Pre-production costs of developing a game

Pre-production costs of developing a game

Hardware:

Computers: Computers are necessary for making a game and also for testing games. It is important to have a relatively high spec computer to run the applications used to make games. A good gaming laptop can set you back £200 to £500 in addition the software can be expensive but I will cover that later on, you might also want a MacBook for sound production and at the moment the can cost between £999 to £1,399 but does come with garage band already installed.

Peripherals: Peripherals are external pieces of hardware used in game development like keyboards, mice and monitors. It is important to have high quality peripherals in order for you to be able to work at a computer for long periods of time for example if a mouse is not ergonomically designed it can lead to hand cramps impeding on your work time similarly if your monitors are not clear enough the you might miss some mistakes that people who play with a higher quality resolution can easily notice. A good keyboard can cost from £50 to £100 a nice mouse might cost from £25 to £100 depending on your requirements. Monitors can cost £100 to £400 it is also popular to buy multiple monitors to maximize screen space. Some extra things to look into is speakers, microphones (for recording voices) or sound cancelling foam to stop noise bouncing off the walls, these are all things to consider based on what you want your game to be like for example if you want to make a 8 bit style game you might not need that good a monitor.

Dev Kits: Dev kits are used to test or publish a game to consoles like Xbox or PlayStation, currently Dev kits can cost up to £2,500 and some can be free like the Xbox one offers. Dev kits are basically consoles that let any game be played on them so when you make a game for Xbox and it hasn’t been approved a normal Xbox wouldn’t run the game but a dev kited one will.

Software:

Unity: unity is a game engine that you can create for multiple platforms like ios and Xbox, it heavily relies on its asset store where people can sell parts of a game like the coding for a chat log or an entire character skin, they are sold based on the quality of the asset and the amount of content in it for example a tree pack can be sold for $150 if there is a lot off tree models in it, as can be seen here the single ‘earthborn troll’ is free whereas the ‘army of skeletons’ is $40

*Unity5 costs $1500 to buy the pro version.*

Mayer: Mayer is a 3D modelling software commonly used in games it costs £145 a month and there is a free version, the system requirements are*. The software has a lot of features including; particle effects, hair physics, fluid effects, basic animation tools, 3D typing, polygon modelling and professional camera tracking among other features.

Publishing:

There are many methods game developers use to publish their games some of these methods are;

• Steam greenlight

Steam greenlight is a feature from valve that allows indie game developers to get their games “greenlit”. This means when a person puts a game out on greenlight it can be added to the steam store, the way it works is when a user plays a game and gives it a positive response it is closer to being let on the store however if it does not receive many positive comments it isn’t allowed on the store.

• ID@Xbox

ID@Xbox is a program by Microsoft which allows indie game developers to publish their games to the windows store or the Xbox marketplace, the way it works is if someone is registered on ID@Xbox they receive two development kits for free and access to the Unity engine and an optional subscription to Unreal Engine 4.

• PSN

PlayStation offers a development kit as well it involves applying for registration and becoming a PSN partner this gives you the ability to; publish on their store, be in control of prices, ownership of your games IP, it allows you to develop for any PlayStation platform.

• Android

To develop for android you need to set up an android development environment and the game is made here, then once you have finished you must test the game on an android running device after that it may be allowed on the google play store.

• iOS

firstly you need to apply for an apple developer account then you need to make your game it is suggested to use openGL to develop the games as the game you make can be easily transferred to android afterwards.

Time scale:

Scheduling is important for game development so you don’t spend too much time on one task like sprite design, a good way of keeping track of your schedule is to make a list of tasks and deadlines to complete them by for example you can give yourself 3 days to complete a relatively simple task or a few weeks to complete a more difficult one.

personnel:
you will need certain types of people doing certain types of job, these are a few examples of jobs within gaming include:

Animator: Games Animators are responsible for the portrayal of movement and behavior within a game
lead designer: Game Designers devise what a game consists of and how it plays, defining all the core elements,
programmer: Game Programmers design and write the computer code that runs and controls a game,
lead artist: Lead Artists are responsible for the overall look of a game
level designer: Level Editors define and create interactive architecture for a segment of a game, including the landscape, buildings and objects

materials:

to make my game i will use the equipment available to me these include:
 - game maker, for making the game
- Photoshop, for creating the sprites/ backgrounds
- i do not need any extra personnel, i will do everything by myself

some things i will need to help make the game are:
- storyboards, this will help plan out the story easier than writing to down
- a game sketch, a rough idea about how things will look so anyone else working on the game have a better understanding on how it should feel to play
- script, this is so people who are voicing a character will know what to say
- box art, what the game will be sold in
 - control guide, a manual to tell the player how the game is played
 - the internet, for sounds or art i might use in the game also it can be used to find inspiration

i will not need any contributors for my game as it is only a small game though they can be useful for contributing art, music or insight into how you make the game.

