JE1 Task 1 - The Value Chain

Task 1

Developers

Developers are people who create and come up with innovative ideas for target audiences, in the games design world developers are companies (and rarely can be independent people) who innovate new ideas and create games. They are software developers who (obviously) specialise in games development. In development there are different areas that people must tackle including sound development, art, and programming and more, these groups will involve people who specialise in the certain roles. The more people there are during the development the better chance the game will be created faster and of higher quality (however, this can vary and even if there is a high amount of people in each group the game can still come out of low quality or get rushed depending on multiple factors.)

There are two main types of developers, big company developers and independent/indie developers. Big company developers usually have their own publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, Rockstar and many more. Big companies who use other publishers are Treyarch and infinity ward (they use activision to publish their games). This is because activision owns the rights to Call of Duty and has to use developers such as Treyarch to develop their games. Independent companies or indie developers will usually have to find publishers for their games as they are small companies. Some examples of indie developers are the Behemoth, Nicalis, moon studios, mojang and many more.

However, in the games industry they usually refer and describe to the publishers owning the developers instead of vice versa. This is due to publishing being the primary activity. An example of this is from a publisher mentioned before, Activision; they get contracts with developers known as Treyach and Infinity Ward to develop their games so that they have a secured developer for a certain amount of years.

Publishers

Publishers are the people who promote the game that is being developed. They have a high influence over how the game will get made and will deal with getting the game published successfully to make profit. They will publish games that have been developed by an internal development team (if they have one) or will publish a game developed by a game developer. When it comes to getting the game published they must deal with all the marketing including doing research into the market and all aspects of advertising including trailers, billboards etc. They will also have a responsibility over the products manufacturing making sure that the development team has the correct tools to make the game.

Bigger publisher companies will distribute their own video game while smaller companies will hire a distribution team to get their game out for the public to play, they may also hire publishers t distribute their games but it will be high end publishers who distribute their own video games or who have had experience in distribution. Publishers may attempt to boost productivity and efficiency by offering equipment such as providing sound design and code packages for common use. Since the publishers often finance the development team they will hire teams of projects managers to keep an eye on the development of the game and to assist where help is needed. If the game is being made by an external developer instead of an internal one then the game developer will receive a payment every time a milestone is achieved on schedule.

Video game publishing comes with high risk as there is competition everywhere with other publishers trying to get their games to sell more than other publishers, if they do not finance correctly or hire the correct teams for the job and the game comes out with poor quality then the publishers could lose out on money and a fan base that will be sceptical about the next released game. There is also something known as a false launch, this is where the development team reports to the publishers that the game will be ready by a certain date, since the developers have an idea of the release date then they will begin working on advertisements showcasing this date. Once the advertisement is in place and ready the development team could come out and say that the game will not be ready until a further date throwing away the advertisement that the publishers have just planned for and giving them a false launch.

The advertisement and marketing of the game has become bigger during recent years as people are more likely to buy games that are marketed better than what the actually quality is, this has meant that development budgets have been increased so games become number 1 in its categories of reviews. It has also caused some publishers to force developers into making sequels instead of newer original ideas. This can mean that a franchise could churn out several games that feel the same over a number of years because one of games in the franchise sold well. An example of this is ubisoft's assassin’s creed, the second game was a big hit and very successful but in recent games the quality of production has decreased and the games have come out feeling repetitive and bug filled. This has decreased sales over the years and has cost ubisoft some money especially with assassin’s creed unity which plummeted with sales due to the massively unplayable mess that was made.

These are a few risks that publishers have to look out for but more could include factors like the Christmas sales (this has a huge impact on the games industry as people want to buy more games during this time for presents), the expensiveness of the games themselves (there are few factors when it comes to money because people are living attempting to look after families, attempting to achieve a high quality life style and more ruling gaming to being a low priority as they need to concentrate on real life matters) and many more.

Console Manufacturers/First Party Publishers

Console manufacturers are companies that create consoles and distribute them, they are also known as first party publishers because they will have video games which are exclusive to their own consoles, one example is halo for the Xbox. The company Microsoft manufactured the Xbox and had a contract with a company who is known as bungie, with this contract Microsoft holds the rights to halo and bungie would create and develop the game itself. This would make the halo series an Xbox exclusive and would make it a first party published game. Even though bungie worked on the game as well they do not own any rights to the halo franchise and they now no longer develop the game as they wished to split from Microsofts Company and become an independent company. Microsoft then hired 343 industries to develop the halo series after halo 3 was released.

