Producing games business, budgets, creativity, design

Producing Games From Business and Budgets to Creativity and Design D.S Cohen, Sergio A Bustamante II Tech Editor: Tae Joon Park Contributed by Sheri Graner Ray and Michael McShaffry AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (ϩ44) 1865 843830, fax: (ϩ44) 1865 853333, E-mail: permissions@elsevier.com You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting “Support & Contact” then “Copyright and Permission” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-240-81070-6 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com 10 11 12 13 Printed in the United States of America D.S To my sunshine Amanda, you make me everything that I am To my loving parents Steven and Carol Ann Cohen, for your belief in my dreams To Joan and Armando Reyes, you are forever eternal in the richness you granted our souls In the loving memory of Genevieve McLane and Dianna Rohler whoes lives have changed the world forever Please support the Fully Belly Project (www.thefullbellyproject.org) Sergio With love to my beautiful wife Susie Sapardanis, and to our lovely daughters, Siara Anastacia Bustamante and Zoe Marie Bustamante Each day I’m grateful to have you in my life To my parents Sergio A Bustamante, Sr and Maria Elena Bernal Garcia, and step-mom Kathy Coffman Your support and love keeps me going iii This page intentionally left blank TABLE OF CONTENTS About the Authors xvii Acknowledgements xix Intro: So You Want to be a Video Game Producer xxi Section One What is a Video Game Producer? 1 Producer Primer What a Producer Manages Why Become a Game Producer How to Become a Producer Publishers and Developers Internal and External Producer Roles Producing at a Developer The Schedule 10 Dev Budget 11 Pitching Ideas and Representing the Team 11 Manage Milestone Submissions 12 Working With Your Publishing Counterpart 15 Producing at a Publisher 19 Managing Schedules 20 Managing the Budgets 20 Reviewing Milestones 21 Managing Approvals 21 Managing Testing 21 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Support: Sales, Marketing, and PR 22 Working with Stakeholders 24 Supervising Audio Production 25 Voice-Over 26 Contractors 27 Prep for First Party Submissions 28 Producer Roles 31 Executive Producer 32 Senior Producer 33 Producer 34 Associate Producer 35 Production Coordinator/Assistant Producer 36 Other Producer Roles 38 Localization Producer 39 Cinematics Producer 40 Licensor Producer 40 Size and Scope: Large vs Small, Licensed vs Original 43 Team Sizes 44 Larger vs Smaller 44 Big Budgets 45 Small Budgets 46 Long vs Short Schedules 47 Licensed vs Original IPs 48 Sequels and Expansion Packs and Downloadable Content 48 Producing Skills 49 Managing a Game 49 The Key Skills of a Producer (Hard Skills) 50 Soft Skills (Or, What You Should Know, but Can Learn on the Curve) 54 Tools of the Trade 57 Software Solutions and Recommendations 57 3-D Graphics and Modeling Packages 60 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Two The Process in a Nutshell 63 The History of Game Development 65 Case Study: The History of Game Development Through the Evolution of Sierra 66 Game Project Lifecycle Overview 69 Concept Phase 69 Pre-Production Phase 72 Production Phase 74 The Crunch: From Pre-Alpha to Release Candidate 75 10 The Development Team 79 Technical Director 80 Programmers and Engineers 80 Creative Director 81 Designers 81 Art Director 81 Artists 82 Animators 83 Audio Director and Engineer 83 Writers 83 QA/Compliance 83 11 The Publishing Team 85 The Producer 85 Operations, a.k.a Ops 86 Tech Director 87 Art Director 87 QA Team 89 Creative Director 90 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS 12 Publishers Selecting Developers 91 Projects That Start With the Publisher (The Dog Wagging the Tail) 91 Finding the Developer 92 Projects That Start With the Publisher (The Tail Wagging the Dog) 93 Section Three Scheduling and Structure 95 13 Scheduling and Structure 97 The Producer’s Role in Scheduling 98 Why Schedule? Heavy Scheduling vs No Scheduling 98 Who Owns the Schedules? 