We won’t reveal much about the concept other then that it is an early game idea being tested and designed, if it is good it will be pursued, developed and released. What we can share is that it is inspired by a very old game that some of us enjoyed, called in Norway for Aunt Agathas Testament and you might know it as 13 Dead End Drive. It is a very fun game which involves traps and some of us just LOVE traps!

What we would like to know is, have you played Aunt Agatha’s Testament / 13 Dead End Drive? If so, what did you like about it? Do you have any ideas for us?

Leave a comment, re-tweet, share, follow and keep in touch.

Featured

The best way to get sales in Appstore is to get featured by Apple and to get featured by Apple I know a few things they look for.

1. Are you showing off the latest tech for their hardware? If you are, chances are you will get featured as it helps sell more devices.

2. Sales, are you making money? They don’t pay attention to user reviews or stars but simply put, are you making sales?

3. Get mentioned on well known and established big sites.

4. Timing, don’t release your app on a monday. According to our research most people do not purchase or even play games on a Monday, however business apps are used a lot on Mondays. So it depends on your type of app.

5. New idea, is your game/app something new and fresh?

6. Use your apple representative instead of normal channels. Most people don’t know that they have a personal apple representative, find out who it is and talk to them regularly.

Online Reviews

I know of a fellow developer who got featured by Apple simply because he spent around $500 in advertisement specifically in the UK which later got him featured in the US. So the three major markets you should focus on is UK, US and Canada.

Blogs

I have found bloggers to be a nice place to get PR as they work well as testers and do these things on sidelines. Compare to website reviewers they give a reasonable well feedback on the game itself too thus giving you something to improve upon.

Newsletters

A lot of website use newsletters and if you noticed these newsletters have ads in them, they are both inexpensive and useful and reach thousands of viewers whom are your targeted audience. You should certainly consider it!

Paid Services

Tapjoy, admob, freeappaday and so on. Let me be blunt, don’t bother using them. Most people have not had the desired results even though they have proven results it seems the number of failed results are even higher. Now, if they took paid per purchase instead of per click, in other words each time a purchase was confirmed on our side and THEN they took a little money it would be better. But paying per possible traffic, click and what not and MAYBE getting a sale is not worth it.

Comments

A part of marketing is also getting user feedback and comment, make sure you try and add an easy way for people to leave a review and comment. One of our reviews was 3 stars but the amount of feedback he gave was invaluable compare to comments that said nothing useful.

Social Network

This should be obvious! You should always incorporate twitter and facebook into your game, the challenge is making it interesting and less intrusive/spammish. I would recommend a challenge which works in the game itself, so users and challenge each other using twitter/facebook link. I would also recommend wordfeud/drawsomething strategy which is inviting users from facebook to join the game, it works like “word of mouth” and might increase your sales.

I would also consider game center, plus+ and openfeint. Because of game center I know openfeint became less popular on apple devices but has grown stronger on Android, especially with the recent purchase by GREE. Which basically means you should NEVER release an android version without openfeint. The picture below shows the openfeint button in Idyllic Android version.

A lot of cool features as has been added to plus+ and openfeint which increases cross platform marketing, so be sure to use it. I know a lot of people don’t understand why they should add it including some of our previous developers but really, it will most likely help your game and sales. We would also recommend a newcomer called HOOK MOBILE which basically send SMS to your friends that you purchased an app that they might like.

Anyway, that is it for now.

Help fund our next project by purchasing a copy of Idyllic! at http://idyllic.fatcowgames.net/

When I released the first iphone game which also supported ipad game it used a single binary, in other words it would work on both devices with a single purchase. It is also known as universal support. At this stage I would recommend having two binaries to force the user to pay seperate IF you are dependant on app income without using iads or microtransactions (IAP). I know for some users it sounds wrong but the income would have doubled in our case if we did that but we wanted to be nice. So the lesson here is “nice = 50% less income.” However, if you use iads or microtransactions I would stick to a universal build as there would be other sources of income.

You could consider lite version and paid version but that is not really recommended anymore, with new business models it is better to design with IAP in mind. You could always try iad and paid version. For instance you could have iad free to download and play, pay $0,99 to remove ad or download one without ad for same $0,99.

Now, let’s talk about the ever growing freemium model!

This graph above is basically saying that only 13% of transactions are $20+, BUT generate 51% of revenue. According to flurry the average consumer pays $14 for in-app purchases.  As for flurry, it’s an analytical software you can incorporate into your application/game to track user behaviour to improve your game based on feedback that the analytical data shows.

Now…

Purchase Content

You could let the user download the game for free and buy the remaining content within the game, it makes things fast and easy for the user. Anything that makes things fast and easy will result in more sales. Content could mean new levels or playable characters. Technically you could keep it simple and say “Unlock all $0,99″

Purchase Coins

This concept is used a lot, which simply means you buy coins to unlock some kind of content related to weapons, ammunition or speed up. The challenge here is creating the in-game economy which means the player needs to purchase a set amount of coins which is “worth more” then the content they are buying. What is important is getting it right the FIRST time, changing the economy after release is like shooting yourself in the foot. For idyllic we purposely had a shop but no IAP/Microtransaction, simply because I wanted the freedom to test pricing and economy without damaging users real money. So, when we changed and updated the shop prices and changed the economy of the game, no one was pissed (Not that I know of). In doing so we learned the economy design without actually taking users money and took no risks but gained a lot of insight and data about in-game economy, coin flow, spending, saving, pricing and so on.

What we found out is that you want to give the player a sense of wealth without giving the feeling of “too much money”. You need to ensure they have enough coins to spend but not too much to spend all the while not making things too expensive that it takes time to unlock it. You want them to feel “getting more for less”. It is also recommended that you have your paid coins inside of the game, either random drops or certain mobs drop them. We are still playing around with our economy and being terrible at math, it was difficult to find the proper give and take flow for the economy. At first there wasn’t enough coins and it took too much time to unlock powers, the second time the player ended up with too many coins and unlocked powers too quickly, the third time it was a little better but not enough content resulting in overflow of money but everything unlocked.

