case study

page 1: Job Roles and Heirarchies

Understanding job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries.

Job prospects in the industry based upon our skills:

3D:

• environmental modelling
• vehicle specialist
• character modelling
• outfit design
• weapon design

2D:

• concept art
• storyboard
• box art
• environment concept
• outfit concept
• weapon concept
• textures
• UV maps
• character design
• customisation skins and options
• vehicle concept

Animation:

• character animations
• weapon animations
• ability animation
• motion capture
• rotoscoping

game design:

• physics development
• engine programming
• scripted events programmer
• animation programmer
• technical animator

My Aspirations:

• I would like to have a role in the games industry developing concepts and art for games, like certain armours, characters, outfits, weaponry, enemies etc. However I would neglect environmental work, as I do not specialise there much.
• The responsibilities for my job would be to create an art style and form, good looking elements for 3D modellers and 3D artists to create in-game renders and creations of.
• I would also dabble into doing some 3D work, depending on if I feel my skills are adequate enough.
• I have a knack for writing as well, I enjoy writing stories that link to a larger picture and I am easily inspired. A writer may be a suitable spot for me.

These two jobs would link together very well:

Writer – ScreenSkills

“Games writers think up the story of a game. While artists create the look of a monster, games writers give the monster a name, show how it became a monster and why it needs to be defeated.”

21/09/2020- QA

What does QA mean? QA stands for Quality Assurance, a QA will most likely look for bugs or any mistakes and relay back to the development team, as well as see if the game runs smoothly.

The differences between certain role titles in different departments for the games industry:

• Junior

Junior is usually used to describe someone who is younger, less experienced, more rookie. This will most likely be used to describe people fresh out of education, or perhaps more locally in the company, someone who just started there.

• senior

Someone with a lot of games experience in the industry, usually working in the industry for absolutely YEARS, or more locally in the company for years.

• Lead

A lead role usually oversees the development of that department and makes sure everything is running smoothly, on schedule and by the book. Lead roles will usually communicate with other leads in different departments to make sure the vision is going the correct direction according to other departments and their work. Communication is key.

25/09

production pipeline:

phase 1- ideas and drafting

phase 2- pre-prodution, gameplay alpha etc.

phase 3- production

phase 4- post-production, DLC, etc.

28/09/2020 World Building

ISIW 1 understand the concept of imagined worlds in relation to games, animation and VFX

what is world building?

world building is the creation of a convincing universe, story and world in a game which is immersive, interesting and able to act as a perfect example of escapism in media. World building is done with concept art, story writing, character development and more.

how can history of a story impact the state of a world?

History in a story of a game can impact the story in multiple ways. Here are some examples:

• Halo
  • In Halo, most of the time, you play as The Master Chief– a super soldier, power armour-clad who is looked upon as the saviour or last hope for humanity against the alien religion known as ‘The Covenant’.
  • The reason Master Chief is seen as a last hope is because most–if not all of the Spartans like him were wiped out at the Covenant invasion of Reach, a planet which is referenced multiple times in the universe which would go on to have its own game focused on it.
• Fallout
  • Fallout is based in a post-apocalyptic world, the latest game takes place 210 years after the end of the world where nukes were detonated across the world.
  • There is a lot of history behind the war that ended up being the final nail in the coffin for live as the characters in the Fallout universe knew it as, such as the Communist China war with America, the annexation of Canada, the suspicious actions of the Vault-Tec corporation.#

How to begin world building:

free:

• blocking out core ideas
• informed by research
• freedom to change shape freely

Fixed:

• Constrained by necessities, for example: saving the world
• asking questions to yourself about the state of the world

Found:

• Open world that players can interact with freely
• driven by player feedback
• building in sequels/DLC

The 4 dimensions of setting:

• I. Period
• II. Location
• III. Level of conflict
• IV. duration

The dimensions help us develop a world by giving us guidance to thinking of a time frame the game will take place in, where it will be, and if there is a war or something going on.

It is important to think about the world for immersion and to bounce ideas off it to see if it sticks to the continuity.

gameplay can be affected by world building with new quests surrounding the story, the level objectives, characters and their opinions, etc.

12/10/2020: AGILE

what is AGILE?