There is a high amount of rivalry when it comes to console manufacturers as companies will attempt to make the better console and beat the other companies with sales. The most recent known rivalry is between Microsoft and sony. Microsoft (as mentioned before) makes the Xbox, their most recent submission was the Xbox one in 2013. Sony is a company who creates the PlayStation; their most recent submission was the PlayStation 4 in 2013 as well. When it was being marketed both companies would attempt to make their console look better by showing off exclusive games and talking about the hardware involved. They would also make the other company look bad if they could, an example of this was that Microsoft announced you would not be able to share games with your friends on the Xbox one, after this a lot of people back lashed against this idea and sony created an advert which made a remark about this choice (you can find the advert below.) Microsoft decided against this idea when the Xbox was released but it made them lose some consumers.

PS4 sharing advert:

Along with these rivalries it can cause benefits towards the consumer as they will attempt to drop the price of each other’s console to keep the sales increasing on their side. If one console drops in price then the other console will too or else consumers will prefer to buy one console over the other. There are more factors which influence the sales such as the cost of productivity, if it's cheap to make then they won't have to place the sale of the console high which would allow more people to buy it. They can also add elements into the console such as backwards compatibility, due to the Xbox one getting backwards compatibility (being able to play old generation games on a new generation console) then more people will want to pay for an Xbox due to the fact they will be able to play their old games and they will have a wider selection of games to play with.

The market can change easily when it comes to console manufacturing as well, it is uncertain whether a company will continue to do well with the consoles they have created even if they have created a fantastic console one year which has dominated the market place, another year they could plummet with sales. One example of this is that Nintendo’s console the NES dominated the market place in the 1980's but had a challenging time after the 16 bit era when a company known as Sega released the Sega genesis which became Nintendo’s rival console.

Distribution and retail

Distribution is what happens when the game is sold to the consumers. Before the game has been sold it must go through a process of getting to the retailer, this is done through the publisher and distributors. There are two types of distributors: the primary and secondary. Once the game has been manufactured it will be stored with the primary distributor, once the publisher has heard from the other distributors he will inform the primary that will then ship out to the secondary distributors. From the secondary distributors it goes to retailers such as game, HMV, Tesco etc. Sometimes publishers will have an executive distributor, this is a singular distributor who sells the game straight away without going through to any secondary distributors. If a retailer wishes to sell this game then they must have an account with this particular distributor to sell it.

In the past it used to just consist of going to the store and this being the only way to buy video games but within recent years technology has allowed easier and cheaper access to video games compared to shops. Digital distribution has seen a massive increase and will continue to increase in popularity and sales as technology increases. It hasn't wiped out regular retail as this is still the major source of sales but digital distribution will see a major change in the entire industry. The big companies: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo each support digital distribution and own a distribution channel rendering some physical distribution companies useless. However, the prices of games on the digital distribution channel remain high when looking at the market place of each console, if you access the PlayStation market through the PS4 or the PlayStation website then you will notice that the prices of games are extremely high. This is because it stops physical retail from going bankrupt and allows for smart moves with sales since people will think video games are cheaper than there actual price.

Digital distribution also helps for smaller companies and independent developers to showcase their creations. Since it used to be marketing that would sell games it was quite hard for small companies to become big and sell their games as they wouldn't have enough money to develop and market their games. But because of how digital distribution is working, small companies get a chance at developing and selling their games. Some have even gone to become massive hits such as minecraft which was a indie developed game made for creativity and sold at a low price. It has gone on to sell millions of copies and has had its price raised since the demand for it was high.

Outsourcing companies

Outsourcing companies means that you pull in an external company to help you complete your game; this could involve delegating jobs to artists and developers. There are many advantages when it comes to outsourcing and these include: time saving, flexibility, it's very valuable and beneficial to tasks and provides stability. It is time saving because it can help to assemble a team of artists faster than the conventional methods. With this extra time gained the company could use it in several ways such as polishing up the game, creating more ideas ect. It is flexible because it allows for more recruiting of developers when they are needed and then you can release them once they aren't with no hassle, Companies will not have to worry about replacing or finding suitable developers when the project is too difficult for some people. This is all done by the outsourcing service provider. It is beneficial to tasks because more developers can begin working in certain areas such as the artists helping to create art assets, the more people involved then the higher the quality of work and the higher quantity of work will get done.

Outsourcing also allows for developers from independent studios to get a chance at showing what they can do. This can help more talented people get noticed improving the games industries quality on video games as a whole. It also helps to make games longer, if outsourcing was not around then they would be much more shorter, have less variety include, the quality would be worse and they might have to be more expensive due to the amount of the work that the studios and companies take time in developing it.

