1. Game Development Life Cycle
Michael Vaganov

2. Game Development Life-cycle
Crunch Time
Alpha
Prototype Sprint
Dramatic Tension
“Green Light”
Beta
Planning
Milestones
Gold
Approval
Post-Production
Game Pitch
This is very similar to the hero’s journey, except that instead of being a hero on an adventure, you are building an adventure for heroes
Concept
Pre-Production
Production
“The last 90%”
Time

3. Concept Alone, or in a group.
You
(Champion)
Game Idea
The creative process is complex. Intuitive and creative people
Research: find examples of what you want to do
lots of honesty are very important. You must have the humility to accept your idea is a bad one, and the passion about it to make it better
Alone, or in a group.
Start writing down your game idea. Right now!! Use napkins, pocket notebooks, notepad.exe, anything.
Define the target audience, game play, premise, etc…

4. Game Pitch (presentation, or elevator speech)
Concept
You
(Champion)
Game Idea
Game Pitch (presentation, or elevator speech)
Game Design Document
Prototype
Making presentations is complex. Practice, practice, practice.
Writing a good GDD is not supposed to be hard. Draw pictures, make lots of diagrams, and clarify your own vision of the game on paper
Building a good prototype can make a GDD irrelevant
Expand your idea into something that sounds good, makes sense, and obviously looks doable
You are selling an adventure.

5. Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Publisher
(Sponsor)
You
Game Idea
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Find a publisher! people you find on websites, meet them at tech conventions, NETWORK!!! MAKE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE!!!
The best way to get a publisher’s attention is to already have their attention some-how, probably through other work you’ve done for them in the past.
sell your game idea to someone with money
You initiate with the publisher.

6. Game Pitch
Publisher
You
Game Idea
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
The game idea, documentation, pitch, and prototype will be constantly changing. The publisher knows this…
Publisher will try to leave its mark on your idea based on standards & creative input

7. Publisher IP holders or other 3rd parties Approval Process
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Publisher contacts IP holders or other 3rd parties

8. Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Approval Process
Publisher
You
Game Idea
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Publisher wants your game!
after making a few changes or personal assumptions
And of course, a contract

9. Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Planning
Game Idea
Technical Design
Technical expert
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Most current game idea and defined feature set is used to make Technical Design document.

10. Planning: Getting a Feature Set with a Scope Exercise
out of Scope
in Scope
1: Put features and attributes on post it notes.
If you want it in the game, and you think it will take more than 5 minutes to do, put it on a post-it note
2: As a group, decide where the note goes in he diagram above (in or out of scope).
Related features should be near each other.

11. Planning: Technical Design Document
Explains technical scope
Features defined
Foreseeable technical difficulties identified
Time and personnel estimated
Technical work environment defined
Technical Design

12. Planning: Production Plan and Milestones
Production Plan & Milestones
Game Idea
You
(Champion)
Publisher’s Producer
(Sponsor)
Game Pitch / Design Doc / Prototype
Technical Design
Technical expert
A Producer acts as a Project Manager
makes a Production Plan
sets Milestones

13. Green-Light: Production Plan and Milestones
TDD used as base
Target estimated release date
Major work items, personnel required & dependencies
Milestone: Expectation for project progress (for evaluation)
Production Plan & Milestones

14. You + publisher + coworkers
Pre-Production
The Game Industry
Game Developer
You + publisher + coworkers
MAKE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE!!!! This is an industry that demands a lot in terms of skill level and cooperation. Resumes are much less valuable than employed friends who are looking for people with you skill set.
Gather initial resources (employees, software, knowledge, etc.)

15. Game Development Life-cycle
Crunch Time
Alpha
Prototype Sprint
Dramatic Tension
Beta
Milestones
Gold
Post-Production
This is very similar to the hero’s journey, except that instead of being a hero on an adventure, you are building an adventure for heroes
Pre-Production
Production
“The last 90%”
Time

16. Prototype Sprint Prototype Version 0.0, or “the Prototype”
Huge creative engineering effort
Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Sprint (Scrums)
Most often done by one senior programmer
Huge Project Bottleneck…
Prototype

17. Publisher Game Developer Milestones Publishers watch their investment
User testing, press, schedule changes
Game
Developer
Developers manage personal progress
Code reviews, meetings about bugs & features

