Agile, Game Development & Where to Begin

[7thpixel]

I've been in the technology sector since 1994, however I've been in the web space. I found that Agile/Scrum is very useful, and it recently dawned on me that it "should" transition well to Game Development. Doing a quick search I found there are others that certainly agree with this approach who are already in the game dev sector, such as Clinton Keith.

Now my question to the community is this:

Is there a way to leverage my years of Technical Lead experience in the web space to help make a career transition into Game Design?

Now I'm sure there will be responses with "yes", but I'm not interested in game testing at minimum wage. It just isn't feasible at this stage in my career/life. I also am well aware of the challenges of landing a Producer role, since it is rare to find a developer to hand over a Producer job to someone who lacks published AAA titles. Granted, I've shipped multi-million dollar SaaS based solutions, but that isn't applicable to game design. Or is it?

That is why I'm posting here.

I have some ideas, but I'm extremely interested in what this forum offers. As far as my personal game design experience, its all been stuff on the side that I do because of my passion for gaming. Nothing that would warrant a portfolio, and while I do possess a BS in Graphic Design, my Project Lead skill-set is much stronger.

How can a 30+ something, successful Technology Director switch careers without starting at the bottom?

Are Associate Game Producers mostly a product of being promoted from within?

[yaustar]

Is there a way to leverage my years of Technical Lead experience in the web space to help make a career transition into Game Design?

Yes, it is possible but I don't think you will be able to directly. I would look at getting a Technical Lead or Development Manager role to break into the industry then move to a design position at a slightly later stage.