If you’re anything like us, then chances are you already have a pretty good idea of what various game development roles entail. Sometimes, however, it can be good to get a bit of a refresher.
Take directors and producers, for example. It’s not entirely uncommon that the two roles get confused sometimes, particularly when individuals such as Eiji Aonuma and Yoshio Sakamoto are often regarded as the ‘faces’ of Zelda and Metroid, respectively.
As Sakurai explains, however, a director is in charge of individual projects and has the final say on almost every major aspect of development. A producer, meanwhile, may be overseeing multiple projects at once and will be in charge of financing, management, staffing, and marketing.
With this in mind, you can understand why it’s often Eiji Aonuma who heads up gameplay presentations for titles such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and not the games’ director, Hidemaro Fujibayashi.
As Sakurai explains, however, the two roles can often intersect: some producers might want to dip their toes into the creative side of things, while directors (Sakurai included) like to be involved with marketing.
He also says that because the producer acts on behalf of a wider company’s interests, it can sometimes lead to some “butting heads”. However, Sakurai speaks fondly of his own relationship with Nintendo, stating “I’d say we have no trouble at all getting along. They place a great deal of trust in me, so there’s almost never tension over differences of opinion”.
