7/9/21 Production pipeline
PM1 Understand pre and post production processes
task 1
ideas – narrative, conceptualising gameplay and mechanics, talking to concept artists about the style direction, etc
pre-production – game design documents, level design planning, setting up the tools needed like the engine, plan marketing
production – concept artists communicate with 3d artists to make the assets, game designers tell programmers how they want their vision to be implemented, soundtrack is produced, testing
post-production – bug fixes and updates, continued testing and marketing
10/9/21 Job roles and hierarchies
WII1 Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries
I am most interested in working in the games industry. I’m mainly interested in game and level design. The responsibilities of a game designer include: developing original concept, create the GDD, directing action and combat design, building prototype levels, defining the player experience, concepting the gameplay mechanics, working closely with programmers and artists, etc
15/9/21 Production pipeline – Production
PM1 Understand pre and post production processes
The production phase of game development includes asset creation, which encompasses programmers, designers, artists, etc. It also includes QA testers and bug fixing. During production, producers keep track of all the different teams and communications to keep the dev team on schedule. Promoting the game in places like events is also done during this stage to get the word out and get valuable feedback on the game so far.
In pre-production, these job roles operate more in the concept stage whereas in production they are actually being made.
Post production includes localisation, which is when games are translated into other languages and edited to be appropriate for its respective cultures and rules. Certification is a process given to game developers by the distributors like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. They provide the devs with a list of rules that the game must abide by in order to be sold on their digital stores.
22/9/21 Target audience
WII2 Know the regulatory, ethical and legal requirements applicable to the games, animation and VFX industries
WII3 Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market
A target audience is the group of people that your product is intended for. A target audience can be defined by age, gender, location, culture and other factors. It’s important to define your target audience because those are the people you will be selling your product to so it is the only way to gain a profit.
Our WarioWare project probably has a target audience of 7-14. The controls are simple to grasp and the interface should be simple enough for a 7 year old to understand the
PEGI is the Pan European Game Information. They are the game rating board for Europe. ESRB is the Entertainment Software Rating Board. They are the game rating board for North America. These boards are important for consumers because people need to know the type of content they will be seeing in games; this helps parents protect their children from mature content. They assess factors such as violence, bad language, fear, drugs, etc to determine how the game should be rated.
24/9/21 QA and producers
A quality assurance tester is a person who communicates with the dev team to get rid of bugs found throughout the game. They interact with everything in the game in every possible way to make sure nothing clashes. We need this role on the team because we need to know the game is the best it can be before shipping.
It’s a good route into the industry because you have the chance to interact with everyone o a dev team so you’re ale to make connections and gain valuable experience.
A producer is the person who solves problems between teams and ensures the game ships on schedule. They organise deadlines and schedules for the team so everyone is kept on track. Their main goal is to ship the game. Without producers, there would be no organisation and people with different specialties would find it harder to communicate.
29/9/21 Market research
WII2 Know the regulatory, ethical and legal requirements applicable to the games, animation and VFX industries
WII3 Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market
Market research is when you look at what your target market is currently playing using numbers, opinions and facts. This can be things like steam stats and trends. It helps you understand what platforms to work with and what consumer needs are.
1/10/21 World building
ISIW1 Understand the concept of an imagined world in relation to games, animation and VFX industries
World building is the process of constructing an imaginary world or even an entire fictional universe. It’s important to your game because it gives everything context and maintains a cohesive story.
The history of the world is important because it gives a reason as to why the world is like it is in the present. Things like the environment and how it’s been affected by conflict create context for the player. World building can include characters, story, societies, architecture, history, etc. Everything has a reason for occurring in the world and this is how world building comes in.
Free design – unlimited creativity over the design of your world, regardless of the main story it ties into
Fixed design – more controlled design that relates to story and setting
Found design – a mix of the previous 2, it involves finding a compromise between two elements designed in different ways to make them work
4 Dimensions of setting
Location – area the story takes place in
Setting – the overarching location of the story
Period – the time in which the story takes place
Level of conflict – what sets the story into motion
13/10/21 Monetisation models
M2 Plan the provision of requirements for a specific production
WII1 Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries
WII3 Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market
There are many different ways to fund your game. You could sign an exclusivity deal with a platform to stay with them for 6 months. This is good because you have financial stability for the time afterwards which could help you fund your next project. You could use a crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter and gain donations from people interested in your project. This is a bit risky as you have to commit to everything you promised the backers and people could get upset if you misuse their money. You could be self-funded, using money from a previous project. You could take out a loan as a business. You could gain a grant from a company like Epic Games who pay indie developers that create games using their platform. This is good financial-wise for you, however your game will probably be exclusively tied to their storefront.
