1. Notes on the Game Development Process
Mark Claypool

2. Outline Course description Game Development Components
Stages of Game Development
Projects

3. Class Description Entry level course Artistic roles Technical roles
ID 111x. THE GAME DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.
This course discusses the process of game development. It examines the roles of different participants in the development process and how the technical development and the artistic development proceed in tandem. It also discusses the importance of testing and play testing, and how developers use the results of testing to improve their games. Students will be expected to develop games, or portions of games, using appropriate game development tools.
Recommended background: none.
Entry level course
Artistic roles
Technical roles
Play testing
Tools

4. Game Development Components (1 of 2)
Production
Controls everything that is outside of actually making the game
i.e. budget, personnel, admin.
(Topic outside the focus of the course)
(Could be fodder for Management angle
ie- Entrepreneurship minor)

5. Game Development Components (2 of 2)
Design
How the game will look, what features it will include and how this will happen
Made up of the following three divisions:
Art:
Everything visual, 2D and 3D animation.
Programming:
The technical part of game development, the underlying coding that drives the software.
Sound:
Technical and creative

6. Outline Course description Game Development Components
Stages of Game Development
Projects

7. Stages of Game Development (1 of 8)
The Idea
Concept for a new game
Clearly described
3-10 pages
Outlining the game world, characters, challenges
Lose-or-win scenarios, basic mechanics
Becomes the pitch document
Gets the game accepted or rejected by the publisher
(Time: weeks to months or even years)

8. Stages of Game Development (2 of 8)
The Pitch
Idea presented to publisher (maybe manager, depending on game author)
If idea captures interest, usually includes suggested revisions
Idea is finally accepted
(Time: weeks)

9. Stages of Game Development (3 of 8)
Proof of Concept
Designer gets budget to build a prototype
Will be thrown away before game done
Game design expanded to larger document
Focusing on details of gameplay (play mechanics)
Avoid focusing too much on user interface
Budget proposed
Including time and money
Game will be developed using the prototype and the design document as guidance
Not guaranteed to go to development yet
That determined by success of this stage
(Time to build prototype and design document: 2 to 3 months)

10. Stages of Game Development (4 of 8)
Start of Development
Development team assembled
Uses design document that is 90% done
Process broken into milestones
Milestones for measuring progress
Game is tested for gameplay and quality
How many milestones are there?
Number depends on the size of the project
Typically fixed from the beginning
Need to avoid urge to add features (creep) during milestone cycles!
(Time between milestones: about 2 months)

11. Stages of Game Development (5 of 8)
Milestone 1
Most critical milestone
Game should have functional (not complete) art, sound and code
Can assess feasibility and budget
Make changes, as appropriate
Then, rushes headlong into development!
(Time to complete this milestone: 2-3 months)

12. Stages of Game Development (6 of 8)
Alpha
Lot of variation as to what is an Alpha
Complete with Art, Sound and Code
Not fully tested
Some tuning, last minute additions and changes can still be done
(Time to achieve Alpha from last milestone: 1 month)

13. Stages of Game Development (7 of 8)
Beta
Finished game, all features tested and tuned
External testing to check compatibility issues
Users play free of charge in exchange for reporting bugs
(Hopefully) no changes to any art, sound or code
Only bug fixes
(Time to Beta from Alpha: 2 weeks)

14. Stages of Game Development (8 of 8)
Gold Master
Accepted as complete
Includes known bugs
(Time to Gold from Beta: one to two weeks.)
Distribution
Game is mass produced
Put into boxes, shrink-wrapped and shipped to retailers
(Time to shelves from Gold: 1 to 2 months)

15. Game Development Stages (Summary)
The Idea
The Pitch
Proof of Concept
Start of Development
Milestone 1
Alpha
Beta
Gold

16. Outline Course description Game Development Components
Stages of Game Development
Projects

17. Project Topics 1) The Pitch 2) Technical 3) Artistic 4) Game Design
Add/Modify simple scripting
3) Artistic
Create/Modify content
4) Game Design
Putting it all together
5) Testing
Build to “Game Design”, use one tool
Warcraft III map editor

18. Warcraft III Overview

19. Warcraft III World Editor
Add art
Add/modify own sounds
Add events
Triggers and trigger editor
Create mods
Easter bunny hunt
World of Warcraft Soccer

20. Warcraft III World Editor

21. World Cup of Warcraft (1 of 2)

22. World Cup of Warcraft (2 of 2)

23. LOTR: The Ring Wars

24. Funny Bunny’s Egg Hunt