Press and media

The press and media are a big influence in the games industry; they help to make a game look good or bad. Depending on what you choose are your source of information about video games will give you a limited look at them. When video games began to get big the press and media strongly disagreed with them, they believed that video games were bad for children's health and that it did nothing but made them overweight and unhealthy. This put some parents off of video games as they also believed it was unhealthy. When controversial games began coming out it started a huge debate, one game known for this is GTA as the content involved is very controversial. When it was being developed the publishers didn't know how well it would sell, they were afraid the violence would make the games lose out on profits. However, rocksteady got advice and they went ahead with releasing the game but during development made it sound worse than it was. This sparked an uproar with the media as they was telling all parents to never get this game, but this caused children to want the game. They were drawn to how GTA looked and begged their parents to buy it for them. Even though the press had slandered the game, it backfired and in fact increased the games profits. This is because more people found out about the game and wanted to play it themselves, the way the news had portrayed it encouraged other people to buy it to see the controversy for themselves and even more elements helped boost their profits.

Nowadays, it isn't slandered as much and media has in fact influenced gaming massively. There are so many things you can find on social media about video games from reviews about the game, to critics who are completely against gaming to videos of people playing games. Reviewing websites help publishers sell their game as they will give early copies to reviewers hoping that the reviewer will help bring the judgement of the game to a positive look. Reviewers are a major factor in a consumer’s life because it helps the consumers buy games that will interest them. Without a reviewer they can't get a second opinion on judgement on the game so they don't know what they will be getting into. This would cause consumers to have less chance of buying the game compared to when a reviewer helps string along the decision.

YouTube has massively helped gaming along as people have gotten a career out of gaming and placing it on media. Videos show a consumer how good a game will be on a visual level, it gives them an idea of the graphics and how it will control. This is very influential as people get a primary view into the game for themselves and gives them a better judgement of whether it will be for them or not. As the same with reviewers, companies can give You tubers early access to video games. They can then upload videos a few days before release to give the consumer a look into the game again. Media is a massive influence into gaming and has helped the profits of many companies become higher than what they were before.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_sK6v_zsqU

JE1 Task 2 - Job Roles

There are many jobs and roles within the games industry to make it work, without any of these roles then making games would be difficult and have a very high chance of not being created.

Creative Development

Game Designer – the games designer is the person responsible for creating the idea of the game. They think of several factors including: genre(s), characters, story, weapons, Environment/settings, game modes and much more. The overall job is for the games designer to create the game and give ideas of what it consists of, how it plays and the core elements of the game. Once the game has been plotted out and heavily planned the games designer will begin to communicate to the different teams in the games design company and will tell them what he believes should be done e.g. he will go to the artist team and tell them what he wishes the character to look like. The games design is usually done by a group of people with a lead games designer overseeing how they are doing. Games designers will need to have a high understanding on hardware and software so that they can create a game that is suited to the different platforms (e.g. Xbox, Play station and PC) and to understand what limitations the programmers may have. The games designer is the core of creating a game as they are where the process starts. Without game designers the ideas would not be created and sent to the different teams for them to work on. It isn’t all just creating with a games designer though as they must do their research into what they want to create e.g. If they wanted a Victorian type game they would do research into the historical period of Victorian England and other games that have used Victorian themes. They must also make sure that the idea is pushed forward and persuade other team members that the concept will be a good idea.

Example:

I will use Jak and Daxter as an example, this is a game series that has four main games in the series along with two spin offs. When looking back to the first game the games designer will have thought upon multiple ideas for the game, when it was first being developed the game was planned to have a unique character as the PS2 had just been released. When looking into the development of the game it is said that many changes underwent with the game such as there meaning to be a third main character instead of just two, this would have been decided by a games designer who would have had three characters in mind and how they looked. Instead they dropped one because they felt like two main characters would have higher quality and be the exact image that they wanted. Early on Jak had a more animalistic look to him but as time went on he became more developed to have a human appearance. The pictures below are concept art however, where as a games designer will make the ideas and change them with or without drawings, this is just one example.

Original Jak concept

Final Jak concept

Another example is this naughty dog video where it talks to multiple lead game designers who explain how they take feedback and improve levels or characters and what it is like to work at the studio.

