Jenn's Generally Good Game Production Advice

About Jenn's Generally Good Game Production Advice

I'm a game producer with over 15 years experience shipping games like Return to Monkey Island, the Edible Games Cookbook, and more. I love helping teams ship their games on time, on budget, and with a happy team. I answer questions about game production. Ask me your burning questions!

Publisher

Jenn's Generally Good Game Production Advice

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 Jun 2025

Latest episode

16 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Jun 2026

   Complicate Your Code Unnecessarily: Bad Game Production Advice

   Want some bad game production advice? Complicate your code unnecessarily! What does that mean? I’ll give an example from when I was a programmer and we put in an elevator that had multiple floors, an NPC inside, lights, and many more complications. Using the elevator example I discuss what happened, how it happened, why it was a bad thing, how you can recover if this starts to happen to you, and how to avoid it ever happening to you in the first place. A quick video in a new series about bad advice and worst practices instead of best game production practices. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/bad-complicate-code/ Video version: https://youtu.be/wdI-j1GInsw Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: Complicate Your Code Unnecessarily: Bad Game Production Advice 00:00 Introduction to the Elevator Problem 00:54 How it Happened 01:42 Why it was bad 02:08 How to Recover 02:21 How to Avoid 02:48 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. In this mini series, we instead focus on BAD advice and worst practices. These stories will help you learn from my mistakes in order to make better games. Find out more about how to hire me: jennsand.com

2. 

   13 Apr 2026

   How to resolve conflict between in game development teams by focusing on success and curiosity

   Conflict sucks! But small levels of conflict can also help your team innovate and make amazing games. So how do you fix things when the conflict is getting out of control and your team aren’t working together effectively? Focus on curiosity and success. We’ll examine what’s unlikely to work, what you should focus on, and key steps to deal with conflict constructively. The key steps are connection, clarity, curiosity, and commitment. We’ll talk about how to apply those steps to two examples: one where two art directors can’t agree on the overall art style for the game; and another where the engineering director refuses to believe artists that the tools need improvement. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/conflict-resolution/ Video version: https://youtu.be/4faRfK8derI Reference Book: “[Powerful Phrases For Dealing With Workplace Conflict: What To Say Next To Destress The Workday, Build Collaboration, And Calm Difficult Customers](https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/140024627X)” by Karin Hurt & David Dye Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to resolve conflict by focusing on success and curiosity 00:00 Introduction 00:36 Question 00:49 Conflict Sucks, Right? 01:22 Good on Paper, but Unlikely to Get Results 03:27 What to Focus On 04:36 Key Stages of Constructive Conflict 05:28 Before Group Meetings 05:57 Example: Two Art Directors Can’t Agree 08:33 Example: Engineering Director won’t take feedback 10:38 Final Thoughts 11:37 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

3. 

   11 Mar 2026

   How to decide when to decide in game development

   To decide or not to decide. That is the question! You’ll never have 100% information. Even with hindsight all you can see is the results of the choice that was made. So how do you know when to just choose something and move on versus deliberate and/or wait for someone else to make the decision? Today we’ll be asking lots of questions that will get you thinking and help you figure out a plan of attack. We start by talking about the weird role that game production plays in game studios. Then we’ll get into a bunch of questions to help you figure out whether you should make a decision right now. We’ll look at the framing & categorisation, decision making history, timing, and what you actually know. From there we’ll talk about why it’s ok to block your team from doing work sometimes. We’ll discuss the key steps of actually making a decision, how to deal with team decision paralysis, and how to avoid making decisions. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/make-decisions/ Video version: https://youtu.be/5Yvt96sMV50 Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to decide when to decide in game development 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Question 00:56 Game Production Is Weird 02:18 Framing & Decision Categorisation 04:05 Decision Making History 04:52 Decision Timing 05:27 What Do You Know? 07:16 It’s OK to Block your Team!! 07:52 Making a decision 09:09 Dealing with team decision paralysis 09:38 Avoid Making Decisions 12:31 Conclusions Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team.

4. 

   3 Feb 2026

   Am I a good games producer? How to know & what to do if you're not!