codes of practice:

the ESRB rating system is used to classify the age restrictions on games these include:
- early childhood; when the game is designed for small children to play
- everyone; when the game is designed to be played for anyone
- everyone +10; when the game is designed for anyone over 10
- teen; when the game is designed for people over 13
- mature; when the game is designed for people over 17
- adults only; when the game is designed for people over 18

also while making a game you must follow the health and safety rules of wherever you are working and make sure everyone is aware of the risk assessment.

researching games

Game genres:

FPS: FPS stands for 'first person shooter' it is a game that is played from the perspective of the character, most modern FPS games have a multiplayer feature. A good example of a FPS game is call of duty, it uses a very simple shooter mechanic but does it very well in later generations of the game more interesting mechanics are used like jet packs and kill streaks which is basically a perk you receve after getting enough kills


Hack and Slash: A game played in third person with combat mainly involving two buttons one heavy and one light attack, they tend to be heavily story based as well. They tend to only follow one character. a good example of a hack and slash game is Darksiders 2 it utilizes a very basic hack and slash fighting mechanic, x for a light attack and y for a heavy attack, but they also add alot of other mechanics like combos for example x, x, y might yield a different attack pattern than normal.


Fighting: Fighting games are usually played facing to the side with a fixed camera. it isn’t heavily about any story line and more about the gameplay they mostly feature a multiplayer element. a good example of a fighting game is mortal kombat, it is a very old series that is still going on with their most recent release of mortal kombat x, it uses alot of combos to give players an advantage over others in the game.


Educational: Educational games are games designed mainly for children and the aim of them is to provide information on a particular subject for example alphabet or numbers, they are commonly used in schools. educational games are not commonly talked about as they are usually for kids to learn things they are mostly found online in the form of a flash game.


Simulation: A simulation game is a game that simulates something in real life for example farming or train driving, simulation games usually gain a cult following from a very particular crowd for example fans of the game "farming simulator" are more likely to be interested in farming. framing simulator is a good example of a simulation game because it had its roots as a bad game they was just put on steam but it gained some traction on YouTube and with the money gained from this unintentional advertisement the developer made the game more realistic and now is revered as a good game.

Horror: Horror games are games that try to evoke a strong emotion of fear or uncertainty they achieve this by using sudden appearances from enemies referred to as 'jumpscares' they are the most commonly used feature of horror games. amnesia is a good example of a horror game it uses the mechanic of light healing you to further insinuate a fear of the dark this mixed with the fact that monsters jump out at you from  the shadows means it uses alot of good horror game features.

Strategy: strategy games are games that involve the player to make decisions commonly over an army or large unit of people these games reward thinking outside the box and have lots of options as to how to win the games. command and conquer is a good example of a real time strategy game which means everything that happens happens in real time these games are commonly multiplayer.

Sports: sports games are a lot like simulation in that they try to recreate a sport in the game as accurately as possible it has gained its own genre because then it will cater to a wider audience and involve more casual players into playing a game they might actually know how to play in real life. Fifa is a good example of a sports game as it highlights the difference between it and simulation games as it is more stylized for example the blue and red dots under the players to highlight what team they are on and it looks alot more polished.

Puzzle: puzzle games are games that involve very little combat and usually involve multiple ways to get through a room with a trap inside a good example of a puzzle game is 'portal', it uses a main mechanic of a 'portal gun' and occasionally adds new mechanics to keep the player thinking on their feet.

RPG: an RPG is a game that allows the player to go through the game as a made up character it usually involves a good story line, interesting characters and a strong sense of immersion. a good example of an RPG is skyrim, it has an open world, lots of side missions to keep the player involved and a deep lore for the player to learn about

psychological effects of video games

When people play video games too much and neglect going out with friends or talking to real people they develop social isolation where they don’t want to interact with people in the real world, they can also be confused when they have to talk to people seeing them more as characters in a game than real people this can lead to separation from reality blurring the line, for some people, between real life and their virtual ones.

In a study conducted by Vanderbilt University some points about the negative effects of playing video games too much, they tested some different types of video games on children to see what would be more popular and they found that violent games were consistently chosen over any other type from both boys and girls, this implies violent video games, even though they are marketed towards teenagers and adults they still attract a younger audience who might not understand when to stop playing and because of the addictive nature of the violent games they are likely to spent most of their time on games. The study shows that on average children spent 13 -14 hours a week playing games, in addition to going to school this does not leave a lot of time for them to go out with friends and socialize in the real world, they found that “a stronger preference for each of the three types of violent games was associated with lower self-competence scores in one or more developmentally important areas” this implies the more people play games the less they will know about important aspects in life like talking to people or manners.

