This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Kyrene Kim interviewing guest Wendy Young. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Wendy's classical art background and her passion for art, movies, point & click adven...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Angela Dachowski interviewing guest Jay Myung. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Jay Myung, with 15+ years of experience in the games industry, has worked in publishi...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra & Angela Dachowski interviewing guest Marchi Loen. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Marchiano Loen is a Production and Product Management specialist who started his ...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra, XDI Operations Director at EA, and Angela Dachowski, Producer at Flippfly interviewing guest Anya Zielińska, Production Director at Paradox Development Studio. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professio...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra, XDI Operations Director at EA, and Angela Dachowski, Producer at Flippfly interviewing guest Kimberly Rodatos. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Kimberly Rodatos, with o...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Jess Avelsgaard interviewing guest Linda Tiger, Paradox Development Studio Black’s Studio Manager. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. A production thought leader with ...

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Katie Rössler, LPC. Burnout is on the rise and though we are talking about it, we’re not discussing how to prevent or recover from it. During this talk, we discussed what burnout symptoms actually look like, why more people are burning out now more than ever, and steps you can take to prevent it. Katie Rössler is a licensed therapist specializing in burnout and hidden grief specialist. With 15 years of experience, she is shifting the way we ...

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guest Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Striking Distance. Mae lifted a tip of the veil on the production interview process: How to decode a job description's qualifications and responsibilities to prepare for the questions a hiring manager may ask, and how to approach answering questions truthfully while showing your best self. Bonus: What should you ask in return? * Mae Mierop, Recruiting Operations Program Manager at Striking...

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra & Angela Dachowski interviewing guest Claire Bromley. The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth. Claire is a Producer at Criterion Games, and has an impressive 17 years of gam...

This session featured host Juney Dijkstra and guests Shams Jorjani, Maria Cornelius and Alex Bolle. Our latest panel looked uniquely at a chain of three mentors/mentees as mentorship knowledge is passed down and refined across three generations. With Shams mentoring Maria and Maria mentoring Alex, the three panelists discussed their experiences and takeaways from mentorship across the spectrum of professional experience while giving you a framework (and a slight nudge) for taking on your own...

This session featured host Juney and guest Tina Merry, exploring what's meant by cultural diversity plus how our cultural values impact the way we navigate life, including how we communicate, plan and get work done. A game development industry veteran, Tina leverages global leadership experiences to support cultural inclusion, innovation and production excellence particularly when working with distributed teams. You can find the Slides and Handout here: https://tinamerryconsulting.ca/events...

This session featured host Juney interviewing a panel of three game production professionals who successfully transitioned into the game industry: Michelle Velez of Electronic Arts, Giulia Carlotta Zamboni of Gamera Interactive, and Ariana Marchigiano of Blackbird Interactive, who discussed their background before transitioning into the game industry, what motivated them to make the switch, and how they made it. They’ll talk about what skills they were able to take with them from their previo...

In this episode, Juney hosted a session featuring PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions Art Director Scott Davidson. Scott talked to us about his experience with imposter syndrome throughout his career in the games industry. He will discuss the lows, the highs, the times he thought about giving up and how he kept going. Scott also shared useful ways of coping with imposter syndrome, should we ever feel self-doubt throughout our own journey. There was a live Q&A after the event. Slides can be found h...

In this episode, Juney hosted freelance producer Demi Mark! Demi talks to us about the importance of networking in the industry, sharing her story and other success stories, and giving a 101 on why, how and where to find and connect with peers from the game development community. There was a live Q&A after the event. Long form article & slides can be found here: https://demimarkzedzinc.wordpress.com/2022/06/25/the-importance-of-networking/ Please share with peers that could benefit f...

In this episode, Juney hosted game industry veteran, games user research consultant, author of the “How to be a Games User Researcher” book and most recently creator of “The Playtest Kit”, Steve Bromley! During this session, Steve offered solutions to many of the barriers to regular playtesting, such as “Where can I find playtesters”, “When should I run a playtest” and “How should I handle player feedback”. There was a live Q&A after the event. Slides can be found here: https://gamesuse...

In this panel, host Juney invites four experienced accessibility professionals to guide us through the process of planning, budgeting, implementing and testing accessibility features from the ground up in both new and ongoing projects to make better and more welcoming experiences. Our expert panellists: Ally McLean: Senior Producer at Mighty KingdomTabby Rose: UX Director at Mighty YellBrannon Zahand: Senior Gaming Accessibility Program Manager at MicrosoftJonas Lundqvist: Senior Development...

During this Fireside Chat, Juney invited her guest Maria Cornelius, Operations Manager at Spotify, to talk about supporting and scaling large teams & organizations in ever-changing industries. 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥: Operations Manager at Spotify. Former Business Developer and Operations Manager at Paradox Interactive. Experienced small businesses owner. Passionate about digital entertainment and the complex relationship between creativity, business and technology. Loves books, gaming, whis...

Featuring 3 community managers with varying backgrounds, we explored a community manager's goals, how they achieve these, how this benefits a game production and how we as producers can help facilitate their work. With community managers from AAA to indie, a plethora of interesting perspectives emerged as we spoke about their road to the industry, their studios, their everydays and goals. Raccine Malcolm: Freelance Community & DEI Manager, Founder of Games Community Garden (formerly Game...

A panel featuring 4 wonderful Producers working in the games industry, with highly varying backgrounds: From years of experience to education & culture, and from studio size & composition to role & responsibilities! Topics ranged from their road into the industry, what production looks like at their studio, tools used and best practices. Esmeralda Hoffman: Producer at Silver Rain Games, currently working on an EA Originals project. Contributed to several projects varying from Indi...

This session featured three industry recruitment experts from vastly different backgrounds to talk about the do’s and don’ts when looking for a job in the games industry. Throughout the panel, our host Raven asked the panellists to tackle topics the community requested, including but not limited to: the key traits & experiences of good candidates, good CV practices, and some common mistakes and pitfalls to avoid. Many thanks to our wonderful panellists: Maja Żmijewska: Lead Operations M...