Pete Young · Independent Production Director

I've spent twenty-five years finding out why capable teams get stuck.

I started as a programmer and worked through most levels of games development: engineering, production, direction, platform teams, studio leadership. Some of the waypoints:

I was Multiplayer Director on Driver: San Francisco, with cross-functional ownership of direction, design, technical and UX on a critically acclaimed, technically demanding feature. I built and led the eight-person team that shipped Grow Home, BAFTA nominated, which showed me that constraints, handled well, are a creative catalyst. I was Production Director across a 200+ person studio running multiple simultaneous projects, including The Crew, Just Dance and Watch Dogs. And I led the Live Services platform team at Creative Assembly and the Productivity & Infrastructure team at Ubisoft Reflections: central technology and shared services built to help the whole organisation, not just any single project.

I also have a PhD in Computer Science, which is why I'm as comfortable in a conversation with a technical director as I am with an MD.

Outside work

I'm a Scout leader, a climbing instructor and mountain leader, and treasurer of the Northumbrian Mountaineering Club. Teaching people to climb and leading teams turn out to be closer than they look.

Pete Young sitting at a climbing anchor he has built, smiling at the camera. — Building the anchor. Safe, simple, efficient.

How I work

I listen first. The answer is usually already in the building.
I don't arrive with a methodology to install. I help your team build what fits them.
I'll be honest with you, including when it's uncomfortable.
I adapt to what the team needs, whether that's a sounding board or an extra pair of hands.
Success is you not needing me.

Why studios need this now

Publishers want titles shipped faster, with smaller teams and less slack, and studio structures that worked at fifty people crack at a hundred and fifty. Full-time senior production leadership is expensive to carry between the moments it's actually needed. I work part-time alongside your team: senior enough to matter, present enough to help, without the permanent overhead.

Fancy a coffee?