Unit 1 - Pre Production Techniques for the Computer Games Industry

Unit 1 - Pre Production Techniques for the Computer Games Industry

In this unit I will be showing my understanding of and skills in pre-production. Pre-production is vital in any successful media product. For examples, the siccessful completetion of a computer game depends on locations, material, resources and talent being available for the work to be undertaken. Successful development depends on crew members and talent doing their own profession and combining their skills together to create a game.

The learning outcomes for this unit are:

1. Understand requirements for a specific media production.
2. Be able to prepare pre-production documentation for a specific media production.
3. Be able to apply pre-production planning for a specific media production.

Learning Outcome 1

For this learning outcome I needed to outline requirements and sources of requirements for a specific media prodution. The media prodction is a computer game. These terms are not in alphabetical order, but in the order printed in the BTEC Unit Specification.

Type of Production

Video: broadcasting moving visual images, such as cinematic frames before the game, or cut-scenes throughout.
Audio: the sound in a game, this can range from the sound effects to the voice acting. The music in a game is crucial for setting an atmosphere or mood.
Interactive Media: the system and how its outputs respond to the user’s actions.
Computer Game: a game played using a computer, typically a video game.
Photo-Imaging: editing and producing photos for use in games, such as a backdrop or textures or assets.

Finance

Sources of Finances: main source of finance which may include bank loans, sponsorships, publishers and equity shares.
Equipment: the instruments which will be used during the production, such as computers, software and programmes, recording equipment, stationary, modelling equipment and other technical equipment.
Transport: travelling to locations for ideas and inspiration or even going to other facilities that might not be available at the production HQ.
Talent: the talent is the special guests that voice act a character or actually appear in the game themselves. If the game is based on a movie, they can get the actor from that movie to do the voice of the character in game, but in some cases they get another person to do it, such as Judith Gibbins doing the voice of Lara Croft in Tomb Raider.
Crew: the overall work force and how much it would cost to pay them for the work they have done.
Materials: if needed, the materials for models before they are created virtually, paper or whiteboards for concepts and mind maps for the production and research.
Facility Hire: as mentioned before, they may need facilities for equipment they don’t have available to them, these facilities such as a recording studio, however, might not be free of use.
Clearance: the permission to use something that is otherwise subject to copyright. The staff could also ask the boss for something like a kettle for drinks to keep them active, and this would need to be cleared by him.

Time

Deadlines: this is a time you have to have something completed by, such as the ending of the production of a game.
Availability of Equipment: some equipment may be rented or borrowed, and may need giving back at some point, so it will be unavailable.
Availability of Personnel: Voice Actors may not be available all the time.
Timescales for Clearance:  How long it takes to get an agreement of use on a piece of multimedia, such as a piece of music from an artist. A contract would need to be written and signed before you could actually use it, taking a few days at least. You could have an informal agreement with the composer, but this may cause problems in the future.

Personnel

Size of team: how many members are working on the project.
Roles: the type of jobs certain members are set out to do.
Skills and Experience: how long the crew have been doing what they do, and how good they are at it.
Resourcing: Provide with money, assets, staff and any other materials necessary.
Availability: The time when staff will be able to work.
Costs: the wages for the staff plus payment to others such as voice actors or special appearances.
Team or Crew CV’s: The level of education the personnel of the team/crew have.

Facilities

Production Equipment: The place where the project will be developed. This may need to be rented out, so it will add to the cost of production.
Post-production Equipment: The place where the initial ideas were thought out and where the plans were made.
Availability: The time in which the facilities are available to use.
Cost: how much it will cost to use the facilities.

Materials

Archive and Library Materials: Resources available in a library or any other place useful.
Internet: Use of internet for resources, research and anything else that would help.
Assets: Tools, objects and resources available for use.
Graphics: images and animations made for use in the project.

Contributors

Specialists: Certain job roles may require somebody skilled in a certain area in order to produce the best content possible, so specialists may need to be hired.
Public: The people of the public are very useful for research and development. Surveys and questionnaires can be asked for more of an understanding of what people want in a game. This may increase sales and improve the quality of content.

Learning Outcome 2

For this learning outcome I needed to generate a carefully presented pre-production document for a computer game and the computer games industry.

There are many different job roles and responsibilities in the games industry. I will be naming them and explaining in further detail what they are and what happens.

Creative
Creative industries have been seen to become increasingly important to economic well-being. Many now see the creative industries as a key component in a new knowledge economy, capable perhaps of delivering urban regeneration, often through initiatives linked to exploitation of cultural heritage that leads to increased tourism. Jobs in this area might include: graphic designer, director.

Technical
Responsible for the technical specification of a game and for strategically managing the code development process. The Technical Artist acts as a bridge between the artists and programmers working on a game. They ensure art assets can be easily integrated into a game without sacrificing either the overall artistic vision or exceeding the technical limits of the chosen platform. Jobs in this area might include: sound engineer, cameraperson, image editor.

Managerial
Production management within games development is usually split between the developer and publisher. Also there are many different types of managerial roles as each job title requires some form of manager, such as: QA Manager, Sales Manager and Brand Manager.

Editorial
Most modern games are based on 3D computer graphics and Level Designers use 3D modelling or world editing tools in order to create and edit the levels. Jobs in this area might include: frame editor, sub-editor.

Financial
Media companies employ staff to ensure that invoices are produced, budgets are monitored and bills are paid.