99 Man-Month Schedule 99 Milestones: How They Affect Everything 99 Scrum, Waterfall, Agile, and Cowboy Coding 100 Elements of a Schedule 101 Troubleshooting 102 Other Teams’ Needs and Schedules 103 Hardware 103 DLC, Expansion Packs, and Sequels 103 Marketing, PR, and Sales Needs .104 Screenshots and PR/Marketing Materials 105 Holidays and Vacation 106 14 Development Plan Management (Scheduling to Production) 107 Tasking the Project .108 Delegating Tasks 109 Monitoring Tasks and Tracking Changes 109 Task Management Software 109 15 Budget Management 111 Creating a Project Budget: Man Months and the P&L 112 The P&L 114 Where to Cut Corners 114 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Quality Check 116 Ethics 116 16 The Milestone Schedule 119 Creating a Milestone Schedule 119 Managing the Milestone Schedule 120 Preparing a Milestone for Submission and Review .121 Items to Expect in a Milestone Deliverable 122 What Shouldn’t Be Included as a Milestone Deliverable 122 17 Pipelines 123 An Example of a Pipeline: The Character Model 123 Pods and Cross-Disciplinary Teams .127 Creating a Pipeline 127 Section Four Managing Your Project, Your Team, Your Time, and Yourself 129 18 Being an Organized Producer 131 How to Be Organized .132 Tools of Organization 133 Don’t Procrastinate .133 Take a Class in Organization and Time Management 133 Communication 134 Communicating Outside of the Team and Back Again 134 Managing Information Flow 135 19 Reviews and Approvals 137 Approval Pipeline 137 Approval Forms 139 Managing Feedback 140 ix This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER FORTY FIVE Producer Role During Post-Production Phase The wrapping of a film typically is followed by grand parties and celebrations, followed by premieres, jubilation, and back slapping When most games wrap, it’s a quiet time, simply business as usual Rarely are there celebrations with the exception of perhaps some of the team members going out for a drink, but by this time everyone is exhausted, emotionally drained, and wondering what their next job will be, if they’re not already working on it or on vacation At this point, with the exception of some small duties by the team leads, the producers stand alone, on both the development and publishing sides Once the RTM has been delivered, the producer on the development side will be working towards ramping team members off of the game and hopefully on to other projects Some team members may remain if software updates are necessary or if there are plans for future downloadable content (DLC), however DLC is typically built out during production, so unless there are predictions for the game to be such a big hit that more content needs to be planned, in the end the staff will be back down to the core that you started with at concept The main goals of post-production are archiving and the postmortem which are manned by the producers on both sides, who will be working together to plan and organize for the archiving delivery, and prepping the dev and test kits to be returned They will also be working together on the postmortem If the two groups want to continue working together they will be sharing their postmortem information, discussing the successes and shortcoming of the project and how to improve them on the next one All of this will be combined into one large doc as a learning tool If the two groups choose to part ways, then the developer and publisher will typically have their own separate postmortems organized by their respective producer If no future moves with the game are planned all that is left after the archiving and postmortem is waiting for the game’s release At this point marketing and PR will be working their magic, and hopefully heavily promoting the game They will be turning 269 CHAPTER FORTY FIVE ● PRODUCER ROLE DURING POST-PRODUCTION PHASE to both the pub and dev producers to provide content and publicity, be it through blogs and podcasts or interviews and demoing the game for press and the public Hopefully, sales predictions are such that a sequel is