Game Development – Process
Alessandro Canossa
alec@itu.dk
Mark Nelson
mjas@itu.dk
Spring 2010
www.itu.dk
Game development is primarily an act of communication,
the limits of your language are the limits of your world.
Ludvig Wittengstein
GAME DEVELOPMENT
Game development is a process by which a video game is produced. Development
of games is undertaken by a developer, which may range from a single person
to a large business. Typically, large-scale commercial games are created by
development teams within a company specializing in computer or console
games. Development is normally funded by a publisher. In the early era of home
computers and video game consoles in the early 1980s, a single programmer
could handle almost all the tasks of developing a game. However, the
requirements of modern commercial games far exceed the capabilities of a
single developer and require the splitting of responsibilities.
CONCEPTUALIZATION
If you have with your game some goals (e.g.
Make the best selling iPhone game), you
should know about your competitors,
know the market, trends etc. In this phase
you should analyse and plan everything.
This phase is really important if you want
to success! There's nothing worse than
developing X years a game and then get to
know that there's practically nobody to
play it.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Create a game design concept, then the game
design document where you can define all
game mechanisms and principles. In this
phase the only tool for many developers is
paper and pencil - don't hesitate to make
sketches along with your concept and try
to prove as early as possible whether your
concept is really working as a game. You
can save a lot of time here!
PRODUCTION 1: DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
With a game design document in your hand
you can start with the real game
development, involving programmers,
graphic artists and all other members of
the team. In this phase you have to stick to
your game design document although
small changes are still in order.
PRODUCTION 2: DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING
Testing is the link that closes the circle
between Design and Development - you
should test every piece of code you made
on your game. Not just bug testing but
also experience testing. Phenomenological
debugging.
Stages ->
Conceptualisation
Pre-production
Production
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
Stages ->
GL1
GL2
GL3
GL4
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
Timeline
(when)
From 1st of February
to 1st of March
From 1st of March to
15th of March
From 15th of March to From 15th of April to
15th of April
15th of May
GL
Pm
Completed game
From 15th of May
to 30th of May
User Research and QA
Determine workflow,
schedules, deliverables
Set up participant
recruitment pipeline
Perform research
Design
Implement
Track findings
Determine research
methodology needs
Ongoing implementation process
Get feedback from
Evaluate dev/management stakeholders
Study
Determine staffing needs
Understand
Understand dev
team/franchise needs
and wants
DEVELOPMENT METHODS: WATERFALL AND ITERATION
DEVELOPMENT METHODS: WATERFALL AND ITERATION
DEVELOPMENT METHODS: WATERFALL AND ITERATION
DEVELOPMENT METHODS: WATERFALL AND ITERATION
DEVELOPMENT METHODS: WATERFALL AND ITERATION
Vision document
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.
Design Parameters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Media: Digital or Analog
Genre: Category (ontology)
Epoch: Setting (fiction, non fiction)
Scope: how much time / space are covered by the game? (battle or campaign)
Scale: level of closeness to objects (soldier or army)
Perspective: point of view
Treatment (10/30 pages)
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
5 Game World
Backstory
Objective
Characters
Mission or Story Progression
Maintain a developer’s diary
Diary will make up 50% of the exam
Daily tasks
Documentation of your tasks in developement
Challenges
You should be able to give talks and presentations
Rewards
(as your guests will)
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
Questions?