Lee Doerksen, Executive Producer

Generalist personality

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"The thing about being an Executive Producer is that everybody falls underneath you. All of the concerns inside of this domain fall under your peruse. So you have to be "good-competent" in all those domains.

"There's problem solving, there's creative, there's managerial. Everything is going to fall underneath. A kind of Jack-of-all-trades or Renaissance Person, however you describe someone like that, that's who makes a good executive producer. Not a specialist, a generalist."

Images from my workplace

Our evolution

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"Before we formed the video game company I had two other companies. One is a toy company for kids with special needs and one is a software development house.

"The experiences that we had there prepared us very well for developing a new kind of software that we deliver through video games that help teach kids all sorts of skills about the computer. The A-B-C's of computer learning."

A Manitoba first

Our company may be the first formal full-blown video game production house in the province. A shop of our size is fairly unique for Manitoba.

We also create a particular style of high quality games that are not available anywhere else in the world. Our approach to the production and distribution of games is unconventional so that sets us apart from our competitors.

Editor's Note: According to Lee, "The Dragonfly Games Division brings together universal access pedagogical materials with personalized publishing technology to deliver exactly the right games to every child, worldwide."

High risk, high reward

Gaming companies are high-risk ventures. You can make absolutely nothing or even lose everything you have. But this risk is also associated with a reward and if you do well, you're looking at income in the millions of dollars.

The companies at the very top of our industry, like Electronic Arts and Rockstar, are making eight figures plus.

Responsible for everything

As company president and executive producer, I'm responsible for everything. Specifically, I focus on the production, on writing, quality control and sound production. I have seven core employees and manage contractors off-site for specialty areas.

All teams ultimately report to me and I manage all divisions including sound, animation, 2D artwork, programming and delivery systems.

Myths and misconceptions

It's a myth that there's no video game industry in Manitoba. We may not have a large catalogue of game titles but our people are demand in California, Vancouver and Montreal.

The industry recognises the intelligence and talent Manitoba has to offer so it's a growth industry. Recent tax credits similar to those for the film industry have allowed us to synthesize teams and produce titles.

And that's essentially a description of the video game industry: teams producing different titles.

Immigrant foundations

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I suppose that my parents, being children of immigrants, faced the typical regime of challenges. Of course you are building your own foundations and that takes a considerable amount of time.

"Once we've been here several generations we realize the advantages of their foundation-building. We take them for granted.

"But if we were to have to move to a new country and just land with our bags, we'd realize quickly how much work goes into building foundations and what a drag on your productivity that can actually be."

Winnipeg roots

I grew up in Winnipeg and also in a small town south of Winnipeg, called Roland. I went to school in a small town close by called Carman. When I was old enough, I left Winnipeg and went to Victoria where I lived for about eight years.

I worked for the family business and learned sorts of things about business and art and how to run small companies.

I came back here roughly 13 years ago.

Sons participate

I brought my kids into the business pretty early. My youngest son just turned 12 and he's studying both traditional artwork and 3d studio digital art. By the time he's 16 or 17, he'll be ready to take on a summer job with our company. So instead of having to work at McDonald's he can work in an environment that is family-oriented, high-skill and high-paying.

My 18-year-old has been working with us since he was 12. He's now our Lead Programmer and he's phenomenally talented. So I bring my kids into the business and I'm constantly involved with them.

Basketball

One of my favourite activities in my time off is teaching basketball. I'm the coach for Crescentwood in a number of age divisions and we do a lot of basketball here at home.

Both of my sons were city champions last year, so they got gold medals. There's a wonderful league here for basketball called the WMBA that's really been exploding lately and they are two of the better players in that league.

I don't have a lot of other hobbies, mostly because so much of my time is taken up with the businesses.

Zen training

I have almost ten years of Zen training. That really helps me in my life and work. On any given day, if there's too much for me to contemplate or think about, I'll pause and take a step back. I take fifteen minutes to meditate and then come back refreshed. I'll often discover the solution to a particular problem or challenge.

I can't afford to short-circuit. Too much is at stake so I have studied and trained to make sure that I can handle unusual amounts of stress.

Deadlines and stress

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"An Executive Producer is going to have so very many concerns on their plate all the time and that's the kind of thing that can quite often build up stress. It's not one deadline but thirteen deadlines.

"Then four other deadlines that are pending, that you need to set and five peoples' lives that you need to schedule for a task. Everything's very, very complicated. These are the kinds of things that generally generate stress."

Sacrifices and rewards

This work can have a terrific impact on my employees' lives. It gets very personal for them. And sometimes it actually gets personal in my life that way too.