Enough about in-game economy, it is a rather complex topic and should be done in its own blog post along with some of the “in house tricks”. Anyway, this is just a tip of the iceberg article to make you think and if needed i’ll make a bigger article in the future. At this stage I am keeping my blog posts short and limited. So when thinking about the business model, make sure you plan ahead prior to development and release.

This short article was specifically for iphone/ipad market, I will add one for Android in the future. But I can share one thing about Android in-app purchases known as unmanaged purchases, commonly in glu mobile and zynga games. Put it shortly, when you buy in game credits through such games on Android it will store the information on the app data and not the handheld or your account. In other words, if you delete the app or play the game on another device you most likely won’t have those coins anymore. Basically, they use pseudo-economy to lock the users.

This is how such a shop would look like:

Sources: fatcowgames.net, gamesindustry.biz, extremetech.com, idyllic.fatcowgames.net and experience.

Help fund our next project by purchasing a copy of Idyllic! at http://idyllic.fatcowgames.net/

Game Mechanic – This is one of the core elements of game design and is about how something works, if player does X, then Y happens. If X is true, then you can do Y. Things like setup, victory conditions, progression of play and player actions are a part of the game mechanic.

For this particular impulsive blog, I have spent 2 hours creating a prototype idea where I started with theme and goal of the game when I was training my skills.

The Theme I ended up with was Mages riding dolphins in water world.
The Goal I ended up with was simply first one to race to the end.

Again, this is an unplanned paper prototyping that occurred out of the blue and as a designer it is also my job to ensure we have new interesting ideas popping up which are further researched, investigated and tested out. Normally, I just write game design documents first. So, the game I created is about racing so bare with me as I explain what happen in a unorganized fashion.

Ready? Walking around the house I saw an old chess board while looking for paper to draw grids on; I decided to just use the grids on the chess board to speed up the design, visually telling me which was the path. Grids was the easiest solution at the time, tiles would require more time, cards would require more planning and grids was easiest way to make a “racing path”.

Having a race on a board game or in general with nothing else occurring except turns and movement, is rather dull. But it was the basic game mechanic in its simplest form where the player moved up 8 grids, then down 8 grids and worked their way to the left. So I had to spice it up using restricted gameplay area which was the chess board along with the theme which was mages riding dolphins.

What did I think about immediately? First, I wanted to try another method of moving instead of dices so I cut out some paper, wrote 1-6 and put it upside down so each player had to pick one each turn like throwing dice. What happen is it was a bad replacement of dice throwing, so I decided to throw in luck design and make “movement cards” into memory mini game, so I created following and limited amount of cards.

• 1 that moved 6 grids
• 1 that moved 5 grids
• 2 that moved 4 grids
• 3 that moved 3 grids
• 4 that moved 2 grids
• 5 that moves 1 grids

I then shuffled them and put them face down, a player would then pick it up place it onto the “used deck” on the other side of the board, turning it into “Phases”. Once all the movement cards were emptied, they were shuffled and put back into place as a full deck. In other words, the same card wouldnt be used again until all the cards before were used, once all cards were used it was all shuffled back into a deck letting players predict and memorize the games movement, which pays a great important later in terms of the whole game design. Read on to understand why it matters.

I had now designed the play area, direction that the player must move to reach their goal and how they would move in turns. So, the rules would look as following.

1. Pick a move card
2. Move diagonal according to the number showed on the card
3. First to reach end goal, wins.

That is it, basic mechanic were in place but in my opinion it was boring because to me it was lacking player engagement and conflict. Most board games I played that had resource management but not much player conflict like stopping other players was kind of boring.

So, what was up next? I needed something the players could do to engage each other aggressively to stop the other player from winning the race. So, I created magic spells and simplified it to the point that everyone simply had it available at the start of the game and no custom character sheet for different mages etc. So I created a spell card called whirl pool

Whirl pool – Place diagonal on your current path, when opponent lands on it they need to pick a movement card which decided how many grids/spaces they go back. It is a combination of strategy to give depth to players like me and luck based to keep things unexpected by letting the player pick move card to determine the distance they need to go backwards.

So, the new rules were expanded into following.

1. Pick a move card
2. Move diagonal according to the number showed on the card
3. Cast a spell before ending turn
4. First to reach end goal, wins.

The reason I put cast spell at the end of the turn and not first is simply because it brings more strategy and planning into the game, I will explain later how. But before that you might have noticed that letting a player cast spell without resource management can be less fun, right? Well, it is a completely different game and would be too simple for my taste so I obviously needed a system for gaining resources and giving casting spell a cost. So, I randomly placed my new mana/energy orbs onto the board along the path of the player. Each time they moved over it they would gain a mana, thus afford to spend it on whirl pool to stop the opposing player.

So, now we have playing board, movement rules, turns, player engagement, resource management and minor strategy.

I played around with different rules, mechanic and even added more cards, limit, restrictions and other stuff. Here are some of the other cards based on game design and the 2 hours paper prototyping.

Freeze wave – It can only be cast vertically from left to right which means you have to be ahead or behind a player, along with see a square/grid space that is ahead of the player you want to freeze. When the player lands on it, he picks a movement card and is frozen for that amount of time.

Boost – To ensure more resource management and choices for the player, I added a spell to use on self which lets the player spend a mana orb and move one extra space, so if someone decided to save 8 orbs for the last path, he could spend it and then win the game. That is if he isn’t stopped by freeze wave or whirl pool trap.

Eventually I wanted something that could counter 1 trap spell so I created the shield spell so the player could use it to ignore the trap, thus rendering the trap spell useless and continue moving.

This is because I added a rule that says “If trap placed on orb grid, player who lands on the trap does not gain orb unless shield is on”. This is also why the “Use spell” is AFTER you are done moving, otherwise the previous player who placed the trap would make the trap gameplay useless, letting all players simply activate shield at the start of the turn when they saw a trap ahead. With the current “Use spell after moving” the player need to think ahead of time thus making things more interesting and strategic!