AGILE is a form of workflow and production management. In software development, agile practices approach discovering requirements and developing solutions through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer/end user. Wikipedia

AGILE helps by adding a more structured flow to working on your projects so you’re not jumping from one place to the other in the space of an afternoon.

16/10/20: Monetisation models

What is a ‘monetisation model’?

A monetisation model is a system where a game developer team or individual think of a model to make money from their game. There are multiple ways to make money through games, such as:

• Downloadable Content (DLC)
  • Season Pass, Map Packs, Story DLC’s
• Battle Pass system
• Loot crates
  • Cosmetic only, in-game advantages
• Advertisements
• Subscription services
• Microtransactions
  • In-game currency
• merchandise
  • apparel, real-qprld game item replica’s, special editions

All of these are solid ways to get game developers the money they need or deserve, but there are advantages and disadvantages to every model. Let’s go through them!

Downloadable Content (DLC)

• Advantages
  • DLC’s are a great way to expand the story of a game. A great example of this would be DOOM: Eternal, which recently released story DLC.
  • Add new items and interesting ways to assist the player
  • Drives more interest into a game that may have released over a year ago
• Disadvantages
  • You may drive players away from buying if they deem the DLC ‘too price heavy’, like charging £25< may drive them away.
  • People may dislike the story of the DLC
  • May seem ‘pay-to-win’
• EXAMPLE: Fallout 3
  • Nowadays, Fallout 3 gets criticism because people think, looking back, that Fallout 3 was almost pay-to-win, locking some of the games best items behind a DLC paywall.

19/10/2020 SCRUM and sprints

What is SCRUM?

Scrum is a framework used in industries to categorise and logicalise assets needed for a product by their priority. This helps create smaller time frames and have an actual base idea and to expand upon it.

Sprints are multiple scrum sessions made up into a section which makes up a portion of your product.

23/10/20 DEADLINE DAY- funding

What is funding?

Funding, not to be confused with monetisation, is the way developers gather money to make the game, rather than profit off the game itself. There are multiple ways that developers can fund a game:

• Investors
• self-funding
• crowd funding
• publisher assistance

Investors:

Pro’s:

• Can provide a hefty amount of financial support for your game

Con’s:

• Will demand a percentage share, sometimes a fairly large one at that, which means less cash and power for the game devs

Publisher:

Pro’s:

• Handle advertisements
• Will be able to provide localisation support
• handle game age ratings

Con’s:

• Will most likely demand microtransactions, monetisation and DLC be made post-launch

Self-funding:

pro’s:

• No handling of payments or debt
• you own 100% of the revenue

Con’s:

• Time sacrifice
• Can be taxing on your real world income if out of your own money

Crowd funding:

Pro’s:

• No loans to pay back

Con’s:

• You MUST deliver on your promises
• stress on delivering to everyone
• takes commitment
• upfront funding

Loans:

Con’s:

• Usually take ages to repay

Grants:

Pro’s:

• sometimes can supply developers with way more than originally thought
• useful tool
• tax relief for certain criteria’s

bonus:

• Sponsorships

2/11/20 ethics in videogames

violence:

games need to be properly and expertly rated when it comes to age ratings and violence, as one fatal slip can lead to bad things for both publisher and consumer.

Different countries, however, have different laws on violent content in games, which is why before sold the games need to be reviewed for localisation.

Example of violence being lessened in games:

noticeable differences between the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection western releases and China release:

• Bodies shrink
• blood splatters gone
• violent scene blurred
• gravemind monster cut out of frame

violence can lead to most games being rates 12, 16 or 18 depending on the level of gore in the game, but that brings the question of if videogames cause violence or violent acts> Well, some believe it to be so, however research can show that it is not the videogames themselves that are the problem, but the parents and mental state of the person playing them.

Immersion & Gameplay feel:

6/11/2020

what is immersion?

immersion is the emotions and feelings a player of a game can feel during play to make them feel as if they are truly in the game world. A game can become immersive through many different factors, most prominently:

• Story:
  • An engaging story which grips the player can make them feel as if they are truly a large factor to play within the events of the game can create an immersive feeling.
• Gameplay mechanics
  • Having excellent mechanics, such as weapon and armour durability and repairs, sprinting, crippled limbs etc.
• Player input
  • Having responsive player inputs, such as realistic animations and attack animations which can combine to create powerful combos
• Graphics
  • With new technology like raytracing, games have the potential to look stunning and make you feel within that world visually.