3/11/21 Immersion
Games can immerse audiences in many ways. One of them being the relationship between the gameplay and story. In The Last of Us Part II for example, the story builds up to a fight between Ellie and Abby. At this point the player is invested in both characters and their motivations. Naughty Dog could have easily just shown us a cutscene of the fight, but they instead chose to make the player play as Abby. This is immersive because you are in control of the character and play a role in their story. It feels more personal to the player. Another thing that facilitates immersion in games is the cohesiveness of the game world. In Breath of the Wild, the whole world has been devastated by the calamity and that is shown in the ruins scattered around Hyrule and the lives the characters lead. Walking around Hyrule without load times or invasive cutscenes makes the experience feel more real to the player.
Players can also be engaged by senses such as touch, with things like the DualShock and DualSense controllers. The haptic feedback simulates in game actions right in your hands.
Game feel is how good and satisfying a game feels to play. Things like colour choices, particle effects, camera angles and sound design all play a massive part in determining how enjoyable the player’s experience is.
5/11/21 Production management: Agile
Agile is an iterative approach to project management. It is a set of values and principles that involves organised communication which makes it easier to adapt to change later in the development pipeline. It keeps the team happy and productive during development.
It helps us develop products by keeping everyone on schedule using tools like Trello, setting deadlines for specific tasks.
10/11/21 Sound in games
Anticipation
Atmosphere
Reward the player
Feedback/recognition
Informative audio
Sound is important for immersion in video games because it gives context to the visuals and game world. The sound of a gun firing in Doom, the sound of Mr. X’s footsteps in Resident Evil 2, the wind howling in Breath of the Wild and more all give actions context and immerse the player.
12/11/21 Scrum
Scrum is a framework that helps teams develop their products by meeting daily and discussing progress.
Sprints
17/11/21 What makes games successful beyond core gameplay
Games are successful beyond their core gameplay through their features and mechanics. Examples include multiplayer, alternate endings, classes & characters, skill trees, NG+, difficulty levels, high scores, achievements, unlockables, etc.
19/11/21 Ethics in video games
Ethical issues are what is right and what is wrong about the content in video games. Ethical issues include diversity, religion, lootboxes, representation, etc.
These issues affect the people playing the games because they want to see themselves represented in popular media. The people making the games want to provide their diverse outlook on the development process.
The Last of Us is a great example of diverse representation in video games. Ellie is a 14 year old girl in the first game and is not over sexualised. She thinks for herself and takes charge. In the Left Behind DLC, it is shown that Ellie is a lesbian but that is not the point of her character. In Part 2, she experiences homophobia to represent reality and players who might have experienced that themselves, but her relationship with Dina is seen as a positive and normalised thing. Her character has a tragic story with a lot of depth.
Life Is Strange: True Colours is an example of how politics can affect the players experience with the game. The Tibetan flag is shown in game, which caused it to be review bombed by Chinese players as the flag is banned in China for being seen as a separatist symbol.
Violence in video games is a big topic, and one example of this is how in the original North American release of Fallout 2
24/11/21 Game genres and trends
Exclusive games are games that are only released on one console, e.g. Bloodborne on PS4. We have exclusive games to sell the platform they’re on.
26/11/21 Legal and regulatory issues in the GAVFX industry
Copyright laws are important in the games industry as some brands and companies can be misrepresented. Changes to real life influences protect the developers from legal trouble such as Fallout’s Nuka Cola and GTA’s Liberty City. Regulatory bodies such as PEGI and ESRB enforce the laws of each country a game is released in.
