How was the research conducted?
We took 250 profiles that came up when searching ‘game producers, Poland’ on LinkedIn and removed the irrelevant ones from the list such as those who were no longer working in Polish companies, those who were producers for a very short time, and so on.
We studied these profiles in terms of the following parameters: frequency of job changes, number of years in their current job, education, language skills, employers, and the city where they are located. We also looked at the most frequent career path. We are ready to share all the findings right now!
This research was conducted by the editors of Boost InGame Job.
Geography
According to our research, most game producers in Poland live and work in Warsaw. They account for almost 38.5% of the total number of profiles studied.
Krakow is next in popularity, with 20.4% of the producers in the study living and working there.
Wroclaw and Katowice are also prominent areas in the Polish gaming industry, with 12.7% and 5.9%, respectively.
I’d say Kraków or Warsaw are the best places to live in terms of employment and networking, but now – after the pandemic – more studios are open to fully remote working, especially those from smaller cities. For example, I’m working for a Kraków-based company while living across the country.
I would name three cities, traditionally leading in game dev for historical reasons: the presence of major developers there creates the gravitational point for all other developers: Warsaw, Krakow, and Wroclaw. In these cities you can find not only the company to work for, but also a huge family of venture funds, angel investors, and a decent High Technology Park.
Although these cities are pretty crowded nowadays and the cost of living has increased there. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, many people fled to Poland and stayed in the most accessible parts of the country. But worry you not, many developers are choosing to stay in small developing cities such as Bydgoszcz or Łódź, so it might be a good chance to start a local community or a new company there.
The most common companies
In Poland, as in Germany, there are no monopolistic corporations, and the number of companies is so vast that in our small sample there is almost no overlap of people working for the same employer.
CD Projekt Red, 11 bit studios, Techland, All in! Games, Draw Distance, Vile Monarch, Donkey Crew, Yaza Games are the companies we saw in the profiles of game producers most often.
Education and language skills
Interestingly, there are more people in our sample with no education than with a bachelor’s degree. 50 people have a master’s degree. And only 42 out of 222 people have (or have indicated) a specific education related to game development.
If you remember, 12.6% of game producers in Germany do not speak foreign languages, and in Poland, this number is higher: 33.8%.
In Germany the majority of producers from our sample speak three languages, by comparison, in Poland the majority speak two languages: native Polish and English.
Producers tend to come from all kinds of educational backgrounds. IT or management is the obvious route, and many producers have educational backgrounds in humanities, arts, or marketing. Maybe Film Production is slightly more common. Video game production-related studies still aren’t common in Poland. The situation is visibly changing with more Universities and Film Schools opening with majors in video game production. But we still will need 2-3 years to see the graduates joining our industry.
Many producers I know, who work on story, quest, or cinematic related topics, graduated as producers from Warsaw Film School, the Academy of Fine Arts, or similar institutes.
If the studio has a proprietary engine or huge chunk of its own tech under the hood of public engines they will be hiring technical producers. Typically, an engineering background or education is required for this role.
Other production roles rarely have restrictions that are connected to education, however the common practice among producers is to “know a little about a lot”. That helps to keep up the holistic view on the game through the whole production cycle.
What about job permanence?
According to our research, most producers have changed jobs six or more times. We obtained exactly the same data for Germany.
Almost equally distributed in our sample are those who have just got their current job (they have been working there for less than 1 year), and those who have been working for their current employer for more than 5 years. This is approximately 29.3% in each of the two categories.
What is the role of a game producer in a Polish company?
I’m a producer in a publishing company, so I primarily work with producers from developer studios. I help them prepare for upcoming challenges and deal with daily struggles. In some cases, I have a real influence on the game by providing feedback and pointing out unsatisfying aspects. I organize and manage the process of publishing the game – this means I’m responsible for providing support from QA, localization companies, release teams, legal teams, and marketing, etc. I take care of scheduling release roadmaps and certification processes required by platform holders. I also verify production schedules and ensure the project is going in the right direction and with the expected velocity.
The role of a game producer depends on the company for sure, but the common trend is as follows:
– the line producer is pretty close to the delivery manager, sometimes they take care of agile rituals and reporting;
– some producers are super specialized and focus on their pipelines: mocap, cinematics, sound, and music require deep domain knowledge, so these producers become more product managers;
– moreover, when line producers are over-growing their roles, they are getting closer to the role of product manager, focusing on the “What?” part of the delivery, rather than the”When?”.
Сompared to Belarus and Ukraine, you should be ready to get your hands dirty – help the team to discover, develop, and deliver the game, before you begin contributing to the design.
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