planned, and if the publisher/ developer relationship was successful enough, the two parties will continue working together This way everyone can roll right on to the sequel, building out on what is already created to make a bigger, more elaborate game 270 FORTY SIX CHAPTER Archiving Your game is finished and most likely getting ready to hit the store shelves for everyone to see and play The team has wound down and is probably looking for the next project The only thing left to with the game code now is to archive it Archiving is best described as putting the game together in order for it to be stored in a safe place so that if you ever need to retrieve it, you have a place to draw the game from This needs to be done with great care and efficiency in case the game source code is ever needed again An archived game is an official version of the title that represents the culmination of what was developed and shipped In addition to archiving the code, you’ll want to include all of the art, audio, design, and any other element or asset from each stage of development The archive should include: ● Last version of the game, typically the version that shipped into stores (Release To Manufacture, RTM) ● The full code of the game, referred to as the source code ● Documentation: should include last bug report and QA certification, legal checklists that certify the game was proofed by your legal team, TCRs and TRCs, last tech report, ESRB certification, and first publisher certifications ● Localization disks: should include localized versions of the game, each territory’s build on separate discs, along with all of the elements from the localization kit ● A detailed walkthrough of the game ● Every documentation, contract, approval, asset, and pertinent correspondence related to the game Basically every element and related material Once you have all of these items secured, you will want to make multiple copies so that if anything happens to the masters, you have something as a backup These copies of the game get stored in a fireproof vault for safe keeping by the publisher with additional copies stored at other locations for safe keeping in case something disastrous happens to the originals (which has happened before) 271 CHAPTER FORTY SIX ● ARCHIVING During the archiving period, you will want to be sure everything else gets closed out All test and dev kits that the developers have been using throughout production need to be returned to the publisher, as other projects are likely waiting to use them The final payment to the developer is contingent on the delivery of the archived code and assets, and test and dev kits This serves as the final milestone deliverable 272 FORTY SEVEN CHAPTER Postmortem It’s a curiosity that the industry has chosen the look back on a game’s production as a postmortem The term brings so many bleak and foreboding thoughts; after all, it is a term that represents death Perhaps this is why everyone tends to dread the postmortem so much, as it is a recap and review of the game production, going over its successes and shortcomings However, the purpose of a postmortem is to be an opportunity for everyone involved to learn from the experience and make it that much better on the next go-round, turning any negatives in the project to positives for all future productions Every key team member on both the developer and publisher sides will be asked to contribute to the postmortem, with the publishing producer as the one who puts it all together Ask each team and department lead to provide at least successes and shortcomings from their side of the process These should all be put together in a final postmortem document with an intro of the overall project and a final conclusion of what was learned from the entire experience Although it sounds simple enough to list out what went right and what didn’t, this can actually be quite challenging and it will exercise your skills in fair communication This is not the time to throw blame around or try to finger-point Postmortems are learning tools only, so instead of stating who