426 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
FIGURE A.17 Team organization chart for Justice Unit.
PRE-PRODUCTION CHECKLIST Y / N NOTES
CONCEPT
Is initial game concept defined?
Are platform and genre specified?
Is mission statement completed?
Are basic game play elements defined?
Is protoype completed?
Is risk analysis completed?
Is the concept pitch ready for approval?
Have all stakeholders approved the concept?
Is project kick-off scheduled?
GAME REQUIREMENTS
Are "must have," "want to have," and "nice to have" features defined?
Are constraints defined and accounted for in feature sets?
Are milestones and deliverables defined?
Has technology been evaluated against the desired feature set?
Are tools and pipeline defined?
Is basic design documentation completed?
Is basic technical documentation completed?
Is risk analysis completed?
Have all stakeholders approved the game requirements?
GAME PLAN
Is budget completed?
Is initial schedule completed?
Is initial staffing plan completed?
Have core team members approved the schedule and staffing plan?
Have all stakeholders approved the game plan?
FIGURE A.18 Pre-production checklist.
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 427
A.3 TECHNICAL PRODUCTION
During the pre-production phase, the producer makes some decisions on how to
handle the voiceover, music, and motion capture during production. He is going
to outsource these parts of the projects, but still needs to organize and sched-
ule them within the production cycle. The voiceover will need to be carefully
managed since there is a lot of dialogue to record and because the actors from
the movie will also be voicing the characters for the game.
The theme music from the movie will be used in the game, so Digital Fun,
Inc. will work will work with the movie studio on a licensing deal. Supergame
Studios is hiring a composer to create original music based on the theme,
so the producer needs to schedule this so that all the music is completed by
beta.
Supergame Studios wants to motion capture several of the superhero fight-
ing moves, especially ones that involve interaction between two people. Motions
for flying and some of the other super powers will also be recorded so the ani-
mators have a good base to build the animations from. Once the motion capture
vendor is selected, the producer will have the associate producer working with
the animator to manage the motion capture process. Chapters 10, 11, 12, and 13
contain more details about technical production.
A.3.1 Voiceover
The voiceover needs for Justice Unit are quite large. There are five main charac-
ters and 30 minor characters that will have recorded dialogue. The designer and
sound designer estimate there will be about 100,000 lines of dialogue. The initial
recording session will take several weeks, and additional time will be needed for
pick-up sessions.
The producer starts planning for the voiceover needs in pre-production. He
puts together a schedule estimate of when the major voiceover tasks needs to be
completed during development. Figure A.19 is an estimated schedule for com-
pleting the VO for Justice Unit.
The actual voiceover shoot is scheduled for April 2009. The shoot is
scheduled as late in the development cycle as possible in order to give de-
sign and sound ample time to polish the voiceover script and make an exact
determination of the voiceover needs. The sound designer has already imple-
mented a lot of placeholder VO, so the producer is confident that the VO
cues will work as expected in the game. Also, since placeholder voiceover
cues with the correct file names are already implemented, the sound de-
signer will be able to drop the final voiceover files into the game without too
many problems. If placeholder VO was not already integrated into the game,
the recording session would need to happen much sooner in production so
428 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
that there was ample time to review the VO files in the game and make any
necessary changes.
The producer researches several VO vendors and provides them with infor-
mation to make a bid. Figure A.20 is a sample of a partially completed bid that
will be sent to external vendors the producer is considering for Justice Unit. The
producer works with the designer and sound designer to get an exact character
and line count for the bid.
The producer selects the voiceover recording studio that will be used for
Justice Unit. He purposely picks a vendor based in Los Angeles who has experience
working with celebrity voices, since this makes it much easier to schedule time
with the actors from the movie who will also be voicing characters in the game.
The studio requests a set of casting notes for all the major and minor characters
in the movie. While the major characters have already been selected, it is useful
to have castings for the actors to review when they come to the recording session.
Casting notes are written up for the minor characters and include an image of the
character, history and background, notes on what the character’s voice sounds like,
and some sample dialogue that actors can record during the audition process.
The recording studio starts the casting process in March 2009 so that final
selections can be made by mid-April 2009. Supergame Studios gets a set of audio
files to review for each character that needs to be voiced in the game. Because
they are trying to reduce the cost for voiceover actors, Supergames Studios
chooses actors who can distinctly voice three different characters. Figure A.21 is
an example of the casting notes used in Justice Unit.
The vendor books the recording session for late April 2009. The session will
take a few weeks because there is a great deal of dialogue to be recorded. The
voiceover vendor handles booking and scheduling the actors in the most efficient
way in order to complete recording as quickly as possible. The celebrity actors
are booked first, since their availability takes priority over any other actors.