   Am I a good games producer? What does one actually look like? And if I’m not good, what can I do about it? This is a special post with a question I ask myself. Hopefully by the end, a bunch of your self-doubt will be banished along with my own self-doubt. Become a better games producer today! We’ll look at what a games producer actually does; then talk abut different types of measurements you can use to get an indication of whether you’re any good at it. We’ll talk about objective measurements like predicting sprint completion rates; reducing unexpected tasks; accurate roadmap; leaving space for other people to talk; and following up with team members. We’ll also discuss things you can ask your team about like whether you’re on top of everything going on; you know priorities; and everyone on the team knows what’s due at the next milestone. We’ll also go into how you can check in with other producers about whether your solution is good or your task is hard. Bonus measurements are also detailed here: https://jennsand.com/advice/good-producer/ After you know how good or bad you are, then you can start to learn from when you’re bad. This starts with knowing how frequently you are bad. And then you need to look at what’s causing the bad so that you can get to the root of the problem and get better. How you’ll get better will depend on whether you have a lack of training; expect hard tasks to be easy; dislike the specific task; are overworked; have something going on outside work; have an issue with an individual or the company culture. By the end of this you’ll know more about how to objectively measure how good of a producer you are and how to improve. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: [https://jennsand.com/advice/good-producer/](https://jennsand.com/advice/good-producer/) Video version: [https://youtu.be/Lh5gr_m99OA](https://youtu.be/Lh5gr_m99OA) Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: TITLE 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Should You Listen to Me? 01:33 What does a Games Producer Do? 03:15 Types of Tests To See if You’re a Good Games Producer 04:23 Objective Measurements 06:38 Ask Your Team About 07:47 Ask Other Producers About 08:20 I’m Good, Except When I’m Bad 08:48 Learning From the Bad 09:11 What’s Causing the Bad? 10:52 Be Kind & Produce Yourself 11:27 Conclusions Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

5. 

   26 Nov 2025

   A game producer’s guide to setting up a risk register to track your fears.

   Stop staying awake at night worrying!! Create a risk register to help track all your game development fears. Game development is very stressful and there are a lot of different things that can go wrong. Those things might mean your game will suck, development takes longer than expected, team members quit, and more. In the worst case if you don’t predict risks and take steps to address them, your game might not ship at all! Want more reasons why should you create a risk register? Having one will help you stop unconstructive worrying, make sure you remember and predict upcoming events, come up with plans that you can use when you’ll be super stressed, improve game quality, reduce development chaos, figure out what you can do to reduce the impact and probability of the risk, and so much more. What makes a good risk and description? One that isn’t too generic and that will help you understand why this is a problem. That way you are focusing your worries rather than being generally stressed without direction. Risks that you can’t control (like someone else shipping a game like yours) might not seem like good risks, but I’ll talk about why you should still track them and what you can do. I’ll go deep into exactly what I track in my risk registers. Many game companies and publishers have their own ways of showing and tracking risks. I’ll use an example from a hypothetical game to help understand what is being tracked. For each risk I track: a good description; numbers for impact, probability, and total risk; categories; trigger conditions (what to look for so you know the risk is happening); mitigation plans (what to do before a fire breaks out); contingency plans (what to do if the fire has broken out); alert status (how panicked should we be); and status history. Then I’ll discuss how frequently to monitor your risk register and use it. As well as when to engage mitigation and contingency plans. I’ll finish with some summary tips. One of those is that you shouldn’t create a risk register if you’re not going to use it. Instead you should just discuss your fears and worries with your team. Resources: [Example Risk Register in Notion](https://www.notion.so/174a82440e1680a9abc8fbc92d4415ad?pvs=21) Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/risk-register/ Video version: https://youtu.be/5k4aawBntsg Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: A game producer’s guide to setting up a risk register to track your fears. 00:00 Introduction 00:55 Question & Why create a risk register? 02:21 What makes a good and bad risk? 04:41 The details of all the properties that make up the risk register 08:44 How to monitor your risks 11:00 When should you engage mitigation and contingency plans? 11:40 Summary tips about risk registers 12:46 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

6. 

   19 Oct 2025

   How to Get Everything Done in a Game Jam

   Game Jams get people making a game in a very short period of time. Usually people run out of time and their final game is a far cry from their vision. Production can help you figure out what you can fit and and gives you key beats to reach for. To make a game in 48 hours or less, you need to be focused on your goals and shipping the game. Production is like project management for games and it can help you rock the game jam. These easy to follow steps help you navigate what to do before the game jam starts, and all the phases during the game jam. We’ll go into naming the phases, what deliverables are due at the end of phases, the timeline of the phases, what production software to use, and who should be doing the production work. The phases we investigate are brainstorming, prototype, prep for production, production, alpha, beta, and release phases. We’ll discuss how to decide which way to build your game, when to focus on features vs content, playtesting, and a lot more. We’ll also go into depth about which software tools are right for you and give you a template you can use yourself. After watching this video you’ll be ready to succeed at a game jam regardless of whether it’s your first or 100th game jam. Resources: Production software: [Notion](https://www.notion.so/), [Trello](https://trello.com/), [Miro](https://miro.com/index/), or (if you must) [Google Sheets](https://workspace.google.com/products/sheets/). [Task board template in Notion available for duplication](https://www.notion.so/282a82440e16808585f8ce4d6f9498ae?pvs=21) Previous advice blog: [Production in a New Discipline](https://jennsand.com/advice/new-discipline/) talks about vertical vs horizontal development. [Power Up Game Jam](https://powerupjam.com/) — A free global game jam for women. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/road-jam-map/ Video version: https://youtu.be/gt8m-j90WEo Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to Get Everything Done in a Game Jam 00:00 Introduction 00:31 Question & First Thoughts 01:29 What to do BEFORE the game jam begins 02:03 What to do DURING the game jam 07:28 What is the timeline? 08:13 What tools do you use? 09:31 Who should do the work? 10:13 Conclusions & More Tips Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more and about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

7. 

