436 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
some feedback on the game, and has a good idea for how to handle how the player
controls a flying superhero. He also works closely with the producer to create a
deliverable schedule for marketing assets. This schedule details what types of as-
sets marketing will need directly from the production team and when they are ex-
pecting to get the assets. Figure A.30 is a sample marketing asset deliverable list.
The product manager also discusses the plans for a demo, focus group test-
ing, and the PR tour. The real marketing push will begin in early 2009 when the
FIGURE A.29 Motion capture checklist.
Motion Capture Checklist Y / N NOTES
PRE-PRODUCTION
Is initial animation list design completed?
Are animations to motion capture identified?
Is initial motion capture schedule completed?
Is initial motion capture budget completed?
Is file naming convention established?
Is file management system established?
Are file delivery formats defined?
Have bid packages been sent to motion capture studios?
PRODUCTION
Is motion capture studio selected?
Have dates been tentatively booked with the motion capture studio?
Is initial motion capture list prepared?
Are final actor selections completed? Are they available for the tentative
dates?
RECORDING SESSION
Are dates finalized and booked with the actors?
Is the motion capture list final?
Is game footage available to show the actors?
Is director booked for the session?
Are all final takes selected?
POST-PRODUCTION
Has motion capture studio edited the final takes of animation files?
Are files delivered in correct format? Are uncompressed versions available?
Has the raw data from the recording session been delivered?
Product Title
Estimated Date
Notes
Localizations: French, German, Spanish, Italian
Production
First Playable
27-Jun-08
Once initial plan approved, will schedule 3 months to prototype
main game play mechanics and create a first playable with
some assets that will represent final art quality and gameplay
experience.
Alpha
27-Sep-08
Planning to develop console and PC platforms in parallel, with
priority going to console since it must be code released first in
order to be submitted to third party for approval.
Code Freeze
27-Apr-09
Beta
27-May-09
Pre-Cert Submission to Microsoft
27-May-09
Code Release Candidate
27-Jul-09 All platforms, all languages ready.
Certification Submission to Microsoft
17-Aug-09
Target Ship Date (All platforms, all languages)
13-Oct-09 Sim-ship with Europe.
Box and Docs
First draft of manual
22-Jun-09
Final draft of manual with screenshots
10-Jul-09
Need to make sure there is enough time to get manual
translated.
Box and manual layout for developer approval
20-Jul-09
Marketing needs developer to confirm that correct
featues, logos, and icons are on the packaging.
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 437
game is officially announced at D.I.C.E. The producer and product manager are
in regular contact with each other throughout production. Refer to chapter 13
for more information on marketing.
A.4 PRODUCTION
At this point in development, Supergame Studios is in full production on Justice
Unit. The leads put together a detailed plan in pre-production, and everyone on
the team has a good idea of what tasks they should do and how long they have to
do it. The producer ensures that everyone has the things they need to complete
their work. The producer also deals with any issues that come up that need to
be resolved. The internal production team is making progress on the game, and
the external vendors have begun pre-production on their work for the game.
Chapters 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 contain more detailed information about the
production phase.
A.4.1 Production Cycle
The producer is in close communication with the publisher throughout the
production cycle, and provides weekly status reports. Every two months,
the producer participates in an internal project review to gauge the status of the
game. Digital Fun also meets with the licensor to secure any approvals that are
needed for the Justice Unit game. Refer to Chapter 17 for more information
about the production cycle.
Each month, Supergame Studios delivers a milestone to Digital Fun, as per
the contract. The publisher takes about five days to review each milestone and
will either approve it as is, or write up some feedback and a list of required
FIGURE A.30 Marketing assets needed for Justice Unit.
Marketing Assets
Demo Build
6-Jul-09
Marketing wants fully approved demo by Aug 7, 2009 so it can
be included on cover disc for Official Xbox Magazine. Demo
needs to be submitted at least 4 weeks before this deadline to
make this date.
Preview Code for Journalists
27-May-09 Planning to send the beta build as preview code.
Review Code for Journalists
17-Aug-09
The build submitted to Microsoft for final approval will be used
at review code.
Production milestone schedule
21-Dec-07
Marketing will have feedback on initial concept
documents.
Design summary
21-Dec-07
Marketing will have feedback on initial concept
documents.
Feature list
21-Dec-07
Will need to get updated feature lists throughout the
project to ensure the features are marketed correctly.