I also tried three upgrades which changed the gameplay drastically but that is mostly because of the 8×8 game boards, so simply expanding the board to 16×16 would make the three upgrades more suited in the game. I removed the three upgrades because the game become more of “Save to upgrade” rather than “Attack to stop” gameplay in the short amount of playtime.

They were:

Capacity upgrade: By paying 5 orbs the player would increase the limit of keeping 5 orbs to 10 orbs.

Double move: By paying 10 orbs the player would gain double move then standard movement, so if the move card said 2 he would have gotten 4.

Double orbs: Pay 5 orbs to gain x2 amount of orbs each time you passed an orb grid. So instead of 1 they player would get 2.

Now, unless you didn’t notice yet why I designed movement cards and made it into deck then I will try and explain. It was because the spells require the affected player to pick a movement card for freeze time or going back in movement. This means, the caster can try and predict the best outcome by keeping track of which cards that went out and try and have the opponent pick 5-6 card, which there is only 1 of! In other words, if I know the 5 and 6 didnt leave the deck yet and there are only 2 cards left then the player would be in trouble after I place a trap spell.

Anyway, this is an actual real process of game design using paper prototyping. Below is the final image and test session.

I hope this random blog post was of interest, leave a comment and if you like…try redesigning this game and changing the rules yourself! Why not share your own things?

The purpose of this blog is to give some direction about breaking into the game industry, the competition is fierce and you need to be on top of everything. There are numerous of people who want to work in games and the truth is, not everyone can or will succeed. I recieve several application a month and felt the need to pass on some advice and knowledge, that was once given to me. Just because you have played lots of games on different platforms doesnt mean you have experience, and it will not be enough either.

Here’s an idea of what else potential employers will be looking for:

They would expect that you are regularly reading the different sites, and maybe even involved in some of the online communities that exist online. Examples are:

Gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Gamesrecruit www.gamesrecruit.co.uk

EDGE www.edge-online.co.uk

MCV www.mcvuk.com

Gamespress www.gamespress.com

There are many different game-specific courses being run by universities and colleges.  However, attending one of these courses will not guarantee you work.  I recommend that you thoroughly research everything before enrolling, as it varies, and I suggest you explore evidence of strong connections to developers. In other words, that the university or college involves directly with the game industry.  Check out the UCAS website www.ucas.ac.uk for a full list of courses available and many similare website for your country or area.

There are tons of information on the Internet on how to break into the games industry so search online for such information, so we would recommend you take a look at some of the following links:

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/getting_started/

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/350/what_game_companies_want_from_.php

http://www.workingames.co.uk/ViewPage.aspx?PageID=Home

http://www.blitzgames.com/gameon/

You will be competing against tons of people, so your enthusiasm, qualifications and ability need to shine through from the first time you contact a company. It really needs to stick and be unique because all games companies and recruitment agencies alike get CVs from inexperienced candidates on a daily basis, so you need to bring something extra to the table.

Firstly, think about your CV.  Does it show all the information it should? Did you mention the courses? Internship?

Does your CV state that, at the very least, playing computer games is an interest or hobby?  If it currently doesn’t then do include it, as prospective employers need to know you are passionate about the job they may offer you.  If you are part on any online communities, mention this too. Most companies put “Passionate about games” are a requirement, so make sure they know you are exactly that, passionate about games.

Companies will also need to see details of your qualifications.  Tell them about the course you’ve completed including a breakdown of the modules covered, as the modules for each course, and in turn each University or college, are different.  You need to let potential employers know what you have learnt.  Is your course focused, for example has it specifically taught you programming, 3D animation or concept art?  Also state your grade.

Random Example:

- At Teesside University – Bachelor Degree in Creative Digital Media

- Modules: 3D effects for games – Interface Design – Game Development – Studio Practice and Business

And you keep filling in details as best as you can!

Always include details of any work experience that may be relevant.

Companies need to see demo work if you are applying for art, design or programming positions. You have to spedn time working on your demo, making it unique and as best it can be. I also recommend that you do some extra stuff besides the course work before applying because everyone else will be sending in their course work too!

You should be constantly striving to improve and update your demo work, and consider tailoring it for specific clients or vacancies of interest. This takes more time and requires more efforts but then again, if you are too lazy to do that then why would anyone hire you in the first place?  Think of the kind of games you like to play and the kind of studio you would want to work for and the style of games they develop so that you can try and include this style of work in your portfolio.  The style and quality of your work needs to be realistic in the context of games currently being released. So, if you are applying for art and the company only do vector based art, it wouldnt be a smart move to send over pixel art. It shows your lazy and tells the company you dont have experience in vector art! When you send in any kind of computer generated demo work, I highly recommend to include a shot list. A shot list a break down of software packages used, the time it took to create, if its completely yours, if not, what percentage of it was, etc.

Animation demo:

The primary consideration for animations is to show a good understanding of timing and weight.  It is more important to show that you understand the core principles of motion, so it doesn’t matter how simple or complicated your work is as long as it clearly illustrates this.

It was suggested to me that you refer to The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams and/or Disney’s The Illusion of Life, as both are excellent books on the fundamentals of animation. Once you have mastered that and present your animation, you are on a good start.

3D Art / Level Design demo:

When it comes to 3d art and level design demo work, you need to show both high and low poly examples that are games relevant and as realistic as possible (this includes all character, environment, vehicle or object examples).  Strong texturing is also absolutely key here.  Please try not to make your level work too dark.  Some studios will also like to see that, whilst you have a good grasp of the 3d side, you are also confident in creating 2d artwork. So, this is position that requires even more skills then Animation but doesnt mean its easier to get or master. You should be familiare with the major level editors such as unreal engine, cryteks and so on.

Programming demo:

 A demo is an excellent way of showing a potential employer what you are capable of and can make the difference in securing an interview.  It doesn’t need to be big, or even a game, as long as you demonstrate you have raw coding talent using C++, Java and using an engine.

If you are producing a programming demo there are three golden rules to follow:

•  Make it relevant:  there is no point in producing something that would be no use in a game – the objective is to impress, so be bold with your ideas.  Also pay attention to detail.