   5 Sept 2025

   How to Get Your Game Dev Team to Consistently Finish Sprint Tasks

   Do you keep missing sprint deadlines? It happens a lot in game development and you might have given up trying to fix it, but I’m here to offer a very large number of ways to finish your sprints. In this video, we’ll look at all of the many reasons why your team is failing to hit sprints and give practical tips and steps you can take to fix the problem. We’ll start with considering new tasks appearing in the middle of the sprint. Then we move onto tasks taking longer than expected due to pipelines, unclear “done” definitions, new task types, and missing information. Next we deep dive into thorny team and team member issues. This covers team size, more pipeline issues, denial and wishful thinking, team apathy, work preferences, and an individual having issues. Finally we talk about project management issues. This covers buffers, time predictions, unrealistic milestone goals, bad sprint planning, decision making problems, and upper management issues. Throughout it all I’ll be teaching you how to be curious, compassionate, and persistent to get to the bottom of this mystery of what’s going on for your game dev team. This is a long, but essential video to watch if you’re struggling with effective sprints that motivate the team and get everything done. Additional Resources: How to set up degree of done: [video](https://youtu.be/WYZfhSn2NyE) or [blog post](https://jennsand.com/advice/degree-done/) or [audio](https://soundcloud.com/jennsand/degree-done) How to have productive meetings: [video](https://youtu.be/DimLiWDVv5Y) or [blog post](https://jennsand.com/advice/productive-meetings/) or [audio](https://soundcloud.com/jennsand/how-to-have-productive-meetings) How to deal with an indecisive creative director: [video](https://youtu.be/eIEbbQ-yrdo) or [blog post](https://jennsand.com/advice/indecisive-creative/) or [audio](https://soundcloud.com/jennsand/indecisive-creative) Risk Register: [example in Notion](https://www.notion.so/174a82440e1680a9abc8fbc92d4415ad?pvs=21) Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/missing-sprints/ Video version: https://youtu.be/uDI_2QT69Oo Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to Get Your Team to Consistently Finish Sprint Tasks 00:00 Intro 00:52 Question and first thoughts 03:12 New tasks appear 06:33 Tasks take longer than expected 10:32 Team or team member issues — introduction 10:50 Team or team member issues — team size unsuitable 11:14 Team or team member issues — pipeline related bottlenecks & uncertainty who it goes to next 12:12 Team or team member issues — denial or wishful thinking 13:04 Team or team member issues — team apathy & what is the big deal about missing deadlines 14:07 Team or team member issues — team doesn’t like each other 14:39 Team or team member issues — work cadence and work preferences 15:41 Team or team member issues — individual’s personal issues 16:27 Project management issues — introduction 16:37 Project management issues — time prediction issues 18:17 Project management issues — buffers with time prediction issues 18:48 Project management issues — unrealistic milestone goals 19:24 Project management issues — bad sprint planning 20:52 Project management issues — decision making issues 21:35 Project management issues — upper management and creative director issues 21:58 Are you in production? 22:45 How to get the team on board to support fixing the problems 23:43 Wrap up Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

8. 

   1 Sept 2025

   How to deal with an indecisive creative director

   Ever had to deal with a creative director or CEO who kept changing their mind? In this post I’m talking about exactly this situation. I’ll give tips and techniques to reduce the frequency and impact of all the changes, so you can keep the ball rolling and ship your game. Tips to reduce frequency include: changing how you respond to feedback; getting the creative director more involved in the day-to-day; identifying which types of things are changing and leveraging that knowledge; stakeholder accountability. Tips to reduce impact include: going back to prototyping; recognising that this is a hard decision; changing something in your game. And I’ll also go into what to do if none of the tips work. After listening to this post you’ll feel confident to tackle the problem head on and as a result will be much happier about the direction of your game. Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/indecisive-creative/ Video version: https://youtu.be/eIEbbQ-yrdo Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to deal with an indecisive creative director 00:00 Preamble 01:04 Question & First Thoughts 01:43 Where to Start 02:45 Tips to Reduce Frequency 06:25 Tips to Reduce Impact 07:39 When All Else Fails 08:34 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

9. 

   28 Jul 2025

   When is a task done? Let’s Define the Finish!

