Dan Olthen, Game of Thrones Producer @ BigPoint GmbH - Make it happen: the story of a production cycle (How to Web Conference 2014 - Game Development Track)
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The presentation covers the phases of one entire production cycle from having an idea/IP/plan to actually releasing the game. It is focused on the various stages and mostly on the gates each product has to go through (concept validation, 1st playable, stakeholder milestones, feature complete, beta, the vertical slice, release) and also the relationships towards the external influencers.
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Dan Olthen, Game of Thrones Producer @ BigPoint GmbH - Make it happen: the story of a production cycle (How to Web Conference 2014 - Game Development Track)
- 1. Make it happenThe story of a production cycle Dan Olthen
- 2. Production cycle Pre-Production Production Release 10% -25% 75% - 90%
- 3. Pre-Production Outcome • What is the game? • Who is involved? • What is the plan? • Proof of concept – First playable
- 4. Pre-Production Mission statement – Vision and Scope Everyone understands the Mission Share the same vision
- 5. Pre-Production Stakeholders • Investors • Board • Publisher • External departments • Team Talk early and often
- 6. Pre-Production Lay the groundwork • Agree on how to work • Document everything • Game specs, Schedule, Budget, Staffing • Recognize your risks Update and share your documents
- 7. Pre-Production First playable • Prototype however you want • Iterate often • Do not get emotionally attached • Get asap to something everyone can play Start playing early
- 8. Production Outcome • Plan implementation • Tracking • Task completion • Testing • Ship the game
- 9. Production Plan implementation • Define things together • Give directions not instructions • Have a common information platform • Check on your vision Work TOGETHER
- 10. Production Tracking • Agree on how to track • Review your progress • Make it visible for everyone • Constantly improve your process Keep the overview
- 11. Production Task completion • Define acceptance criteria for each task • Get sign off on the quality bar • Make the information understandable Always have something showable
- 12. Production Testing • Get QA in ideally mid Pre-Production • Agree together with the team on QA process • Facture in QA time into your milestones • Get QA and CM together QA is your safety net
- 13. Ship it
- 14. Summary • Share the same vision • Talk early and often • Update and share your documents • Start playing early • Work TOGETHER • Keep the overview • Always have something showable • QA is your safety net
Editor's Notes
- What is the game? Mission statement, agreed upon by core team together with the stakeholders Who is involved? Define the stakeholders, besides the team there can be also boards, publishers and other departments such as marketing, payment, BI, etc. involved These are the people who have to know what‘s going on on a regular basis. What is the plan? An agreement with the team has to exist about a production process, e.g. Scrum, Kanban, whatever floats your boat...or make a cocktail of all Core documentation, tools, risks, budget, staffing, schedule -> Milestones (first playable, alpha – feature complete, beta – content complete, gold – ready to ship) This documentation goes to all stakeholders and is in most cases a collection of „living documents“ -> the vision ideally makes an exception to that Proof of concept – First playable To finish the pre-production and call it a successful milestone.
- Who is involved? Besides the team there can be also boards, publishers and other departments such as marketing, payment, BI, etc. involved These are the people who have to know what‘s going on on a regular basis.
- What is the plan? An agreement with the team has to exist about a production process, e.g. Scrum, Kanban, whatever floats your boat...or make a cocktail of all Core documentation, tools, risks, budget, staffing, schedule -> Milestones (first playable, alpha – feature complete, beta – content complete, gold – ready to ship) This documentation goes to all stakeholders and is in most cases a collection of „living documents“ -> the vision ideally makes an exception to that
- It is important to get something presentable asap, so valuable feedback can flow back in. Transparency means trust. It is always better to show failure and a mitigation, than not showing anything until it‘s too late!
- Kick off with a party Define together: (milestones, tasks, time, etc.) Give directions not instructions Have a common info platform: Internal&External -> Update your documents and communicate. Common Platform | Internal: Show and tell Show and Tell -> Regulary check on the vision within the entire team
- Agree together with the team on a process A committed team tracks its progress Review your progress: What went well, what not? Why? How can we improve it (Sprint Retros) Make it visible for everyone: Update your intranet, print out results/statuses, invite stakeholders(Sprint Reviews) Constantly improve your process
- Define acceptance criteria for each task Get sign off from stakeholders on the quality bar: stakeholders should know at any given time what the team is aiming for Make the info understandable: A task will always be as good as the understanding of the acceptance criteria. Always have something showable: ideally at the end of each sprint you have a palpable progress to show internally and externally)
- Get QA in ideally mid Pre-Production: leaves time to get familiar withe team and the project, can ask questions and participate in solution finding Agree together with the team on QA process: which are the cycles and when are the QA gates Facture in QA time into your milestones: Often underestimated and a trap many fall in to a certain degree, so get QA into every estimation and feature definition meeting to get a better understanding. Get QA and CM together towards end of Production: QA is highly familiar with the game and can get your CMs up to speed in no time. This way problems can be addressed proactively
- Communicate: papertrail, involve everyone in mails, face to face rules, mails are follow ups, facilitate communication within team Involve team: assign responsibilities, make everyone accountable, implicate team in decisions -> results in higher commitment Iterate: „publish“ results when the team is happy with them, but always have a build on stash Document everything: in foresight to new staff members and later in production -> minimizes „surprises“ <- is part of the risk assessment