CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 421
FIGURE A.12 Work breakdown structure for level in Justice Unit.
Art Tasks (Villain's Lair) Duration
Create prototype 5 days
Implement prototype feedback 1 day
Create level geometry 20 days
Add placeholder textures 3 days
Fix first round of bugs 3 days
Create destructible objects 2 days
Add final textures 10 days
Create player reference map .5 days
Create special effects 2 day
Optimize level for budget constraints 5 days
Polish map 5 days
Fix final round of bugs 3 days
Design Tasks (Villain's Lair) Duration
Design initial level layout 2 days
Design initial mission scripting 2 days
Script prototype .5 days
Playtest prototype scripting .5 days
Implement prototype feedback 1 day
Script first pass of mission scripting 5 days
Script first pass of multiplayer scripting 2 days
Review scripting 1 days
Script second pass 5 days
Verify all supporting files are tagged correctly 1 day
Create localization tags for in-game dialog 1 day
Polish scripting 3 days
Fix final round of bugs 2 days
Sound Tasks (Villain's Lair) Duration
Create sound design 3 days
Implement sound design prototype 2 days
Implement prototype feedback 2 days
Complete first pass of sound implementation 3 days
Polish sound 2 days
Fix final round of bugs 1 day
QA Tasks (Villain's Lair) Duration
Playtest prototype 1 day
Test geometry and terrain navigation 7 days
Check textures 2 days
Test initial scripting 1 day
Test second pass scripting 1 day
Final test all level geometry and textures 5 days
Final test for mission scripting 1 day
Approvals (Villain's Lair) Duration
Approve initial layout 1 day
Approve initial art prototype 1 day
Approve initial design prototype 1 day
Approve sound design 1 day
Approve final level, scripting, and sound 1 day
422 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
FIGURE A.13 Detailed level production schedule for Justice Unit.
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 423
Level Production Spreadsheet
The producer also creates a spreadsheet that tracks the overall progress of the
level production process. This sheet distills the information contained in the
detailed schedule and provides a quick reference of the progress made on each
level in the game. This sheet is useful to anyone who wants a quick snapshot of
where the levels are in the production process. The producer assigns an associate
producer to keep this updated on a daily basis. Figure A.14 is an example of this
distilled level production schedule.
FIGURE A.14 Level production tracking spreadsheet for Justice Unit.
Level Name Artist Scripter
Geometry
Complete
Art
Lockdown
Design
Lockdown
Sound
Lockdown QA Status Notes
Justice Hall John Doe Jane Doe 15-Jan 15-Feb 1-Mar 15-Mar Playtesting completed
Villain's Lair Bob Smith Betty Smith 22-Jan 22-Feb 8-Mar 22-Mar To be playtested Jan 22
Original geometry complete date Jan 15, pushed to Jan
22 because artist was sick for a few days.
LAST UPDATED: Jan 17, 2009
Budget
As the producer is putting together the schedule, he also needs to define the
budget and staffing plan. As discussed in Chapter 16, all of these elements must be
considered together when creating the game plan. The budget must account for
how many people are needed, but the number of people needed can’t be accurately
determined until the producer has an idea of what the schedule is going to be.
Digital Fun, Inc. is already willing to make a substantial investment in getting
the game made and has given a budget range of $15 to 20 million. This budget
must include the costs for all licensed music, internal personnel, hardware, external
vendors, testing, and anything else directly related to the production of the game.
With this in mind, the producer creates a budget with a fairly large team so that he
can easily meet the milestone deadlines he estimated earlier in pre-production.
Figure A.15 is an estimated budget for the personnel needed to create
Justice Unit. The producer estimates that up to 80 people will be needed to get
the game completed on time. He will need to figure out a plan for adding more
people to the team as production begins and also create a plan for rolling people
off the project as production winds down.
This estimates how long someone will be needed on the project. The staff-
ing may change on the project depending on the feedback the producer gets on
the budget. If he is told to reduce the budget, he may decide to also reduce the
number of new staff he adds to the game production team.
Figure A.16 is an estimated budget for the other production costs. This also
includes external vendors to do voiceover, music, cinematics, and localization.