• Make it easy:  include an executable, which requires no additional software to run.  Also, include the source code so they can look at how you produced the demo and assess your coding style.  A “read me” file with instructions may be appropriate, don’t assume the recipient knows how to play your demo.
• Make it stable:  the worst-case scenario would be to produce a really good demo that won’t run on another machine.  Make sure you thoroughly test it and try it on several machines.

The most common pitfall we see is student who are looking for a job for several months, and not showing anything new within a year of job search. To me it gives negative vibes for several reasons:

1. Tells me your lazy and only do this for money.

2. You do not have enough enthusiasm, work ethic, discipline and passion to keep trying.

3. You think that a degree alone would land you a job and that your done learning.

4. You wasted months just applying for jobs when you could have shown you are willing to work hard to stay ahead of others.

I didnt get a job because there was none in my city at the time, and the one there was couldnt afford anyone so I worked for free 1 year to boost my CV. But when I finished the company still couldnt afford anyone else, due to financial crises and other situations. Instead of giving up I started my own company to ensure steady growth and experience so that if something happens in the future that forces me to change my life for the better or worse, I can document proven record that I never stopped and have plenty of experience, knoweldge and proven record.

In other words, always create content either hobby, indie or alone in the garage. Every month someone got better then you and you need to step it up if you truely want to be apart of a multibillion business and follow your dreams.

Alternatively, just go into your own journey!

I trust this information is helpful and we wish you the very best of luck and success in your search for a job within the games industry. Thank you to recruitment agency (OPM) for supplying actual information on improving your chances!

In previous article “How to be a great producer” I realized I mentioned how to be a great producer but what if you don´t know what a game producer do? Originally I was going to continue from where I left off but I think it is important to share the theory behind what a game producer does, right?  I will give you some examples of what I do and share some other information.

As a Video Game Producer there are several obstacles that need to be passed and we also need a wide knowledge, skill and experience to get our job done. Obviously not everything is the same for everyone or that everyone experience the same things. I will try and explain some of the most important roles I have at FatCow Games.

Contribution

A producer job isn´t all about task management and sitting alone in the office, no. I also need to help out with finishing the game or reducing the teams work. The producer is like oil and the team is the car, without the oil the car won´t drive and without the car the oil has no purpose. Which means what? Both are important for reaching the end goal! It can be as trivial as making Tea, so the team doesn´´t have worry about trivial matters thus focusing on game development. Another part of the contribution is what decoration I want to put in the office!

Special Tea Delivery!

Decisions

As the producer I have to make a lot of decisions and sometimes it is just about the process of making a choice, other times it is just the decision that needs to be made even if it is wrong. Making great decisions as  a great producer requires skills such as finding all the relevant information, asking for help and advice, giving myself deadlines on when things need to be done and so on. Like mentioned in previous blog “How to be a great producer”, the longer I take the more negatively it affects the team. I am not perfect so obviously some decisions can be wrong and have to be re-done. It can be as trivial as should the Angry Birds decoration be placed like this….or maybe….perhaps….

Is this the right choice?

Maybe this is the correct decision?

This must be it!

Budget Meetings

Then there is the meetings with people that only care about money, this is where I need to explain the budget, how much money I spent and why I need more time to complete a game. I might have to go through an analysis of profit and loss using printed out excel sheets for the specific project, sometimes I try distracting them with entertainment so they will forget why they really attended the meeting in the first place, hoping the corporate world doesn´t stop our creativity.

This is a typical scenario where I stealth my way out of high cost and low income budgets.

Planning Ahead

As a producer I also need to plan ahead several weeks, especially if I am traveling. It is a big problem if a problem arises due to lack of planning! I need to think, plan and investigate ahead of time so nothing happens, I need to catch the problem before it happens or before it is too late, at worse I need to minimize the damage. For example, if we need a publisher for a new game I need to start contacting them and negotiating for it as soon as possible. If we need certain equipment or technology I also need to secure the rights for it ahead of time. I must consider all issues that can potentially affect the development, the people and the environment.

I mean, if I know I will be away from office for a week I need to make sure the plant stays alive with minimum amount of damage to it, so I have to water it extra before I leave town so when I get back it isn´t totally yellow and about to die.

If I didn´t plan ahead it would probably be dead now

Power of Consensus

Another job of a producer is to ensure the harmonious relationship with the team, be it internally or externally and wherever! When I make a decision now I always consult with the people involved and then decide what to do. The idea is to make people believe in the idea and choice as if it was their own, this is done by asking for recommendation and opinion. That said, making a decision that everyone agrees on is very difficult and in most cases someone is not going to be happy anyway. If everyone agrees to put up posters on the wall and have a n00b corner, you are one step closer to creating a harmonious relationship!

The subtle n00b corner that everyone agreed on, unfortuantly that is also where I sit so I am not surprised they agreed on it.

Delivering Stuff

As the producer I sometimes have to help with delivering specific things for games or content, often related to campaigns or community related things. Sometimes it can be fun and simple things to test and market a brand by working with an animator to produce an animation to build brand awareness, ensuring it is finished within a deadline. Such as FatCow Games Mascot Animation:

Pre-Production Plan

As mentioned in Ep 03 of Game Production vLog in our youtube channel I also have to create the outline on what we will base the game development on. I talk with the team to establish the path for finishing the game and how to approach it to best reach our goals. As mentioned in the video I also recommend creating paper prototypes while in pre-production phase.

The Super Production Plan

As the producer I would create a plan which would normally consist of tons of documents describing every possible bit and elements of the game and how we are going to finish it. It would contain the plan for areas like creation of the game, designers involved, artist and programmers. I then would present it to the team so they can see the risks, budget, features, schedule and required art assets. Do not mix a producers production plan for game design document, it is not the same thing.

I would add following pointers that I learned from elsewhere

* Why the game is fun

* The actual design document which explains the creative and artistic vision of the game, I am always involved here from start to finish and in many cases the one who writes it.

