Production and pla lanning for game development Jarek Kol About - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Brief introduction to

Production and pla lanning for game development

Jarek Kolář

About me

1994 – Tajemství Oslího ostrova 1994 – 7 dní a 7 nocí 1997 – Akte Europa 1998 – Hesperian Wars 2000 – Flying Heroes 2003 – Vietcong 2005 – Vietcong 2 2010 – Mafia II

@JarekKolar

What is production?

Production - core concept

Finishing Project

On time Within budget

Production values

• What
• When
• Who
• How
• Cost

Why?

• Motivation
• Why I am doing it?
• What I want to achieve?
• Criteria of success – expected gain
• Short term
• Long term

Production formula

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Production formula

• Quarterly
• Monthly
• Weekly
• Daily

GOAL

PLAN

GOAL

GOAL

PLAN

GOAL

PLAN

GOAL PLAN GOAL PLAN

Topics

• 1. Production in practice
• 2. Managing teams
• 3. Phases of a game development
• 4. Planning methods and tools
• 5. Notes on business

• 1. Production in practice

Size of your team

• Situations
• Alone
• In a small team <15
• In a large team ~10-30
• In a very big team 30-300+

Working alone or in mini-team

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Working alone or in mini-team

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Everyone is a producer in a small team <15

+

• Communication
• Tracking decisions

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Everyone is a producer in a small team <15

+

• Communication
• Tracking decisions

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Dedicated leadership in a large team ~10-30

+

• Detailed plans
• Dependencies, Synergies

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Dedicated leadership in a large team ~10-30

+

• Detailed plans
• Dependencies, Synergies

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Structure in a very big team ~30-300+

+

• Independent sub-teams
• Upper management layer

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Structure in a very big team ~30-300+

+

• Independent sub-teams
• Upper management layer

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

• 2. Managing teams

Leading teams

• Communication
• Common goal
• Motivation, joy

Leading teams

• Communication
• Common goal
• Motivation, joy

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Management roles

• Project leader
• Producer
• Project manager
• Discipline leaders (lead programmer, lead artist, lead designer…)

Management roles

• Discipline leaders (lead programmer, lead artist, lead designer…)
• Making great stuff
• Goals
• Direction within the discipline
• Leading people
• Managing quality

Management roles

• Project leader & Producer & Project manager
• Managing time & money
• Global direction, epic goals, budgets
• External communication (business, marketing)
• Internal communication
• Leading teams
• Daily micro-management
• Administrative

Management roles

• Creative vs Technical vs Production
• Quality vs Time
• Priority vs Capacity
• Tension - Compromises & Limitations
• Work estimation & Time boxing

Multiple sub-teams

• Goal oriented
• Multidiscipline team members
• Responsibility and power
• Autonomous = Operational = Effective
• Self managed individuals
• Processes/guidelines instead of micromanagement

Project Lead Subteam1 Lead Sub Team Subteam2 Lead Sub Team Subteam3 Lead Sub Team Producer

3.Phases of a game development

Phases of a game development

• Preparation (pre-production)
• Production
• Finishing/Closing (post-production)
• Release/Distribution
• Post-release

Preparation (pre-production)

• Concept, Idea
• Pitch
• Platform, Technology and Tools
• Design document
• Worlds, Environments, Levels
• Narrative design, Story, Dialogues, Characters
• Game design – mechanics, dynamics, systems
• …
• Resolved unknowns

Preparation (pre-production)

• Outcome
• Prototypes, proof of concepts
• Examples, benchmarks
• Workflow
• Tools and pipelines
• Guidelines and documentation
• Planning and budgeting

Preparation (pre-production)

• Pre-alpha version
• short example of the core of the game
• Vertical slice
• all features of the game represented in small section
• Horizontal slice
• complete content of the game with placeholder assets

Production

• Production of assets
• Environments, Characters, Objects, VFX
• Animations
• Programming game features
• Scripting
• Sounds & Voice recording
• Preparing and shooting of cut-scenes

Production

• Feature complete
• all game features are implemented
• Alpha version
• game is playable from start to end with all features
• Content complete
• all assets are implemented

Finishing / Closing

• Collating parts together
• Scripting
• Testing, tweaking, polishing, debugging
• Music & Additional voice recording
• Localizations
• Platform submission process

Finishing / Closing

• Beta version
• Developers feel that the game is ready for testing
• ZBR
• Fixing bugs is faster than finding bugs
• Release candidate
• Attempt to make a master version
• Gold Master
• Ready for release

Release / Distribution

• Marketing / PR – trailers, screenshots, interviews
• Demos – controlled, hands on, public
• Exhibitions and Conferences
• Community & Fanbase management
• Distribution
• Boxed (Publisher, Distributor)
• Digital (Steam, Apple Store, Google Play, …)