There is also a significant royalty for the Justice Unit IP that must be included
in the production budget. This budget also includes a large amount of licensing
fees. This section of the budget may be reduced if the team decided to use a
different engine with a lower-cost licensing fee.
424 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
Staffing
As discussed earlier, the producer plans for a large staff on this project in order
to realistically meet the desired ship date. If the budget is not approved as it
currently stands, the producer may look for cheaper staffing alternatives by out-
sourcing the work to India or Asia. For now, he keep as much internal staff as
possible, since he will have better control over the game and will have more flexi-
bility in adding or changing features.
Team Organization Flowchart
Figure A.17 is the team organization chart for Justice Unit. The team is around
60 people and the producer works with the leads to determine how to organize
the team. They decide that a traditional team structure will work best, with each
lead heading up their discipline. This means that the art director will manage all
Production Personnel Number Monthly Rate # of Months Cost
Producer 1 $8,000 24 $192,000
Associate Producer 3 $6,000 18 $324,000
Art Personnel
Lead Artist 1 $10,000 24 $240,000
Technical Artist 1 $8,000 24 $192,000
Concept Artist 2 $6,000 10 $120,000
World Builder 10 $6,000 12 $720,000
Object Artist 3 $6,000 8 $144,000
Texture Artist 4 $6,000 12 $288,000
Marketing Artist 1 $6,000 12 $72,000
Animator 3 $8,000 8 $192,000
Engineering Personnel
Lead Engineer 1 $10,000 24 $240,000
Networking Engineer 2 $8,000 16 $256,000
Graphics Engineer 4 $8,000 18 $576,000
UI Engineer 1 $8,000 12 $96,000
AI Engineer 4 $8,000 18 $576,000
Sound Engineer 1 $8,000 12 $96,000
Tools Engineer 3 $8,000 18 $432,000
General Engineer 5 $8,000 18 $720,000
AI Engineer 2 $8,000 12 $192,000
Design Personnel
Lead Designer 1 $8,000 24 $192,000
Designer 4 $6,000 18 $432,000
Sound Designer 1 $6,000 12 $72,000
Writer 1 $6,000 6 $36,000
QA Personnel
Lead QA Analyst 1 $8,000 24 $192,000
Tester 20 $6,000 10 $1,200,000
GRAND TOTAL 80 $7,792,000
Based on 24 month development cycle
Monthly rates are for example only, do not reflect actual rates
FIGURE A.15 Estimated budget for personnel costs for Justice Unit.
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 425
the artists, the engineers will manage the engineers, and so on. All the leads will
report directly to the producer, and the producer will have an associate producer
who will assist in the day-to-day management of the production cycle.
The leads also select some people on the team to head up sub-groups within
each discipline, in order to improve communication flow and to reduce the num-
ber of direct reports the leads have to manage. For example, the engineering
lead creates sub-groups for networking, tools, AI, sound, and graphics—and
each of these is headed up by an experienced engineer.
A.2.5 Completing Pre-production
Supergame Studios has completed pre-production and consults their checklist to
confirm that they have completed all the major pre-production tasks. Figure A.18
is the pre-production checklist.
FIGURE A.16 Estimate budget for other production costs for Justice Unit.
Hardware Number Rate Cost
Computers 80 $3,000 $240,000
Console Development Kits 40 $10,000 $400,000
Controllers 60 $100 $6,000
Graphics Cards 80 $300 $24,000
Software
Perforce 76 $750 $57,000
3DSMax 19 $4,000 $76,000
Photoshop 4 $600 $2,400
MS Project 5 $1,000 $5,000
Unreal 3.0 Engine 1 $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Visual C++ 23 $3,000 $69,000
Licensing Fees
Justice Unit Royalty
1 $500,000 $500,000
External Vendors
Voiceover 1 $250,000 $250,000
Music 1 $50,000 $50,000
Cinematics 1 $300,000 $300,000
Localization 4 $50,000 $200,000
Other
Travel 24 $1,000 $24,000
Food 24 $500 $12,000
Shipping/Postage 24 $200 $4,800
GRAND TOTAL $3,220,200
Based on 24-month development cycle
Rates are for example only, do not reflect actual rates
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