did something wrong that caused a problem, you need to explain what was learned from the issue and how it could have been approached differently if you were put in that exact same scenario again Terms such as “bad” and “poor” should be avoided, instead using “room for growth” or “challenging” with an explanation of how the problem could have been avoided For example: When helping some fellow producers craft the postmortem on a music rhythm game, their original statements were negative, angry, and counterproductive One such statement was… “Music licensing was a disaster! It happened last minute, we couldn’t get the songs we wanted and it ended up costing way too much, draining our budget to get what we needed.” This is pretty much an example of how not to write up a shortcoming of a game It comes off as angry and doesn’t give any context as to the cause of the problem, 273 CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN ● POSTMORTEM nor does it pose any solutions The only end result from a statement like this will be anger from the other parties that worked with them to get the music, as they would rightly feel a lack of respect for the hard work that they put into it, plus it would leave management wondering why the producer didn’t a better job managing this task instead of complaining about it The truth is that the music in the game was terrific and far exceeded anyone’s expectations due to an extraordinarily short development cycle for the game All of the music licensing had to be done last minute by a team member with little to no experience in securing such rights; but they worked very hard and did the best job they could with the time and resources allotted to them Our recommendation to this postmortem issue was to look at the problem from a different angle and state how it could be prevented next time The final statement ended up as… “While the music we were able to secure for the game ended up a great success, there were some challenges caused by getting the music near the end of our tight production cycle and securing the songs from several different license holders To save both time and money we should reach out to a music licensing company during the concept stage of the game, who could work with our team in acquiring music rights early on This would have allowed us the luxury of molding the game alongside the pre-secured music, so we wouldn’t have had to work backwards to try and shoehorn it in This also could allow us to create a cost-saving slate deal, securing all of our music from one licensing house, rather than multiple rights owners.” Several successfully crafted postmortems have been published in Game Developer magazine (gdmag.com) and on Gamasutra.com These are terrific resources to see the right approach and format for a postmortem 274 INDEX 2-D mapping artist, 82, 124, 125 3-D graphics and modeling packages, 60–1 bug-tracking systems, 61 3-D modeling artist, 82, 124, 126 Audio production, supervising, 25–6 Automated build process, 218–19 B A “A” bugs, 239–40 Above-the-line costs, 113 Accelerated File Transfer (AFT), 58 Activision Blizzard Inc., 6, 67 Agile methodology, 100 Alien Brain, 59 All-hands meetings, 147 Alpha stage, 75 Animation, 164 Animators, 83 Approvals, 228 forms, 139–40 managing, 21 pipeline, 137–9 Archiving, 271–2 Art design doc (ADD), 82, 89, 122, 201, 209 Art director, 81–2, 87–9, 194 mediums, 82 Artificial Intelligence (AI), 165 Artists, 82 2-D mapping artist, 82 3-D modeling artist, 82 FX artist, 82 lighting artist, 82 rigging artists, 82 technical artist, 82 Asset management, 52 Assistant producer, see Production coordinator Associate producer (AP), 35–6, 50 Atari 2600, 262 Audio design doc, 201 Audio director and engineer, 83 Audio engines, 164–5 “B” bugs, 240 “Banana textures”, 223 Below-the-line costs, 113 Beta stage, 75 Big budgets, 45–6 Birkholz, Nate, 45 Brainstorming, 178–9 and collaboration, 185–7 “Breaking the game”, 76 British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rating, 257 Budget management, 20, 32, 45–6, 50–1, 111, 180 cut corners, 156–7 