Think you have a great idea for the next break out video game? Or are you eager to apply your skills to brining a video game concept to life? You may be surpised to learn how the partner and team building capabilities of ibovo are ideally suited to the video game development lifecycle. Getting up and running with a globally or locally distributed team has never been easier. Let's see how.
Video Game Development Team
In economic terms, the video game industry is huge. In the US alone, the industry is worth over 10 billion USD. Whether you're motivated by potential financial rewards, pure personal fulfillment from creating, building and playing games, or a little of both, the video game industry represents a significant opportunity. Video game development is a sizable undertaking which requires individuals with specialized skills, experience and talents. The more complex the game, the more specialized these functions will need to be (and of course, this brings a greater need for resources and funding level). Some of the key roles to consider are:
Producer
The function of a producer is very similar to a project manager. The producer is responsible for overall management of the development team. This involves tracking to and revising delivery schedules, preparing progress reports, maintaining issues lists and driving issues to closure, managing resources/staff, public relations coordination, contract negotiation and coordinating testing. The producer is the team lead. Where there is a publishing company involved, there may also be an 'external producer' from the publishing company that will work closely with the development team's producer. We'll talk a little more about the publishing company later.
Game Designer
You can consider the game designer as the main visionary for the video game. This team member is instrumental in the early stages of the project (known as pre-production) to form the concept, as well as throughout the entire project lifecycle to keep everyone aligned with the requirements (and to adjust those requirements as needed). The game designer will own the Game Proposal Document, which is quite similar to a business plan. The proposal document outlines:
- Financial estimates
- Requirements
- Resource needs
- Game concept
- Game setting and storyline
- Delivery schedule
- Feature list
The lead game designer is also responsible for the game's narrative, dialogue and commentary. On a large development team, the design functions may be broken up among multiple designers with specific areas of responsibility. On this type of team, the lead game designer coordinates the work of all other designers (such as Artists).
Programmers
Also known as software engineers, the programmers are responsible for the game's code base. Programmers translate the design into code, which ultimately delivers the gaming experience. Similar to designers, the programming function can be broken up among multiple resources with specific responsibilities or consolidated within 1 or 2 programmers for small projects. Individual programming responsibility can align to the following functions:
- User Interface - involves the coding of user interface components, such as menus, help system, common navigation, feedback systems, etc
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) - producing computer-based players or logic to intelligently respond to user interaction.
- Graphics - generating the graphical engine for the game; building environment objects and textures representing the game world in which the user will interact
- Physics - programming how objects interact within the game environment (such as collisions)
- Gameplay - producing various game features and rules
- Input Processing and Network Communcations - programming interfaces to network devices or game input devices such as a game handheld controller, keyboard, or mouse.
Sound Engineer
The sound engineer is responsible for creating all audio aspects of the video game. This may include integrating soundtracks, creating sound effects and voice-overs. Where outsourcing is necessary for audio pieces, such as a musical score, the sound engineer is responsible for managing the contractor through delivery of the final code.
Testers
Quality assurance testers are not necessarily involved from the beginning of the project, although it may be a good idea to have the lead tester involved from the beginning and then supplement resources closer to the testing phase. Testers must be highly analytical and have a strong technical background. Testers analyze the design and then interact with the game to ensure behavior of the game is completely aligned with the game requirements and design. Where issues and gaps are identified, defects are reported back to the lead developer and testers will re-execute tests to verify fixes as they become available.
Partner for Success
As you can see, the development of a video game involves many different areas of expertise and depending on the complexity of your project, it may likely require significant financial resources. ibovo is uniquely positioned to help alleviate some of the challenges to getting started with your project.
