MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS 215
have an accelerated development schedule, which means that the deliverables
are also on an accelerated schedule. Depending on the scope of the PR and mar-
keting campaign, a project might have a much longer asset deliverable schedule.
This schedule provides an overview of the kinds of assets that are usually re-
quested, and time estimates for planning purposes.
13.8 CHAPTER SUMMARY
As the game’s producer, it’s crucial that you manage the relationship between
the marketing department and the development team in order to ensure that
they’re working together harmoniously. While the developers are working on
the game, the schedule needs to include key marketing deliverables. The game’s
publicity will suffer if useful assets aren’t provided to the marketing team in a
timely fashion. In this chapter, we examined the types of assets needed by mar-
keting, as well as the general deadlines for when these assets are required.
FIGURE 13.2 Sample asset deliverable checklist.
O
N
T
H
E
C
D
Product Title
Estimated Date
Notes
Localizations: French, German, Spanish, Italian
Production
First Playable
see production schedule
Alpha
see production schedule
Code Freeze
see production schedule
Beta
see production schedule
Pre-Cert Submission to Microsoft
see production schedule
Code Release Candidate
see production schedule
Certification Submission to Microsoft
see production schedule
Target Ship Date (All platforms, all languages)
see production schedule
Box and Docs
First draft of manual
~ 10 weeks before US submission or ship date
Final draft of manual with screenshots
~ 6-8 weeks before US submission or ship date
Box and manual layout for developer approval
~ 4-6 weeks before US submission or ship date
Marketing Assets
Demo Build
varies, marketing may want demo to ship a few months
before main game or at the same time as the main game.
Preview Code for Journalists
~ 3-4 months before ship date
Review Code for Journalists
as soon as US version is code released or submitted
Production milestone schedule
~ 8-10 months before ship date
Design summary
~ 8-10 months before ship date
Feature list
~ 8-10 months before ship date
Game assets for website (sound, art)
~ 6-8 months before ship date
Game concept sketches
~ 6-8 months before ship date
High resolution images (for magazine covers)
~ 6-8 months before ship date, varies depending on need
Gameplay footage for trailers
~ 4-6 months before ship date
Cheat codes and walkthrough
~ 4-6 months before ship date
Screenshots
weeky deliveries, determine number in advance
Developer interviews
varies, depending on need
US Press Tour
varies, but may happen around beta
International Press Tour
varies, but may happen around beta
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