作吗？

绝对是有的。我总会计划着赶紧把游戏新闻记者这个工作从我的愿望清单里划掉然后转职去做有关游戏开发的工作。

我不是个程序员，我也没法做原画，并且我对做一个商业层面上的游戏设计师这份工作也不感兴趣，所以游戏制作人就是我的不二职业选择。

这份工作汇集了我所有的兴趣：深入地参与到游戏的各个层面之中、制作出一个有条不紊的系统来让大家做一些了不起的事情、还有成为一个渴望有所成就的组织中的一员。

你做了怎样的功课（如果有的话）让你进入角色的？你会建议给这个领域的专业人士一些什么课程吗？

我是在实际的操作中习得了最重要的经验。

我会以评论者的身份前往各种游戏活动和展会，去和那里的人们交流，好看看企业的不同方面以及人们的需求都是什么。

我总是会用简单的游戏制作工具来制作我自己的游戏，这样可以不断地让自己记得不同学科的使用和要求所需要的各种技巧。

从三岁开始就玩游戏，最重要的是，玩游戏和研究游戏一定不能停，这让我有足够的词库和知识深度在这个行业里呆下去。

我们在做播客视频《Staying In》的时候，我们经常谈论有关游戏，这让我对媒体进行了批判性的思考，并去玩那些通常不在我所认知的游戏范围之内的游戏。

我在大学学习过表演——这让我学会去接收并提出建设性的批评并且与他人合作。

我听说英国当然有很多不错可以去上的游戏课程，不过我认为——下载一个Engine 4、GameMaker或者Quest，然后把自己投入到这些编辑器里，最后做出一些专属于你自己的程序——没有什么比这更能让你获得绝佳体验，充满自豪感的了。

有什么关于游戏工作/行业的内容是你在刚开始进入到游戏产业中所希望能更早些知道的？

当我加入到Auroch工作的第一周，我很快地懂得了，一名制作人如果用“你能不能……”这样的形式和开发人员进行对话，那你注定是要失败的。

做游戏是一个很复杂的过程，并且就算最简单的（表面上看）一些要求都可能涉及各种测试，需要整个工作室各个部门都投入到其中，将会是一项高度复杂的流程。

对于那些想找这个职业相关工作的人，你有什么其他的建议吗？

去尽可能多地玩各种各样的游戏吧，保持对媒体的激情。如果你不这样做的话，你会很快崩溃的，因为游戏开发是一个非常艰难的过程。

如果你想成为一个游戏制作人，你要保证你真的想做这个职业——而不是一个游戏设计师，这是我看到很多人曾经陷进过的陷阱。

为了更好地了解团队是如何运作以及要如何满足他们的需求让他们取得成功，可以参与到游戏和其他一些实际的项目中去。从中获取的只是将会让你更好地在这里生存。

要谦虚并听从专家的建议。你可以猜测一个程序员要完成一个测试需要多久的时间，不过只有程序员自己知道需要多久。

要坚定你的立场，并且现实一些——因为制作人常常需要成为整个团队里的现实主义者——不过记住绝对不要成为一个悲观主义者。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

It takes a great number of individuals working together in various disciplines to make any commercial enterprise function.

The mobile games industry is certainly no exception, offering dynamic and diverse roles to thousands the world over.

As such, PocketGamer.biz has decided to celebrate this with a regular series of interviews where each week we chat to a mobile games industry professional from a different field – be it game design, art, or PR – to learn about how they bagged that job in games.

Obviously every career path is different, but the goal is to give a picture of the sorts of skills, qualifications and ambition one might need to find themselves in such a role – and how we can all learn from it.

This time, the spotlight is on Peter Willington. A former journalist and critic on PocketGamer.biz sister sites Pocket Gamer and AppSpy, he has since hopped the fence into a production role at Bristol-based developer Auroch Digital.

PocketGamer.biz: Tell us a little about your current role and what it entails.

Peter Willington: At Auroch Digital I’m a Producer and Marketing Manager.

The Marketing Manager role is pretty self-explanatory: I set the direction for the company’s marketing, define how we achieve our marketing goals and then set about with my colleague Jake Connor (our Community Manager) on meeting them.