* Tech document which tells gibberish features and technical stuff, this particular document I never touch myself! To me it get too complicated so I have to ask Michael to help me here.

* Risk Plan to explain the risks to everyone and also constraints

* Numbers and stuff would be the budget requirements which explains monthly cost and general cost from new license, equipment and so on.

Game Design Document

I am originally a game designer thus I handle the game design writing myself, I later include additional support to further develop the concept into a producible, possible and fun game. I should point out that it is known that game designers who might not have an understanding or experience in game production often create complicated and crazy design document, which is why I always involve myself in game design areas to ensure it is realistic yet fun.

Below is a summary from my last email explaining to a new team member on minimum things a GDD needs to cover.

Brief description/pitch of the game?

Basic concept?

Background story?

Objective of the game?

- If the objective is simply “get as far as possible”, then state it so. If the objective is “kill X monsters within X time limit,” then that is another matter. In either case, give as much detail as possible to aid the reader in having some basis in understanding the rest of the design document as he reads on. What is the goal and why would they want to reach it?

- After starting the game, is there a title screen, what does it look like, is there an option screen, what are the choices, is there story board or animated sequences, can it be skipped if so how?

- When the game starts, we see our funny character on screen. Describe the start and what happens next. If nothing happens until the player does something, explain what the users options are and what happens as a result of all possible actions. Maybe the rocks start falling right away without the player doing anything? Maybe the character starts running without the player running? Keep in mind that most games to some extent are controlled by the user. There normally doesnt do anything on its own. Optimally when playing a game the character would do such and such an act such and such, which would cause the AI do that and that, and the player option would be X and Y.

- Explain the AI and it is often helpful to write a “walkthrough” of the game to further enhance the readers ability to visualize the game like so: You are taking a walk down the field when suddenly you hear rumbling sound, you turn around as you see a rolling gigantic rock towards you. You panic and start running…while running you jump over a bear which is trying to claw you down to the ground…the jump slowed you down a bit and you hear the rock closing in…you increase your speed and…balblalbalblal”

What is the planned interface?

What is the planned perspective (1st person vs. 3rd person)?

What is the basic interactive structure? (e.g. Chapters vs. Great Middle Section, Levels, etc.).

What is the “heart” of the gameplay? (e.g. speed, actions, style, continuous, turnbased, etc.?

How does multi-player work?

How difficult is the game?

How long will it take the average player to complete?

Characters and Monsters – Explain their personality and what they are capable of doing, how they function and work in the game along with who the player plays.

Single/Multiplayer?

World – Explain how the world is, where it is and how it looks and feels.

Controls – Describe the user interface

Describe on game interface – Typical health bar, action button, point bar and so on

Describe all menus in detail by building the structure and explaining it in detail.

Onscreen text – Please explain where, how, when, what font and color the onscreen text are. At least explain how it might be…

Graphics – Explain and show general graphic and style

On Screen user interface – Provide sketches of the interface and use what we call “callouts” to point out what is what, even though it is obvious it is a health bar you would normally write “Health Bar” and point an arrow etc.

Art list – Art list is never in the same document but a separate art bible is created to show what arts are created, needed and implemented. Also known as asset list.

Sound and music – Give example of sound and music, find reference if you must to provide examples. Every action in the game should be provided with a sound but it also needs to be prioritized so it doesnt “overshadow” more important sounds. For example when stomping in Idyllic it gives a powerful sound but when you do normal stomp it also gives out a sound, the priority when using stomp would be to mute normal stomp so the more powerful stomp sound is activated. Makes sense?  The music can be described in written form in term of style but as mentioned it is easier finding something on youtube or something.

The detailed sound, music and voice list is a separate list and will not be included in the GDD (Game Design Document).

Contract & Legal Stuff

Even though I have access to other professionals and lawyers I need to know the basic things about contract, ownership, ip, exit deals and so on. This wasn´t an issue early on but the longer you are a producer the more you get into these things.

Branding

I also have to handle branding which is basically the vision and concept behind a game and the company.

Transitions

This is basically porting or upgrading the game to a new consoles, say if we were making an xbox 360 game and we know there are rumors about a new xbox next year, it is my job to plan ahead so the game is ready for the other console. I would have to contact the hardware manufacturer and get lots of information to prepare for something like this.

Public Relations

It is my delightful job to hook up with the press and present pre-release versions, competition and so on unless I use a PR/Market guy to reduce some of this work load such as competitions. As the producer I must continually make time for this, improve my speaking skills, presentation of my messages and show my passionate enthusiasm until death do us apart. This area is quite demanding as it requires ongoing interviews, screenshots, material, trailers and so on.

Quality Assurance

In such a small company I am also in charge of Quality Assurance and testing work for the games and products. I am in charge of finding, organizing and keeping track of the testers along with the incoming bug reports. To say the least, this is probably the most demanding, challenging and stressful part of my job which becomes fun once the team fixes the bugs and we ship the game to holy land of gold. Since I am terrible at database management we use pre existing tools to input and track bugs properly. Luckily I had an active tester for Idyllic @doomfan on twitter which probably reduced my worries A LOT!

Boost Sales

By now you should be going “Holy Cow, you do a lot” because I am not done yet! I am also in charge of meetings in sales, buyers, marketing and pr areas to help boosting sales by providing clear vision behind the game, why it is awesome and all that. I need to clearly communicate the message to all sales channel and directly to the awesome consumers like YOU! Simply saying Fund our development to create more and better games, please buy a copy of idyllic from here has proven little results, but feel free to prove me wrong!

Hire

Since I use a per project model I am also in charge of hiring and interviewing all the talented and awesome people out there, in hope of finding a potential key team member.

Play lots of games

Although I don´t do this while at work, it is still an important part of my job and I bet a lot of game industry professionals actually play less then they did before entering the industry! But it is also my job to know the games out there, use the knowledge of what it is a fun game and transfer it to the current projects. I need to talk to designers in a designer way, articulate to artist in an artistic way and talk about features in a technical way with the programmers. Everyday I need to learn more to keep up with my team. Technically I am still in “school”.

