1. Unit 5: Working to a brief
P1 Types

2. Your brief
You are an apprenticeship games designer working for a games developer in the East Midlands.
Your manager has previously asked you to plan and develop a story for a video game based on the film Big Trouble in Little China. Using this as a basis you will be planning and developing a original game based on your story idea. This game will be developed for Windows PC.
You will be expected to present 4 game ideas initially
One will be chosen to create a full game design document
This will be pitched and feedback given before beginning production
You will be expected to create weekly logs through production detailing the games progress

3. Contractual
You can tell a contractual brief apart from the others easily, you will have to sign it. A contractual brief is very descriptive, it describes exactly what is required of you.
It will mention things like time frame, pay, deadlines, job requirements. A contractual brief is often used in situations where a large sum of money is involved, or if their is a lack of trust between client and employee.
By signing you are forced to agree to all terms stated; you could face legal action if you broke any of the conditions. The brief is laid out very clearly and professionally and will be written formally.

4. Negotiated
I would argue that all briefs are somewhat negotiable; however this brief is almost entirely up to the employee, as the client is open to ideas.
A negotiated brief can give more lee way as you can alter almost all of the briefs aspects.
This means that you get to use more of your creative vision. A negotiated brief is used in situations where the client may not know exactly what they want so they leave it up to the employee to work out the finer details.

5. Formal
A formal brief is a document that outlines the specifications of a product or service. It is well set out and structured in a neat and orderly manner. As it is formal it used formal language , this means no slang or abbreviations.
The document should be thoroughly explained so the employee knows exactly what they are doing. To make it look professional it may also have the clients logo on it.

6. Informal
An informal brief is typically a short piece of text or that requests someone to do some work for them. An informal brief doesn't have to be written and can just be a verbal agreement.
This is most often seen when dealing with friends or when very little money is involved. A trademark of an informal brief is that it is written in informal language, this includes slang . It is also known for having grammatical errors.

7. Commission
A commission brief is where a client commissions a company to fulfil a brief. A commission is usually only given to a company who the client has established relations with.
This is done instead of the brief going to tender, as you already know who you would like to do the work for you.
This means that you can save time on looking for potential employees and just go straight away to your company of choice.

8. Competition
A competition brief is a brief which is opened to the public. This kind of brief allows for a wide range of people with a spectrum of talents to create a product which is based on the brief for free.
As this is a competition brief, only the winners will get the prize or monetary reward. This means that less money is spent on a product, and you have a wealth of different ideas to choose from.
An example of a competition brief would be the Sundance London short film brief.

9. Tender
This is similar to a competition brief as it requires a client to post a brief that is open to outside companies. After receiving the brief the companies come to pitch to the clients to vi for the work.
The best will then be selected and then they will be given the chance to work for the client; developing their ideas and creating their product.
A place that is good for finding tender briefs is:

10. Co-operative brief
A co-operative brief is where two or more companies are contracted to work on the same assignment.
This may be done for a number of reasons, perhaps the most common is for multi-skilling, one company may not have the expertise to complete all the assignment by themselves. Another reason would be tight deadlines, if the deadlines too short then two companies will be able to finish the work faster than one.

11. When reading a brief you must pay attention to what kind of brief it is: is it a contract, tender, competition or co-operative. By knowing what brief it is will help when coming up with ideas and actually working on the project. The things in a brief that you need to pay attention to are:
Final dates- When are your deadlines? How can you meet them?
Timescale-How long do you have?
Is it plausible?
What is required?- What are you being asked to do? Is there any special requirements
Reading a brief

12. All briefs are negotiable to an extent, so when you receive one its always best to carefully read through and check if there is anything that wouldn't be possible or that you would like to change.
Negotiation can be crucial especially when something isn't plausible or that will put you out of pocket. For example, if you are supposed to be using a live orchestra for the soundtrack and you have neither the finances, skills or equipment you would need to negotiate an alternative path to create music for the game.
Negotiation can also be used with tight deadlines or small budgets, if you believe that the constraints are too much then its worth negotiating and asking for an extension or more funding.
Negotiating the brief

13. Opportunities
There are many opportunities to be found within a brief on top of the money making aspect. Some of the possible opportunities are:
New Skills
Self development
Multi-Skilling
Gain contacts
Experience
Travel
Communication skills
Portfolio/cv
Meet clients or important people in industry