Administration
These are the type of roles that are to be found in any organisation and are essential to its successful running, e.g. marketing, PR, human resources, administration, IT support and production assistant.

Marketing
The development schedule is the responsibility of the Producer or Project Manager within the games development team, whilst the External Producer, based with the games publisher, will be more involved in marketing and selling the game and ensuring it stays true to the original concepts. Jobs in this area might include: sales team, sponsorships. 

Legal
Some media/game development companies employ legal staff to check that the material they are producing will not break laws against copyright or plagiarism, and will meet the requirements of a media regulator.

For this learning outcome I also needed to show a carefully presented document of the pre production of a computer game. The game was a remake of Zool, a classic game for the Amiga by Gremlin Graphics made in 1992. Our task was to create a 3D version of the game using various pieces of software from Photoshop to Unity 3D and Maya.

In the computer games industry, many procedures have to be taken into account. These are:

Financial: In earlier games, development costs were minimal, and yeilded a good profit. Even games developed by a single programmer or a small team could sell thousands of units. Development companies need to get the money to make a game from somewhere. They have a number of available options, such as getting loans from their publishers who will support them. They can also be paid money to include a company within their game as a form of sponsership. An example of this is the "Nissan Electric Leaf" station in Sim City.

Personnel: The jobs in the games industry are split up into many different roles. The main categories are Programmers, Producers, Art and Animation, Music and Sound, Technology and Company officers.


I needed to show my pre-production documentation for the game, such as concept art, game mechanics, plot and storyline.




1. Running. 2. Preparing to jump. 3. Climbing.

 


Here are 3 poses I did for the Zool character, however, in the game we needed to update his appearence to fit with the 3D conversion.
The poses are him running, preparing to jump, and climbing a wall, which are the basic manoeuvres in which Zool can do.

 

As a group we discussed the plot of our individual levels. We also discussed the control system and the weapon range Zool will have.
The controls we agreed on were:

• Movement with WASD keys.
• Interact: F.
• Run: Shift.
• Crouch: Ctrl.
• Jump: Spacebar.
• Over-shoulder shooting: Right Click.
• Shooting: Left Click.
• Map: M.

This was a long discussion and took a while to get something we all agreed on. These are mainly the controls usually used when gaming on a PC.

I needed to show some form of story to the game, so my group, working on the first level, came up with a story for that part of the game.

Level 1 -
          Stage 1 – After crashing into a farmhouse, Zool needs to explore the plains and fields in search of the one who shot him down to settle the score! He must find the crevice at the other side of the valley in order to get further into this mystery and seek out the fiend who attacked him, defeating unknown enemies along the way.

          Stage 2 – Beyond the crevice, Zool is surrounded by hills and cliffs. He needs to navigate and scale them in order to reach the top. Once he is at the top, Zool arrives at a village and is informed that an angry troll, Grundy, is causing them great havoc, so Zool takes on the challenge and defeats Grundy who is guarding an entrance to a cave. Zool enters the cave and falls down a pit.

          Stage 3 – In the pit, Zool encounters some rusty, scrappy robots that attack him. After defeating them, he must find a way out of the pit by navigating obstacles. He cannot simply climb the wall as it is too slippery from the wet moss. A bonus level is located in a rift which glows eminently. After trekking back up the pit, Zool can then continue through the cave to an opening of a lakeside.

          Stage 4 – After Zool leaves the cave he is attacked by a hydra that lives in the poisonous lake. The Hydra swims off, but Zool knows this isn’t the end of that. He must find the Hydra and defeat it before it causes any more harm. Throughout the level he must defeat other enemies before making his way to the Hydra’s habitat. After the Hydra is defeated, Zool must trek through the Jungle.

The dialogue for the the start of the game goes as follows:

*Zool crash lands into a villager’s house*

Zool: Argh! My head!

NPC: Woah my house!

Zool: I’m so sorry, I was shot down! What’s going on around here?

NPC: Oh, it’s a sad story really. Our whole planet has been overrun by robots! A while back an evil villain called Krool intruded our planet and took over in a hope to rule the world!... Or so everyone is saying.

Zool: *to himself* Hmmm, looks like I can test out my new ninja skills..
Zool: Hey! I’ll help the planet and get rid of Krool!

NPC: WOW? You’d do that for us?!

Zool: Sure, why not!?

Learning Outcome 3

After planning, I needed to apply my pre-production planning to a computer game, such as the general design. As a part of this task I created a game box cover for Zool in Photoshop. One of my classmates, Louie, set up a brief for us to follow. The explicit requirements were:

• A picture of Zool on the front cover.
• Bright colours (Greens, Reds, Yellows).
• PEGI 7 Symbol.
• PC-CD Logo.
• Title saying "Zool".
• Strapline "The Ninja of the Nth Dimension" - front.
• Strapline "The Cult Classic is back in action" - back.
• A synopsis.
• Available on the App Store and Andriod Market logos.
• Bar Code.

The cover had to contain all of these in a style in which i thought looked good. Here is the cover I created:

There are extra bits on the edge allowing bleeding for when I come to cut it down to size and put it into a game box to see what the finished product looks like. I made sure that all of the explicit requirements were on the cover.

During production, before any text was applied, a peer had a look at my design and gave me a comment. He said "I really like the colour scheme, it fits with the explicit requirement. It is simple and eye-catching from across the room. I am interested to see how you fit the strapline into the front cover." I then did the text and asked him to come back and see, he liked what I had done.