Kirill Zolovkin on the seven deadly sins of PC game producers

Another participant of the "Game Industry" conference is Kirill Zolovkin, the founder of Heart Core studio. During his presentation, he discussed the main mistakes made by PC game producers that affect project revenues.

Kirill Zolovkin at the "Game Industry" conference

Zolovkin believes that the culture of producing in the gaming industry is still underdeveloped. Many specialists do not reflect on their behavior and often make significant mistakes. However, he hopes that the situation will improve in the next five years.

Zolovkin highlighted seven "deadly sins" of PC game producers. According to him, at least one of these can be found in 90% of producers. He himself is no exception.

Sin #1. Thinking in polish, playing to the mice

Zolovkin notes that producers often focus on minor details instead of thinking about strategy. For example, they personally open the game code to tweak a few pixels on a character’s flask in a tactical RPG or task the team with similar issues. This ultimately harms the producer, their team, and the business.

In such cases, producers are “thinking in polish,” says Zolovkin. They fail to develop big ideas and lose focus, which should be directed at larger matters.

Sin #2. I’m not a founder, I’m an artist

A common situation arises when a producer or founder’s inner artist starts criticizing the game with statements like “this is ugly, this is not what I dreamed of.” Or their inner programmer is driven by an irresistible urge to code personally and “properly” write the architecture. This creates cognitive dissonance. After years of climbing the career ladder, they still view themselves as the artist, programmer, or game designer who came to create their dream game, not a company. According to Zolovkin, this distortion only works during crunch times. In other cases, it hinders the project, as the producer/founder is not focusing on their actual responsibilities.

Sin #3. Dreamer-realist-critic — choose one

It’s problematic when a producer doesn’t traverse all the stages from dreamer to realist to critic, in that order, says Zolovkin. Usually, such a producer falls into one extreme. For example, they might start actively dreaming, generating suggestions without considering implementation and assessment, telling the team that they’ll finish everything in the polishing stage, while in the meantime switch tasks. Another extreme is when the producer acts as a critic and rejects any team idea.

Zolovkin advises first letting imagination run wild to envision a great project, then considering existing constraints (team size, skills, etc.), and finally critically evaluating the situation to form a clear understanding of what can be created.

Sin #4. Genre, target, niche — never heard of them

According to Zolovkin, many developers come to him having chosen "roguelike" as their genre. However, he believes that "roguelike," like "indie game," are now derogatory terms. Instead, developers should focus on more specific genres and niches. They should define these using Steam’s tag cloud, which Zolovkin suggests updating every two weeks in accordance with newly released games to boost their wishlist numbers.

Zolovkin added that Steam’s tag cloud can predict trends on the platform and target them. For example, Zolovkin was able to foresee the cozy games boom a few years ago using this method.

Sin #5. Inventing instead of delivering

The task of games is to deliver “fun,” points out Zolovkin. A producer should focus not on self-expression, but on ensuring the game is fun to play. This includes ensuring timely feature releases and regular content updates.

Sin #6. Relying on luck

Zolovkin believes this sin is the most common. Many producers think they will get lucky with a new project simply because they were lucky in the past. They base all success predictions on a previous game, but this is a precarious position.

Zolovkin has formulated the following definition of luck: "Luck = Experience + The chance to implement it in a new way."

Sin #7. Making promises, but not committing

Zolovkin is convinced that promises made to investors and partners must always be kept. Telling them everything is fine and under control when things are actually falling apart is extremely harmful to the business. It can ruin relationships, lose exclusive agreements, and miss other important opportunities. It’s important to understand that investors and partners are actually on the company’s side; they just want to know what is happening. According to Zolovkin, it’s better to honestly state that the company is struggling for time to avoid false pretense.

Meanwhile, if the producer decides that “the barn’s burnt down – may as well set the house on fire too,” then employees may be treated unfairly. People can be forced into crunch times or even layoffs, under the promise that everything will improve soon. This may not destroy the company, but it will destroy its reputation.

Besides the "deadly sins," Zolovkin pointed out three misconceptions common among producers. They are less critical but still significantly interfere with work.

Misconception #1. I could do it myself in an hour

Producers often assess work based on abstract metrics and underestimate employees by thinking they could do everything much faster. However, they forget that a producer is primarily the head of the project, not a tool for implementing their own ideas. They must structure processes, formulate tasks correctly, and provide appropriate feedback to the team.

Misconception #2. Employees should see for themselves that everything is bad

Every person has their own criteria for what is “bad” and what is “good.” Just because some issues seem obvious to the producer doesn’t mean they are obvious to the rest of the team, and sometimes the producer might be mistaken.

Misconception #3. Since I’m crunching, they should too

Employees are not obliged to crunch because they are not founders. They don’t receive a share of the company’s revenue but work for a salary. The only way to convince people to crunch is to build excellent relationships with them. Employees might agree to work overtime if they enjoy it and receive non-material benefits from it.

Conclusions

As Zolovkin emphasizes, founders/producers are in it for the long haul. When they build their company, they create not one project but a series of projects. With each new project, they must improve the precision of targeting their audience.
Companies should be prepared to part with people and ideas. People leave when a project ends, and this must be accepted.
The team reflects the behavior of leadership, notes Zolovkin. If management treats employees poorly, they will reciprocate. And vice versa.
"Partners are with you as long as it’s better with you than without," indicates Zolovkin. If the company delivers good products with strong metrics, partners will be eager to collaborate. But they will part ways easily if the situation changes.
Zolovkin added that one of the most important documents for project work is the fact sheet. It should specify the game’s name, genre, age rating, price, release date, brief description, and key features/unique selling points. This ensures clarity on what is being worked on.
Zolovkin advises founders/producers to personally handle their company, team, creative processes, corporate events, and negotiations. Tasks like accounting, contracts, press releases, and operational processes should be delegated.
Additionally, he recommends developing a personal brand, making new acquaintances, and creating a community around oneself.