budget, managing, 114 headcount, 114–15, 197–8 outsourcing, 115–16 ethics, 116–17 man-months and P&L, 112 profit and loss (P&L), 114 quality check, 116 Bug-tracking program, 239 Builds and build process, of game, 237–8 C “C” bugs, 240 Capcom, Certification, 262 Cinematics producer, 40 Code level debugger, 219 Colossal Game, 66 Comic-Con, 105 Communications and approvals, 233 275 INDEX Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO), 257 Concept stage, 69–72, 171–2, 173 creative direction, 183–5 brainstorming and collaboration, 185–6 design feature checklist, 176 producer’s role, 177 meetings at concept, 178–9 process, 178 schedule, budget and team, 180–1 project design requirements, 174–6 risk management, 189–90 stakeholder’s approval, 190 tech director, looping in, 190 vision statement and game overview, 173–4 Console gaming, 241 Console systems, 165 “Content descriptors”, 255 Contractors, 27–8 managing, 55 Core X, 173 Cowboy coding, 101 Creative director, 81, 90, 183 Creative producers, 183 Creativeheads.com, 158 Critical stage analysis, 247 Crunch, process of alpha stage, 252 beta stage, 252–4 Gold Master Candidate, 252, 253 pre-alpha stage, 252 Cut corners of budgets, 114 headcount, 114–15 outsourcing, 115–16 CVS, 59 D Daily calendar, creating, 132–3 Date changes, 244 Delegating tasks, 109 Dependencies, organizing, 201 Design feature checklist, 176 Design phase, in pre-production, 193–4 Designers, 81 Dev budget, 11 Dev kit, 103, 219, 238 Dev producer, 138, 149, 253 role of, 11 Dev team, 244 Developer, 9, 99, 117, 135, 162, 238 276 dev budget, 11 finding, 92 milestone submissions, managing, 12–15 projects starting with, 93 pitching ideas and representing team, 11–12 publishing counterpart, working with, 15–17 schedule, 10–11 Development plan management, 107 delegating tasks, 109 monitoring tasks, 109 task management software, 109–10 tasking project, 108–9 Development team, 79 animators, 83 art director, 81–2 artists, 82 2-D mapping artist, 82 3-D modeling artist, 82 FX artist, 82 lighting artist, 82 rigging artists, 82 technical artist, 82 audio director and engineer, 83 creative director, 81 designers, 81 engine programmer, 80 gameplay programmer, 81 programmers and engineers, 80 QA/compliance, 83 technical director, 80 tool programmer, 81 writer, 83 Digital Theater System (DTS), 164 Disc burner and software, 60 Discipline meetings, 147 Disk-based builds, 238 Documentation, 271 Dolby surround sound, 164 Downloadable content (DLC), 103–4, 269 of original game, 48 “Dying on the vine”, 231 E Electronic Arts (EA), Electronic Entertainment Expo, 105 Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB), 255–8 approval, submitting for, 258–9 game rejection, 259 rating guide, 258 resubmitting, 259 Elements, 101–2 INDEX E-mail and memos, 53–4 Engine programmer, 80 Engine upgrades, delays in, 245 Environment concepts, 200–1 Executive producer (EP), 32–3 Expansion pack, 103–4 of original game, 48 External management, 167 licensors, managing, 170 managing management, 168 marketing department, managing, 169 PR department, managing, 169 presenting the vision, 168–9 sales department, managing, 169 see also Publisher External producer, 19 approvals, managing, 21 audio production, supervising, 25–6 budgets, managing, 20 contractors, 27–8 first party submissions, prep for, 28–9 managing testing, 21–2 marketing, 22–4 PR, 22–4 reviewing milestones, 21 roles, 6–7 sales, 22–4 schedules, managing, 20 stakeholders, working with, 24–5 voice-over (VO), 26–7 see also Producer’s role; Publisher G Gamasutra.com, 158, 274 Game builds, creating, 162 Game Design Doc (GDD), 66, 73, 198, 200, 203–4 creation, 204 elements, 206–8 formats, 204–5 outcome, proving, 205 Game Developer, 274 Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), 158–9 Game engine, 162–3 Game Master Candidate (GMC), 29 Game producer, 3–4 Game project lifecycle alpha stage, 75 beta stage, 75–6 concept phase, 69–72 Gold Master Candidate (GMC), 77 pre-alpha stage, 75 pre-production phase, 72–4 production phase, 74–5 Release to Manufacture (RTM), 77 Game