While the vendor is organizing the actual recording session, Supergame
Studios is working on the final voiceover script. The writer organizes all the
FIGURE A.19 Estimated VO schedule for Justice Unit.
Task Resource Deadline
Initial Dialogue Written Writer 30-Jan-09
Placeholder VO Recorded Sound Designer 30-Jan-09
Send Bid Packages to Sound Studios Producer 27-Feb-09
Book time for VO Recording Session Producer 13-Mar-09
Updated Dialogue Written Writer 27-Feb-09
Additional Placeholder VO Recorded Sound Designer 27-Feb-09
Audition Actors Sound Studio 10-Apr-09
Cast Actors
Writer/Producer/Sound
Designer 10-Apr-09
Final Dialogue Written Writer 27-Mar-09
Dialogue Recorded
Writer/Producer/Sound
Designer 27-Apr-09
Dialogue Processed and Ready for Development Team Sound Designer 20-May-09
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 429
FIGURE A.20 Voiceover Bid for Justice Unit.
Character Est. # of lines
Male/Female Age
Notes
Bullet Point 5,000 M 25
Need to get actor who is
playing this character in the
movie.
Melanie
Cole 5,000 F 26
Need to get actor who is
playing this character in the
movie.
Caribou 3,000 M 24
Need to get actor who is
playing this character in the
movie.
Teacher 1,000 F 65
Actor needs to speak
Chinese and English. The
actor can also voice other
characters in the game.
Sam 1,000 M 21
Actor can voice other
characters in game.
Woman #1 50 F mid-forties
This actress will voice 3
characters
Woman #2 75 F early-forties
Voiced by same actress
who does Woman #1.
Man #1 50 M mid-forties
This actor will voice 3
characters
Man #2 75 M mid-thirties
Voiced by same actor who
does Man #1.
VOICEOVER ASSETS
Union or Non-union (English version) Union
Any celebrity talent used? Include celebrity
names in "Notes" column in table below.
Yes, the actors who play the main characters in the
movie, will also voice them in the game.
Bit depth. (ex: 8 bit, 16 bit, etc) 16 bit
Sample Rate. (ex: 22 Khz, 44Khz) 44Khz
Required Processing. List any special
effects needed.
Basic edits for pops and clicks, name files according
to file naming system provided by developer.
Channels. (Mono/Stereo/5.1).. Dolby 5.1
File delivery formats uncompressed .wave files
430 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
FIGURE A.21 Casting notes for Justice Unit.
Name
Ice Queen (real name Melanie Cole)
Background
Born in 1979, Melanie grew up in Virginia Beach, VA. Her father was an architect
and her mother worked as a receptionist. An average student, Melanie studied at
Tidewater Community College for two years before transferring to Old Dominion
University, where she graduated with a degree in History in 2002. Melanie's
parents died in 2004, when her Sentience manifested itself. The freezing blast
leveled three homes, killing a total of seven people. Horrified, Melanie fled, but
was later apprehended by police. Later that day, her Sentience erupted again,
destroying the police station and killing several officers. Bulletpoint and The
Sensei were called in, and were able to incapacitate Melanie. She was taken to
Masada, where the Justice Division was able to train her in the use of her powers.
Since then, Melanie has learned to control her Sentience, and has proven herself a
capable member of the Justice Division.
Personality
Melanie is extremely distant, and has difficulty forming lasting relationships with
people. Though she has fought beside the other members of the Justice Division
for two years, she still refers to them by their code names, and refuses to socialize
outside of work. Members of the Division have joked that her most powerful
offensive weapon is the Cold Shoulder. She still grieves for her family, and feels a
profound sense of remorse for the lives that she ended, even though she's aware that
the deaths were accidental. Despite hundreds of hours of training, Melanie fears
that she may lose control of her Sentience, resulting in more innocent deaths.
Voice
Melanie's voice is low and firm. She only raises her voice when chastising or
disagreeing with someone. She often sounds arch or condescending, particularly
when explaining things to others, and can come across as callous when delivering
bad news. She speaks unaccented English.
References
Gillian Anderson (The X-Files)
Sample Dialog
"That's really too bad, but that's not our problem. We're here to apprehend
Zomborg, and that's all I'm really interested in talking about."
"What part of 'immediately' did you not understand? You were expected a while
ago. Get in there and do your job.""I don't really have time to deal with this.
The Division doesn't have time for this either. Suck it up, or quit."
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