How to Be an EU Producer

Hey David, tell us a little bit about your job.

I’m the European Publishing Producer for all Wargaming’s mobile products. It’s my job to make sure that all my colleagues in Europe have the information that they need so that our development process runs smoothly for mobile, as well as keeping track of the whole EU region.

This means analyzing what is going on with the game to see what will be good to include, what’s missing, and to make suggestions. For example, when we first launched World of Tanks Blitz, we already had some features in the pipeline. We know players were asking for features like a mission system, so we implemented it. The players are having a lot of fun and play more.

We also listen to people on the forums and on social media. One more thing we try to do is analyze as far as we can and anticipate the mobile market, which is a very competitive and creative place when it comes to video games the core challenges of which are monetization and retention. We analyze our competitors, plan what our audience will want. We try to anticipate when they’ll ask for new maps, new tanks, and new lines. It’s always helpful to know what they really want. We make take all possible things into consideration.

I work with the Content Team, Marketing, Biz Dev, and Community so we can deliver up-to-date information to the players.
A year and a half ago, before joining Wargaming, I took a degree in Project and Product Management. After that, I worked as an Executive Producer and Manager for several years. Wanting to become closer to the Production Team, I took a more focused producing role in an indie development studio in Paris. Over my eight years before Wargaming, I helped release over 40 games.

What has been your most memorable moment at the company?

Probably when I first met everyone at the marketing summit for Blitz. I had the chance to meet people involved in the product: its producers, marketing, biz dev and developers. We could share our vision of the game and sort out the product’s roadmap for the next 6 months.

What is a typical day at Wargaming like?

There is no typical day. The only typical thing is that we check how the game is going. We make sure that there are no weird fluctuations within the community, and to find out the reasons why if there is. We make sure we have the all content we need to disperse within the company or to the public. But every day brings a new challenge. I like to discuss things with a lot of people to ensure that there is correct and quality information to deliver to our players. It includes Ola (Product Specialist), who is a key partner when it comes to support and the Blitz community. I also make sure our players are having fun with the game.

What challenges do you face?

You always need to think of great ideas and features to keep players engaged. But you also need to understand what happens in your game and why. This can be anything, such as a bug, a strange release day for an update, something on social media.

What skills are needed?

Be smart. Being a Publishing Producer is a product management role. When it comes to this, you need to be organized, because there are many things going on. You need to be interested in what you do and be interested in the people you work with. It’s not just a product management, but people management too. You are in a buffer position; you work in between a lot of people. Marketing, biz dev, developers, community content. You need a 360 view of how everything is happening, and need to be aware of everything.

Tell us about Rise of Continents: how did it come about? Who have you partnered with? What can players expect? Any advice that you would give them?

Before the World of Tanks Blitz summit, I spoke with Roman Mardot (Lead EU Producer at that time) to talk about an event that would get a lot of people involved in the game. Something that would offer a huge competition and unite people. This would eventually become Rise of Continents.

The great thing is that you don’t have to be on the same server at the same time top join in. Because people play on different clusters, it makes it a lot easier for people to join in—all they have to do is battle. This also led us to developing 12 goals for each cluster. This is so that the goals for every cluster are unique and fair.

Over the next few months, I refined the plan. Then, at the next summit in March, we refined the idea. One of clear objectives that Rise of Continents was a huge event—it should be the biggest contest we ever had for Wargaming. A real global competition.
It was really important for us that we had a cool sponsor for the event, and it’s fantastic that we’re collaborating with Sennheiser. They’ve given us 240 in-ear and elite gaming headsets—that’s awesome. It’s one of the biggest prizes for global community events that we’ve ever had.

For four weeks in Rise of Continents people will have to play a lot, which will be a massive community effort. We’ll be focusing on social media, getting people to work together to take their cluster to the top. And there’re a lot of rewards for players too—everyone’s a winner. There’ll be Gold, Premium Account—as well as the headphones that the top performers can get at the end of each week and at the end of the event.

So far, it’s seen everyone on a global level collaborate. Marketing, Community, Content, Biz Dev—everyone. There’s a really great advert coming for the Tokyo Game Show as well as IgroMir.

The best advice I could give to people is just do your best and have fun! It’s the perfect time to synch with each other. They should use social media and forums to organize, check how the regions are doing, choosing their targets to focus on so they can come out on top.