Meet the Immutables - Morgan Little

Today we chat with Morgan Little, Associate Producer, Gods Unchained. Morgan speaks to us about how they started their career in theatre and ended up in gaming ?? We chatted about the role of producer and how Immutable has fostered growth in both their personal and professional life.

Hi Morgan! How did you get into the gaming industry?

I've always been excited by games, but as I was growing up, I couldn't see an avenue into working on them. I can't draw or animate, and whenever I try to learn to code, it slides right out of my brain.?

I went to university in Canberra and wound up doing a lot of training in theatre making, I discovered a passion for producing theatre. On any show, you could be doing anything from budgets and scheduling to building sets, sewing costumes, running lines and selling drinks at the bar - it was all about ensuring the show goes up, no matter what.

After I graduated, some friends reached out to me - they'd just graduated too and were going to try their hand at making games independently. And so, I wound up writing and doing narrative design as part of an indie studio, Cardboard Keep. (Alongside this, I kept making theatre and started making arts festivals!) We released our first full-scale title in 2016 after nearly three years of development, which remains one of my proudest achievements.

What excites you about this industry?

There's so much breadth and depth when it comes to games; a game can be something dreamt up by a 3-year-old in their bedroom, a group of friends filling time, a small team with a burning passion, or a huge collaboration from a studio with hundreds of seasoned developers. Games give us the capacity to entertain, to educate, to experiment, and to interact in such varied and specialised ways - I can play heads or tails by myself with a coin, chess with anyone in the same room (or on the other side of the world), or be a part of a global tournament (as either player or spectator). There is so much possibility, and especially within the video games space, we are still in the early days - I cannot wait to see what comes next.

How did you end up working at Immutable?

After moving to Melbourne in 2018, I bounced around a few odd jobs as I continued to make theatre and arts festivals but never landed anywhere for too long. I got offered a short-term remote contract to do some Technical Design work for a new game that was just launching into Alpha - I was doing the initial implementation of God's Unchained cards*. That contract was initially for a month, but it got extended, and again, and again - and then it became a full-time gig!

*Thankfully, these cards have now passed to much more capable developers.

Why Production? What does a Producer do?

"What does a producer do?" might be the question that binds all creative mediums together. Everyone will give slightly different answers, so obviously, take my response with salt as needed. A Producer's work can often feel invisible, but every developer I've ever known can feel when there isn't production support around. Production is all about focusing the team on ensuring we meet our goals - that can mean prioritising tasks, shifting scope, and finding a compromise when there isn't enough time to get everything done. Alongside that, it's also about reducing the mental load of work admin on other team members - booking meetings, tracking tasks, and just generally freeing up specialised developers to focus on doing what they do best. Production can often be a wet blanket in a room of excited developers - do we really?need?to include that? But if you build up a good rapport with the team around you, everyone learns to trust each other, and understand that the questions brought by Production help us create a better game.

What does your typical workday at Immutable look like?

After a morning sync up with the rest of the Gods Unchained Production team, I spend much of my day in meetings with developers from across the whole development team. If you're going to decide what work is being focused, you need to have a pretty good understanding of where everything sits in the greater context of the game and development timeline. Production will take a lot of actions from each meeting, ensuring dots are connected, documentation written, and keeping the game development engine ticking along smoothly.

My day can look a bit haphazard from the outside - I might swap from supporting our Game Design team in reviewing a Balance update, to leading our SETA team in prioritising their week ahead, to coordinating logistics for our fledgling Melbourne office, all in the space of an hour! But it's a fun and social role to be in - I enjoy the company of the people I work with, and am lucky enough to help them with the fantastic things they're working on.

How has Immutable fostered your growth?

My role at Immutable has changed considerably since I first started - from short-term Technical Designer to full-time Associate Producer. That's something I attribute to the support of the team around me, giving me the space to try new things and integrate my experience from theatre and festival management, and the open and supportive approach of senior developers and management staff on the Gods Unchained team. I've been given many opportunities to learn hands-on in a production role, to trial new methods of working and supporting the team, and receive honest but supportive feedback from across the board.

The Studio has created a welcoming and genuinely caring space for all staff - we support, praise, and celebrate the people we work with, which gives people room to flourish as people. For me, Immutable has been an open and supportive space for me to continue to explore my gender identity, and how that fits into both my personal and professional life. I feel very grateful for the space we have here, and continue to give back to it in a supportive and encouraging way. ??

Come and join Morgan, we are hiring - https://www.immutable.com/careers

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