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Digibury: Sony Game developement process - Mark Linott
The document outlines the phases and gates of game development, typically spanning two years, including pre-production, production, and submission stages. Each phase involves specific actions and deliverables, such as concept development, prototype creation, and quality assurance checks, which progressively lower project risks and require increasing investment. Additionally, it discusses the financial implications, crunch times, and the working environment within the game development industry.
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Digibury: Sony Game developement process - Mark Linott
- 1. Mark Lintott May2014
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- 5. PreProductionPrototype Production Submission 4Phases of Game Development
- 6. 6 Months 6Months 3 Months 8 Months Pre ProductionPrototype Production Submission Phase Timeline Typical 2 Year Game Cycle
- 7. Development Gates Eachof the Phases have a 1 or more Gates You pass each Gate before you move onto the next Each Gate passed requires more investment* Each Gate passed reduces project risk
- 8. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 9. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 10. Prototype : Concept “Growyour idea” Mostly paper based Mainly designers Lots of iteration Fail fast
- 11. Fail Fast You willsee making games costs a lot Come up with many ideas Evaluate them quickly Accept or reject Iterate only if necessary Fail bad ideas fast
- 12. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 13. Prototype : GreenLight “Sell the concept” Animatics / Storyboard/ Art Elevator Pitch Early “Grey Box” demo
- 14. Prototype : GreenLight “Sell the concept” Animatics / Storyboard/ Art Elevator Pitch Early “Grey Box” demo
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- 16. Prototype : GreenLight “Sell the concept” Animatics / Storyboard/ Art Elevator Pitch Early “Grey Box” demo
- 17. Elevator Pitch Inthe time span between getting onto an elevator and getting off.. ..You should be able to pitch anyone on the concept of your game.
- 18. Prototype : GreenLight “Sell the concept” Animatics / Storyboard/ Art Elevator Pitch “Grey Box” demo
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- 20. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 21. Pre-Production : VerticalSlice “Prove you can make it” An entire “vertical slice” through the game Demonstrate every mechanic or feature Prove the core game play works and is fun Prove you have tools and pipelines in place Prove you can make it to budget
- 22. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 23. Production : FirstPublishable “Make a sellable thing” From this point on you could stop production and sell Risk is now negligible A subset of levels that to release quality Marketing can really sell your game Demos, Magazine/Press coverage etc..
- 24. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 25. Submission : Alpha “Endto end experience” Must contain every level, feature, asset Not all polished, some areas might be Loads of bugs but you can play to the end 1st Party QA fully involved
- 26. QA Quality AssuranceTeam Test builds daily Play through entire game Submit reports on Regress bugs that have been fixed
- 27. Submission : Alpha “Endto end experience” Must contain every level, feature, asset Not all polished, some areas might be Loads of bugs but you can play to the end 1st Party QA fully involved Localisation begins
- 28. Localisation All gamesneed to be localised for each language Text, Audio, Images At least EFIGS Nearly 20 languages for PS4
- 29. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 30. Submission : Beta “Thefinished product” Localisation complete All assets polished to final quality Bugs should be minimal / non critical Must be TRC compliant
- 31. TRC Technical Requirements Checklist Examples No loading in the main thread Game must exit cleanly No long periods of inactivity Trophies must be supported Disc eject supported
- 32. Development Gates Prototype Concept Green Light Pre-Production Vertical Slice Production First Publishable Submission Alpha Beta Gold Master
- 33. Submission : Master “Shipit!” Burn to final media Submitted to Format QA TRC compliance All “A” class bugs fixed Remaining bugs waived of fixed
- 35. Development Team Typicallysplit into 5 major areas Art Audio Code Design Production
- 36. Art Several subdisciplines Environment Character Animation VFX & Lighting Technical
- 37. Audio Typical responsibilities Capturing and synthesising effects Adding audio effects and music to game Composing music
- 38. Code These arecommonly separated into 2 flavours Content Technology
- 39. Code : Content Implement gameplay and gameplay systems Typical gameplay systems AI & Path Finding Physics
- 40. Code : Technical Implement runtime and tools Rendering Resource management Exporters and converters Game Editors
- 41. Design These areseparated into 2 flavours Creative Designers Technical Designers
- 42. Design : Creative Paper based design Define gameplay in words and pictures Overall vision for the game How the levels and mechanics fit together
- 43. Design : Technical Gameplay implementation Scripting Adding gameplay to levels Triggers, pickups, spawn points Level balancing and fun factor
- 44. Production They makesure everything gets done Schedule Check lists Dependencies Budgets Resource allocation
- 46. Show me themoney! Let’s consider a hypothetical 2 year console game We’ll work in Euros
- 47. Art 1 Design 2 Production1 Art 25 Audio 2 Code 20 Design 8 Production 8 Art 10 Audio 4 Code 10 Design 1 Production 4 Art 25 Audio 4 Code 20 Design 8 Production 10 Outsourcing 40 Vertical SliceConcept 1st Publishable Alpha / Beta Resource Allocation Typical 2 Year Game Cycle Art 2 Code 2 Design 3 Production 1 Green Light Art 3 Audio 2 Code 4 Production 2 Master
- 48. 5 58 29 99 PreProductionPrototype Production Sub ResourceTimeline Typical 2 Year Game Cycle 7 11 6 12 24180
- 49. MMR Man Month Rate Sometimes referred to as “Burn Rate” Accounts for salary + running costs Let’s say ~7500 euros per man per month
- 50. 100K euros 2.6m euros 430keuros 5.9 m euros Vertical SliceConcept 1st Publishable Alpha / Beta Development Cost Per Gate Typical 2 Year Game Cycle 160K euros Green Light 83k euros Master MMR @ 7500 euros
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- 52. Grand Total Bestpart of 10.0M euros This is development cost Advertising + other costs could be 2x this
- 53. Break Even Saytotal spend is 30M euros Games retail at 60 euros Need to sell 500,000 copies to “Break Even”
- 55. It’s like theMovie Industry!
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- 57. Games get “Canned” Projects often get “canned” or “axed” Change in trends? Cost more to finish than they would make? Not good for team morale
- 58. Crunch People alwayschange their minds Ultimately they want to create the best they can This results in work last minute changes These result in the team having to stay out of hours to get things done Some games have very long crunch times
- 59. Crunch This normally neverhappens.. .. that much
- 60. Demo Driven Development Investors need to see visible progress More progress makes less risk Easy to get demo after demo Intrusive and distracting
- 61. Good Money? AverageDeveloper Salary Anywhere between 20k - 60K Better off in banking!
- 62. Perks Early accessto games Work with creative talent Launch parties Get cool new toys and gadgets before anyone else!
- 63. Work Environment Normallyvery relaxed No dress code Very creative & fun Lots of concept art
- 64. Work Ethic Mostpeople love games more than money People collaborate and work as teams People stay late because they love what they do
- 65. Closing words Hopefullyyou’ve had a brief insight to the process It is a very fun, creative and challenging environment You now know why games cost you so much!
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