Mallory game developmentpipeline
- 2. Who am I? 10+ years as Level Designer, Game Designer, System Designer, Design Manager and Producer
- 3. Elements of the Pipeline • Concept • Preproduction • Production • Post-Production
- 4. Concept Wouldn’t it be cool if…
- 5. Concept • Pick your Genre • Target Audience • Expected Market • Expected Platform(s) • Business Model • Expected Budget/Time • Find a Trend • But is it fun? Not this easy
- 6. Preproduction Rick James knows what he is talking about…
- 7. Work on the LORE • Learn the Tools • Organize the GDD • Refine Concept • Execute Prototype
- 8. Learn the Tools Everyone • Learn the development studio tools Content Creators • Learn the tools for your discipline • Make content and import into the engine Programmers • Learn the Quirks of the Engine • Establish Build Pipeline Designers • Learn what the engine can do • Play similar games thoughtfully Producers • Determine Dev Methodology • Determined needed Software and Team Members within budget
- 9. Organize the Design Doc Everyone • All departments participate Content Creators • Preliminary Content Tests/Concepts • Establish Technical Limitations • Polish Content Tests Programmers • Rules to Engine Components • Performance Testing • Game Architecture • Tool Limitations and Needs Producers • Refine Code and Art Pipelines • Establish Build Schedule • Put out Fires
- 10. Organize the Design Doc Designers • Create and Maintain Document • Concise What is in it? • Mechanics • Suggested Attributes of Objects • Level Concepts • Game Progression • Game Modes • Wireframes for the UI • Flowcharts for Screen Flow, Game Flow, AI State Machines • No Story! (unless explicitly relevant to mechanics) • It WILL grow
- 11. Refine the Concept • Create Initial Art – Concepts • Engine Prototypes – Hacks – Tests – Fail Fast, Fail Often Build Consensus Not everyone will like the concept, but everyone should be able to buy the vision
- 12. Executing the Prototype Designers • Create and Maintain Document • Concise What is in it? • Get to the FUN • Refine and test mechanics when combined in play • Throw away in the end • Content and Code is entirely placeholder
- 13. Preproduction is done… There should be by now: • Prototypes • Initial GDD • Initial Art and Animation Concepts • Idea of Scope and Budget • Have made the FUN
- 15. Be Agile • Sprints – 3-4 weeks in length – Add details to game and technical documents as needed – Use cross-functional teams – Iterate on tasks
- 16. Sprints • Efficiency is for Closers • Polish and Testing at the end of the Sprint (1-2 days ahead of due date) • Dedicate 1 day of Team Play • Limit Crunch • Brief Post-Mortem • Sprints build Demos
- 17. Daily • What did you do yesterday? • What are you doing today? • What are dependencies? Did you bullshitlast week? Are you bullshitting this week?
- 18. Alpha • First Playable • Mechanics Complete • Art Incomplete
- 19. Beta • Mechanics Polished • Art Complete • Bug Fixing Commences
- 20. Finish the Game! • Don’t forget the FUN
- 22. QA, Platforms, Release There should be by now: • Bugs • Platform Specific Requirements • Ongoing Support and DLCs
- 23. Quality Assurance Bugs • Triage by Severity • Further triage by scope and resources to fix “A” Bugs • Game cannot be completed • Catastrophic Software Failure • Does not meet platform standards • Must be fixed “B” Bugs • Gameplay suffers, but does not stop play • Performance and Balance Issues “C” Bugs • Developers notice these bugs and often missed by players
- 24. Platform Specific Bugs & TCR/TRCs Technical Certification Requirements (Microsoft) • Platform Specific Requirements • Interface requirements • Performance Requirements • OS Integration Requirements • Content Requirements per market • Globalization Requirements Technical Requirement Certifications (Sony / Nintendo) • As above • No, really, it’s the same exact thing, but with platform specific differences for Sony and Nintendo platforms. Want to know where day one DLC comes from? THIS PROCESS!
- 25. Ongoing Support Patches • Balance • Bugs • New Content DLC • Platform Certification takes time; months depending on complexity • Down time is wasted time for the development team • Day One DLC developed from material cut during development, using build going through certification • DLC certification is less rigorous and takes less time
- 26. Horror Stories • Concept • Preproduction • Production