What is ‘feel’?

game feel can come down to:

• movement inputs
• realistic graphics/ visual aesthetic
• audio
• convincing game dialogue and voice acting

Legal issues in the industry: 9/11/20

• Copyright and intellectual property laws
  • Copyright infringement is the process of someone illegally using your content that you created without permission or without a certain intent in mind. Parody is to poke fun or create jokes out of a certain media, which is completely legal. Whereas, if the person was using this parody with an ulterior motive than just a parody, it is illegal.
• slander (extremity)
  • When portraying a real life event, group or person, you must make sure to fully state your product as unrealistic compared to the actual story, or be fully truthful with your writing, otherwise you may be open to a lawsuit for slander.
• ethical arguments
  • loot boxes have been taken to court numerous times for gambling similarities.
  • using symbols (eg. Swastika’s) in games have lead to them being taken to court regarding the removal of the symbol.

Creating immersion using sound: 13/11/2020

Sound can have a large part to play with creating that feel for a game, and truly immersing a player. There are two sound types used in media:

Diegetic:

• Diegetic sound is sound that characters in-universe can hear, like dialogue, gunfire, trees and bushes rustling in the wind.

Non-Diegetic:

• Non-diegetic sound is sound that cannot be heard by anyone within the game, such as players or enemies which are meant to be sentient. Non-diegetic is used to describe soundtracks for games, notifications saying you have leveled up and more.

How sound can build the following feelings, which in turn assist the immersion of a game:

• Anticipation
  • Anticipation, by dictionary definition, means an expectation, whether hopeful or dreadful, of a future event. This can be applied to the Call of Duty Zombies Hellhound rounds, where a terrifying guitar plays before an eerie voice yells ‘FETCH ME THEIR SOULS!’. This can be seen as diegetic as well, considering it plays into the supernatural side of the story.

• Atmosphere:
  • Building of atmosphere can come down to game soundtrack or diegetic sounds coming from the game world, such as the distant gunfire or Nightstalker cries on Fallout: New Vegas.

• Reward
  • Reward sounds usually connote player accomplishment, gathering a coin on Mario or leveling up.

• Feedback, recognition and informative
  • Feedback is usually caused by player input, like punching a tree on minecraft. Informative can mean to show a piece of information, like when accessing a dialogue conversation in Super Mario 64.

Why is it important to create an immersive world?

It is important to do this to help build a feel for your game, and keep players invested and immersed in your game. A lot of the time, immersive sounds can be created using real-world audio engineering: Halo Infinite comes to mind, as the developers constantly post their sound design videos on YouTube, documenting how most of the sounds for the game are made.

Revision notes:

16/11/2020

Before beginning to write the answer to the question in an exam, you must read through and double-check the question carefully.

You do not have to begin with question 1, it is up to the examinee to choose which one to begin with.

1 minute = 1 mark, so you should attempt to try and go with this flow so to not run out of time.

leeway time= time to look through and asses your own work before the time runs out.

In my opinion, moving to the next question when the last is unfinished should try to be avoided, however if you are finding it difficult there is no harm in moving on and coming back to finish it before the end.

the impact of poor time management can be the missing of marks or entire questions.

27/11/2020 Pitching

What is a pitch?

A pitch is a way to display a product or creation to a company or assistance that can help make your ideas a reality. Game developers or people who have ideas for games can pitch to a game developer studio or publisher.

What should a pitch include?

Elevator pitch- a 30 second summary and opening to your pitch and ideas.

important and necessary details of your game, like gameplay mechanics and story summaries accompanied by concept art and visual representations (later in development, demos)

If pitching to a large company or publishing studio, then usually market research at once point or another will come into play. This is the estimation of revenue generated and what that money will go towards.