It's my job to make sure that there are very few sacrifices and that there are as many rewards as possible for everybody inside the company. That's one of the biggest challenges on any given day.

Even though it's about numbers and creative projects, at the end of the day it comes down to the people who create and use our products.

Staying ahead of the curve

I read approximately an hour and a half to two hours every day. I use a service called "Safari Online". Safari has the latest technical publications online, which I access as an electronic bookshelf. I rotate through a minimum of 10 books each month and they're always heavy-duty books.

I mostly read about production, sound production, 3D animation, keen design, storyboarding and all the other facets of our work here.

Working from home

I spend a lot of my day working from home. What used to be my main office is now turning slowly back into my home library. This is the space where staff would come to work and where a lot of the creative process would go on. For a home office, it's fairly complex.

One significant thing about working from home is the blend of life and work spaces. Working from home means balancing all the little life opportunities and challenges that come up during the day.

Playing video games

Not too many people get to play video games as part of their job. I recently picked up World of Warcraft and it has a fifteen dollar fee. I'm going to be writing that off on my taxes because I need to play games in order to research them.

Anyone who is considering working in this industry has to have a love of gaming - game play, design, trends. If you don't play video games, you should not be in the industry. You can't appreciate what it takes to make a good game unless you recognize what good game play is.

Meaningful results

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"We deal with kids with special needs and we know that there are a limited number of opportunities for our kids to have learning moments with normal stuff. When we put out product, that gives them those extra learning moments.

"You know you've had a direct impact on the world. And it's fine with me that it's one kid's world. That's a big enough world to be feeling really, really good about."

Key skills

Technical Skills

- Advanced math and science
- Advanced knowledge of computer, gaming and new media technologies
- Advanced computer programming, software and digital design skills
- Advanced experience using both PC and Macintosh operating systems, game platforms and computer networking
- Advanced creative and conceptual skills

People Skills

- Clear and effective communication
- A "people person"
- Persuasive and confident personality
- Strong social networking
- Strong presentation and public speaking

Business Skills

- Project funding and financing strategies
- Effective time management
- Research and concepts for new products
- Calculated risk taking

Collaboration

There's a lot of collaboration in the production phase. We do some "extreme programming", which is a very popular technique in game production where two people program together.

For example, I'll put an artist and a programmer together at a station and allow them to work together.

The result is always unexpected. Managing effective collaboration is necessary if you want to nourish a productive video game environment.

Team building

As an Executive Producer I have to establish project needs, put the whole team together and assign specific tasks. Once every job is tasked, I have to work with each individual in each department to ensure they understand the project requirements. I will trouble shoot and check in on their progress everyday until the project is completed.

As we are building up the company and growing it we need to get out into the community and find those people in sound, design, computer programming, artificial intelligence and all those different areas, but who have never played inside a video game industry before.

I have to convince them that this is the way to go, show them the opportunities, bring them in and help them be successful inside the industry.

Unconventional thinker

One quality I seem to possess in abundance is an aversion to convention. When other people say, "Well you know, that's not being done - so it must be for a good reason ..." I'm too stubborn to listen to that argument. I always think there must be something that we've missed. It's rare that we don't find the keys to unlock doors others haven't opened.

My refusal to rely on accepted wisdom has turned out to be my greatest strength. It allows us to do things that might seem crazy but are valuable to us.

Doing what I love

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I chose this line of work because of personal interests. Obviously I like working with computers and technology, but I like also building infrastructures that help kids learn.

"Not just a particular product, but looking at how we're learning in society today, asking 'is there anything we can do to make that a little bit better?' And then actually build it and get it out to them. I enjoy that a great deal."

Skills built over career

I've learned a lot of different skills from my previous jobs. In the piano industry you have to learn to be organized. Everything comes at you at least 88 times. You have to pay attention to detail and quality because you're dealing with the subjective measure of sound. It grounds you in the experience of producing and repairing things.

In the art business, I dealt with people who made their living creating art. I ran galleries and big art shows and wholesale companies. I learned the value of art that you can't get from the business world. And that gave me the skills to be able to pull this off.

My experience

At 12 years old, I started working for my father doing piano tuning and repair. When I graduated from high school, I flew to Victoria and worked with my family's art business for eight years.

After eight years, I came back to Winnipeg and I painted houses for a bit. Then I went to University and, after a few courses, started the Dragonfly Toy Company. I've been doing that for almost thirteen years.

