Sega Hardlight工作室的James Back谈如何成为一名游戏产品总监

原作者：Matthew Forde 译者：Vivian Xue

游戏行业各类人才集聚，从美术师、程序员、剧情设计者到工作室负责人。

担任这些角色需要精通相应领域、掌握的技巧复杂且各不相同。

因此，看到一款游戏诞生是一件美好的事，就好比看着拼图逐渐完整。当然，这个过程离不开公司高层的坚定领导。

为了向大家展示游戏制作幕后的精彩工作，为那些想要进入这个行业的人提供帮助。PocketGamer.biz决定开设“Jobs in Games”栏目，与行业人士进行接触。

这次，我们邀请的是世嘉（Sega）旗下Hardlight工作室的产品总监James Back。

PocketGamer.biz：能告诉我们您目前的工作角色和负责的内容吗？

James Back：作为Sega Hardlight的产品总监，我负责监督工作室各个手游产品的运营情况，最大程度地实现产品的可持续发展能力和盈利能力。

我与游戏制作人紧密合作，确定游戏的新功能，同时联合分析团队，尽可能地获取对开发决策有利的数据，此外我还与内容运营部的人合作，确保玩家不断获得新内容。

PocketGamer.biz：您当初是如何进入游戏行业，又是怎样走到今天这个位置的？

James Back：2014年以前我是一名房屋建筑行业的商业分析师，之后我想尝试一些新东西。

Warhammer 40000: Freeblade（from pocketgamer.biz）

于是我开始在手游招聘广告里寻找与我的技能相关的职位。经过一番研究后，我感到自己完全有机会进入游戏行业工作。

经过数月的申请，我获得了一个面试机会，六个月后我终于得到了Exient公司游戏分析师的工作。

一开始我挺胆怯的。经过好一阵子我才终于有勇气谈论自己参与研发的游戏——特别是在一大群拥有多年行业经验的人面前。

随着时间的推移，我终于能在产品设计和运营服务方面建言献策，并升为产品总监。2017年我进入了Hardlight，自那以后身上的担子也越来越多。

PocketGame.biz：你有想过自己会做这一行吗？

James Back：还真没有！我一直觉得自己是个分析型而非创意型的人，因此我从没想过自己最终会参与游戏设计的决策。

进入游戏行业之后，我才发现这个行业为那些热爱游戏并善于分析数据的人提供了如此多的工作机会。

在手游领域，我们需要分析学和数据科学，但即便在更传统的游戏开发中，系统设计和经济设计这类工作对于大学刚毕业时的我来说也是完全可以涉足的领域。

PocketGamer.biz：成为一名产品经理，你为此学习过什么吗(如果有的话)？你建议有这方面抱负的人学习些什么课程？

James Back：我大学读的是数学专业，一个出了名的冷门专业——在学术领域之外没有太多可应用的地方。

但对于那些大学读数学、统计学或者与经济学相关专业的人，如果他们对制作游戏感兴趣，他们绝对能在这个行业找到发挥作用的地方。

PocketGamer.biz：你觉得工作的哪个部分让你最有成就感？

每当我们推出了新的游戏内容、并且玩家反馈和数据均表明它是成功的内容时。

这种感觉非常美好。对于我来说，游戏这行就是创造乐趣并以此为生，知道自己创造的东西让玩家感到了愉悦是一种很棒的感觉。

PocketGamer.biz：为Sega工作感觉如何？

James Back：Sega是一家历史如此悠久的公司，并且直到现在仍然能给我带来惊喜。小时候我和姐姐总是没完没了地打索尼克游戏，如今能成为创造这些游戏的公司的一份子我感到很兴奋。

Sega旗下还有很多其它优秀的工作室，像Creative Assembly和Sports Interactive，和他们合作拓宽了我的行业视野。

PocketGamer.biz：你觉得人们对你的工作存在任何普遍的或专业上的误解吗？

James Back：我不太确定人们是否了解我的工作，因为它既不是写代码也不是美术设计，更多的是进行决策。我想，最大的误解是人们觉得F2P手游为了盈利牺牲了一些乐趣。

事实上无论在行业内还是行业外，这都是一个难题，因此我花了好长一段时间克服它。

F2P只是“游戏服务”的一种商业模式，这种模式成功的首要前提是玩法足够有趣。没有有趣的玩法是留不住玩家的。

PocketGamer.biz：你觉得刚入行的人应该了解哪些关于工作或行业的道理？

James Back：尽管游戏行业充满了各种人才，这些人大多都是玩家出身的。我想如果我早点知道和这些人相处起来是如此容易，我会更早进入这个行业。

PocketGamer.biz：对于在这个行业找工作的人，你还有什么其他的建议吗？

James Back：与任何其他职业一样，如果你发现自己一直得不到回复或建议，不要灰心。很多工作室都没有全职的招聘人员，也没有时间一一回复每个应聘者。坚持下去！

如果你遇到了求职困难，一种解决方式是走出去主动接触他人，参加招聘会、游戏展、会议等等。

游戏开发者参加这些活动就是为了寻找有热情和干劲的人、能帮他们发现行业潜在机会的人。如果你是这样的人，做点研究然后去见他们吧！

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The games industry plays host to an excellent cast of colourful and diverse individuals, from artists and coders to narrative designers and studio heads.

