1 Overall Lecture Topics Industry Game Design Before We Proceed - PDF document

What to Expect  These lectures are mainly about the process The Game Development of successfully bringing a game from idea to Process: delivery  Major "players" in the process Introduction  Steps in the development lifecycle  Steps in the development lifecycle  What makes a good (and bad!) game  Presupposed background  Not much! 2 Instructor Background Student Background ( Who Am I ?) ( Who Are You ?) 1. School (grad or ugrad)  Dr. Mark Claypool (Prof, “Mark")  Professor of Computer Science 2. Year (freshman, sophomore, … )  Operating Systems, Distributed Computer Systems, Multimedia, Networks 3. Major (Biology, CS, … )  Director of Interactive Media and Game Development  The Game Development Process p 4. Programming: (none) 1 to 5 (master) P i 1 t 5 4  Technical Game Development a) Language?  Java, C+ + , Flash…  Research interests  Networks, Multimedia, Network games, Performance 5. Gamer: (casual) 1 to 5 (hard-core)  Like to play  RTS (Battle for Middle Earth, Warcraft, … ) 6. Number of Games Built (zero is ok!)  Sports (FIFA, Madden, Strikers, … )  FPS (Battlefield, Doom, … ) 7. Other …  Adventure (Uncharted, Indigo Prophecy, Fable II… ) 3 4 Course Materials Projects  http: / / www.cs.wpi.edu/ ~ claypool/ courses/ osaka-10/  4 projects  Slides  Project 1: Making Games in Game Maker  On the Web (ppt and pdf)  3 parts  Done solo  Timeline  Planning Pl i  Groups! ( 2 is good) G ! 2 i d)  Project writeups  Project 2: Game Inception and Design  Resources  Project 3: The Game  Game creation toolkits, documentation, etc.  Project 4: Play Testing  Email: claypool@cs.wpi.edu 5 6 1

Overall Lecture Topics  Industry  Game Design Before We Proceed …  Artistic Content Creation  P  Programming i Any Questions? 7 8 What Do You Think Goes Into Developing Games?  Consider a video game you want to build (or, one you like that has been built)  Assume you are inspired (or forced or paid) to engineer the game  Take 3-4 minutes to write a list of the tasks  Take 3 4 minutes to write a list of the tasks Project 1 Details required  Chronological or hierarchical, as you wish  Include your name and name of game  (I’ll collect and read, but not grade)  What do we have? 9 10 The Game Development Process: The Game Industry Game Maker Demo 11 2

Hit-Driven Entertainment Costs  Powers of 10  Games are emotional, escapist, fantasy-  $50K - cell phone (Bejeweled knockoff) fulfilling, stimulating entertainment  $500K – indie (Bomberman Live), nice casual  Causes of success or failure are often game (Peggles) intangible (but quality matters a lot) g ( q y )   $5M $5M - “A” (Titan Quest) A (Titan Quest)  Consumers are smart  $50M - “AAA” title (WoW)  Hits come from individuals with skill,  WoW – costs and revenue instinct, creativity, and experience (and  $50 Million to make some luck), not from marketing  6 Million players @ average of about $12 / month for 2-3 months = $200 million a year  (Less the cost of running those servers) 13 14 Roles Development Studios?  Developer  Publisher  (Distributor)  Retailer  Retailer  Service Provider 15 16 Developers Publishers?  Design and implement games  Responsible for the content  Including: programming, art, sound effects, and music  Historically, small groups but now often larger  Analogous to book authors  Sometimes first party (part of publisher)  Or third party (independent business)  (More later -- most of this class!) 17 18 3

Publishers relationship to Publishers developers  “To find the publisher in any deal, look  Star developers can bully publishers, for the one who’s got negative cash-flow because publishers desperate for good during development” content  Dan Scherlis (Turbine, EtherPlay, … )  But most developers are bullied by  Handle manufacturing marketing PR  Handle manufacturing, marketing, PR, publishers because developers are publishers, because developers are distribution, support desperate for money  Typically specialized in certain markets  Publishing swings from big to small and back depending on the market  Assume the risk, reap the profits  Most publishers also have in-house  Might also handle QA, licensing, project developers management 19 20 Distributors Game Retailers?  Move software from publisher to retailer  Modeled on book distribution  Pubs like them because they manage relationship with many small stores  Stores like them because they manage relationship with many pubs  Compete on price, speed, availability  Very low margins (3% ) -- dying breed 21 22 Retailers Service Providers  Sell software to end users  Sound, Music, Voiceover  But really sell shelf space to publishers  Artists (2D, 3D, concept)  Compete on price, volume of product  Shift in 80’s to game specialty stores, especially  QA chains (today ~ 25% )  PR  PR  EB Games GameStop  EB Games , GameStop  Advertising  Shift in 90’s to mass market retailers (today ~ 70% )  Middleware  Target , WalMart , Best Buy  Retailers earn 30% margin on a $50 game  Electronic download of games via Internet still in infancy  Big but not huge (today ~ 5% ) 23 24 4

Traditional Model: Traditional Game Development Cross Between Books and Movies  Developer creates concept  1 in 10 - less than 10% of published titles  Developer builds demo for pitch break even!  Developer pitches to publishers  Sequels very popular  Publisher agrees to fund it (advance against  Development costs rising  Development costs rising royalty)  Self-publishing is nearly suicidal  Project gets developed  Retail and distribution control access to  Publisher boxes it, ships it, markets it customers  Publisher collects money  Developer MIGHT make more money...if advance is earned out 25 26 Pokémon – Gotta Catch them All Exercise: Allocate Points  You have 1 4 points  Pikachu  Pigeon  Allocate 0-6 points for each of the following facets:  Raichu  Koratta  P: Prototype/ Pitch ( not important )  How much effort you place on developing a solid  Lizardon  Arbok prototype to pitch to publishers  Zenigame  Zenigame  Pippi  Pippi  D: Development ( important ) D: Development ( important )  How much effort you place on development  Caterpie  Poppo  M: Marketing/ Sales ( not too important )  How much effort you place on marketing your  Purin  Nyarth project  F: Fun ( important )  Cocoon  Mew  How effective your design is in terms of how much consumers like your product 27 28 Exercise: Roll the Dice! Exercise: How Many are Left?  Everyone stand up  Yes, luck is a factor (the roll)  For each roll of the die, please sit down if  You can control it some  with skill (knowing which is most important) the number is greater than the points you allocated for that facet  and money (getting more points to allocate)  P  P: Prototype/ Pitch -2 Prototype/ Pitch 2  But there’s never enough of either to  D: Development + 1 make it a sure thing  M: Marketing/ Sales -1  F: Fun + 1 29 30 5