Report Games pre production

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 TYPE OF PRODUCTION 

Section 1.1 concept 

Section 1.2 pre production-Game design document

Section 1.3 production

CHAPTER 2 PERSONEL 

Section 2.1 Roles + skills and exsperience 

Section 2.2 Resourcing 

Section 2.3 Availibillity - size of team and cost

CHAPTER 3 FINANCE

Section 3.1 sources of finacne 

Section 3.2 talent 

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

In this report I intend to highlight the key aspects of pre-production in detail and explain their importance of the roll they play in the development of making a game. It is important to learn this because some would argue that in order to make a game you must first understand where it comes from. I will show understanding of some of the main problems and risks that can occur during the games pre-production. I will show what pre production is through the research I have done. 

CONCEPT |ONE

The Genesis of all games that you see starts with a simple concept or idea. If the concept is original, it’s often generated from a source within a gaming company. Although there are times that ideas outside of the company are used. In either case the concept is just an idea for what the game can be about. An example of a simple game concept could be to make a future 2D racing game with hovercrafts in a environment of todays world. A games conception can also start as wanting to develop a follow up or sequel to an existing title. Featuring non–gaming story, franchises or characters – from other mediums such as television, movies, comic books, folklore or history. This is also the case with games that is meant to simulate some real world experience. In the case with using sports, cases such 0as these the genesis of the games development relies on the company deciding on a game that simulates a real life sport. Another example of where concept is critical is FIFA 17 made by EA where they try to make an accurate game to simulate football at all levels. To source a concept for a game it would require a revised brainstorm or insight into successful games currently and gaps in the market to help develop or innovate your own game concept idea. 

PRE PRODUCTION |TWO        

Pre-productions focus is to already have a game proposal or concept. The goal or objective of the preproduction stage is to complete all game design, present suitable documentation and do some technical prototyping to demonstrate its feasibility. This links to prove that the game can be made by your team and the game is worth making. If a game doesn’t make it past this stage it is often written off. 

There are several key points that are written during the pre-production phase. These help formalize from concept to proposal. These often fall into the game design document (GDD), the art bible, the production path, the technical design and the project plan. 

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT |

The game Design document should include information detailing about gameplay, user interface story, levels, and puzzles and so on. Expect this document to change as the game development evolves. It is important for everyone to understand this document, as it will be a reference during development. It will be mostly useful to newcomers who aren’t familiar with a game. It will also important to investors or publishers.  

(GDD) |THE STORY (OPTIONAL) 

The story is important within any game during pre-production this document should provide an easy to read narrative of what transpires in the game.

(GDD) |GAMEPLAY MECHANICS 

 Along with gameplay mechanics. Getting this right is important because it describes how the player will interact with the world. In this section you would be concerned about “what” and “how”. What the player dose in the game and how the player goes about doing it. 

(GDD) |GAME ELEMENTS

Game elements these should include information about characters, items consumables or wielded by the player and non-player characters. These help create a variety of interesting engaging in game experiences. 

(GDD) |GAME WORLD BEHAVIOUR 

This section includes how the world will react with the player. Games world behavior should complement game mechanics and help increase immersion and player interaction within the environment. 

(GDD) |GAME PRGORESSION 

Game progression is important to the games pre-production as it should includes each level or stage of the game and how the player will be affected, in terms of difficulty, experiences and emotions felt. Within keeping major challenges and obstacles faced by the player not to difficult. While keeping some form of organization and structure to athletics so the player is never thrown off by visuals as well such as looks or sound.

(GDD) |THE ART BIBLE 

When in Pre-production it is important to establish an overall basis for what the game will look like. The Art bible should be a source for story boards and other concept art. It is important that in this section of pre-production limitations are set. 

 THE PRODUCTION PATH

During pre-production it is critical that you can determine how to go from the concept ideas to something concrete this process is called the production path. The production path includes Art tools, modelers and rendering tools, level editors and design tools, music and sound tools, game engines, and software development tools. It is of most importance that the tools listed are compatible. This must be assorted so that any costs and timings in acquiring the tools can be factored into the project plan. 

THE TECHNICAL DESIGN DOCUMENT 

This document states how functionality in the game would be implemented using software design or code structure. Helping make animation, graphics and artificial intelligence used in helping implement the game. 

THE PROJECT PLAN

The project plan in games pre-production acts as a map for how the game is going to be built. Starts with tasks to be completed., including being able to highlight the dependences among the tasks. Using all the information to create a schedule. Things of importance that would be covered would be a budget, schedule and milestones of which progress can be tracked. 

