08/09/2021 – Phases of development
10/09/2021 – Production Pipeline – Job Roles and Hierarchy
PM1. Understand pre and post production processes.
15/09/2021 – Production Pipeline – Production
PM1. Understand pre and post production processes.
Explain the production phase? : The production phase is the first step of the development of a new game. This includes story writing, concept art and asset development. Most of the time even budget for the project will be figured out.
How do job roles operate in this phase? : In production all members of a team will be placed on the project. Anyone who was any significant role will be required for the first phase as they all have a key part in the production of assets.
Why is it important for producers to keep everyone on track? : It is important for producers to keep everyone on track as it helps the well being of the project and the team members. If one member is off topic or missing deadlines it brings the quality of the whole project down.
What is Post-Production? : Post-Production is the phase once the game is finished but before the game is released to the public. It is the final phase and should be the time where developers are polishing their game and adding any final details.
Types of tasks in post production. : Bug fixing, Events, Trailer production, Polish, DLC, Patches, PEGI, Optimisation, Localisation
Explain These Tasks:
PEGI – Rating the game and ensuring the product is right.
Trailer Production – Someone with VFX skills will put a 2 – 3 minute trailer together to show off the game as a way of getting attention on platforms.
DLC – Future content development would start.
Localisation – Translating text/speech into other languages for release in other countries.
Extension –
Certification : Process where companies approve a product for release and ready for consumer purchase.
Localisation : Translating text/speech into other languages for release in other countries.
Explain the difference between Alpha, Beta and Master. :
Alpha – Early access, also known as early funding, alpha access, alpha founding, or paid alpha, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles
Beta – ‘Beta’ is a standard term to denote a milestone release during production in which game functionality is included and optimised (but may have bugs), game content is finished (but may have some implementation errors), and which is considered nearly complete.
Master – The completed product submitted to various platforms for certification.
22/09/2021 – Target Audience
WII 2. Know the regulatory, ethical and legal requirements applicable to the games, animation and VFX industries.
What is a target audience? : The target demographic that you are building your game for.
How would you define a target audience? : By Age and Gender
Why is it important to define a target audience? : Marketing will be a mess. Money will be a sensitive issue as many people buying the game will not know it is for them and refund. Wrong audience playing the wrong game. Art style might not match the age bracket.
Extension :
Target audience for Group Project : We are aiming for an audience of 7+ as our game is simple enough for anyone to play. We also don’t include violence and the art style is really simplistic.
How much profit would we make? : I feel we would make a lot of money for making this game. We have a simple art style and it is a simple platform game.
PEGI / ESRB
PEGI and ESRB are rating boards. They are important because they make sure they game you build is actually suited to the audience you’ve built it for. If we didn’t have these rating boards there wouldn’t be a warning sign for parents on the back of game boxes to make sure their kids aren’t playing something unsuitable.
24/09/2021 – Job Roles and Hierarchies
QA
Quality Assurance for games is about finding inconsistencies, glitches, or bugs in the software or game experience. QA testers are required to play games to find all of the above. It isn’t a case of waiting till a bug shows up, its more that they are given a list of possible areas of the game which may include these bugs or glitches. They would also be provided with save files and checkpoints so they don’t have to play through the game multiple times over.
Producers
A producer is someone who is responsible for finding and launching a project. This includes hiring writers, a director and key members of the creative team. They also decide where the game will go artistically, stylistically and sonically requires a strong knowledge of your self, those who surround you and those you want to touch. Without Producers the projects would have no financial backing.
29/09/2021 – Market Research
WII 2. Know the regulatory, ethical and legal requirements applicable to the games, animation and VFX industries.
WII 3. Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market.
Market research is the process of looking at the game market with numbers, facts and opinions. It’s about finding the equation between what people want and what you want to do. It will provide you insights about what people like to play nowadays, what you can produce and why people would buy your game. Usually platform is a big decider of the type of game you create.
Market research can impact development big time as it gives game devs help when creating their game. It gives them the current trend in games and even what genre of game is popular right now.
It links to financial success as more people want to buy a game that you’re making if it is following the popular genres or current trend.
1/10/2021 – Imagined Worlds
ISIW 1: Understand the concept of an imagined world in relation to the games, animation and VFX industry
World building is where people create the environments for the game to be played in including adding detail and creating environments around the player along with world generation.
The history of the environment can effect the game by the campaign or the story line as certain areas are effected in story’s but not in multiplayer, for example GTA has the campaign set in 2013 along with GTA Online when that first came out. They brought out a couple updates and furthered the timeline up to Ill-gotten gains part 2 in 2015. Story mode stopped getting online content for obvious reasons but the Online mode got further updates. Each update had no real time change however The Doomsday Heist Rockstar brought the in game time to 2020 – 2021 along with us.
