Roles and Responsibilities

As an Associate Producer on Saints Row (2022), my job was to assist the release team in getting the game submitted on all platforms. I started off by learning to triage launch bugs, where I talked with each department’s producer, outlined their bug criteria and understood their department’s priority. For example,  an outfit clipping through a neck can be waived so long as a mission is functioning properly. 

The most interesting (and funniest) part of the job was gathering footage from the game for the age ratings process. This is where a game studio fills out paperwork and provides in-game footage containing instances of violence, crude language or nudity. Imagine starting your first real game dev job and your manager asks you to email a director for a list of every song in the game and which swears are used. 

In addition, I kept an archive of key project builds, submission builds, and patches. Every morning I’d install the latest version of the game and send it via a share portal to our external clients. The last part of the release process was inputting the achievement text and icons into Microsoft and Sony’s websites. I worked with the user interface team to put in the correct icons and design to ensure the text was correct. 

When I wasn’t spending time on release work, I was running the accessibility strike team. The group of ten was made up of system designers, vfx artists, a cinematics programmer, audio designer and quality assurance. I managed their task work and bugs in Hansoft. As we neared the end of the project, I coached the team in scrum practices before the studio fully transitioned to agile development on DLC. I also took the Accessible Player Experience (APX) training course from AbleGamers and helped others in Volition sign up for the class. If I could get as many people as possible to take the training, then we could start planning accessibility features earlier for the next project.

To this day I’ll always remember waking up on my birthday and seeing this article praising our hard work. Saints Row’s accessibility settings weren’t perfect, but what mattered is we tried and made this game the most accessible in the series.