Like any video game fan, Tony Chiodo gets excited at the sight of a new game on the store shelf. There is, however, a difference: After 18 years as a video game producer, Chiodo has worked on many of the titles, and, he says, "Every box has lots of memories."
Chiodo, who is director of product development for Destineer Studios in Plymouth, says that a top priority for a video game career is "a passion for playing games." Chiodo's own passion dates back to high school, when he had a weekend job selling video games. A customer asked if he'd like to work in game development. Chiodo accepted the offer while still in college and has "never stopped working on games," including a stint at Microsoft working on games for the original Xbox.
Communication Is Crucial
His majors in political science and history came in handy, Chiodo says, for "character references and stories to draw on" for games. Earning an MBA, he says, "The most important class was Human Resources." Understanding and being able to communicate with diverse personalities is crucial to a video game producer, who must provide both vision and direction for complex teams of designers, artists, programmers and quality assurance testers.
In almost two decades in the business, Chiodo has seen the industry evolve from "small groups wearing lots of hats" to increasingly specialized roles. There are engineers who specialize in physics, engineers who specialize in artificial intelligence, and designers who specialize in multiplayer games." Team members can be drawn from literally anywhere in the world. Chiodo starts his day communicating with developers in Europe, works his way through the U.S. time zones, and ends the day with phone calls or e-mails to Asia and Australia.
'Shooting' Hoops
The producer's job is to communicate, drive consensus and "assemble all thoughts to make informed decisions that will help a team release a quality product, on time and on budget," Chiodo says. That might mean spending many hours discussing and play-testing prototypes of under construction products to stress test the user experience. "We once spent days figuring out how best to mimic the natural feeling of shooting a basketball with the Nintendo Wii Remote." says Chiodo.
Increasingly, the path to a career in production begins in quality assurance or testing, Chiodo says. "They know what does or doesn't work on a platform and what confuses users. Their job is trying to break the game, but they're also learning how to fix it."
Once in the video game industry, Chiodo says, "most people stay in it forever. Seeing your stuff on the shelf never gets old." For more information on Destineer, visit its website www.Destineerstudios.com.
Laura French is principal of Words Into Action, Inc., and is a freelance writer from Roseville.