The 4 dimensions of Imagined Worlds:
Free – is where you block out core ideas, use research to block out and plan ideas correctly and you have Freedom to change and shape the world/environment freely
Fixed – is constrained by needs for example saving something for certain events, this is also when you have to ask yourself about the state of the world with technology and time periods.
Found – This is open world that players can interact with freely, which is driven by player feedback and with this you create and build sequels.
These help develop worlds as it helps keep you fixed on the right track for game, this means the story can be kept simple enough to be understood but to a well enough standard to keep player happy with how good quality it is. Free is a bad part to this as it can take you off task which could ruin the game.
These help us develop worlds as it keeps us on track and in the right state of mind for the best game play that the world can provide.
13/10/2021 – Monetisation Models
PM 2 Plan the provision of requirements for a specific production.
WII 1. Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industry.
WII 3. Understand how products in the games, animation and VFX industries are taken to market
- Premium ( Physical, Digital, Cinema/Box Office)
- DLC ( Season Pass, etc.)
- Free to Play
- Adverts ( Mobile games, web games, free to play)
- Microtransactions ( Buying small parts of the game, loot crates, cosmetics)
- Games as a service ( Subscriptions, WoW, Battle Pass, etc.)
- Merchandise ( Figures, Lunch boxes, Special Editions)
- Netflix style tv subscription models
- Early Access – Preorder bonuses / reduced minimum price
Advantages / Disadvantages of Each
- Steady purchases and guaranteed sales / profit. Can lose profit if not popular.
- Cheaper price for a lot of content. Sometimes stuff is locked behind the season pass.
- Free to play for anyone. Has in game purchases.
- Brings money in for free games. Annoying.
- Look cool in game. Costs a pretty penny.
- Constant content in the games. Sometimes content isn’t what you like.
- Cool collectibles from the game. Ridiculous prices along with the game.
- Online play with friends. Game drought with game pass or games with ps plus.
- Feedback for developers and early gameplay. Bugs and unfinished content.
World Building – Design And Practise
ISIW 1 understand the concept of an imagined world in relation to the games, animation and VFX industries.
Time Period :
Earth Time : 2477 A.D.
Atrorix 8 Time : 253 A.D.
Location :
Galaxy : Andromeda
Planet : Atrorix 8
City : The Capitol
Level Of Conflict :
The original colonists have built the city from the ground up and decide they deserve whatever they want. Original colonists have decided to capitalize on the whole of The Capitol. Only the rich have the general commodities and take it for granted. The rest of The Capitol want the rich out of there and start a Civil war.
How long the game spans :
The Civil war goes on for around 5 years. When you start the game you are already a year and a bit into the civil war. From 252 A.D. – 257 A.D. Each chapter of the storyline is a year in the game.
Additional :
Areas – The Capitol
Genre – Fantasy
High Technology – lasers and stuff
Equipment? –
Rich People: Laser Guns, Laser Melee weapons, High tech cars and trucks, High Tech supplies.
Poor People: Modern day weapons, swords and tools, bikes, carts and makeshift weaponised vehicles, Poor quality supplies.
Clothing – Fully customisable, based off of the lifestyle.
Inhabitants – Original human colonists, People born on the planet, peaceful alien wildlife.
Architecture – Depends on the area of The Capitol, Rich side is a high tech paradise similar to Coruscant from Star Wars while the poor side is what we have in real life but really poorly built and no one has provided any service to the buildings for years.
Landscape – City is similar to this:
Instead of total water surrounding however, there is a beautiful tropic world surrounding The Capitol with a mote of water around the base of the city.
History – Uninhabited, tropical paradise home to many passive creatures with no natural predators. Easiest habitable planet with only a few years of adapting to the atmosphere.
Religion – Not a prominent religion in The Capitol, there may be cults lurking in the shadows.
Mythology – No Mythology.
20/10/2021 – Funding A Project
How can individuals fund a project? – Kickstarters/GoFundMe, Collabing with others, Early – access,
How can studios fund a project? – Producers/Publishers, Other studios helping, Early – access.
Why is funding important?
Funding is important for game developers to make something playable. In order to make a game with the quality of some other AAA titles, you are going to need enough money to pay for software, hardware and your employees.
Government Funding – The advantage is that you get this money returned and you don’t need to pay any of it back, the negative is that if the game fails and isn’t made the government will not grant more money to be received.
Parent company – The advantage is that you will have a very large fund to help make and fund the game but the disadvantage is that they get final say over what happens to the game.