   It feels great to mark a task “done”. But what does that mean? Is it something that can be shipped in the final game, something that is barely functional or something else entirely?! Not knowing what “done” means for different tasks can cause many problems from team frustrations to missing deadlines to wasted work. My system is to create a degree of done chart with multiple levels for different disciplines. I’ll talk about how to create the chart and to use it so you all know when you’re crossing the finish line. If a task isn’t done to the right quality or realisation or level, then it won’t fit in with other items and also could mean the game isn’t as finished as you think. If you create shippable level quality right from the beginning you’ll end up throwing out work as you figure out that something doesn’t fit into the game as a whole. A degree of done chart gives you a practical and clear language that you can use with your team to get on the same page about what level you’re reaching for right now for this particular type of task. That is, what DD3 is for code is different to an art asset. I have a reference example for you to use as well. You can use a degree of done chart for individual tasks, to define milestone goals clearly, and to make it easy to see progress on an entire level with one glance. Find out how to make a degree of done chart, and use it in this super informative video. Then you and your team will be able to discuss milestones clearly, will know what quality bar they are reaching for right now and can iterate on work with confidence until you’re ready to ship. Reference Material: [Example Degree of Done chart](https://www.notion.so/Degree-of-Done-Example-197a82440e1680328300ccd4fada7adf?pvs=21) Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/degree-done/ Video version: https://youtu.be/WYZfhSn2NyE Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: TITLE 00:00 Introduction 00:56 Question & Why should you care? 02:00 How do you know what done is? And how do you get started? 02:39 What is a Degree of Done chart? 04:29 How do you build a Degree of Done chart? 05:07 How do you use a Degree of Done chart? 07:17 Final Thoughts on Degree of Done 07:43 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team. Find out more about how to hire me: [jennsand.com](https://jennsand.com/)

10. 

    7 Jul 2025

    How to be a good game producer for a genre/discipline you don’t know

    Jenn Sand discusses how game producers can excel in unfamiliar genres or disciplines by embracing curiosity and mastering communication, which helps teams plan game development effectively.

11. 

    1 Jul 2025

    My Biggest Production Hack

    Jenn Sand, a game producer, reveals her biggest production hack that leverages the realities of game development to streamline workflows and adapt to changes.

12. 

    28 Jun 2025

    How to Stay Motivated During the Final Push to Release your Game

    Are you close to shipping your game, but super unmotivated? It seems like the end should be the easiest part of game development, but unexpectedly it’s one of the hardest. I’ve come up with a bunch of ideas that individuals, teams, producers, artists, animators, and people with buying power can do to motivate everyone. Most of them are meant for the end stages of a game, but many can be applied throughout game development to keep momentum going and stay motivated. Motivation is not a one size fits all approach. So you’ll get a very large and practical list of suggestions that cover a wide range, including baking cakes, buying gifts, gathering archival footage, making silly animations, daily status updates, and making a big deal of nothing. We’ll also talk about when to take a break versus when to push through. I love finding different ways to motivate people. This video will help you release that game and say that’s a wrap on development! Have a question for an expert game producer? Ask me your question here: https://jennsand.com/askjenn/ Text version: https://jennsand.com/advice/unmotivated-team/ Video version: https://youtu.be/9slvVv7acsU Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice: How to stay motivated and ship your game 00:00 Introduction 00:34 Question & Initial Thoughts 01:57 Suggestions for individuals 04:32 Suggestions for team activities 06:22 Suggestions for people with extra time 07:43 Suggestions for producers 09:04 Suggestions for people with buying power 09:44 Conclusion Jenn’s Generally Good Game Production Advice is an advice column for our modern ages and for game developers everywhere. Topics covered will help you ship your game on time, on budget, with a happy team no matter whether you are a producer or someone else on the game team.

13. 

    22 Jun 2025

    How to deal with someone else's variable performance on a game development team

    Jenn Sand, game production expert, addresses how to manage a game development team member's inconsistent performance when you lack direct authority, offering strategies for communication and escalation to improve team dynamics.

14. 

    17 Jun 2025

    How can other teams help production?

    Game production expert JENN SAND discusses how various game development teams can support the production team by improving communication, managing tasks, and identifying potential risks, ultimately leading to smoother project execution.

15. 

    13 Jun 2025

    How to deal with quiet times as a game producer

    Game producer JENN SAND discusses strategies for effectively managing downtime during quiet periods in game production, including backlog grooming and risk assessment.

16. 

    12 Jun 2025

    How to support individuals who have different needs

    Jenn Sand discusses accommodating individual needs within a game development team, emphasizing communication and respect to foster a supportive environment.

17. 

    10 Jun 2025

    How to have productive meetings

    Jenn Sand discusses strategies for game development teams to conduct shorter, more effective meetings by focusing on purpose, duration, and attendee engagement.

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YouTube views

1,238

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Podcast Authority Score: 42 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

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