2.1 Game Production Interviews: Callum Godfrey, Head of Production at Bossa Studios

Game Production Community Podcast

The transcript can be found here:
https://www.game-production.com/post/callum-godfrey-podcast-episode-full-transcript
This being my first ever attempt at recording and editing a podcast, please forgive the obvious amateurish mistakes! However, that is made up by the quality of our first ever guest, Callum Godfrey, Head of Production at Bossa Studios. You might know Bossa from Surgeon Simulator and I am Bread. Previously, Callum worked for Wargaming Mobile as an Exec Producer then Head of Studio at Wargaming Helsinki. Callum has found the fun at such esteemed gaming companies as King, EA, Microsoft, Playfish, Activision and Codemasters. He has dwelled mainly, but not exclusively, within the mobile gaming space for the last decade.
In a very long and interesting chat, we cover the following topics:
04:20 What makes a natural producer?
08:38 The hierarchy of production roles in modern game development
12:30 Your potential career path and specialisation
17:25 Diversified roles and skillsets
19:00 Agile servant leader role
We talked for a long time about mobile game development and the differences between that and PC/console.
21:00 The differences between developing on mobile and PC/Console
30:10: Habits, addiction & dopamine, oh my
36:00 Complexity and scale of game dev now
41:00 The difference between making a product and a game
46:20 Innovations in mobile
48:00 Big data, grinding and mobile games = maths
54:20 Monetisation strategies
57:40 Can mobile games be as 'pure' as PC/console?
We then skipped around some areas around production roles and skillsets.
58:40 What is a Program Manager and what do they do? The importance of communications as a core skill.
62:20 A maturing industry
66:00 What was the Head of Studio role in Helsinki all about?
68:50 All about the production role at Wargaming, working with mobile product managers and a lot more about mobile Product Managers
73:30 A lot of discussion around project management and what is expected of producers
Ten minutes of quickfire questions to end off.
83:30 Callum's 3 biggest joys and headaches at Bossa
90:20 Do successful producers need to be obsessed with games?
93:26 Advice for new producers on what to do and what not to do
96:00 Did Callum have a clear career path in mind when he started?
98:05 Future plans
99:50 The question he wished I had asked him: Should producers have budgetary responsibilities? (Spoiler: yes)
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