Level Editor – The level editor designs architecture and environments that the player will interact with. Where they are limited to the design and theme of how it will look (due to the games designers’ idea) they are given considerable freedom on varying the specific looks and feel of a level. Level editors define the areas that the player controls the characters in; this involves the environment, the area and layout of spaces in a level, lighting, textures and forms. They also develop the challenges presented In a level for the player to overcome, the architecture they design helps with this e.g. a collectible is atop a tower and to get to it you must traverse around the outside of it using actions such as climbing and swinging. The level designers will place the individual platforms and objects to help reach the object. There can be other factors which the level designer could use such as hiding, testing skill and the elements of exploration and interaction. Level designers also define the characters involved whether they are playable or not, this includes the different behaviours that are associated with them.

They begin tackling level editing by drawing a level using a form of 2D (whether technological or not) and will have to place themselves in the shoes of the player, they will then map out the possible ways to get through a level and choose the ways that would feel most comfortable for the player and match the gameplay. Once this is done they will begin to create the game using 3D technology, they will begin to write down and draw the assets needed, and this will include all the objects and programming requirements. They will then communicate with the programming and art team so that they can create these assets. The level editor will need to know the constraints that the team has.

Example:

An example of this can be shown in the game bloodborne, the level editor has to take into account many elements involved in this game such as the character not being able to jump up, levers being able to open up shortcuts to areas that the player has reached so they don't have to take a long time manoeuvre around, secret areas for secret items and more. They will also have to make the environments look fit with the art assets. Two examples of this in the game are the town of yharnam, they will have to make the level look like streets, alleyways and sewers that the player will traverse around placing objects in the environment for the player to reach each area. Another area is the forest, they will have to take into account the art assets of the trees, buildings, caves and more. If they do not take into account these elements then the levels could look peculiar in the game and will not match the style of the game itself.

 A map of Central Yharnam to the right and Cetral Yharnam on the left

Another example would be the game crash bandicoot, these two games have a massive difference where bloodborne is open world and explorable, crash bandicoot is a linear platformer. The factor in crash bandicoot are massively different as well since crash can jump, has a different genre of gaming entirely, has a different attack system and etc. The levels in this game are based more around how crash abilities mainly his jumping ability.

Lead Artist – also known as art director or creative manager will be responsible for the overall look of the game. They will communicate between the games designer and lead programmer to make sure that the art that is created follows how the game should look and to make sure that it will be programmed into the game easily helping the technical artists’ job become a little easier. Lead artists will create most of the initial artwork by themselves; this will allow the lead artist to get use to the technical software and determine the best techniques and tools for the artwork that will be used.

The lead artist will also manage a team of artists and animators; he will direct them to create art assets for the game including objects, weapons, characters/enemies and more. The lead artist does is like a leader but of his/hers own team. They will have to ensure that the team stays within the schedule and budget. They will attempt to research and test different factors which could help make the game look better such as lighting, animation, textures and more while be appropriate to the technology that the team have.

Below is a video showcasing the explanation of a lead artist and his role within a company known as rebellion. He explains what his role is for and showcases the work he himself has done:

Technical Artist – The technical artist acts as the bridge between the artists and programmers, he puts the art and the programming together. This is to stop any art assets from becoming disfigured and so they don’t stop any artistic vision from being its intended purpose. The technical artist is grouped as part of the art team and communicates heavily with the lead artist, creative director and lead programmers. Their main responsibility is to help maintain the production of art and keep the work flow being fast and smooth. Where the lead artist experiments with the tools and chooses the best ones for the team to use, the technical artist will present a variety of tools for the lead artist to experiment with.  They also have the same role of experimenting with such like the lead artist. A job that is different, however, is that the technical artist has a type of mentoring where he will train other artists and show them different techniques and tools.

The technical artist also does not get directly involved with creating art assets, instead he helps the artists and helps them when they have a problem or get stumped; he also sets up the system of production. As well as the art side they much keep up with the technical side, they must learn about new hardware, software, consoles and PC’s. This is so that they can learn the new techniques and find ways to make the team more efficient while making his work of finding and creating techniques efficient as well. He also has to do it to know limitations of the consoles that are out so they don’t exceed any of these limitations and make the game unplayable.

Example:

Below is a YouTube clip that explains what a technical artist does in the industry. It says their skills and how they help within the company.

Artist – An artist does the same as a lead artist and technical artist except doesn’t have to worry about other elements except for creating the visuals, storyboards and concept art. They follow the directions of the lead artists and technical artists to create the highest quality art work that they can. They must achieve the acquired look that the game is going for and that the games designer asks for e.g. if a games designer wishes for the game to have realistic visuals then the artists will work on realistic art, if they wish for a cartoony style then they will work on cell shaded art. When it comes to art there are several specialist areas in the art area of work including 3D object modelling, environment, character design and textures. They have to have some sort of technical knowledge as well with knowing the limitations of each platform and the capabilities that the console has with art. They also have to collect feedback from QA testers to make sure that the art looks correct within the game.

