1. Alessandro Canossa alec@itu.dk Michael Schmidt mrsc@itu.dk Game Development – Process Spring 2010 www.itu.dkwww.itu.dk

2. Game development is primarily an act of communication, the limits of your language are the limits of your world. Ludvig Wittengstein

3. Stages ->ConceptualisationPre-productionProduction 1 Production 2 Alpha, Beta, and Post Production Goal (what) An idea. The initial idea can come from anywhere. Whether it is a setting, a character or a game mechanic this idea will form the basis for a game design. The next stage is to ask questions about how the game will be implemented, filling the blanks and eviscerating the details. The first phase of production consists of tackling potentially risky features, establishing pipelines The second production phase takes the lessons learnt in the first part and uses them to actually put all the assets together into a finished form Finishing the game, bug-tracking and fixing, play-testing (and metrics analysis) Stake holders (who) Game designer: high Producer: High (feasibility) 2D artist: high (concept) 3D artist: medium Programmers: medium (feasibility) Sound/music: low QA/User Research: Low Level designer: low Game designer: high Producer: medium 2D artist: high 3D artist: high Programmers: medium (prototypes) Sound/music: medium (soundscapes) QA/User Research: medium (focus groups) Level designer: medium Game designer: medium Producer: High (procedures) 2D artist: medium (interface) 3D artist: high Programmers: high (design) Sound/music: high (design) QA/User Research: medium (RITE, tests) Level designer: high Game designer: low Producer: medium (maintenance) 2D artist: low 3D artist: medium Programmers: high (implementation) Sound/music: high (implementation) QA/User Research: high (metrics, tests) Level designer: high Game designer: low Producer: high (bugs) 2D artist: low 3D artist: low Programmers: medium (hopefully) Sound/music: low QA/User Research: high (metrics, tests, bugs) Level designer: medium

4. Stages -> Activities (how) Pitch: a brief outline of the basic idea, not more than 3 min to read High concept document: Describing a game in absolutely as few words as possible (removing all of the "the's," "and's" and other non-essential words) use design parameters. USP / hook: spark of innovation that makes it special when compared to other games One-sentence Description Art bible Mood boards Character sheets Treatment:10 pages Full Design Document: Design document: story, camera, controls, weapons or items, characters, movement speeds, individual mission structure, interface, menu system, high details, reference vision Spatial archetypes (templates) Soundscapes Demo: Vertical Slices: Prototypes: small applications prototyping crucial features. Playable versions of different sections of the game Completed game Timeline (when) From 1st of February to 1st of March From 1st of March to 15th of March From 15th of March to 15th of April From 15th of April to 15th of May From 15th of May to 30th of May GL1 GL2GL3GL4 GL Pm

5. Implement Evaluate Understand Study Design Determine staffing needs Set up participant recruitment pipeline Determine workflow, schedules, deliverables Understand dev team/franchise needs and wants Perform research Get feedback from dev/management stakeholders Ongoing implementation process User Research and QA Track findings Determine research methodology needs

6. The game's title (and subtitle) with an appropriate cover image Company contact information The game's High Concept, Hook, and One-Sentence Marketing Description A bullet-point listing of the game's key features A brief description of the game's Setup A succinct narrative description of actual gameplay A brief description of the game's Victory Conditions Plenty of good concept art and screen shots (or at least screen mock-ups) A controller diagram (if one is used) All set in a unique binding (to set it apart from other Vision Documents) that itself helps convey the essence of the game. Vision document

7. Design Parameters 1.Media: Digital or Analog 2.Genre: Category (ontology) 3.Epoch: Setting (fiction, non fiction) 4.Scope: how much time / space are covered by the game? (battle or campaign) 5.Scale: level of closeness to objects (soldier or army) 6.Perspective: point of view

8. 1 Title Page (and a short tagline to indicate what it’s about) 2 Executive Summary (bulletpoints) 3 Game Overview High Concept Genre Hooks (USPs) License (if any) Gameplay Highlights Technology Highlights Art and Audio Highlights Hardware 4 Production Details Current Status Development Team Budget Schedule Competition Treatment (10/30 pages) 5 Game World Backstory Objective Characters Mission or Story Progression

9. Daily tasks Challenges Rewards Workflow People you report to People that report to you Role changing during development What you neet to start your work What you deliver when you are finished Tools, pipeline and processes Maintain a developer’s diary Diary will make up 50% of the exam Documentation of your tasks in developement You should be able to give talks and presentations (as your guests will)