Tech hacker

I've been hacking away on computers since high school. I was one of those guys they'd call in to fix a network or hack together a program for a teacher. Later on, I started to come up with entirely new business processes.

I'm not surprised anymore by a lot of the technology that I see. Making a sound production studio now on your Mac is almost a trivial process compared to where it was five, ten years ago, when you needed to invest thousands of dollars into a significant recording system.

Be a generalist

I have two pieces of advice: First, when you play a video game, notice the details and be a critic. You have to be able to appreciate the good and criticise the bad. Second, fill up your day.

In order to become a true Executive Producer, you have to be able to understand and recognize excellence in many forms. That means you cannot specialize in just one thing, but do well at many things. If there's something you can't do, you must learn to appreciate fine work in that area. That's a life-long commitment.

Make Winnipeg a beacon

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I would like to make a very large video game company here in Manitoba. I would like it to be like a beacon that shines in Canada, like Montreal is now, like Vancouver is now.

"I'd like to see Winnipeg on that footing. Something similar to what's happened in the movie industry here."

A top notch shop

Five years from now I'd like to be working with a core team of at least twenty five at our production house. And that's the core team, which means there's a constellation of 75 to a 150 others who come on to do particular tasks.

That's a full-title capable shop. A really top-notch, Triple-A title type of shop. And that's what I hope to have.

Manitoba's bright future

Manitoba is going to see a large increase in the number of video game titles that are produced here. I guarantee that. There's an incubator program that's recently been funded by Telefilm.

There are companies like ours that have three titles in production at one time. Companies like Frantic Films for example, are looking more at the video game industry. How could you not? It just out-grossed the movie industry last year.

Indigenous talent

If I could change anything in Manitoba right now I would try to inspire certain movers and shakers to pay much more attention to our indigenous talent, to look at how we create stories and learning materials rather than looking outside the province.

I believe that if you have successes inside the province, those other companies are going to want to come and play with you. The focus really should change. Governments and private sponsors, equity pools have to look within Manitoba to produce titles.

Lay lawyer

The legal skills and the legal matters involved in intellectual property define the majority of the value of any particular game. Intellectual property (IP) is very complex and companies must position themselves correctly within it.

Otherwise a company can go bust just because they forgot to sign a certain document. So I'd like to learn more about the law and perhaps one day become a lay lawyer.

Job market info

The official title for Lee's occupation is Senior Managers - Trade, Broadcasting and Other Services and its NOC* code is 0015.

Manitoba Job Futures

Who Hires - Manitoba Labour Market Information

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the 'National Occupation Classification' code or 'NOC'.

Education

High school

Useful high school subjects

- English (Communication)
- Business
- Computer-related courses

*Source: JobFutures.ca

New Media Master Classes
MindSet has partnered with the new media industry in Manitoba to develop over 100 young people. High school students submit samples from their new media portfolio to be judged by new media professionals who choose the most promising talents for 4-6 sessions with outstanding Manitoba professionals in new media. The program is run in Winnipeg, Brandon and locations in Northern Manitoba

For those out of school, Adult Learning Centres can help you get or upgrade your high school diploma, including adding subjects that are required for work or further education. All Manitobans are normally entitled to 4 free courses.

After high school 

Red River College

Creative Arts Department
Click on Digital Multimedia Technology (Two Year Diploma Program)

University of Manitoba

Computer Science (Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees)

Assiniboine Community College

Business Administration (Diploma Program)

Essential Skills

The most important Essential Skills for Small Business Owner-Operators (and related occupations) are:

- Oral Communication
- Problem Solving
- Decision Making
- Job task planning and organizing
- Significant Use of Memory
- Finding Information
- Working With Others

*For more information on Essential Skills and their importance to this occupation, go to:
Essential Skills .

Professional resources

Manitoba Innovation Framework - Culture and New Media
A summary of the Manitoba government's commitment to cultural and new media development strategies.

Manitoba Interactive Digital Media Association (MIDMA)
MIDMA is a professional association devoted to promoting the objectives of Manitoba's digital media industry and media producers.

New Media Manitoba
MNM is dedicated to providing networking, resources and training opportunities for Manitobans in Graphic Arts, New Media, and Video Industry. MNM provides a space for new media professionals to discuss issues that are relevant to their areas of specialty and the industry in general.

Related careers

Computer Programmers and Interactive Media Developers (NOC 2174)

Computer Animator (NOC 5241)

Interactive Media Writer/Critic (NOC 5121)

Managers - Publishing, Motion Pictures, Broadcasting and Performing Arts (NOC 0512)

Other Services Managers (NOC 0651)