prototypes, types of, 225 Game summit, 179 Gameplay programmer, 81 Gaming job sites, 158 Gdmag.com, 274 Goals, of production, 269 Gold Master Candidate (GMC), 77, 166, 234, 252, 254 certification, 263–5 F Facebook.com, 158 Feedback, 190 managing, 140–1 File transfer protocol (FTP), 58 File transfer systems, 58 First-party consoles, 238 First party software/hardware tools, 59 First-party submissions, 261–2 first submission, 262, 263 Gold Master Candidate Certification, 263–5 prep for, 28–9 second submission, 263 First playable, 225 First submission, 262, 263 Full production, 226 FX artist, 82 H Hard skills, of producer, 50 asset management, 52 budgeting, 50–1 e-mail and memos, 53–4 presentation, 52 process management, 52 project management, 50 scheduling, 51 written and verbal communications, 53 Hardware, 103 Heavy scheduling vs no scheduling, 98 Heroic tasks, 17 High concept document, 173 Hiring, 54 277 INDEX History, of game development, 65 Sierra Entertainment, case study, 66–7 Holidays and vacation, 106 Hoyt, Ben, 53 I Internal producer roles, 6–7 International ratings, 255–7 K Kick-off meeting, 179 Kipling, Andy, 155 L Larger team vs smaller team, 44–5 Licensed IP vs original IPs, 48 Licensed vs proprietary engines, 163–4 Licensor, 24 Licensor producer, 40–1 Lighting artist, 82 Linkedln.com, 158 Localization, 241–2 Localization disks, 271 Localization producer, 39 Long schedule vs short schedule, 47–8 Looping in tech director, 190 Lot Check, 165–6, 263 M MacProject, 110 Man-month schedule, 99 Man-months and P&L, 112 Manage information flow, 135–6 Managing testing, 21–2 Marketing, 22–4, 104, 105–6 Marketing department, managing, 169 Master Schedule, 196, 200 Maya software, 60 Meetings, 143 agenda, 145 at concept, 178–9 278 etiquette, 146 location, 145 notes and reports, 146 planning, 144 scheduling, 144, 147 short and sweet, 143 software and tools, 144 staying on topic, 146 structuring, 145 Memory requirements, of game, 245 Memos and e-mails, 135 Microsoft, 77, 103, 261 Microsoft Office, 57 Microsoft Project, 58–9, 110 Middleware solutions, 164–5 Milestone schedule, 99–100, 119, 195, 200 creation, 119–20 managing, 120–1 milestone deliverable, 122 milestone submission, 234 exclusions in, 122 managing, 12–15 preparation for submission and review, 121 Mindview, 110 Monitoring tasks, 109 Motion capture, 164 Movies-based games, 244 MS Source Safe, 59 Multiple projects, managing and supporting, 149 juggling, 150–1 scheduling and resource allocation, 151–2 Music, in game, 25–6, 274 Mystery House, 66 N Narrative concepts, 201 Next-Gen console games, 241 Next-Gen systems, 154 Nintendo, 77, 86, 103, 261, 263 Nintendo Wii, 238 No scheduling vs heavy scheduling, 98 North America, 255 Notes and reports, of meetings, 146 O Occlusion, 165 Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), 257 INDEX One liner, see Vision statement One-on-ones, 136 Online and multiplayer, 165 Open-door policy, 136 Operations (Ops), 86–7 Organization and time management, 133–4 Organized producer, 131 communicating outside the team and back again, 134–5 communication, 134 daily calendar, creating, 132–3 manage information flow, 135–6 organization and time management, 133–4 organization tools, 133 procrastination, in game development, 133 Original game downloadable content, 48 expansion pack, 48 sequels, 48 Original IP vs licensed IPs, 48 Outsourcing, 229 of art design doc, 209 managing, 55 P Pan European Game Information (PEGI), 255–7 Partners, managing, 55 Penny Arcade, 105 Personnel, 54 Photoshop, 59, 61 Pipelines, 123, 233 character model, 123–6 creation, 127 establishing, 229 pods and cross-disciplinary teams, 127 Planning stages, in pre-production, 193 PlayStation, 3, 48, 261 PlayStation Portable, 261 Politics, 54 Post-production phase, producer role in, 269–70 Postmortem, 273–4 Potential candidates, looking for, 158–9 PR, 22–4 PR department, managing, 169 Pre-alpha stage, 75 Pre-production phase, 72–4, 193 design phase, 193–4 budget and headcount, finalizing, 197–8 planning stages, 193 producer’s role at, 199 dependencies, organizing, 201 