There are a few jobs that artists must do to help create a game, I will explain three of these jobs although there will be many more. The first is concept art, this is art usually done on a piece of paper using pen or pencil. It starts off with basic sketches of characters, locations and objects that give the game its shape and form, the sketches that are made however, may not be the same as the end result. This is because a lot of concept art is there to help present ideas for the game especially when it comes to visuals. A character could get modified 100 times over before they become the finished result but it will always start off with some quick sketches which will develop into something bigger.

The second job is 3D modelling; these are artists who create the characters and locations using 3D modelling tools, this will be done using certain special software. There are three popular ways to present 3D modelling including polygonal modelling, curve modelling and digital sculpting. The bigger majority of modelling is done using polygonal modelling as polygonal models are flexible and can be rendered quickly, the method of polygonal modelling is using points called vertices to plot out a basic shape and then use lines to join these points together to create a polygonal mesh.

Digital sculpting is the newest technique of the three and has become quite popular; it has three different types of modelling including displacement, volumetric and dynamic tessellation. Curve modelling involves having a surface created from curves which are influenced by weighted control points. The increased weight on a point will make the curve become more closely pulled to that point.

The final job is 2D/texture art; they create the textures for characters, environments and items. This is done using software on the computer and maps over the 3D models that have been created. If it is a 2D game then 3D models do not need to be made and the game can just have textures created for it.

An example of an artists work can be shown from thief, the environment and character had to match the time era and genre that the game was going for. As you can see it is a dark and gritty old age England. They will have both 2D and 3D art to showcase the game.

A game that just works with 2D art is rayman origins; this game showcases a completely different effect to thief having a 2D art and different style of gameplay and genre in general. Each game will have started with concept art and developed into what it is today. The difference is that because thief is a 3D game it will have to have both 3D and 2D art drawn and created for it whereas rayman only has 2D art created for it.

Below is a few drawings that I have created, as you can tell my work isn't as higher standard as I am not a professional but as I continue to draw my skills will improve to the point of where I will be able to draw landscapes and characters like in the industry.

Animator – The animator’s main job is to show and portray character movements and behaviours. They will apply and create the movement for main characters, NPC’s, enemies and rarely objects, scenery and environmental effects. Animators will use special software to create the movement they want, this is known as motion capture and helps to make movement feel and look more realistic. Again they must know the limitations of the platforms so that the movement does not exceed the capabilities and make the game look bad. They attempt to create smooth seamless movement and optimise the performance of characters and enemies so work closely with artists and programmers so that this movement is done correctly. It is hard to create animations and complex to create certain combinations so animators reuse old animations or the same animation on multi0ple characters with a few tweaks.

Animators have to do something known as rigging or skinning a character. This is creating a skeleton for the characters and enemies that suit how they will move and attacks. This goes underneath the textures and modelling, animators will attach appropriate body parts to the correct bone that it corresponds to and this technique allows the animation process to become more efficient.

An example of 3D animation can be seen in the game evolve with the aliens having to go under rigging.

An example of 2D animation can be shown below in a character created by an individual. The difference is that the animation of the character will just be drawn. No rigging will happen, however, each animation that the character does will have to be drawn with size being considered and multiple models being created page after page of a limb moving the tiniest piece.

Below is a quick animation of a drawing that someone has done, it showcases how they have made the character walk and use a flame attack.

Audio Engineer – The audio engineer creates the soundtrack to a game, this includes any music, sound effects and character voices. They will use different types of techniques to achieve sound effects including studio recording, using sound editing software and VST’s to alter sounds, using field recordings and more techniques. As for music they can either use sound editing software along with VST’s again or use traditional musical instruments. The size of the audio engineer group depends on the company, but the majority usually consists of just two team members who have to do all the sounds.  They work for development and specialist outsourcing companies. The reason they work for the outsourcing companies is to re-version games for different territories.

When working with actors they will audition many people until they find the right voices for the characters, if the game is being re-versioned they will have to change the actors and make sure the lip synching on the characters match the new voices. There are again limitations when it comes to sound creating and the audio engineers must know some knowledge on the technology to understand its capabilities. It is a complex process and the audio engineer has to take into account that it is an immersive and interactive experience that people play making the designing more complicated. It is especially hard to create music for audio engineers.