THE CONSTRAINT TRIANGLE 

Ideally, we would all want games to cost nothing and to be built instantly. While also to up hold infinitely good quality. However if during pre-production you wanted to adjust one of the cost, time or quality goals. You would have to provide leniency for one of the others.  An example of this in pre-production for a game would be if you wanted to decrease the time it takes to make the game you would either have to increase personnel (costing more money) or by reducing the games quality. Again if you wanted to reduce the cost of a game you could apply this by using fewer developers (increasing development time) or by reducing the quality. 

THE PROTOTYPE   

The prototype is a tangible end result of pre-production. This is a working piece of software that captures the essence of the game on screen. At this point this may be the make or break for further development if the game is pitched to an investor, for further finical investment. Prototyping shows the vision of the game, but also confirms that you can go from ideas to reality in a reasonable and effective way. 

PRODUCTION |THREE

This stage primarily evolves around a lot of the main pre-production being finished and directs more attention toward how the game will be marketed. Mostly consisting of planning the advertising, age regulation, licensing and any other partnerships with clients, publishers or collaborating gaming companies to come up with an agreement for which sets a fair ground for the games release and price of the game.

REGULATIONS 

Age ratings are systems used to ensure that entertainment content, such as films, videos, DVDs, and computer games, are clearly labeled by age according to the content they contain. Age ratings provide guidance to consumers (particularly parents) to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product. Example to qualify for the PEGI OK label a game cannot contain any of the following elements:

·      Violence

·      Sexual activity or sexual innuendo

·      Nudity

·      Bad language

·      Gambling

·      Promotion or use of drugs

·      Promotion of alcohol or tobacco

·      Scary scenes

This often affects the games that are targeted for a young audience and the game contains too much graphic content. So in pre production it is important to already understand what is acceptable and what isn’t for the audience you intend to pitch the game to.  This would normally be fixed early in development and included into he GDD.

PERSONNEL

ROLES + SKILLS AND EXSPERIENCE 

Roles within a games development are important because during pre-production all staff must understand what role they have and how they must achieve the task that there job entails. For example here is a list of some roles that you would expect to see on a production team. Producers, assistant producers, designers, programmers, artists and writers, will work on things such as writing the storyline and creating storyboards. 

The role of a programmer is vital to the pre-production of a game. Programmers are software developers and engineers who create physics within video games. Programmers may be involved in various aspects of a game'screation from concept and story writing to the codingand programming. This example of a role within games pre production can advance with experience and skills to senior programmer or specialist. 

RESOURCING

Aside allocating roles these employees need to be resourced the correct equipment. Such as computers with the correct hardware specification to run the engines needed to make the game an example of this is when you go to install unreal engine 4 there is a required specification of hardware that your computer must meet to run the engine.

AVAILIBILITY + SIZE OF TEAM AND COST

Once roles have been allocated one of the things to consider during preproduction is the availability of your team and office space. If you rent out a building there’s often a time scale to which you must have to work to therefor work must be completed, as the office will not be available to rent. The size of your team matters as the bigger your team more flexibility you have the down side is while it takes less time. There’s a increase in cost because you need to pay more staff and bigger office space. 

FINANCE 

There is a range of different ways to fund your game if you don’t have the money. Finance is a big part of making a game because it sets realistic goals and can sometimes restraint games from reaching there full potential. Therefor it is a factor to cover in the pre-production of making a game. 

SOURCES OF FINANCE 

Crowd funding: This is where you get sponsored money for your idea or concept. This will help allow you to reach a goal that you can make your game from. Kick starter is great to help you reach your goal and the more that people donate/ give to the development of your game the more you give back to them. Whether it’ll be extra copies of the game or there name to feature in the game. It is important that you make stretch goals for your donators so they understand what you promise to make if you succeed passed your goal.     

Equity funding: This is a form of funding through the sale of shares in an enterprise. It could be a source of finance to start making your game. 

TALENT 

Talent is optional in some cases might not be need. This only applies if you need to pay for outside specialties to feature in the game. For example musicians to feature in your games sound. Or to invest in a project manager that will help over see the team under your employment in meeting project and deadlines. Whoever the specialist or talent understanding the financial cost is important.    

 CONCLUSION

Overall I have understood and highlighted the key aspects of the pre-production for a game and the procedure that’s taken to turn idea (concept) to reality. While also realizing the only main reason behind making a game is to make money. Therefore a lot of the preproduction done is business related.