pre-pro, expanding in, 201–2 scheduling best practices for, 200 task inventory, creating, 200–1 team, 199 production plan, 195–6 proof of concept/vertical slice, 198 prototype phase, 194 risk management in approvals, 228 full team, 229 outsourcing, 229 pipeline, establishing, 229 schedule, flexibility of, 228 technology, 227–8 vision, 228 team building, 198 tech side at automated build process, 218–19 dev and test kits, 219 needs, evaluation of, 217–18 proving, 218 tech design doc, 218 Presentation, 52 Process management, 52 Producer, 4–5, 34–5, 85–6 Producer primer, external producer roles, 6–7 game producer, 3–4 internal producer roles, 6–7 producer, becoming, 4–5 producer, role of, publishers and developers, Producer’s role, during post-production phase, 269–70 in pre-production, 199 dependencies, organizing, 201 pre-pro, expanding in, 201–2 scheduling best practices for, 200 task inventory, creating, 200–1 team, 199 in scheduling and structure, 98 in staffing, 153 Production coordinator (PC), 36–8 Production, goal of, 251–2 alpha, 252 beta, 252–4 Gold Master Candidate, 252, 254 pre-alpha, 252 Release Candidate, 254 zero bugs, 254 279 INDEX Production phase, 74–5 goal for, 233–5 Production pipeline, 200 Production plan, 195–6 Profit and loss (P&L), 20, 114 Programmers and engineers, 80 Project design requirements, 174–6 Project start with developer, 93 Project start with publisher, 91–2 Project vision, creating, 173 Proof of concept, 221 Proprietary vs licensed engines, 163–4 Prototypes, 194, 222–5 building, 226 types, 225 transition to full production, 226 Pub producers, 149 Publishers, 12, 19, 134, 231 and developers, and game build, 237 issue for, 238 and localization, 241 selecting developers, 91 finding developer, 92 projects starting with developer, 93 projects starting with publisher, 91–2 slate change of, 244 see also External management; External producer Publishing counterpart, working with, 15–17 Publishing producer, 6, 85, 149, 167, 184, 253, 273 see also External producer Publishing team, 85 art director, 87–9 creative director, 90 operations (Ops), 86–7 producer, 85–6 QA team, 89–90 tech director, 87 Q Quake engine, 163 Quality assurance (QA) and compliance, 83 process, 239–40 team, 89–90 Quality check, 116 280 R Rating Pending (RP) identifier, 255 Recruiters, 158 Recruiting, 54 Referrals and word of mouth, 159 Rejection of game, 259 Release Candidate, 29, 77, 254 Release to Manufacture (RTM), 29, 77, 254, 265 Resubmitting, 259 Review meetings, 147 Reviewing milestones, 21 Reviews and approvals, 137 approval forms, 139 pipeline, 137–9 feedback, managing, 140–1 Revision control, see Version control systems Rigging artists, 82 Risk management, 227 in pre-production approvals, 228 full team, 229 outsourcing, 229 pipeline, establishing, 229 schedule, flexibility of, 228 technology, 227–8 vision, 228 during production, 243 critical stage analysis, 247 date changes, 244 direction, changes in, 246 scheduling issues, 243 technology, 244–6 time, 243 unexpected delays, 243 “Robot with a Gun Part III”, 114 Roles, of producer, 31, 38 associate producer, 35–6 cinematics producer, 40 executive producer, 32–3 licensor producer, 40–1 localization producer, 39 producer, 34–5 production coordinator, 36–8 senior producer, 33 S Sales, 22–4 Sales department, managing, 169 INDEX Sales needs, 104–5 Scheduling, 10–11, 32, 51, 97, 180–1, 244 Agile methodology, 100 best practices, for pre-production, 200 concepts, 102 cowboy coding, 101 DLC, 103–4 elements, 101–2 expansion packs, 103–4 flexibility of, 228 hardware, 103 holidays and vacation, 106 issues, 243 long vs short, 47–8 managing, 20 man-month schedule, 99 marketing, 104, 105–6 milestone schedule, 99–110 owner, 99 producer’s role, 98 sales needs, 104–5 screenshots and PR, 104, 105–6 Scrum methodology, 100–1 sequels, 103–4 team needs, 103 troubleshooting, 102–3 Waterfall method, 100 Screenshots and PR, 104, 105–6 Second submission, 263 SEGA Master System, 86 Senior producer (SP), 33 Sequels, 103–4 of original game, 48 Short schedule vs long schedule, 47–8 Sierra Entertainment, 