Knowledge

Which is why I might as well mention knowledge and continually learning new methods, techniques and approaches. Everything is progressing quickly and I have to keep up with time to ensure my knowledge is exceptionally awesome and up to date.

Managing Content

I also need to manage everything that will be inside of the game, this includes all assets such as art assets like models, textures, interface, menu, cinematic and so on. When on design side I need to manage tools, designs, specifications, stories, scripts, gameplay and what not. On programming which is my weakest side I try and manage tools, functionality, pipelines and documentation but lately I am shoving that work over to Lead Programmer Michael because I am not superman. Then there is the asset management like sound, music, localization, marketing materials and so on.

Localization

I haven´t done it yet for Idyllic but I did it 4Travellers where I needed to organize and manage all languages out of the game and inside of the game using database and excel.

Resource Management

Everyday I have to consider where to allocate the resources to any given task and prioritize things, luckily we aren´t many and the project doesn´t last years.

Art Process

For example for Idyllic I had to manage the whole process of creating the artwork for the game. I had to track art assets and categorize it as completed or ongoing. Like everything else in game production I have to re-evaluate and prioritize the art assets too.

Audio Process

This is another weak area of mine but luckily on Idyllic! I worked with Thomas from NorthBySound who is also a friend to me, thus he saved me a lot of headache when doing editing, sound effects and music. I also got extra help from Kadir Cakir in prototype stages and I appreciate his help too, he also did emergency sounds and animation sounds for the fatcow mascot animation video, since we are terrible in audio areas.

Time Management

A great producer as mentioned before needs to be master in time management because time is not infinite but finite element in life and it is not different in game development. My job is to allocate resources on any given project to ensure that they have the most effective and efficient impact on the project within the deadline. This is a very important topic which takes a whole book probably, so I would recommend that you watch Randy Pausch 1 hour youtube video on time management in general HERE

Art of Pitching

As a producer I need to be godly in pitching! It is basically when I try and sell an idea or concept to funding sources, team members, investors and so on. I have to take on my sales person hat! Without a good pitch there probably won´t be much of a game.

Industry Experience

This is quite a special point because unlike in other industries a producer in game industry probably never has the same experience twice, so the more experience on more project the better suited and ready the producer is. I have a little over 3 years now and 3 projects and hopefully this year 5 projects by 2013. Another funny thing is that there are different problems in large project VS smaller projects, external project and internal projects, co-developed project or alone and so on. So it is important to get your hands dirty wherever and whenever you can.

Scheduling

I have to make lots of schedules which puts time management and resource management into a practical schedule.

Ownership

When I do projects I always go in with a personal ownership type of mindset, I take personal sense of pride and accomplishment with my team. It isn´t about taking credit but ensuring we reach the finish line as a team.

Teaching

One of the reason I am writing these blogs and doing vlogs in youtube channel is because teaching others is an important skill too. It improves my communication skills as I receive feedback so I am able to communicate my knowledge, lessons and experience to my team but also our community. I need to be clear and give a rational reason behind decisions and explain everything properly, be able to answer questions and so on. As we get new team members I need to integrate them and learn them things too. My job is to ensure everyone else gets better then me, it ensure I can focus on my job and people become more independent so I can indirectly improve too.

Working with programming team

My job is to track progress and understand everything from a technical side, I also need to help solve problems from a non technical side.

Now, I think I covered 70% of my job and I hope it was interesting, I used notes from old theoretic books to organize this content using my own experience and knowledge to pass on knowledge.

As usual, I simply request that you support our ongoing effort in sharing knowledge through blogs and vlogs such as “Episode 01: Introduction” , “Episode 02: Game Production Cycles” and “Episode 03: Pre-Production and Game concept” by sharing, twitter, facebook, subscribing, rss feed and so on. If you can spare a dollar then please buy a copy of Idyllic!

Hey, everyone now and then we have a player spotlight to show off some of our loyal and active community members. Here is yet another one, delayed but finally here!

Previous player spotlight – Glen forbes: http://www.fatcowgames.net/?p=995

Since then we have been working hard to setup a dedicated server and not deal with anymore providers that would limit the amount of data sent back and forth to allow for this system, and for our newer games that will be coming out this year. We will be sending an update on when the new patch for Idyllic will be out in order to resolve this score issue.

It should be noted that the score information will show the latest scores that were retrievable before the Errors occurred in the end of December.

–PATCH INFORMATION–

last update: 1/13/2012 – 11:45 AM ET

Patch Release Date: TBD.

- Resolves score display issue.

- Improved response time for retrieving and inserting scores.

]]> http://www.fatcowgames.net/idyllic-score-issue-information/feed/ 0 http://www.fatcowgames.net/guide-being-a-great-producerleader-part-1/ http://www.fatcowgames.net/guide-being-a-great-producerleader-part-1/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:18:52 +0000 Amit http://www.fatcowgames.net/?p=1040 After becoming slowly becoming a better Game Producer I thought it would be nice to share a few things I read and agree with, after trying it out myself. Below is a recommended guide to become a better Game Producer and the reality between fun, friendship and business aka work. I can´t cover everything so this is mostly related to habits or traits if you want to call it that.

Risks

The person needs to take risks because nothing great comes without taking risk. Everything you see today that you might consider great came because someone took a risk, a chance. A good trick is to start taking small risks first such as writing a blog and sharing risky opinion for risky topics, then the person will eventually find some method of risk contingency or a way to manage all this risk. With all risk there is a chanceof failure so learning to admit “failure” on a smaller scale will prepare the person for the failures and rewards later on.

Respect

I can honestly and openly admit I required a lot more experience to eventually understand the concept of respect on a much larger scale with so many different people and as a producer this is very essential. In the beginning of my journey I was really terrible in showing respect for others ideas, passion, initiative and advice due to lack of perspective and understanding. Maybe because I grew up playing games and not socializing? Not only has life experience, social activity, seminars, meetings and friends helped me improve greatly in this area. But the person also need to demonstrate initiative, follow through, and a commitment to excellence. Simply by having integrity and doing what you say you will do will earn you some respect, this honestly is an important key in life too. I admit that last year experience made me grow a lot in this area.