10. Considerations on teams Interpolation between issues: -No more than 1 producer and 1 game designer per team -Generally respecting wishes expressed -Identifycation of personality patterns and avoiding same type in teams Data has been normalized and quantized, co-recurring variables identified,

11. And now… the teams Group 1 Miika Pirtola Game Designer Level/Mission Designer User Research Rasmus Boserup ProducerGame Designer Sound Designer / Composer Tiyezge Keith Gondwe 3D, Art ( 2D (Concept Textures), Animation, Music) Jonas Waever Game DesignLevel Design2D Art Morten Nobel- Jørgensen Graphics Programmer Script Programmer 3D Art Agnieszka Loza Game DesignerUser Research 2D / maybe 3D Artist

12. And now… the teams Group 2 Alex Mintsioulis ProducerDesigner3D Artist Ben Cassar Game DesignerProducerLevel Designer Mario Mariov Vatkov Animation3D Art2D Art Kenneth Nørbak Nielsen Level Designer QA / User Research Game Designer Aske Graversen PhysicsGameplayAI August Jørgensen Game DesignerLevel Designer Gameplay Programming

13. And now… the teams Group 3 Louise Bruun- Gazellehs Game DirectorGame Design 2D Artist / 3D Artist / Sound Design Emil Kastbjerg Project Manager Design (Game Balance, Level Design) Programming (Game P., Shader P.) Daniel Eskildsen 2D Art3D ArtGame Designer Dana Maria Popa Level DesignerGame DesignerArt Stefan Holm Madsen Gameplay Programmer Network Programmer AI Programmer Elvis Alistar ProgrammerLevel DesignerGame Designer

14. And now… the teams Group 4 Suni a Argjaboda Artist - Music Game Designer - Concept and Writing Game Designer - Sound Design Ali Emek Project ManagerGame DesignerLevel Designer Veselin Stoilov 3D Art2D ArtAnimation Asmus Neergaard Game DesignerWriterLevel Designer Isaac Manning Dart Gameplay Programmer AI ProgrammerLevel Designer Fan He Design: Level Design Programming: Network Art: Music

15. And now… the teams Group 5 Sidel Hermansen Sound / MusicGame DesignerWriter Michael Heimark Project Manager Interface Designer 2D Art Søren Emil Andersen Game Designer3D ArtWriter Morten Meisler Game Designer (Level Designer / QA User Experience) Programmer (Support Programmer / Gameplay Scripting) Art Robert Pieter van Leeuwen AI Programmer Gameplay Programer Physics Programmer Filip Lange-Nielsen Game Designer UI Designer (Graphic/Audio/ Controller) Music and/or Sound Designer

16. And now… the teams Group 6 Paul Brinkkemper Game Designer (System Design / Mechanics Design) Gameplay Programmer 2D Graphics Programmer Xavier Lafont Producer Interface Designer Music Magnus Nilsson 2D ArtSound DesignLevel Design Luca Giurdanella Level Designer3D ArtistGame Designer Magnus Poppel Gameplay Programmer AI ProgrammerLevel Designer Gabriele De Rossi Gameplay Programmer AI Programmer Physics Programmer Mikkel H.Andreasen Writer / Sound Design ProducerMusic

17. And now… the teams Group 7 Troels Jørgensen Project ManagerGame DesignerLevel Designer Rasmus Lønne Game DesignerLevel Designer Project Manager Fan Zhang Design: Interface or (Game Design) Programming: Gameplay or (Graphic) Art: 3D or Animation Hans Henrik Hvoslev Systems DesignLead DesignLevel Design Sem Blaksmark Programmer (any) Frederik Mesner Madsen 1337 Programmer ProgrammerSound Designer

18. And now… the teams Group 8 Sune Weber Pedersen Game DesignerComposer Light' Programmer (in Flash and Java) Klaus Kabel Kristensen Producer / Project Manager Game Designer / Level Designer QA Tester Martin Dejean-Isaksen Programmer (AI, Physics, Gameplay) Sound Design3D Art Orestis Tsafarakis Level DesignerGame Designer Simon Wichmann Nielsen Programmer Gameplay Programmer / Scripter UI Programmer Juan Ortega Perez Gameplay Programmer AI Programmer Network Programmer Prakash Prasad Gameplay Programmer Graphics Programmer Level Builder

19. Questions?