Replace “battle” with “shipping a game” and I think that about covers it. Pipelines and tools are important to production and project management. They help keep things organized, and they help keep you efficient (and sane) – but they aren’t what makes games. Your team makes games. Your people.

The role of a producer is keeping your team efficient, keeping your team happy, and shipping the game. Let your team do what they do best: make awesome art, design fantastic experiences, code like a demon – whatever they do - while guiding them gently but firmly towards that looming deadline.

Maybe it’s that producers are like Gandalf. The fellowship (your team) has got to get the ring (the game) to Mordor (shipped) before all hell breaks loose. You’re there to usher them onwards, console the fearful (“I wish this asset had never come to me!” “So do all who live to see crunch time…”), and if need be, sacrifice yourself to that balrog (only without leaving them to fend for themselves for an extended period of time). If you’re doing it right, your team trusts you, looks up to you, and seeks your help and advice. You work with them to help them grow and be self-sufficient in hopes that, at first light on the fifth day, they won’t need you…but you’ll still be there in the east in case they do.