Building a game development team has never been easier. Take your game idea and get started by creating a project team on ibovo. Based on the functional roles reviewed above, decide on a team structure that makes sense for your project and go ahead and create the team roles you need. Or maybe you don't feel comfortable structuring the entire team right now. In that case, partner with an experienced game producer first and then work with the producer to build out more team roles later. You simply create the team with one or more roles and ibovo will find candidates that have the skills, experience and financial resources for each of the roles you defined. Whether you are trying to build a team in your community or leverage expertise from around the globe, ibovo will streamline the formation of your project team. For example, you may start with the following core roles for your team:
- Game Designer (if you are bringing the game idea to the table, you may decide this will be your role)
- Game Producer
- Lead Programmer
- Sound Engineer
- Test Director
- Investor
Now your team is formed and your ready to get down to work. Your project will start in the pre-production phase. In this phase of the project you will focus on flushing out the concept, building your game design document and creating a functional game prototype. Again, ibovo provides you with capabilities to effectively work together with your partners throughout this phase of the project. For example:
- Brainstroming your game concept - with ibovo Web Conferencing, effectively communicating, exchanging ideas and demonstrating concepts has never been easier. Whether your partners are in the same town or across the country, you'll be able to work together in real-time as if you are all in the same room. Share a sketch of a game feature using screen sharing technology, jointly brainstorm game flow options using the virtual whiteboard, use gestures to demonstrate an idea using video conferencing and listen to your partners using your choice of VoIP or teleconferencing.
- Game Design Document - building out your game design document is likely the most important deliverable during pre-production. You may decide to break-out responsibility among your partners for each section of the game design document. With ibovo Workspace, this task is made easy. The Wiki document feature allows all members of your team to simultaneously edit and review the same document. No more passing pieces of documents through email and struggling with version control. Plus get automatic email or RSS feed notifications when updates are made to the document. Work faster and smarter.
- Prototype - it's critically important to share prototype drafts, manage feedback and collaborate to get to a finalized prototype. Again, ibovo Workspace delivers the tools you need. With up to 1GB of file sharing capacity, you can store all versions of your prototypes for your team members to access. Members can easily access the latest version, as well as view historical versions. Collect feedback from your partners through integrated Team Blogs - allowing you to virtually collaborate with your partners.
After completing your Pre-production tasks, you're ready to move to Production. This is where you deliver your detailed design, produce all necessary artwork, develop audio, build the code for your game and perform testing. You will continue to use ibovo features to effectively execute this stage of your project. Here's just a few examples:
- ibovo Calendar - centralized module for managing all team meetings and appointments. Schedule a meeting at the coffee shop down the street or using ibovo Web Conference. Set an agenda for your get together. Instantly check the availability of your team members, so you know you're scheduling at a time that works for everyone. Join a Web Conference with one-click of your mouse (no emails, no passcodes, no separate URLs, no passwords).
- ibovo Workspace - this is your virtual office where you will collaborate throughout the Production phase of your project. Manage your project issues list using Wiki documents - allowing team members to simulatenously update status and add new issues. Adjust your project timeline and task list on-the-fly and make it instantly available to all team members. Have all your partners keep a blog of their activities and challenges, plus solicit help and input from other team members using the Team Blog forum. Use the file sharing capability to maintain version control over your incremental codebases and share code among multiple developers. Use the Forums capability to post your proposed artwork and receive blog-style feedback from your team members. Use Wiki documents to open new defects, assign responsibility among team members, track actions to resolve and indicate status.
- ibovo Web Conference - achieve maximum productivity for internal development team working sessions, meetings with your publisher and working sessions with your external consultants. ibovo Web Conference provides video conferencing, instant polling, screen and desktop sharing, Voice-over-Internet (VoIP), teleconferencing and whiteboarding capabilities.
- ibovo Chat and Message Xchange - have a quick question or idea, but don't need the advanced capabilities of ibovo Web Conference? Simply start a chat session or send an email message.
As you move through your project lifecycle, it may be necessary to expand and shrink your team. Simply add and delete team roles in ibovo as needed. When a new team member joins, you'll be happy to know that member will instantly have access to your entire project (and project history) through ibovo Workspace. Getting up-to-speed has never been easier.
We've discussed the key functional roles of a typical video game project team and outlined how ibovo helps eliminate many of the challenges to forming a project team and making your game idea a reality. Now it's up to you. If you've been tossing around a game idea, now is the time to get started by creating a team. If you're eager to view game projects looking for someone with your skills, go ahead and create a member profile and click 'Find Teams'.
Learn more about ibovo standard and premium features, and feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions.
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