3/12/21 Employment and company types
WII1 Understand job roles, career structures and business models in the games, animation and VFX industries
Different employment types include full time, part time, freelancer
7/1/22 Company types
WII1 Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries
What types of companies exist in GAVFX and what do they do:
Publishers: publish the game to the decided platforms
Developers: mobile/console/PC/VR etc platform specific
AAA: big budget games usually owned by a parent company, Naughty Dog + Sony
Indie: dev team not owned by another company who makes games, Team Cherry
Marketing: advertising the game/animation
Animation studio: creates animations, like Blue Zoo
Regulatory companies: PEGI/ESRB for games and BBFC for film
VFX studio: visual effect work for film companies, Industrial Light and Magic
Motion capture studio: provides mocap resources to game companies
Tools: Game engine companies like Unity, 3D creation like Autodesk
Storefronts: digital and physical, Steam and Game
Legal: digital space specific legal teams
Esports organisations: 100 Thieves/Sentinels etc enter their teams into tournaments
Influencers: streamers/video creators who have large audiences
28/1/22 Mock exam review
What did you do well?
I showed good knowledge of pre-production processes and job roles.
What areas do you need to improve/revise more?
4/2/22 Case study full reflection and review
10 being strongest, 0 being weakest
- The production Pipeline 9
- Target Audience 8
- Market Research 5
- Monetisation Models 8
- Project Financing 7
- Immersion 6
- Sound 6
- What makes a game successful beyond core gameplay 5
- Pitching 8
- Game Genres and trends 7
- Pressure points 3
- Cashflow 2
- Product lifespan 2
- Job roles and Hierarchies 6
- World Building 8
- Production management (Agile and Scrum) 8
- Ethical issues 8
- Legal issues 8
- Regulatory bodies 9
- Employment Types 8
My strongest areas include the production pipeline, target audience, world building and regulatory bodies among others. My weakest areas include pressure points, cashflow and product lifespan. To improve my knowledge in these weaker areas, I’ll look back over the powerpoint slides and read the reference materials for each subject. I can make flashcards and take notes on each topic. I think the best revision strategy is to go over what I’m weaker at often in short bursts so the knowledge really stays.
9/2/22 Hypothetical sequel
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sequel
Core development phases – concept, pre-production, production, post-production
Each phase is important because they all get specific tasks done that allow for the next phase to begin. Job roles are
11/2/22 Job Roles and Interactions
I’d like to gain employment as a full time game designer.
I’d get this job by applying with a relevant portfolio showcasing my previous level/game design experience. In the job, I would design the relevant mechanics and gameplay experience.
I’d work with programmers to decide how the game will progress and how/when certain events will happen. I’d work with artists to determine the visual style of the game and how it ties in to the game design. I’d work with QA to make sure the game is fun and the design makes sense and achieves its goals.
Benefits of full-time employment – stable income, know your team better
Drawbacks of full-time employment – might not work on a project you’re fully passionate about
18/2/22 Role in project
My role – game designer
I would acquire the game designer role by applying online through their vacancies list, adding my portfolio, CV and cover letter. If considered, I would be invited to an interview where I would tell my potential employer more about myself and my skills. There is also a chance for a design test where the employer will set me tasks to do with game design to test my abilities and determine if I am what their team is looking for. If successful in all application stages, I would have the job.
In the production pipeline, I would have tasks to fulfill from the very beginning.
4/3/22 Feb mock reflection
On the mock exam, I got a merit. The strengths in this exam were everything in the pass section of the mark scheme as well as a distinction in the section about understanding game mechanics and beyond.
11/3/21 World building
Chosen game: Breath of the Wild
How could the studio build and develop their world for the sequel?
They could start by focusing on the events of the previous game and their consequences on the future of that world. So, in the last game, Ganon is sealed away by Zelda in the end but a lot of damage has already been done to Hyrule. So, in terms of story, the sequel could begin with the remaining characters trying to rebuild what they lost to Ganon. This makes sense contextually from the last game for returning fans, and environmental storytelling can help get players who didn’t play the first game up to speed. Environmental storytelling is when you can convey a story to the player through visual clues and parts of the game world without using text. For example, if some bokoblins had invaded a stronghold in Breath of the Wild, you would be able to piece together how they got in through the environment – maybe there’s a massive hole in the side of the stronghold with explosive barrels laying about, telling the player that they blasted their way through the wall, without any dialogue or text to tell you. In terms of game mechanics, there is a lot you could do to make them interesting in the sequel. You could expand upon existing mechanics – in the first game, you get health and stamina upgrades from goddess statues, so maybe in the sequel there are more different upgrades you can recieve.
ROYA TAYLOR 