They find the talent, work out product deals, get contracts signed, manage them, and bring them to their conclusion.
They don't make decisions about packaging and merchandising, but they do get involved ... they're a little like book editors, a little bit like film producers, and a lot like product managers.
Although the term is an industry standard today, it was dismissed as "imitation Hollywood" by many game executives and press members at the time.
There are relatively few superstars of game production that parallel those in film, in part because top producers are usually employed by publishers who choose to play down publicizing their contributions.
For an external producer, their job responsibilities may focus mainly on overseeing several projects being worked on by a number of developers.
While keeping updated on the progress of the games being developed externally, they inform the upper management of the publisher of the status of the pending projects and any problems they may be experiencing.
Based on filmmaking traditions, line producers focus on project scheduling and costing to ensure titles are completed on time and on budget.
Popular computer programming languages for video game development include C, C++, Assembly, C# and Java.
[citation needed] Employers typically require three plus years of experience, since a producer has to have gone through the development cycle several times to really understand how unpredictable the business is.
This is easier to accomplish if one stays with the same studio, reaping the benefits of having built relationships with the production department.