18. Iterative Development
Iterative Milestones
Emphasis on High
Concept & Stability
Prototype
Development
First Playable
“Engineer Builds”
Demo Builds
Alpha
Beta
Release Candidate
Gold
Initial
Planning
Iterative Development
Deployment
Emphasis on Quality
& Presentation

19. Each Milestone Evolves the Game Idea
Individual Milestones are composed of many work items.
Work items (art, code, content)
Created in iterative cycles
Individual workers attempt to implement their individual understanding of The Vision
Collectively, workers collaboratively change the The Vision
Game Idea
Game Idea
Iterative Development
Game Idea

20. Game Production Cycle Sales & Marketing Production Management “Design”
Art
Programming QA
Customer Support
Creative
Art
Initial
Planning
Planning
Implementation
Design
Sales &
Marketing
Production
Management
Public
Programming
Private
Customer
Service
Deployment QA
Testing
Evaluation
Evaluative

21. Game Development Life-cycle
Crunch Time
Alpha
Dramatic Tension
Beta
Gold
Post-Production
This is very similar to the hero’s journey, except that instead of being a hero on an adventure, you are building an adventure for heroes
Pre-Production
Production
“The last 90%”
Time

22. Crunch Time (AKA “The Death Spiral”)
Unmet project goals
Mandatory Overtime to meet deadlines
High-stress may result in “Burn-out”
Causes
Procrastination
Short-term focus early in the project
Short-sighted production processes
Amount of
Work to Do
Amount of
Time to do it

23. Production Plan & Milestones
Alpha
3rd
parties
Game Demo
Software
Test
Groups
Game Design Document
Game Content
Art
Production Plan & Milestones
Suggestions
Demo is made
Most game functionality, game content, and art present
First major push to polish the game
Last chance for feature creep!

24. Quality Assurance Beta ‘Feature Freeze’ implemented
Unexpected
Influence
‘Feature Freeze’ implemented
Final stabilization phase
QA grows to test all aspects of the game
“Ship it!”
Game
Software
Game Content
Art
Quality
Assurance
Programming

25. Gold (final candidate)
Game is nearly bug free
bugs that exist are too rare, unknown, or not cost effective to fix.
KS = Known Shippable
Final (Gold) copy is made, and ready to be released to the public.
Schedule the Post Mortem (Project Review)
Game
Software
Game Content
Art
Programming

26. Public Post-Production Game has been released
Monitor public use of the game
Patches developed for problems not caught during Beta
Updates or sequels are planned based on demand, and evolved
Game Developer
& Publisher
Public
Game
Game Idea

27. Sometimes it works like that anyway…
What about… Leadership? Technical ability? Team funding? Office Politics? Legal/ethical issues? Poor Marketing? Creative slumps? Schedule miscalculations? Quality management? Technical complications? Market complications? Feature Creep? Competition? 3rd party issues? …

28. The Game Industry Your game! You and your team’s blood and
sweat and tears!
Right there!!

29. Appendix
Job Type Specifics

30. Production Workflow: Production Management
Art
Expectation
Production
Management
Programming
Production Plan & Milestones
Quality
Assurance
Unexpected
Influence
Design
Sales &
Marketing
Manage teams
Communicate and handle the changing Production Plan
Schedule slips, new ROI considerations, personnel changes, etc

31. Production Jobs: Production Management (& Business Development)
Executive Producer
oversees multiple projects (the big boss)
Producer
establish policy, manage schedule, handle contracts, handle budgeting, staff support, reporting to upper management, interface dev team, interface with press, lead the team, communicate and ensure communication
Associate Producer & Assistant Producer
assist producer
Assistant Producer is more junior
Business Development
acquire IP licenses
handle legal issues (terms of service, licensing, etc.)