Game assets for website (sound, art)
1-Feb-09 Website will launch in mid-March 2009
Game concept sketches
1-Feb-09 Needed for website
High resolution images (for magazine covers)
1-Mar-09 Planning to pitch game articles at beginning of March
Gameplay footage for trailers
1-Mar-09
Initial footage needed in March. Will need additional
footage in August 2009 for TV commericals. Marketing
can record this footage if they get a recent build of the
game with cheats activated.
Cheat codes and walkthrough
Varies
Will need this whenever game is sent out for previews
and reviews, and whenever a PR event is scheduled.
Screenshots
Screenshots delivered with each milestone
As game gets closer to ship date, will request
screenshots on weekly basis.
Developer interviews
As needed Will mainly be email interviews.
US Press Tour
Press tour scheduled for Sept 2009
International Press Tour
Press tour scheduled for Sept 2009
438 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
changes. Once Supergame Studios implements this feedback, they will submit
the milestone build to Digital Fun again for approval. Usually Digital Fun ap-
proves the milestones on the first submission, but may still have some feedback
on things they want implemented for the next milestone submission.
A.4.2 Build Process
During pre-production the lead engineer set up an automated build process. He
assigned a data manager to be in charge of the build process and to create any ad-
ditional scripts and processes that are needed to make the automation efficient.
For example, the data manager created scripts that checked file extensions, file
names, and file sizes. These checks will prevent someone from breaking the
build if they check in a file that does not follow the established standards.
Once there is a first playable build, the data manager starts making a new
build each day. He sets the build process to begin compiling and making the build
at midnight, so that a new build is ready first thing in the morning. At the begin-
ning of the day, before the new build is reviewed by anyone else, the data man-
ager checks the build logs to see if there are any errors that need to be fixed in
the build. If there are not any errors to address, the data manager runs the build
to make sure that it loads, and then archives it on the network. The lead engineer
will then decide if this build should be sent to the QA department for testing.
Once the game hits beta, the QA department requests that new builds are
available twice a week—Mondays and Thursdays. This gives them enough time
in between builds to verify bug fixes and look for new bugs. If they need builds
more frequently than that, they will make a request to the lead engineer a day
in advance.
As people check assets and code into the build, they will send an email to the
“build notes” mailing list. This email details what they checked into the build—ei-
ther new code and assets, or bug fixes that will need to be verified by the QA
department. The build notes are useful to the QA department because the notes
detail what changes were made in the current version of the build. When the
major milestones are delivered to the publisher for approval, the producer writes
up a complete set of build notes that details all the major changes and improve-
ments since the last milestone build. Digital Fun will use these build notes to
compare what was delivered in the milestone with what was defined in the con-
tract (see Figure A.9 for an example of how a milestone deliverable is defined in
the contract). Refer to Chapter 19 for more information on making builds.
A.4.3 Localization
Initially, Justice Unit will be localized into French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
The localized versions will ship at the same time as the English version. A single
multi-lingual master will be created with all the languages. The producer starts
CASE STUDY—GAME PRODUCTION CYCLE 439
planning for the localizations in pre-production in order to ensure they will not
hold up the final release of the game.
He prepares an asset overview form that is sent out to potential vendors
so that they can create a bid. He wants to find a vendor who can handle the
localization work for all the languages, instead of finding a separate vendor to
localize each language. If he is able to find a high-quality multi-lingual vendor,
the localization process will be more streamlined and efficient since his associate
producer will only have to deal with one vendor. One of the vendors translated
the movie script for the first Justice Unit movie, so they are very familiar with the
property and already have a good start on how some of the specific terms in the
Justice Unit world need to be translated. Figure A.31 is the asset overview form
for Justice Unit. During pre-production, the producer has to make educated
guesses about how many assets need to be localized, so he overestimates in each
area. This overview form is sent to the vendors so they can start putting together
a bid. The producer reviews all the bids and selects the vendor who is familiar
with the Justice Unit property. There were cheaper bids, but the vendors were
In-game text assets # Delivery Format Comments
Number of words to be translated 100,000 .xls file
Will need to use the same localized glossaries for
Justice Unit
that have already been used for
previous movie translations to make sure the
character names and special terms are correctly
translated.
