OR307 Final Assignment

Questions for Industry Experts

1. What are the typical game development stages? 2. How long does a typical development cycle last before you can launch the game? 3. For the following game types: Console Casual Single player Multi player Handheld Cellphone How different is the development process in terms of: a. b. c. d. e. Duration Costs Profitability Advantages/disadvantages Risks

4. Do the game modules (eg. memory management, math, collision, physics, static graphics, animation, procedural graphics, lighting etc.) differ significantly from one game type to another? If yes, how? 5. Can you walk me through the decision making process (i.e. key decisions and when they have to be made for example what platforms to develop it for, how do you choose what game to go for etc.)? 6. How much longer would the development process take and how much more would everything cost if you were to make the game compatible to iOS, Android and Windows? What would be the benefits/risks associated with this? 7. To decide on which one to develop the game for first, what indicators would you look at? 8. How do performance requirements impact the development of a particular type of game? 9. What data do you need to assess performance of a game and what are the thresholds? 10. How much of a concern is portability? Does it influence the business model in any way? 11. At what point in time would you consider diversifying your portfolio (developing another game) and what would influence that decision? 12. If you decided to choose a certain type of game, would it be good from a business perspective to move to a different type or would it be better to stick to one game type when creating other games? 13. Would you start with just one team working on one game? 14. How would you define a successful game? 15. What are the critical success factors? What needs to happen for the game to be a success? 16. What are the biggest risks? 17. What would kill a project? 18. Could someone in-house do the marketing? 1

OR307 Final Assignment 19. What would be the time scales for marketing and the different benefits/disadvantages of the different marketing options? How do you assess them and choose which one to go for? 20. What hardware items would be a must for a team to develop a game? (Im just trying to assign a cost to it.) How often would it need to be updated? 21. Which of the following roles (and how many people) would typically be involved in a startup? Are there different needs for different platforms? a. Development artists b. Designers c. Writers d. Producers e. Programmers 22. How many people are needed to develop one game? What is the maximum number of people that can be involved in a project? 23. Except for the labour costs, what other variable costs are involved? 24. Could you elicit a cost per development phase? 25. When does cost become an issue in terms of development? 26. Could marketing be done in-house by a start-up? What would be the marketing costs (min/max/most likely or an average estimate)? 27. Would the adoption pattern follow a trend similar to this one or would you assign different probabilities to the five sets of users?

28. Are there industry publications/indices you follow regularly (is there a place where you find best practices)? 29. For how long can a particular piece of code be used (how often do these platforms suffer major upgrades that require you to re-write the code)? 30. How much of a code can be re-used across different games?

OR307 Final Assignment

1. It starts with a discussion about game genre, story(if any), game setting(artstyle). Afterwards a quick prototype is made. The designers and programmers start working in tandem on the project. The last bit is polishing( very important ). 2. 1 year. 3. -Console: -the duration for console is a bit high, being a closed system, it has a certain API developers need to learn/adapt. -costs are high because you need to do training for developers on that certain console. -profitability is medium because of the closed nature of the system, and certain factors that come in to play -the risk is the console itself. If you run a 2-3 year development cycle and the console is outdated in the meantime, it will be a bad prospect for the project. -Casual: -duration is reduced -costs are reduced because of the low numbers of people required -profitability could be high, if the product is priced at a casual price and is very accessible -the advantage is that it's a quick project to test the waters and almost anyone will try the game -Single player: -duration is medium -costs are high, depending on quality -profitability is medium to low, because nowadays people look for multiplayer more -advantages it adds a lot of depth to your game -disadvantages it might not be the depth people ask for now -risks nobody will buy a game without multiplayer -Multi-player: -duration is a bit lower than single-player 3

OR307 Final Assignment -costs are medium -profitability is high, if done right -advantages free2play model - the only difference betweent cellphones and handhelds is the accesibility. A lot more people have phones than handhelds. The costs are generally the same (low), profitability is high, the advatage is that it can get in the hands of a lot of people(exposure) 4. 3D game 2D game one minus axis for physics calculations,collisions 5. Will it be a quick, fast paced action/platformer game, with short lasting sessions? Then it will fill the role nicely on a smartphone to give the players short bursts of fun while waiting for something/someone. 6. Depends what framework the project has been started on. If it would be done in a framework like Unity, porting would be a breeze. If not, it would take 1/3 of the development cycle to redo it for another platform(porting). 7. How many users does that platform have. The more users the more coverage the game will get. 8. If you try to do a big game world, and you hit that performance cap, you have to rethink or shrink the game world, which in turn would make you game less interesting. 9. 10. Portability is a big concern now. Everybody would like to play their game wherever they are and whatever they have at their dispossal. And it's feasible with current gen smartphones. 11. Every time i finish a game, i would think about what other cool games i can do. It keeps things interesting and you learn new things. 12. If you have a good franchise on your hands, it is a must to keep working on iterations. But as a sideproject i would start working on another type of game, just to mix it up. 13. Definetly. A small team working on an indie title. 14. Quality. 15. It needs to gain popularity. That is the critical success factor. If word goes out, your game will be in the hands of a lot of people. 16. Not getting enough exposure. 17. When the game does not speak with the player. 18. Yes. 19. The big marketing giants usually offer big exposure, but the message is usually buy the game. You need to go beyond that. The message should be buy the game.And tell your friends. Usually this message is done by small humble developers ( who also have to do their marketing ). 4

OR307 Final Assignment 20. Every member should have a PC/MAC, programmers should have a device they're targetting, and designers should have graphic tablets. The PC/MACs don't have to be updated as often or graphic tablets for that matter, but the mobile devices or tablets, every new generation needs to be a target. 21. e)b). For a startup, no. 22. Minimum are two people. Maximum... 23. License costs. Shop fees. 24. Networking. If using a third-party service, it might cost, during development and after development. 25. When the paid third-party services are not getting enough use. 26. Yes. The costs could be very low, using social networks, or reaching out to internet figures. 27. yes. 28. TOTALBISCUIT(YOUTUBE) 29. Every new generation of console gets a new API, so there's a problem. But phones, and pcs/mac usually keep the same base. 30. If it should do the same thing, it's all fit for purpose.