32. Production Workflow: Programming
Game Design Doc
Programming
Quality
Assurance
Game Idea
Software
(the game, infrastructure, and game making tools)
Unexpected
Influence
Producer influence is implied (prev slide has the connection)
Programmers follow the game design document, which is always changing.
Programmers also create work for themselves when they make things to complicated to handle, and need to build tools to simplify those processes
Work based on an ever-changing Game Design.
QA finds technical flaws (Late production, Alpha, Beta)
Bugs usually added to bug database

33. Production Jobs: Programming
Technical Director
technical design, oversee implementation, set tools, hardware, and code standards
Lead Programmer
supervises programming team
Engine Programmer
program core game engine
Graphics Programmer
program graphics code
Networking Programmer
database, client/server, network protocol issues
AI Programmer
make game intelligent

34. Production Jobs: Differences between…
Normal worker
Lead
Manager
Director
Goal
Goal

35. Production Jobs: Programming (continued…)
Physics Programmer
program collision and particle systems
Tools Programmer
program tools for internal production
Audio Programmer
program sound into game
Interface Programmer
program graphical user interface
QA Programmer
program to assist QA (cheat codes, automated test tools)
Associate (junior) Programmer
assigned junior programming tasks

36. Production Workflow: Design
Game Idea
Quality
Assurance
Unexpected
Influence
Game Content
(story, characters, levels, items, enemies, etc…)
Game Design Doc
GDD should reflect the most current game idea (which is always changing). It wont always be up to date, but it will be some-what close at least.
GDD is there to communicate what the game is to everyone currently involved, and to new team members
Keepers of the Game Idea and GDD
Game Idea changes (hopefully few) should be documented
Develop non-code, non-art content
Story, dialog, scripts, maps, characters, items, game balance, ...
Content and design flaws found by QA

37. Production Jobs: Design
Creative Director
direct creative vision and art style
Design Director
support design team, guide design process, document design process
Lead Designer
supervise design team, assemble documentation, high-level level design
Interface Designer
layout content, navigation, usability features
Level Designer
building the game world, story, scripting, dialogue

38. Production Workflow: Art
Quality
Assurance
Art Content
(concept art, character art, models, textures, icons, sound, etc…)
Design
Sales &
Marketing
Artists and designers often work collaboratively
QA finds technical flaws in game art
Pitch Materials

39. Production Jobs: Art Art Director Lead Artist Concept Artist
oversee art team, set art process
Lead Artist
supervises art team
Concept Artist
draw game environment, props, characters, storyboards, etc.
Technical Artist
interfacing art with game code, scripting game content
Modeler
create 3D models with tools like Maya, 3D Studio Max, etc.
Texture Artist
skin 3D models
Animator
animate 3D models

40. Production Jobs: Art (Sound)
Audio Director
manage audio department, interface with audio programmer
Composer
creates musical score
Sound Designer
create sound effects, ambient sound, collects and edits sound (foley sounds)
Voiceover Artist (Voice Actor)
provide voice for characters

41. Production Workflow: QA
Programming
Software
Quality
Assurance
Game Content
Production
Design
QA gets to touch a lot of the process
Art
Art Content
Test the quality of products and give feedback
QA also determines the state of production significantly

42. Production Jobs: Quality Assurance
Testing Manager
responsible for several projects, lead testers, manages testing budget, interacts with management
Lead Tester
works as tester while supervising testing team, manages data entry, determines bugs importance, and summarizes status to managers
Compatibility Tester
tests the game on multiple platforms, localization testing
Playability Tester
play early release, offer suggestions, communicate heavily
Alpha/Beta Tester
play the product before release, submit bugs, offer suggestions (game balance, altered, functionality, etc)

43. Production Workflow: Sales & Marketing
Contracts
Game Demo
Advertising & Promotional Materials
Sales &
Marketing
Art
Buzz / Hype
Game Content
Sales and marketing stuff is done towards the end, when the product is almost ready to sell.
Doing it during the dev cycle can create a lot of feature creep.
Contracts for distribution
Game advertising, promotional material
‘buzz’ or ‘hype’
Track sales with producers during Post-Production.

44. Production Jobs: Sales & Marketing
Promotion
organize contests, trials, giveaways, and promotional merchandise
Sales
acquire shelf space, try to bundle with hardware
Advertising
create advertising for TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, the internet, etc.
Public Relations
organize previews, reviews, interviews, articles, stories, etc.

45. Post-Production Jobs: Customer Support
Customer Service
help solve customer specific issues
Community Management
organize and manage newsletters, track modding groups, fan sites, and hackers
Maintenance Programmers
Build patches, port the game to different platforms