Number of text files to be modified 0 n/a Developer will handle all text integration
Art Assets
Number of words in art assets 0
Number of art assets to be modified 0
Voiceover Assets
Number of words in VO script 10,000 .xls file
Number of VO files to be modifed 600 .wav files (DVD quality)
Number of characters to record 25
Will send full character details shortly. Estimate
15 male, 10 female.
Total time of VO (min:sec) 60 min
CINEMATICS ASSETS
Number of words in cinematic script 500
Number of cinematics to modify 2
Only intro and outro sections contain VO that
needs to be localized.
Number of characters to record 3
2 male, 1 female - will need to use the approved
celebrity sound alikes for the U.S. actors
Total time of lip-synced dialogue 30 secs Developer will provide the exact time codes.
Total time of cut-scenes (min:sec) 5 min
PRINTED MATERIALS
Number of words in manual 5,000
Number of manual graphis to be modified 10
Will need to provide localized screenshots to
replace the English screenshots in the manual.
Number of words in box text 500
Number of box graphics to modify 0
Marketing will provide the approprate localized
logos. Box screenshots will not display UI
elements, they will be full screen.
Other printed materials n/a
FIGURE A.31 Asset overview form for Justice Unit.
440 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
not as experienced. Also, he checked references for the vendors before making
the final decision, and found that many people highly recommended the vendor
that was his first choice.
The producer assigns an associate producer (AP) to manage the localization
process. The associate producer starts putting together an initial localization kit
in March 2009. The AP develops a system for sending batches of text to be trans-
lated and integrated into the game. The first batch is sent at the end of March
2009, and the last batch is sent a few days after beta.
The text is organized into a spreadsheet for the translators. Figure A.32 is a
translation spreadsheet for Justice Unit. This is the easiest format for the transla-
tors to work with. Since the production team planned ahead of time for localiza-
tions, they were able to create a localization pipeline that could easily pull out
all the game text that needed to be translated and organize it into a spreadsheet.
The translations are added to the spreadsheet, and the team has a tool that allows
them to easily pull out the translations and integrate them into the game.
Location ENGLISH FRENCH NOTES
AI(M01) A police officer is down! Mission Failed. Un officier de police a été abattu. Echec de la mission. Failure condition that
appears as pop-up
message in game
M01 1. Disarm the security system 1. Désactivez le système de sécurité appears in loading screen,
set up screen, and in-
game start menu
Install Would you like a shortcut placed on the desktop that can
be used to launch the game?
Souhaitez-vous créer un raccourci pour pouvoir lancer le jeu
à partir du bureau ?
Appears during installation
Uninstall Do you wish to clean up the entire game folder? This will
delete the folder the game was installed to and everything
in it.
Souhaitez-vous effacer complètement le dossier du jeu ?
Cela détruira l'ensemble du dossier dans lequel le jeu a été
installé et les éléments qu'il contenait.
Appears during installation
Equip The primary weapon assigned is the M4, with a 9 mm pistol
as a secondary. Flashbangs are provided to suppress
enemies, and a heartbeat sensor should help in locating
them.
Les armes assignées sont le M4, comme arme principale, et
le pistolet 9mm, comme arme secondaire. Les grenades
aveuglantes sont fournies pour éliminer les ennemis. Le
détecteur cardiaque devrait vous aider à les localiser.
Appears on the help
screen for equipment
selection
IFF(M03) a Guard un garde Appears when you place
reticle over a character
FIGURE A.32 Translation spreadsheet for Justice Unit.
The integration process for all languages takes about a week, and the first
fully localization builds are ready around the end of June 2009. This provides
enough time to conduct a few weeks of functionality and linguistic testing. The
linguistic testing is also handled by the localization vendor. The linguistic testers
will fill in a bug report form and Supergame Studios will be responsible for im-
plementing the bug fixes. Figure A.33 is sample linguistic bug report for Justice
Unit. Testing takes about five weeks, and involves three rounds of testing. Once
testing is completed, the localization work is reviewed and approved by the pub-
lisher, Digital Fun, Inc.
Bug # Language Game Location Bug Description Incorrect Text Correct Text Bug Status
2 German UI - Options Menu Please use lower case letters.
Schritt
N
ach
R
echts Schritt
n
ach
r
echts
CLOSED
4 German UI - Options Menu Text not translated. Use Item Gegenstand benutzen FIXED
FIGURE A.33 Sample linguistic bug report for Justice Unit.
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