Publishers also help by providing hardware, software and pretty much anything else the studio or individual needs.
03/11/2021 – Immersion
Immersion means a deep mental involvement in a game.
By adding first person game developers keep us immersed by letting us feel like we are the character we play. They also build a detailed world.
Sight, sound, touch.
Game feel is the little details in the background that add to the overall feel of the game.
Production Management: Agile – 05/11/2021
What is AGILE? : Agile refers to a set of “methods and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Agile Manifesto,” which includes things like collaboration, self- organization, and cross functionality of teams. Agile is not methods or practices in itself and doesn’t refer to your project. You can’t go saying this and that is agile. Agile is all about creating smaller iterative builds that improves over time and there is more of a focus on getting working product as soon as possible.
Sound – 10/11/2021
Anticipation – This is usually used in horror genres and builds up tension before a jump scare, boss battle or attack. Games like Alien: isolation, Phasmophobia and Outlast
Production Management: Scrum – 12/11/2021
What is waterfall? – Waterfall project management maps out a project into distinct, sequential phases, with each new phase beginning only when the previous one has been completed. The Waterfall system is the most traditional method for managing a project, with team members working linearly towards a set end goal. Each participant has a clearly defined role, and none of the phases or goals are expected to change. Waterfall project management works best for projects with long, detailed plans that require a single timeline.
What is Scrum? – Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.
What is a Sprint? – short, time-boxed period when a scrum team works to complete a set amount of tasks.
Sprints help us complete small sections of the GAVFX project within a set amount of time. This time frame can be decided between your group members although more commonly being between 1-3 weeks.
How do we know when our product is finished? – When your product backlog is empty.
What does Feature Creep mean? – Adding features that aren’t required and would push project back.
What makes games successful beyond core gameplay? – 17/11/2021
The games features help to make the game successful beyond core gameplay. Things like new game plus, classes, and overall customization can keep a player interested. Even something like the soundtrack of a game can help keep someone playing your game. A game like doom requires that heavy death metal to match the tone of the game. If it didn’t have that sound track you would be shooting demons to the sound of silence.
19/11/2021 – Ethics and Ethical Issues
What are ethical issues? : A conflict of right (ethical) or wrong (unethical) or situation forcing alternatives on an entity seeking ethical behavior.
Examples of Ethical Issues :
Lead Character :
Back when games were first being rolled out with main characters there was a lot of the same straight, buff, white males. It has filtered out throughout the years but still causes issues to this day. A while ago, when Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order got announced and brought a lot of backlash from the LGBTQ+ community. They felt that with Star Wars being such a diverse universe that the main character could’ve been any of the various species from it. Currently Apex Legends has one of the most diverse casts in game history with over half being women of various cultures, one being non-binary and 7 characters being men of various cultures. One character called bloodhound is a female but identifies as non-binary. This is due to her complicated in game background.
Violence :
Many companies release games with an 18 rating however there are tons of people not following them. Hundreds of online stores don’t require an age or date of birth to access and can allow children of all ages to purchase items from them. This allows younger audiences to be introduced to violence earlier than they should.
24/11/2021 – Consoles
Exclusives – Exclusive games are games that only release on a specific platform. This includes Arma 3 for PC, Halo for Xbox and Uncharted for Playstation.
Game Genres-
- Sandbox.
- Real-time strategy (RTS)
- Shooters (FPS and TPS)
- Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA)
- Role-playing (RPG, ARPG, and More)
- Simulation and sports.
- Puzzlers and party games.
- Action-adventure.
What game genres exist and what make them unique?: FPS, MMORPG, Real Time Strategy
Legal and Regulatory issues in the GAVFX industry – 26/11/2021
Legal issues are a major thing in the GAVFX industry.
- Copyright
- Licenses
- Parody
- Contracts (NDA’s for example)
Emploment and Company Types – 03/12/2021
WII 1. Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries.
Different ways to get into the GAVFX industry:
- Internship
- Apprenticeship
- Placement
- Full time
- Full time – permanent
- Full time – temporary
- Part time – permanent
- Part time – temporary
- Flexitime
How would you get that job:
- CV
- Cover Letter
- Interview
- Technical Test or Art Test
Advantages or Disadvantages:
- Choose work hours
- Choose what work you do
- Choose who you work for
07/01/2022 – Company Types
- AAA Games – Ubisoft, Treyarch, Rockstar
- AA Games
- Indie Games
- PC Games – Valve
- Console Games – Sony
- Mobile Games
- 2D Animation – Disney
- 3D Animation – Disney
- VR – Virtual Reality – Coatsink
- AR – Augmented Reality
- MR – Mixed Reality
- Advertisement
- Marketing
- Law
- VFX
- SFX
- Movie
- TV
After you pitch an idea to a publisher they could really enjoy the sound of the game. This may entice them into funding it. This could go a step further with helping to get staff to bring the quality of your game up. If your game also performs well the publisher may be more inclined to work with you in future or even give you an idea to bring to life through a game.