66 Size and scope, of team, 43 big budgets, 45–6 larger vs smaller, 44–5 licensed vs original IPs, 48 long vs short schedules, 47–8 small budgets, 46–7 Skills, producing, 49 game, managing, 49–50 hard skills, 50 asset management, 52 budgeting, 50–1 e-mail and memos, 53–4 presentation, 52 process management, 52 project management, 50 scheduling, 51 written and verbal communications, 53 soft skills, 54 contractors, managing, 55 hiring/recruiting/personnel, 54 outsourcing, managing, 55 partners, managing, 55 politics, 54 team and producers, managing, 56 vendors, managing, 55 Smaller team vs larger team, 44–5 Soak tests, 240 Social networking sites, 158 Soft skills, of producer, 54 contractors, managing, 55 hiring/recruiting/personnel, 54 outsourcing, managing, 55 partners, managing, 55 politics, 54 team and producers, managing, 56 vendors, managing, 55 Software and tools, 144 Software development kit (SDK), 219 Sony, 77, 103, 261, 266 Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), 265 Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), 265 Sound design doc (SDD), 210–11 Source code, 271 Staffing, 153 budget cuts, 156–7 conducting interviews, 156 core and expand, 153–5 hiring outside the team, 157–8 potential candidates, looking for, 158–9 producer’s role in, 153 Stakeholders approval, 190 and game build, 237 working with, 24–5 Story summit, 179 T Target renders, 221–2 Task inventory, creating, 200–1 Task management software, 109–10 Tasking project, 108–9 281 INDEX Team building, 198 needs of, 103 and producers, managing, 56 producing primary responsibilities, 32 Team leads, 147 Tech demo, 221 Tech design doc (TDD), 201, 211, 218 Tech director, 87, 194, 244 looping in, 190 Tech side, in pre-production automated build process, 218–19 dev and test kits, 219 needs, evaluation of, 217–18 proving, 218 tech design doc, 218 Technical artist, 82 Technical aspects, of game building, 227–8 Technical Certification Requirement (TCR), 165–6, 263 Technical director, 80 roles of, 80 Technical Requirement Checklist (TRC), 165–6, 263 Technical skills, of producer, 50 Technology, 161, 244–6 console systems, 165 game builds, creating, 162 game engine, 162–3 licensed vs proprietary engines, 163–4 LotCheck, 165–6 middleware solutions, 164–5 Technical Certification Requirement (TCR), 165–6 Technical Requirement Checklist (TRC), 165–6 Test kit, 103, 219, 238 Testers, 239 Third submission, see Gold Master Candidate Time, in game production, 243 Tone video, see Target renders Tool programmer, 81 Trade, tools of, 57 3-D graphics and modeling packages, 60–1 bug-tracking systems, 61 software solutions and recommendations, 57 file transfer systems, 58 Microsoft office, 57 Microsoft project, 58–9 WiKi, 57–8 version control systems disc burner and software, 60 282 first party software/hardware tools, 59 Photoshop, 59 Translation packet, 242 Troubleshooting, 102–3 U Unexpected delays, in game production, 243 Unique selling points, 174 Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK), 257 User interface (UI), 165 V Vendors, managing, 55 Version control systems disc burner and software, 60 first party software/hardware tools, 59 Photoshop, 59 Vertical slice, 198, 200, 225 Video engines, 165 Vision statement 228, 173–4 Voice -over (VO), 26–7, 242 W Waterfall method, 100 Weekly meetings, 135 Weekly reports, 135 White box prototype, 225 Wii and DSi, 261 WiKi, 57–8 Wiki-style GDD, 205 Wikis, 136 Williams, Ken, 66 Williams, Roberta, 66 Williamson, John, 163 Writer, 83 Written and verbal communications, 53 X Xbox 360, 48, 261 Z Zero bugs, 254 Zombie studios, 155, 163 ... Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 97 8-0 -2 4 0-8 107 0-6 For... Art, and Sound Design Docs 209 The Art Design Doc (ADD) .209 The Sound Design Doc (SDD) .210 The Tech Design Doc (TDD) .211 34 The Tech Side at Pre-Production... numerous types of games out there The most standard, lengthy, and intricate production cycles are Next-Gen console games developed for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft systems Other types of games such