What does the hierarchy of gaming look like? Who works closest to the actual game? who barely has any influence?
There are many patterns but the core parts are 3 leaders for each game. For each game, Tech Lead Art Lead Game Designer Lead 3 leaders report to the Director. The Director talks to the producer. The producer works on outside stuff like financial so that director can concentrate on the game.
Depends on the company. At Japanese companies Producers are kings. At startups designers or programmers are king. At most big name corporate companies these days data is king (and those who make decisions based on data - usually PMs). But QA is always at the bottom of the totem pole regardless.
Agreed, at larger gaming companies PMs are king with data being close to them.
Neither PMs nor Producers are Kong’s at Blizzard