30/11/2020 Employment Types

Different ways to be employed in the games industry:

• Full time contracted work
  • Usually involves a company or developer employing you with a set salary and working hours.
    • Advantages:
      • Allows employee to settle down somewhere nearby and make a living wage.
      • Taxes are handled by company
    • Disadvantages:
      • No negotiation if you are unhappy with your pay
      • No negotiation on hours if you cannot work them
• Part-time
  • Part time work is a fraction of the time at full time work, allowing more free time for your own endeavors.
    • Advantages:
      • More free time
      • Hours are more flexible
    • Disadvantages:
      • Wage can be less than a full-time job in some cases
• Freelancing
  • Freelancing is like the bounty hunting of the games industry, allowing those who freelance to offer their services or be seen as a valuable assistance to the company working on the game.
    • Advantages:
      • Allows freelancers to negotiate a wage for themselves with their contractor
      • You are your own boss in a way
    • Disadvantages:
      • You may have to travel far for work
• self-employed
  • Creation of your own games company.
    • Advantages:
      • You are the boss
      • Oversee all projects
    • Disadvantages:
      • The tax and wage workouts are on you
      • Can take a while and be stressful to start your own company.

How are these jobs acquired?

• Actively contacting companies for work and displaying your portfolio
• Your own personal websites etc.
• LinkedIn

Sole Trader:

Sole traders are basically like freelancers, you have to handle taxation etc. Yourself and you are able to discuss your wage and negotiate.

4th December 2020- Development trends and game genres

Out of Playstation, Switch, Xbox and PC, which is the best?

Playstation:

Playstation are good at pushing out enjoyable IPs and games exclusively on their console and have a very isolationist standpoint on their platform; it took years for PS4 to implement just one form of crossplay, meaning that they may have a less consumer-leaning way of business.

Xbox:

Xbox nowadays seem to be very lacklustre with their newer releases, however try to make up for that using the Xbox Game Pass with games dating as far back as 2001 playable on there for a monthly fee. The Xbox is becoming less of a console and more of a platform to play games on, like the Netflix of the games industry.

Switch:

Nintendo Switch offers a more family-friendly approach to gaming as well as encouraging co-op play with its twin joycons which can become a controller, and portability anywhere. Nintendo very rarely release any Nintendo games on other platforms, but they do offer crossplay for some games that offer it.

PC:

PC offers the ability to use websites and apps like Steam to acquire games easily and requires nothing more than an internet connection to play online, unlike any of the consoles above.

Exclusive Titles:

Excusive titles are games that are released on specific consoles to drive up sales for that console, or perhaps they are owned by the same company distributing the console. An example of this could be Halo, as before it was released on PC it was purely an Xbox exclusive. Another example is Mariokart, it is unavailable outside of Nintendo consoles, and God of War is a Playstation exclusive.

Exclusive titles give reasons to enjoy and play different consoles, therefore giving more money to the developers and console creators and providing more diverse options in the games industry so not everyone is on the same console and have reasons for that.

Game genres:

• Fantasy
• rpg
• mmo
• mmorpg
• fps
• survival
• sandbox
• party
• sport
• advergame
• battle royale

RPGs are different from the rest as it heavily relies on player choice and how they handle certain events in the game. First person Shooters are unique in the fact of their camera position being from the eyes of a player model or protagonist.

7/12/2020 mini mock review

I am satisfied with my result on the mini-mock. I tried my hardest to study and remember all components I needed, although I feel my revision and study upon the actual game could’ve been much better. I should work on comparing the given product to others to bump up marks and consider current trends of similar games as well as the audio and immersion of these games.

Do not forget to mention the PEGI rating system and how money is shared between publishers and development studios.

pressure points 8/1/2021

pressure points can occur when employees leave or quit, impacting the workflow, work load on employees, and time frame for the game to be developed. This is when crunch comes in, and crunch has pros and cons:

Pros:

• Affects the game time frame for release positively
• lessens workload efficiently
• can sometimes be paid overtime

Cons:

• puts stress on workers
• sometimes unpaid

promotion is usually handled by the company owning the studio, however sometimes especially on indie’s, it is placed upon the devs themselves. This slows production time and costs money, which can be a problem if there are mouths to feed and budgets to stick to.

job roles in the industry

How would I fit into a team on a production?

I would be more catered to a 2D production, developing sprites in different positions to create an animation or motion in a scene. I would also act as a concept artist and help visualise the scene for other developers.

I would be working with animators and programmers to initiate that movement I spoke about above, and on a 3D production or on any I would be working to help 3D modellers and environment artists create the scene.