Two examples of games that are completely different will be shown below on how sounds are made. They both give a different perspective with one guy creating and recording the sounds himself for Skyrim while the other video showcases the director talking about how they pulled a team of sound engineers who had worked on movies such as the dark knight to help make sounds for arkham city. Each video offers a different perspective and information on how sounds are made.

In this video the sound engineer shows how he makes the sounds themselves an example would be how he uses an object in his hand and smashes it onto plastic/glass to create the sound effect of batman hitting Dr Freeze’s helmet.

Batman:
  

The man in this video showcases the files and sounds which he has made for the game Skyrim talking about how he made them, how he edited them and presenting how he placed them onto a character animation so the sound would play when this character moved.

Skyrim: 
v=0DwJTPNvSKU  

Technical Development

Programmer – A programmer must write code that makes the game run, they are the heart of the process in making a game and without programmers the game would not be able to run at all. It is one of the hardest jobs in the development of making a game as they must learn different languages of code such as C++, Python and many more. They can use and adapt any ready-made code that is stored and must create their own for the games purpose. Any bugs found must be fixed by the coding team.

Different platforms e.g. PC’s, games consoles and handhelds have different coding and scripting along with particular programming requirements. This is due to the hardware used within each platform meaning that some platforms will have limited choices. There are also a few specialist programing’s such as AI (artificial intelligence), 3D engine development, control systems, interface and physics programing. These are specialist roles because each one is a very important and complex program.

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of non-playable characters who must act in a certain way to make the game playable, if the AI does not perform the way that they should then the programmers will have to fix it so that they make the experience better. 3D engine development is one of the hardest forms for programming; they will have to program engines so that they work correctly. A game engine is what the game will be built in e.g. unity, this is a game engine that has been designed to create video games and has been used to create games such as ori and the blind forest or max and the curse of brotherhood (these are both created by indie developers.) Without 3D engine developers, game engines such as unity would not have been able to have been created meaning that all video games would never have been made. Engine developers will work and improve engines to make their game or the engine in general work better with more functions.

An example of this can be seen below with a piece of coding being showcased. A video below will also explain how the game minecraft is programmed by a man who created a game known as minecraft, he explains how one of the enemies in the game was created which was originally a bug when he was trying to code a pig.

Minecraft:

I have also programmed using two different types of software. One was software known as visual basic and another was software known as construct. Below can be seen is the scripting for a game that I am creating using the software construct. Again, my coding abilities aren't as good as the people in the industry but if I continue to practice then those skills will improve.

Lead Programmer – The lead programmers are responsible for looking after the team of programmers who must create the coding for the game. They must make sure that the coding is done on time and within the budget, they are also responsible for the technical specification of the game and must manage the overall code development process. The games designer and other key team leaders such as the lead artist will help and work with the lead programmer to create the technical specification. After the specification is made they will delegate the different elements that need to be coded to different teams of programmers. The lead programmer will also review the coding by the teams of programmers to ensure that the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness match the elements that should have been created. If they feel that it does not match then they will send a message to the programmers to make sure they correct it.

The lead programmers also manage the production of the different builds of a game, the different builds are basically different versions that make improvements upon the last version/build, and they will ensure that the improvement is made over the last one. They will do this by making sure that bugs in the coding are patched/fixed and that appropriate solutions are found, if the time of development is short or feeling short then the lead programmer will make sure that a quantity of bugs are fixed over the quality. They will communicate with the project manager to keep up to track on the schedule. The lead programmer will also make sure that their team understand the specification that is given to them and provide support and guidance to make sure that they do, they must also make sure that the programmers have the correct skills and training (especially on the element they are working on) so that they produce high quality work and do their jobs effectively. They will also help by writing most of the code themselves.

Project Implementation

Project Manager/Producer – The project manager (also known as producer) must ensure that the game is delivered successfully on time and within a budget. They have to control the finance and other resources whilst looking over the different teams of programmers, artists, audio engineers and more to make sure that the quality and vision of the game is maintained. They will deal with any problems that will arise and keep checking up on each team to work out where the weaknesses and strengths are coming from, this will also help to delegate certain jobs to certain teams depending on what needs to be done. They will take into account the contribution from each person and overview the entire process of the game from the planning of it to the distribution of it.

The main focus of the project manager is the financing. Since the production of a game often lasts up to 2 years with a complex process with teams filled with artists, programmers, designers, artists, musicians and even sometimes voice actors (depending on who each person is and how well skilled they are the pay they will receive will change accordingly) and so means that it is a job which involves a lot of managing with a considerable amount of responsibility in finance. They will carry out a detailed analysis of the games designers specification and work out what needs to be done by a certain date, they will consult with the lead roles, games designer and other creative managers to come to an agreement on who should handle certain jobs in each team and to see what is more important that needs to be implemented into the game.