In contrast a study by the BBC finds that teens don’t usually play games alone instead play them either online or with other people in the room. "Three quarters of teens actually play these games with other people, whether online or in person." This tells us that instead of the idea of gaming alone people mix social interactions and gaming together, however in this study only teens were tested unlike in the other where the age range was more like 8 -12 years old, which seems to indicate that instead of making games less addictive or tamer for younger audiences we should be enforcing a stricter age limit for example a 16+ year old playing Call of Duty will usually be able to know when to stop or to plan their gaming time to fit in their school work and social interactions whereas a 10 year old would probably have trouble knowing when to stop and just play till they are tired. A possible fix for this is having a pop up on the game that says how long they have been playing every few hours reminding people of how long they have been on and possibly the ability to put a time limit on some users who are too young to know when to stop.

Referral links:

-          Study about negative results of excess gaming https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/04/effect-of-video-games-on-child-development/

-          Study about positive effects of playing games socially http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7619372.stm

2D game idea

here is a screenshot of a concept game idea,

in this concept sketch i have included some features that will be seen in the in game screen for example, there is a HUD that contains; a health bar, the type of attack that is selected, the colour of the attack, the enemies health bar and on screen buttons (it is going o be a mobile game), the screenshot also shows a background and a ground block that will be used to signify a walkable platform. the screenshot shows a boss battle that might happen within the game, i used a common game idea which is making the player fight an evil clone of themselves so i just reused the player design and recoloured it, if the game is to be made it will keep its pixelated art style as i think it looks quite good however there would be a wider array of colours in the final game.

the game shall follow the story of its main character 'Not-Mario' the game shall play like a basic 2D side scrolling game having the player progressing through levels by collecting enough stars in previous levels. Not-Mario's reason behind going through the game is because he was approached by a secret organisation called the lizard army they hand Not-Mario powerful runes that grant him the ability to cast elemental magic, there are two kinds of runes, 'elemental' and 'form' the elemental runes dictate what type of attack the cast will be and the form runes dictate what form the attack will take for example qa grass elemental rune and a beam form rune will make a grass type laser be cast.

what are computer game graphics

Pixel art:

Pixel art is used in 2D sprites in games and 3D isometric sprites, an example of a game that uses 2D sprites is Pokémon, they use the sprites effectively because when one of the monsters makes a move the whole sprite moves across the screen making the illusion of movement. An example of 3D isometric sprites is rollercoaster tycoon. They use pixelated sprites in a 3D environment this gives the illusion of fully 3D model

Concept art:

Concept art is used to show what the entities might look like in the game they can range from quick pencil sketches to full paints they can be for any entity within the game for example weapons, characters, vehicles or environments a good example of this is the concept art from Darksiders2 it is good because it gives multiple views of this particular character and an item the character might have

This picture is effective because it has arrows pointing to all the points of interest on the character.

Texture art:

Texture art is used in games to add depth to the surfaces in the game, an example of a game that relies heavily on texture art is mine craft as there is no significant shape difference between any of the resources they have to have definitive textures for example the resource ‘sand’ is the same shape as the recourse ‘stone’. Textures must mix with the style of the game for example if the level consists of a cell-shaded background it would seem odd to have a photo realistic car driving around.

Background art:

Background art is used in games in many ways for example the ground in a top down game like the older Zelda games is background art, the scrolling background in super Mario bros is background art and the skyboxes in more recent games like GTA V is background art, the quality of the art varies amongst games for example in a high budget game the background will be a very large image whereas in the 8bit game Pokémon[] the background could easily be saved as a JPEG with no negative effects to the quality.

HUD:

HUD stands for heads up display and is commonly used in 3D games mostly in FPS and 3PS games but examples of them can be seen in most game types. They contain information relevant to the scenario the player is in for example in CoD when the player is running low on ammo the HUD prompts them to reload, other things that can appear on a HUD is; ammo count, health, stamina, held items, equipped powers or information on loot nearby.

Print media:

Print media is all of the art that appears outside of the game itself this can be; box art, posters relating to the game, promotional items like game maps/statues/comics or the promotional shelves. [] it is an integral part of whether or not your game sells for example if the box art is good on a game it might prompt people to take an interest in the game. Print media is commonly done using Photoshop or other similar programmes unless the game requires a different kind of print media for example if the designers want a pencil drawn style poster then it is easier for an artist to draw it and then scan it in to a computer for printing.