Market research extended:

– a target audience is the specifics of the group of people you are catering your game to

– Market Research is developing an estimate or understanding of if your game will sell good on release and after, if you’re competing with other games in the genre of game, will it be overshadowed by a popular release etc.

– The two are different because one is about the actual audience themselves whereas the market research is about if your game will make profit.

-Target audience research can completely change the initial idea of a game to cater to another one, perhaps more profitable, perhaps a larger audience. This can also change things like art style early in development.

-market research can either lessen or widen the length of time in which the game is pushed out by the publishers, leaving devs in a spot where they might have to use crunch time to finish the game if that time frame is lessened due to market research.

29/01/2021/1/01/2021

think of a developer and game for a hypothetical sequel:

Bethesda games studio- Fallout 5

Sequel of a sequel

Target audience & market Research :

18-24 year olds, 25-34 year olds

Political interests, the reason for this is in Fallout the political standpoint of the US is very right leaning, and overexaggerated, mocking the right wing for calling everything ‘Commie’.

Interested in Post-apoc RPG’s, FPS titles, intriguing characters and storylines, heavy emphasis on player choice.

The current Fallout audience is divided and needs to draw back classic players, as a majority of the community feels alienated due to the drastic change in tone and style from some of the more popular titles. A game set on the west coast of America would work great, excluding California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona (previously covered ground).

More western influences, use heavy inspiration from the classic titles and Fallout: New Vegas for reference on how to pull this off right.

Make the story deep, interesting and riddled in choices the player has to make. EVADE RETCONNING OLD LORE AT ALL COSTS and plotholes in the story are to be tossed aside.

Possible story: You are a tribal who’s village is raided by NCR, who are the semi-antagonists of the game, due to your inability to pay tax. They kill your warriors and take your chieftain, you must track him down to the NCR capital of the area to free him and negotiate terms with the NCR or outright kill them. Upon hearing them out, they are in a war with a neighbouring raider group, while also fending off underground dwellers who dislike the NCR and a mysterious Enclave force surveying the area. The player can choose to help the raiders, underground dwellers, Enclave or NCR to progress the story.

What role would I fulfill?

Concept Artist, quest writer–

I would create concept art for key moments in the main quest and the different approaches you may take to solve those quests, developing new enemies and interesting weaponry, armour and locations.

I would work closely with 3D artists and game designers to design the interior/exterior cells, armour pieces, weaponry, and more.

I have a passion for writing and would enjoy writing a handful of quests to fit with specific pieces of concept art, to help fully visualise those specific moments.

5/2/2020

Order of events in a production timeline:

• Inception
  • Ideas Generation
  • Pitch
• Pre Production
  • Greenlight
  • Production Planning
  • Budgeting
  • Staff allocation
  • GDD
  • Previsualisation
  • SCRUM
• Production
  • Model, Animation & Texture production
  • SCRUM
  • Testing
  • Programming
  • Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Events
  • optimisation
  • audio
  • bug fixing
  • release
• Post production
  • patches
  • hotfixes
  • scrum
  • DLC
  • sequel planning

Job roles and their purpose through each stage of development:

• Storyboard artist
  • Storyboard artists would create a storyboard to reflect the writer’s story and their own visions of camera shots etc. to then pass on to the programmer, any other artists and the game designer to make sure that an understanding is created.
• 2D artist
  • 2D artists will be tasked with creating concept art which take the storyboard’s ideas into a more detailed format of key events. In a 2D production however, the 2D artists will be tasked with further creating 2D sprites for the game. In some cases they will also be texture artists.
• 3D Artist
  • 2D Artists and 3D artists will work closely together and create models that is resembling that of concept art that has been drawn up. Texture artists will then take these models and make the textures and spruce the models up for use.
• Game Designer
  • Game designers will scoop up finished and untextured models to test out in-engine and create a blockout of certain scenes with the help of the 2D artist & 3D artist
• Programmer
  • Through this the programmer will work on scripts for events, AI, cutscenes and all the behind the scenes magic of a videogame production.
• Animator
  • Animators will work on the animations for the game step-by-step, using rough animations to start off with before further detailing their craft.
• VFX artist
  • Particle effects, filters and more will be down to the VFX artists. They will work closely with the storyboard artist, 2D artist & 3D artist during their development of VFX, as well as with the games designer, producer and the programmer to implement those effects.

pre production– important to fully visualise a product

Production– actual development of a product

post production– important to keep product afloat and to keep the IP going.