Perseverance

Being a producer is being a leader and the persons job is to be determined to finish the goal, at any cost. They need to prove that what seems impossible is very much possible. I dare agree with David Perry that if you did your job right in every game and every time, you PROBABLY wanted to quit your job when things got harder.When you don´t quit you finish, when you finish you grow, when you grow you improve and so will your games! Read a long dedicated post about my opinion on how important Perseverance is here.

Be Reliable

To put it simple, the person NEEDS to be able to deliver exceptional quality every time with the same results. Maybe one day they will MAX out the level and become godly? Overtime? Join the team! Work with them through the long hours! Little time? Doesn´t matter, they need to deliver on time! And I noticed a lot of producer forget CONTINGENCY plans! They need those things in place to become a reliable and awesome producer.

Discretion

Keep the information to yourself, there are confidential information given to the person as a producer and you must respect it! Others must know that when they share something with you, you keep it to yourself! It can be business or private between you and someone else! You need all information to do your job right and ensure no unexpected problems arise.

Inspiration

As a producer you will realize people will come to you for guidance, solutions, opinion, wisdom, attention, facts, perspective, strength that you care about the people, the game, the teams and the company. Did you do a mistake? Share it! Be honest! It is an inspiration and it will remind them that even YOU can do mistakes! They will see that you admit you did wrong, apologize, grow from it and aim onwards like no tomorrow, it reminds them… “Ah, he too is human”. Embrace honesty and share your mistakes, never hide them!

Criticism

Hard one! As the man aka producer your job is not to be friends with everyone, but your job is to show the path in game development process so everything becomes a success. Your role as a producer will attract criticism so accept and expect them! When someone does criticize you, pay attention as there is always something to learn and grow from. Use the feedback to increase your understanding and improve your methods or approach in things. Then I believe you will slowly taste success together with your team. IF someone says something that isn´t valuable, then ignore it and move on. Do not become defensive at ANY COST!

Results

Show results! Finish something! It shows your ability to reach a goal! Create your own achievement system where you have to complete one everyday and before you know it you finished the game, as if you were in one.

Failure? No Fear!

Trying and failing is part of life, it isn´t failing so don´t be afraid of failing. According to many people the act of NOT trying is failure, what do you think? A lot of people have great chances to further their life but they choose not to grab it, because they are afraid the RISK of failure is too high, thus they never become GREAT but just good. Trying and failing will make you learn and grow, how do you think you learned as a kid? You didn´t listen when your parents told you not to do something, so you failed at LISTENING which in return had a CONSEQUENCE but it also made you LEARN. Failure is another way of getting close to success! Do not hesitate as you push the obstacles away with NO FEAR! Game development requires producer with NO FEAR!

Integrity

If you added me on facebook or even twitter you might have noticed I bring up Integrity time to time.In this scenario as the producer your job is to solve something in an objective and positive way without taking sides, but still remaining professionally committed to the PROJECT! Make sure others believe in YOU and your INTEGRITY! Why? Once you have a real authentic reputation about your integrity it will stay with you for ages to come, for life.

Empowerment

People need someone who has faith in them, believes in them and wants to empower them. If you as the leader manage others to do their best work, they will respect you for it. The truth is that most people won´t be able to do a lot of the stuff at first, but if you remember that they will learn and improve greatly over time then there is a big chance they will develop super powers to accomplish things quicker and better. Let others achieve their dreams and you will be surprised about what they are capable of. It took me some time to realize that by giving up tasks, roles and responsibilities to others I empowered them to grow and freed me to lead better.

Initiative

Taking initiative is the very fuel and ability to start something and follow a plan, task or whatever with a huge smile and strength. Taking initiative as a producer inspires and encourages others, you MUST be a GREAT example to follow. Being a producer aka leader is not for the weak minded, it just isn´t. As the producer you also represent your team, if you are lazy others will perceive your team to be equally or more lazy. The end result of a project is often a result of the producer, as the producer has the power to control the team spirit, collective and mindset. As a producer you MUST take the first move to solve a problem before it affects the development. There is never too little initiative!

Commitments

It is like marriage I suppose? You make a promise to perform your duty and task. When you make such a move you make a statement about who you are and your belief. WHEN you finish your commitment to others, do what you said and follow through it will prove your commitment and strength behind your words. The commitment within you and the team illustrates the commitment of the company!

Business Savvy

Every producer needs to know how to do SOME business as you want to leave the rest of the team to focus on development and what they are good at. Your job can be negotiating contracts, licenses, localization, tools, publishers or cooperation of some kind. You have to know this at ANY COST!

Lead by Example

Let us be honest, the basic concept of leadership is getting others to do what they might not want to do to achieve the results YOU want. You also have to show confidence to illustrate that your choices are the right choices. Whatever type of producer you are, you are going to need leadership. That is why you must lead be example and do whatever needs to be done as the Producer, which is normally schedule, budget, marketing plan or anything that is required to get the team started towards the right direction. It also means that you stick to your COMMITMENT to the team and REWARD them for finishing the tasks. Decision making is also your job and you need to have made up a choice so the team can continue their work. It is NOT the teams job to make decision it is YOUR JOB! And I hate to break it for you but as the producer/leader you do MORE than what you ask of others. By being THE EXAMPLE you set a STANDARD of what is expected. While you are doing all this you need to show what you expect of everyone, offer support, demonstrate that you care, being around to make it all happen because it shows that passion and commitment.

Vision

By having a common vision everyone has something to relate to and aim towards. It is normally the vision that gets everyone through the challenges ahead of them. Everything starts with a VISION!

Passion

Believe in your game, concept, choices, direction and vision. The very act of showing this to the team is all about being a producer. You need to be a virus that spreads passion and belief! You need to keep it all burning all the way to completion!