Once the agreements are in place the schedule will be created for the development of the game and the equipment that will be used by the teams will be decided as well. Producers will also negotiate the contracts that are needed with the suppliers and contractors. During the development the producer will regularly check the schedule and communicate with the every personnel in the building (and even external personnel) including senior management, publishers, all PR and marketing departments, the QA testers, and the teams of programmers, artists and design teams to make sure that they are sticking to the schedule and to assist them so that they know what to do next. If the schedule seems like it is too short or they feel like the deadline is a concern then they will reprioritise certain elements, manage each risk involved and plan out any future circumstances that could arise coming up with solutions at the same time to battle any circumstances which seem bad.

Producers will also have to oversee the maintenance side of the game checking out the issues that are involved even after the game has been released, they will have to manage the updates that will take place, any additional content that will get included and must ten to customer support.

The video below gives multiple opinions about how you have to be a project manager, they give their thoughts about what it is like and advice on how you should act when you are in the project manager’s role.

I have been in this role myself when my teacher gave the class that I was in an assignment. He gave me the manager role and I had to come up with ideas on how the game should be and the elements that will be included in it. It was a creative role and one that had to think about each are of development, I had to consider what would be the main factors, change people from roles to get the deadline done, consult with the teams on how my ideas wanted to look. This exercise gave me knowledge and helped showed me the responsibilities of being in the managers role. Below shows the ideas that I came up with along with Jamie Goode who was the assistant manager, he helped me to get my ideas across and communicated a lot with the teams helping my initial idea come true.

Assistant Producer – The assistant producer helps the project manager to deliver the game on schedule with the amount of quality that is possible. They will focus on specific areas during development, this could involve communicating with between people internally and externally from the company or working on some of the project’s key processes. Assistant producers are employed by either publishers or development studios; if they are employed into a development studio then they will communicate highly with the teams involved such as the programmers, artist and design teams. They will act as a link for the producer and any ideas that the teams have will be discussed with the assistant producer who will then tell the ideas to the producer and vice versa. When it comes down to a publisher’s studio then the assistant producer will often liaise between the sales and marketing department as finance is a vital concept in the games industry. They will also liaise with the developer and support the work of the publisher’s external producer.

As the development continues the assistant producer will swap between roles and responsibilities concentrating on important and key factors. Some important jobs they have to do involve task and milestone planning so that they can stick to the schedule. They must also handle review and approval processes, they will also take control of jobs such as filing concept art, the marketing and press assets. Each of these will be filed and sorted accordingly by the assistant producer. Once the game begins to enter final stages of development the assistant producer will handle organising press visits, they will release game demos and set up some photo shoots.

External Producer - The external producer ensures that the delivery of the game is successful just like the original producer but they will work externally from the development team. They help the publisher with his/hers sales and marketing departments which may be located within another country or over 100 miles away. The external producer will communicate highly with the internal producer (the internal producer will work within the development team.) Even though they will work quite closely, they will both have different jobs and roles to complete. The internal producer will work with staff and assist them and work on the task at hand of completing the game with the highest amount of quality. 

The external producer however, is considered to mainly help and ensure that the publisher has all the most relevant information and techniques to make the game a commercial success, they will also communicate with the game developer about daily problems while working on making the game the biggest success that it can be. When it comes to how the commercial should be done they will guide the marketing manager about releasing screenshots and demo disks and will also discuss with the internal producer about language localisation, cut scenes and outsourcing of audio. They will also test and play early versions of the game to make sure it is being developed well and to see any commercial key points.

Creative Director - The creative director is the key when it comes to development of a game, they get to over see any high level decisions on how the game is created including game play, looks and sounds. It is not a compulsory role and is usually a job split up between the leaders, designers and producers. They are responsible for getting the look and feel of the game to be of highest quality, this role has become possible because of the producer role since the producer must concentrate more on the budget and schedule of the development. 

The creative director must focus on all the gameplay, artwork, music and audio assets making sure that the quality is as high as possible, they also make the initial concepts for the characters and game itself. They will oversee from the beginning of the game till the end and will make sure that by the time the finished game comes that the initial ideas are fulfilled. As the game is in the first stages of development they will work with a small team and pay special attention to the artistic styling and obstacles that the player will need to overcome during the game. They will also deal with issues such as any major redesigns or ideas about the characters and scenarios that will happen and are involved and will also have to deal with any new features. When they external of the development team, the creative director will try to promote the game at hand to executives who will not be involved in any form of production.