Post-release

• Maintenance: Improvements, bug fixing, updates
• New Content: Add-ons and expansions
• Services – servers, cloud, data management
• Community support – communication, forums, website
• Modding support – tools, bugfixing

Summary of development phases

• Preparation (pre-production)
• Pre-alpha
• Vertical slice / Horizontal slice
• Production
• Alpha version
• Feature Complete / Content Complete
• Finishing/Closing (post-production)
• Beta version
• ZBR
• Release Candidate
• Gold Master
• Release/Distribution
• Post-release

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

• 4. Production tools

and methods

How to make a plan?

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

How to make a plan?

• 1. Project timeline (when)
• 2. Capacity (who)
• 3. Backlog (what)
• 4. Broad calculation (balancing your numbers)
• 5. Milestones (smaller chunks of time)
• 6. Schedule (detailed plan)
• “Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be paralyzed. Just do it.”

WHEN: Rough project timeline

• Start date
• Development phases / Big milestones
• Preproduction
• Production
• Post-production
• Release
• End date
• “You will be late – add a buffer (20%)”

WHO: Capacity

• How much work can be done?

Available team members (per discipline/sub-team)

• Available time

=Total capacity of mandays *Efficiency (70%)

• “Day doesn’t have 8 work hours, week doesn’t have 5 work days.”

WHAT: Backlog

• List of features
• Divided into tasks
• List of assets
• Divided into tasks / phases
• Format
• Name, description, estimated time, priority, risk
• “If you don’t know, guess. Guess is better than nothing.”

BALANCE: Broad calculation

• Count estimate of all tasks
• Compare with available mandays
• Per departments or developers
• Don’t care about order of tasks and dependency
• Adjust scope (backlog) or team (capacity) or time (end date)
• Repeat (Iterate) until you fit
• “Please note, that you will be always wrong.”

Milestones

• Divide development into smaller chunks
• Big milestones
• Pre-alpha
• Vertical slice / Horizontal slice
• Feature complete
• Alpha version
• Define epic goals for sub-teams
• “Don’t plan beyond alpha. This is far too unpredictable.”

Roadmap

• Put your milestones on a timeline one after another

Waterfall planning

• Backlog
• Linked tasks
• Rigid order
• Clear dependencies
• Great for roadmaps

Schedule

• Monthly milestones
• 1 month detailed
• Epic goals + Tasks
• Assignment
• Daily/weekly plan
• 2 months roughly defined
• Epic goals
• “Even if you are wrong, the plan will motivate you to move forward.”

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Agile planning

• Backlog
• Sprint
• Available tasks
• Flexible order
• Stand-ups
• Great for monthly

milestones

Pipeline for standardized tasks

• Order of tasks (phases)
• Transparent workflow and dependencies
• Approval checkpoints (yes/no)
• Use guidelines and benchmarks
• Decision tracker

How to make a plan?

• Project timeline (when)
• Capacity (who)
• Backlog (what)
• Broad calculation (balancing your numbers)
• Milestones (smaller chunks of time)
• Schedule (detailed plan)
• Pipeline (required workflow)
• Checkpoints (verify progress)

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Planning software

• Whiteboard and stick-it notes
• MS Excel / Google Docs
• MS Visio
• MS Project
• Hansoft
• Atlassian JIRA

Planning software (not proven by me)

• Microsoft Visual Team Services
• Trello (https://trello.com/)
• Pivotal tracker (https://www.pivotaltracker.com/)
• Asana (https://asana.com/)
• Target Process (https://www.targetprocess.com/)
• Teamwork (https://www.teamwork.com/)
• …

• 5. Notes on business

Funding your project

• Self-funding
• External investment
• Crowdfunding
• Work for hire
• Publisher contract
• Acquisition

Business models

• Premium
• AAA
• Budget
• Indie
• Free-to-Play
• Pay wall
• Pay to win
• Advertisement
• Additional revenue
• Add-ons, Episodes
• Cosmetic / Gameplay items
• Service - servers

Business pitfalls

• No money (no time)
• Losing IP
• Losing share and control
• No more work for hire
• Middlemen
• Low revenues

Final summary!

Production - core concept

Finishing Project

On time Within budget

Why?

• Motivation
• Why I am doing it?
• What I want to achieve?
• Criteria of success – expected gain
• Short term
• Long term

Production formula

GOAL PLAN

Who How When What

Cost Gain

Questions?

• Ask now or keep discussing with me @JarekKolar

• Consultations with you about career in games industry
• Real topics and technologies for your Master Thesis
• Job possibilities

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