The skills to pull off these roles, however, are complex and differing. With each position requiring mastery in its field.

As such, seeing a game come together is a beautiful thing akin to a puzzle as an overall picture becomes whole. Of course, seeing that puzzle come together also takes a steady and guiding hand from senior members of companies.

To highlight some of the brilliant work that goes on behind the screen, and help others who may be keen to dive in, PocketGamer.biz has decided to reach out to the individuals who make up the games industry with our Jobs in Games series.

This time we spoke with Sega Hardlight director of product James Back.

PocketGamer.biz: Can you tell us about your current role and what it entails?

James Back: As director of product at Sega Hardlight, I oversee the direction of the studio’s live mobile titles to make sure we’re doing the best we can to make them sustainable and profitable.

I work closely with producers to prioritise new features for the games, while utilising the analytics team to help get as much useful data as possible to inform our decisions, as well as working with live operations to ensure our players have consistent access to fresh content.

PocketGamer.biz: How did you first get into games and how did you progress into the role?

James Back: Until 2014 I worked in a business intelligence role in the housing industry and I was looking to try something new.

I started seeing jobs advertised in mobile games that roughly matched my skillset. After doing some research I felt quite positive about the idea that working in the games industry might be more than just a dream.

It took a few months of applications before I managed to get an interview and another six months before I finally got an offer before starting as a games analyst at Exient.

Starting out was quite intimidating. It took me a while to build up the confidence to speak out about the games I was working on – especially when I was surrounded by people with years of industry experience.

Over time though, I started contributing more to discussions about design and running games as a service before moving into a product lead position. Then in 2017, I moved to Sega Hardlight and have gradually taken on more responsibility since.

PocketGamer.biz: Is it something you ever imagined yourself doing?

James Back: Not really! I’ve always thought of myself as having more of an analytical mind than a creative one, so I certainly didn’t expect to end up having a say in how games were designed.

What I never realised before joining the industry is just how much work there is for people who are enthusiastic about games and have a good head for numbers.

In the world of mobile there’s analytics and data science, but even in more traditional game development there are areas of system design and economy design that I could probably have started looking into as soon as I’d left university

PocketGamer.biz: What did you study (if anything) to get your role? What courses would you advice for aspiring professionals in the area?

James Back: I’m a maths graduate, which is a remarkably non-committal degree to have – it’s not something that gets much application outside the academic world.

However, I would say to anyone coming out of university with a maths, statistics or economics-related degree that if they’re interested in making games for a living there are definitely developers that could make use of their brains.

PocketGamer.biz: What part of your role do you find most fulfilling?

James Back: When we push something new into a live game and we can see that we got it right through feedback from our players alongside the game’s performance data.

It’s a great feeling. For me, the games industry is about creating fun for a living and knowing that something I’ve helped build has put a smile on our players’ faces is just awesome.

PocketGamer.biz: What does it mean to work for Sega?

James Back: Sega is a company with so much history behind it and it’s something that still catches me off-guard when I think about it. My sister and I would play the early Sonic games for hours and hours when I was younger and it’s great to be a part of the company that gave the world those games.

It’s also really nice to be a part of a group that includes a bunch of other great studios. I’ve now worked with people at Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive, which has been a fascinating insight into other parts of the industry.

PocketGamer.biz: Do you think there are any misconceptions, public or professional, surrounding your area of expertise?

James Back: I’m not sure there’s much public awareness of the sort of work I do, since it’s more about decision-making rather than writing code or creating art. I suppose the biggest thing would be the idea that free-to-play mobile games are about compromising on fun for the sake of making more money.

This is actually a challenging perspective to deal with both inside and outside the industry, so I’ve had to fight against it for a while.

Free-to-play is just one business model for making a service game work and if it’s done right then creating fun gameplay needs to be the top priority. Without that, there’s nothing for players to stick around for.

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

James Back: While the games industry is a world full of very talented people, most of those people are gamers first and foremost. I think if I’d known how easy I’d find it to relate to everyone I’ve worked with over the past five years, I’d have looked for a job in games a lot sooner.

PocketGamer.biz: What other advice do you have for someone looking for a job in this profession?

James Back: As with any career aspiration, don’t get discouraged if you’re finding it hard to get feedback or advice. A lot of studios don’t have full-time recruitment staff and won’t always have time to reply to everyone. Just keep at it.

If you are in this situation, a good way forward is to get out there and meet people. Careers fairs, expos, conferences, etcetera.

Any developers showing up at these sorts of events are doing so because they want to find people with enthusiasm and drive that will help them discover opportunities that might be available to them in the industry. If that’s you, then do some research and get out there!(source：PocketGamer.biz)