What resources would I need to start my own GAVFX business?
- Software – Blender, Maya, Unity, Substance.
- Hardware – PC Setup, Other Workstations
- Funding
- Staff
- Offices
- Standard living costs
Financial Implications of starting your own business?
- Cost of running software
- Cost of running hardware
- Office costs
- Staff pay
How to finance?
- Crowdfund
- Publishers
- Bank loan
Risks/challenges?
- Interest in your product
- Money drought
- Time not being used effectively
- Money not being used effectively
28/01/2022 – Case Study Mock Feedback
I feel I have done well for what I know. Looking at the feedback from the questions I fell short on I now realise what I could of done to push the question further. I will be revising the topics I don’t know too much about. World building and employment types are topics I need to review and revise.
Case Study Full Reflection And Review – 04/02/2022
List Of Topics –
- The production Pipeline – 10
2. Target Audience – 8
3. Market Research – 8
4. Monetisation Models – 10
5. Project Financing – 8
6. Immersion – 7
7. Sound – 6
8. What makes a game successful – 6
9. Pitching – 7
10. Game Genres and trends – 8
11. Pressure points and cashflow – 7
12. Product lifespan – 7
13. Job roles and Hierarchies – 8
14. World Building – 6
15. Production management (Agile and Scrum) – 6
16. Ethical issues – 8
17. Legal issues – 8
18. Regulatory bodies – 8
19. Employment Types – 8
My Strongest Areas –
- Production Pipeline
- Target Audience
- Market Research
- Monetisation models
- Project Financing
- Game Genres and Trends
- Job Roles and Heirarchies
- Ethical Issues
- Legal Issues
- Regulatory Bodies
- Employment Types
My Weakest Areas –
- Sound
- What Makes a Game Successful
- World Building
- Production Management
How To Improve –
Set aside around 30 – 60 minutes every other day to revise my weakest areas while allocating 15 – 30 minutes for the topics I am confident with. This would happen the other days I am not revising my weakest areas. My best bet would be to practice using past tests or online quizzes like Kahoot. Then researching posts around these topic areas would also help me.
Case Study Exam Style Question – 09/02/2022 –
Hypothetical Game: Titanfall 3
Inception – Original idea using Titanfall universe or follow on from Titanfall 2. New characters or any returning characters.
Pre Production – Concept art. Storyboards. Scripts.
Production – Environment building. Model building. Animations
Post Production
Post Launch Content
Job Roles and Interactions – 11/02/2022
I would like to gain employment as a Full time or Freelance: Artist
How would you get that job? –
I would build up a portfolio on different art pieces. I would do observational drawings, 3d objects to show that I understand shadows and shading, Environment drawings. At a push I would do animal drawings. Once these were finished and put on my portfolio I would go to job fairs or upload my portfolio onto game studio’s websites. This would help show my work to companies that may like my ideas.
What would you do in that job? –
I would be tasked with creating the concepts for possible characters or environments for the project. I would follow some references that the project lead or Senior Artist would set and work to create something that fit with it. Once the environment art is done it would be sent the the environment team to create and when the character art got finished it would be sent off to the 3D artists to create.
Benefits –
Constant source of income. Full hours. Experience. Portfolio building experience.
Drawbacks –
May be contractually obligated to stay. If under an NDA I wouldn’t be allowed to leave until the project is over.
16/02/2022 – Agile, Waterfall and Scrum
Case Study – Exam Style Question – 18/02/2022
Game of Choice: Borderlands 2
I would assign myself as a 3D modeler on the project as I feel this is the area I am most experienced in. I think my skills in 3D modelling would be useful as I love the art direction that the game takes and would love to model in that style. I play the games a lot and can use that to help influence the designs of the models I would go on to create.
Feb Mock Reflection – 04/03/2022
Although I can’t get a high or low grade, Matt told me I am around the High Merit area. My strengths are definitely in the production pipeline and game mechanics. These are what I am more comfortable with.
11/03/2022 – World Building
Game Chosen: God Of War
Studios could build and develop their world in many ways. Adding ambience to their world with creatures and NPC’s filling up the landscape with life. You could give quests like animal hunting like you see in Red Dead Redemption 2. You can also get legendary animals that are harder to hunt but offer more rewards. This would give you a lot more to do in the open world of god of war and offer many different routes for new weapons and/or armour.
NextGen Projects 