Positive Attitude

A positive attitude might be the very key to being a good producer, why? When you are doing game development you will face problems, issues and challenges every day. I have worked on many other industries and the frustrations to near catastrophically issues that come up are not comparable in my experience. With the positive attitude it becomes much easier to solve the problems, it improves productivity and quality of the work. Also, everyone loves happy person! So spread the positive attitude along with the passion! Make it burn!

Follow Through

One of the greatest weakness I have noticed other leaders/producers have is the ability to follow through. If you cant follow through then I guarantee your team will loose confidence and you will not make it in the long term.

Criticize

As you may know it is quite easy to criticize someone for their mistakes, the best approach before you do criticize is to ask clear questions. In most cases the person thought they did what was expected until you ask clear questions and reveal that there as a misunderstanding. If you use such an approach you will gain more respect.

Ego

If ANYONE has a large ego they will most likely fail to recognize someone for their contributions. This makes things very dangerous and also the producers job very difficult and unpleasant. Don´t pay attention to what others think about you, just do your job and be consistent with your actions. They will respect you for this.

Professionalism

Being professional is very important, especially to outsiders. You shouldn´t show that you are worried or in doubt let along take anything personally.

Enthusiasm

The producer is the motivator and encourager, he must give more then anyone else towards the team and the team goals. I can assure you that the minute you don´t show enthusiasm for the goal, the project, the game, the team, the company, and your role in it…things will fall a part. So be contagious with your enthusiasm. The producer is the very sun that shines brightly to keep everyone going. The producer must believe where he is going!

Decisive

It is quite common that things are filled with indecision in the game industry. It doesn´t matter if your decision is wrong or right, you just have to make sure your are firm and decisive! The quicker the producer makes a choice the quicker the team can make progress. If you are the producer and you are being slow, it literally affects everyone on the project. In some cases it makes drama and people might even leave.

Fun and Laugh

For the love of god, make sure you are having fun while doing this. Laugh and spread the joy but make sure you do not use sarcasm or indirect humor as it doesn´t work well with many people.

This is it for part 1 of what I agree a producer, person and leader should generally have! I have learned a lot these years and especially the last 15 months and felt it was appropriate to share this based on experience.

I used notes from old theoretic books to organize this content using my own experience and knowledge to pass on knowledge.

Want to help us out? Fund us? It is easy! Simply buy a copy of Idyllic! and it will make us very happy! BUY NOW!

As a producer you have to go into a dialog with the appropriate person to implement these marketing items into the development schedule. These also require timelines but since every project is different there is none in the example below.

1. Box shots – This is often what sells a game
2. Press release – This is required to announce the game to the world.
3. Magazine previews – This should be done several months before release as magazine lead times are several months, similar to advertisement spots on the internet.
4. Web launch – This is art assets that are web ready ahead of time, very important.
5. Final logo/brand – It is smart to ensure that the logo actually works in the game and with the UI, sometimes it doesn´t.
6. Monthly Screenshot – It is a valuable move to save screenshots monthly to use in case of emergencies, presentations and what not.
7. E3 corp cd – If you can afford to create a cd with all of product information on it and a trip to E3, go for it.
8. Ad shots – This is different from web ready art and so on, these are high res shots for print advertising.
9. Builds – You need to have preview and review builds ready and as a producer/marketing person I have to point out that a monthly updated build helps keep us in loop.
10. GDC – You should prepare material for Game developer Conference and save money for a trip
11. E3 – Also known as the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo will normally always require a demo if you are announcing your product. You should probably prepare the correct PR materials too.
12. Toyfair – Happens early in the year in New York City I believe
13. Tokyo Game Show – Normally held in spring in Tokyo
14. ECTS – Held in the fall in London I think.
15. Sales Meeting Build – Be sure to provide a build and presentation for this.
16. Press Preview – Things like Beta, pre-release version which is released to the press so they can start on their reviews. If you dont want to have your game previewed before the actual release version is ready, you can still get it accepted by Apple, NOT release it and still share promocode and let the reviewer download the game BEFORE release.
17. ESRB – If you are doing hard copies you need to do this before manufacturing.
18. Public “marketing” beta – We used this to build community hype, so should you.
19. Non-Interactive demos. In-game movies through the engine for magazines and for downloads. Or upload it to youtube…or get more creative and use another solution.
20. Design Document/Feature lists – Can be used for marketing
21. Unique or custom artwork – It can be sketches, dated and signed concept art, and renders for the audience. You see it often as art book along with collectors editions…
22. Feature list/Product description – It needs to be an accurate description or else you will get a lot of haters.
23. Character photo or 3d renders – We use it time to time as central image and theme for marketing campaigns.
24. Walkthrough, cheats and other stuff – If you plan on talking to editors or strategy guide authors.
25. Soundtrack CD – We have yet to get to this stage but there is money to be made in music according to our research. The challenge in doing it digitally is cost vs sales using existing services.
26. Gameplay movies – Make sure it is in a vi format and contains gameplay and renders, we know by experience what happens if it is terrible.
27. ESRB walkthrough and so on
28. Highres art and special renders – Used for magazines if you are lucky to get a freebie or pay for one.
29. Animated gifs – For online use such as animated marketing banners and so on
30. Behind the scenes interviews, video footage, photos and documentary style footage – This is always a fun and good material to prepare, it gives the product the right exposure.
31. Editor Days – Sometimes the press comes to you if you live in a place big enough to gather relevant editors, this is when you show off the game. Most often this happens to bigger companies and their triple A titles.
32. Spokesperson and demonstrator – This is basically the face for E3, international press tour and these things. In a smaller company it is normally the producers job.
33. Q and A document – This is used to ensure that anyone who speaks to the press has the right answers to the questions that might pop up. Apparently it is common if you have a publisher or pr firm doing your marketing.
34. Promo Video/Trailer – What you have easily viewable on web, what you show on other websites, theaters and TV advertising.

That is all I have time for folks, next time I think I will share how to track and create milestones for a larger team or a team that requires good management, especially if you are spread far apart.

Mooo Out!

Oh,  Support our development by buying a copy of Idyllic! from http://www.idyllic.fatcowgames.net