We’re currently ramping up to the release of our latest game – Ogre – on Steam, so we’re both very busy at the moment in this area of our duties.

What a Producer does can vary pretty wildly between studios based on factors like team size, the types of projects being worked on, company culture and so on.

I keep the vision of the game on course, liaising with our clients and stakeholders.PETER WILLINGTON
The way things work at Auroch, on a day-to-day basis, I’m checking in with the teams to make sure production is smooth and planning projects with them from start to end.

I keep the vision of the game on course, liaising with our clients and stakeholders and so on. I’m fortunate enough to work with Ilse Marshall and Nina Adams, and between the three of us we set studio-wide standards for the production process.

I’m also on projects to represent the player’s interests (making a great game) while representing the management’s interests (keeping to the budget), and the team’s interests (enjoying their work).

I do this by being in the middle of the web of development, understanding the needs of all parties and enabling incredibly talented people to do their best work.

In terms of projects we’ve announced, I’m currently producing Dark Future: Blood Red States, our adaptation of the classic Games Workshop tabletop game, but there are some more titles in the pipeline I’m involved with that I can’t wait to start talking about.

How did you first get into this job?

Before I became a producer, I used to be Deputy Editor of Pocket Gamer and led the direction and growth into streaming platforms with AppSpy.

This gave me a great deal of experience managing people, leading digital projects, making partnerships to amplify the brands I was a part of and understanding the different needs of the games industry.
I decided to take my career in a different direction that built upon this expertise and being a producer was a natural fit.

I’d known Tomas Rawlings – the owner of Auroch Digital – for a few years by this point and had been around the Bristol Games Hub a lot too, so when the opportunity at Auroch came up, I jumped at the chance.

Is it something you ever imagined yourself doing?

Yes, absolutely. I’d always planned on ticking off the games journalism bucket list and then moving on to actually help making games.

Since I’m not a coder, I can’t do visual art and I’m not interested in being a designer at a commercial level, becoming a producer was a natural fit.

It intersects with all my interests: being involved deeply in games on all levels, developing ordered systems to help people do amazing things and being a central part of an organisation that aspires to do great things.

What did you study (if anything) to get your role? What courses would you advise for aspiring professionals in the area?

I learned my most important lessons in a practical setting.

Going to events and conferences and talking to people, as a critic, let me see lots of different facets of the business and what people’s needs are.

Never stopping playing and studying games has given me a depth of knowledge that is so useful.PETER WILLINGTON
Always making my own games using simple game-making tools keeps reminding me about the kinds of skill sets different disciplines use and require.

Playing games from the age of three and, most importantly, never stopping playing and studying games, has given me the vocabulary and depth of knowledge that is so useful in the industry.

Running the podcast Staying In, where we talk about games quite often, forces me to keep thinking critically about the medium and play games that are outside of what I usually consider playing.

I studied acting at university. It taught me to take and give constructive criticism, and work with others.

I hear there are some good games courses available across the UK, but I don’t think you can beat the experience and sense of pride you gain from downloading Unreal Engine 4, GameMaker or Quest, getting stuck in and making things for yourself.

Is there anything about the job/industry you wish you would have known when first joining?

In my first week of work at Auroch, I learned very quickly that a producer that starts a conversation with a developer with “could you just…” is setting themselves up for a fall.

Making games is a complicated process and the (seemingly) simplest of requests can actually be highly complex, involving tasks that require multiple disciplines from across the studio.

What other advice do you have for someone looking for a job in this profession?

Play as many different kinds of games as you can and be passionate about the medium. If you’re not, you’ll burn out real fast because making games is hard.

If you want to be a producer, make sure you actually want to be a producer – and not a designer, which is a trap I’ve seen a few people fall into.
Get involved in game jams and other practical projects where you can in order to better understand how teams work and what they need to be successful. This knowledge will make your life a lot easier.

Be humble and defer to your experts for advice. You can guess at how long a task might take a coder to complete, but only the coder knows how long it will take them.

Stick to your guns and be realistic. Producers very often need to be the realist in the room – though you should never be the pessimist.（source：pocketgemer.biz ）