Quality Assurance

QA Tester - QA testers have a vital role in the entire process of games development, they must test a game out and keep trying to find any bugs or problems involved in the game. If one is found then they will be labelled with three different letters: A, B and C. A level glitches are massive glitches in the game that are main priority, they will hinder the player from progressing any further and endanger the game from being playable. This may include falling through the floor, the game not loading when it gets to a certain point, the player not being able to move after interacting with an object etc. B type glitches aren't minor glitches but they are not serious enough to hinder the game from being playable, they involve glitches that break the game and make it look unprofessional such as a certain weapon not being able to fire, dialogue not appearing when talking to a character etc. If there are too many B type glitches however, they could become equal to an A type glitch and hinder the game useless. C type glitches are really minor, they do not halt the game in any way and are last priorities. Using a ledge to get to a location that should be unaccessible, using a combination of multiple factors to fling the main character into the air etc. 

They also act as the games first audience and can give the development teams ideas on how to improve the game in general such as should an other difficulty be involved or should it be made more fun by improving upon several elements. They must find every mistake that they can by the time of release looking out for graphical glitches, audio glitches, localisation problems and copyright issues. If they fail to find or report major glitches then they can be disciplined. QA testers must know which issues to prioritise, they will also work in teams, sometimes playing together on a multi-player based game or being given their own part of a game that they must repeatedly play until they have found all forms of glitches that they can. Even though they are vital they do only have very limited influence over the game design, they must be creative and play games using different techniques giving individuality to each play through as though they are playing as a different person each time. This is to try and get as close to perfect as the game can get. They may also communicate and assist with the customer support team once the game is developed and launched.

I have had experience whithin QA testing, my teacher let us play a game that was in development under one of the staff at our college, we had to look for any bugs and submit them to our teacher under the correct letter and a small description of the bug itself. We had to repeatedly play the game until we did not think there were any more bugs we could find. It has given me experience into the QA testers role.

Business Development

Public Relations Manager - The public relations manager is in charge of the organisations image, they can spread information to other organisations, individuals and the public. The main aim of a public relations manager is to inform the public, investors, employees, partners and more and persuade them to have a certain view upon the company while maintaining that view as the years go on. There are a few job roles involved when it comes to public relations such as coordinator, account executive, account supervisor and the manager. The manager must act as the companies representative and attend public events, conferences and deal with sponsorships and checking and editing brochures, newsletters, posters, articles and more. 

Product Manager - The product manager controls the development of an organisation, they will attempt to maximise the amount of money the organisation will be making by considering numerous factors such as the products that the competition will be making, the intended audience, the intended demographic (population such as older or younger) and how well the product being made fits with the company. The product mangers job and description will change within each company and piece of media but usually attempts to stay on track with the three factors mentioned before. Product managers have good skills within communication as they will work with customers discussing and understanding problems that the product will be intended to solve. When it comes to the games industry the product manager will help discuss development with characters and scenarios, they will also attempt to make sure that the ideas are capable enough of the team doing so that the product is made with full quality.

Marketing Executive - Marketing executives must help to develop and create marketing campaigns that will promote an organisations product, service or idea. They must tackle a number of elements such as planning, advertising, working with public relations, event organisation and a few more. The responsibilities will be effected and vary depending on how big the organisation is and what the organisation is planning to do such as sell a product or raising an issue which affects the public. Marketing executives also have to deal with how the product will be presented across to the media and the press, they will have to develop ideas for how to advertise the product while making sure that the advertisement will show a promise to the audience and that it is worth spending money on. They will take feedback and improve tell the organisation on how people wish the product to be while improving upon how the product will be advertised further on in the development.

Marketing Manager - The marketing managers job is to plan the best way to promote the product, services or idea. They will lead a team and communicate with the marketing executive along with the organisation to make sure the promotion is as good as it can be. Again it will vary and change depending on the organisation and what you are attempting to sell. Marketing managers must be creative and think of several ways on advertising making sure the impact of the advert is greatly influencing the public. They can be in charge of several campaigns at once and must motivate the members of their team to ensure that the campaign is successful. You will also receive feedback from the public and discuss with the organisation on ways to make the promotion of the product as effective as it can be. You may also work with other organisations to produce ideas as well. At the end of each marketing campaign you will work out how successful and effective it has been and send a report filled with the information to marketing directors. They will decide the budget of the campaign, the schedule that each milestone has to be met by and attend things such as conferences and sales meetings.

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