12/02/2021- exam style Q

game choice: LEGO star Wars 2021

What would development consist of?

Inception:

Inception would most likely include an in-depth look into older LEGO Star Wars games and what made them fun mechanics wise, how different characters played and how to set out acts from movies and TV shows into playable levels, usually 5. After a quick generation of ideas, funding and job roles are then discussed, before a pitch is created and presented to a publisher.

pre-production:

mapping out of specific acts and levels in the game, use of outdated, draft or rushed models before actual ones are finished. Concept art and previsualisation as well as the formation of an MVP.

Production:

Production would consist of the development of all of the characters, their attack moves, animations and textures, as well as the world spaces and their textures. Audio, cutscenes, until the final formation of the game. After base levels are complete, add in the collectibles for bonus playtime.

Post Production:

Post release, ether paid or free to play DLC characters, levels and otherwise would help keep the game alive. A great example of this could be the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show, having levels dedicated to the show and its eventual climax would be an excellent idea, as it is universally loved by Star Wars fans. Another fantastic example is The Mandalorian, which was so popular it received many awards. Having the most important parts of the clone wars and the mandalorian season 1 and 2 as DLC would further the lifespan and profit from the game.

What did I do well with this answer?

I did well with the post production and DLC side of things, I think I presented my ideas clearly and gave some great points towards what could happen for DLC.

NOTE: Producer- acts almost like a secretary and assures development goes well.

My case study skills:

I feel I have gained a good grasp on games genres and trends, I fully understand how to utilise those trends to my advantage and to make a successful game.

Pressure points and cashflow is something I wish to improve my skills on, as I’ve never really been very good with money. I need to revisit this subject. 2/10

I can improve my knowledge in areas I’m not so good in by revisiting my blog pages, using the previous lesson slides and doing my own research.

My main goal is to grasp a better understanding and wider knowledge of how money, milestones and cash flow works in the industry.

08/03/2021- More research into sequel idea generation

Sequels can be handled in many different ways, but if in the same location, the developer must ensure the environment is not a copy paste of the last. This can be ensured by having major events happen in-between the titles to not only flesh out the story and lore, but so the player had things to uncover and explore in the game.

A good example of this could be the cut Fallout: New Vegas post-ending content that was once planned. The map was going to change exponentially, with camps and towns liberated or captured, and more to do. The main story of Fallout New Vegas centres around the fact that the wasteland is to be dominated by one of two factions, a rich anarcho-capitalist, or you. Depending on the choices made, the wasteland would have changed drastically after the battle of Hoover Dam.

If this post game content was added, it could have meant that we could have pieced together some of the other stories that happened during the battle, and saw many new locations erected or destroyed. This would have been very interesting, and an approach that a game like Breath Of The Wild could take.

12/03/2021- My Kahoot results

I must revisit the following:

agile and scrum

certification

15/03/2021- Revision Technique: Teaching

As stated above, I need to improve my skills when it comes to certification and Agile/scrum. This would fall under the production timeline partly, as that is what Agile and Scrum is.

I want to focus on these two as they are the only two I did not do too well on when it came to a recent quiz we had done online, and I wish to improve and adapt my skill. This will help me finalise my knowledge going into my mock exam and my final test.

Only moments later I noticed a handful of people doing the same topic as I, so I decided to change it to certification. Certification is something it seems that the entirety of the class forgot during a Kahoot quiz with Chris a few weeks back. After revisiting the topic, I have gained my understanding of the subject back.

Here are my slides:

• 

• 

• 

• 

I presented in front of the class, a nerve wracking experience to be sure but something I found rather easy. My strategy going into these types of situations is to just waffle on, and make sure to survey the room so it’s like you are speaking to everyone present. I usually get a twitchy leg and feel a little sick, but this time it wasn’t half as bad. I think it is because I know most of the people present.

I feel like I definitely have broadened and reopened my mind to certification after a few months and this was a good way to do it.