286 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
If the vendor is running behind schedule and all necessary assets and docu-
mentation have been provided to him by the development team, this is a prob-
lem. In order to avoid this, schedule regular milestones for the vendor as well.
He should get into the habit of making deliveries every week or every few days,
depending on the work to be done. If he misses any of these deadlines, it is a
red flag that he might be in jeopardy of missing the final and most important
deadline.
In some cases, the vendor might be good at convincing you everything is
fine, and then misses the final deadline by a long shot. If the situation is this
bad, you might need to cut your losses and look for another vendor to complete
the work, or bring the work in-house and assign someone on the development
team to finish it. This is not an ideal situation, as it means people need to work
overtime to complete the work.
Communication
After an external vendor is hired, the key to a good relationship is effective com-
munication. If the developer and vendor do not establish the communication
pipeline up front, information will fall through the cracks, and key details will
be missed. Poor communication might also impact the vendor’s ability to meet
proposed deadlines, especially if necessary information from the developer is
not received on schedule.
Most external vendors will have a project manager who is responsible for
managing the vendor’s part of the development process from beginning to end
and acting as the primary contact for the developer.
It is important to designate a single person from the development team to
be the primary contact for the vendor’s project manager. These two must com-
municate on a daily basis, even if it is just to provide a brief status update on
what went on that day with the project. If more people are involved in the com-
munication chain, it is likely that confusion will occur. If it is necessary to have
a few people from the development team in touch with the vendor, such as the
person who is handling all the voiceover for the game, the lines of communica-
tion must be clearly delineated so confusion does not exist about team members’
responsibilities.
The internal development contact is responsible for delivering all the nec-
essary assets and resources to the vendor and must inform the vendor of any
changes to the schedule that affect the vendor’s deadlines. If the vendor is not
informed of a schedule delay that affects his work, you might find yourself pay-
ing extra money to the vendor because he received the assets late, had to work
overtime, or hire more people in order to meet the deadline. If the vendor is
flexible, unforeseen schedule changes can be accommodated.
GAME PLAN 287
VETTING CONTRACTORS
Stuart Roch, Executive Producer
Activision
Many times the best contractors are found through referrals, just as you find
the best full-time team members through personal recommendation. I rarely hire
contractors without a personal recommendation, but when this occurs, the best you
can do is to invest some serious time in due diligence. Reviewing past work, demo
reels, meeting with the contractors, and checking on their references can mean the
difference between a productive contract partner and one whom you cut loose due
to creative differences.
Like most things with production, pre-planning and forward thinking are key.
Most developers contract freelancers late in development when they reactively re-
alize that they don’t have the resources they need to get the job done. The best
producers are proactive and will identify the need for contract resources early in
development so that they can find the best people, retain them early enough to be
effective, and strike the best possible deal for the company when they aren’t under
pressure to contract a warm body.
16.7 MIDDLEWARE
In the game industry, middleware has become an all-encompassing term for
an out of the box software that can be modified for use in a game. Middleware
is used for game systems, such as AI, animation, physics, rendering, and net-
working. For example, developers can license the Havok physics engine and
modify it for use in their game, instead of programming something from scratch.
Cross-platform game engines, such as Epic’s UNREAL3 engine, are considered
middleware, as well as other third-party tools used for such development tasks
as modeling, texturing, bug tracking, and project management.
MIDDLEWARE RESOURCES
GameMiddleware.org—www.gamemiddleware.org—is an organization that
provides a centralized resource for game middleware. The organization keeps a
running list of available middleware that can be used in game development, along
with the platforms each middleware supports, and a link to the vendor’s website.
The middleware is grouped into several different categories to make it easier to
determine what each middleware addresses.
288 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
One of the biggest benefits of middleware is that the developer can theoreti-
cally spend more time creating and polishing unique features of the game, instead
of creating a generic but necessary feature, such as lobby support for an online
game. If the developer is familiar with the middleware technology (for example,
they used it on previous games), it is usually an easy decision to use it again on
another game. However, if the developer is not familiar with the middleware,
they need to plan for a learning curve that may initially slow down development
time, as the team gets up to speed on how to work with the technology.
The biggest drawback to working with middleware is likely to be cost—you
will need to pay a licensing fee (and sometimes royalties) to the middleware
provider, and depending on the product, this fee can be several hundred thou-
sand dollars. However, you may find the cost justified after putting together
your game plan. Many middleware providers price their products competitively
and provide excellent technical support, to make it easier for the developers to
decide to use middleware.
Once the license is place (and in some cases before), the middleware vendor
will provide a Software Development Kit (SDK) that includes the APIs, tools,
and documentation. Most middleware providers offer technical support and will
help work through any technical issues the team encounters while they are inte-
grating the middleware technology into the game’s production pipeline.
After the middleware is integrated into the game, the vendor may request a
build of the game in order to check how their software was implemented. They may
have a formal set of technical requirements that the game needs to fulfill before they
will approve the middleware implementation in the game. This ensures that the
technology is working as intended and that no surprises will occur when the game
releases. The approval process can be a benefit for the developer, because testers
who are familiar with any common problems that may occur when implementing
the middleware will check the game and flag any issues that need to be addressed.
Be sure to include time in the production schedule for this approval process.
USING MIDDLEWARE
Amanda Rubright, Producer
Aspyr
If you are considering using middleware, definitely make this part of your initial
planning phase of a project. If you decide middleware is not the way to go, you need
to know upfront so you can be sure to allocate time and resources to creating what
it is the project needs internally.
GAME PLAN 289
The benefits of using middleware are great when it comes down to time and
efficient use of a product that you know has a proven track record. We often choose
to use middleware when development from scratch doesn’t make sense due to time
constraints and the potential risks that may be encountered during development.
Also, outsourcing some of the not so fun tasks makes your developers happy because
it allows them to focus on the fun side of development!
Both parties benefit equally—it’s usually more cost effective to utilize middle-
ware than it is to develop a system from the ground up. Proven, working systems
are always less risky than creating something new that needs to be developed and
debugged.
In my opinion, there really aren’t many disadvantages—only in worse case sce-
narios. Sometimes the cost is high and unfamiliarity with the product can cause
issues. Technical support can sometimes put the production schedule at risk, if the
vendor does not respond quickly to questions. However, this is usually not the case.
By conducting due diligence of the vendors you want to use and by soliciting recom-
mendations from your industry peers, you can mitigate many of these disadvantages
and risks. We’re a small industry so we are our best resources.
One of the main things to keep in mind when using middleware is that licensing
fees must be paid to the middleware provider. Most of the licenses are tied to actual
title and/or platform. For instance, if you were working on PS3 and Xbox 360 ver-
sions of the same game, you might need to secure a license for each platform, or you
might be able to purchase one license that covers the all the platforms for the game.
You may even need one for additional languages, depending on what the licensing
agreement covers. In some cases, you may also need to play royalties to the vendor
for each copy of the game sold, so be sure to thoroughly understand the licensing
costs when conducting due diligence. If you worked on a sequel to a game, it is likely
you would also need to secure a new license. However, some vendors will allow you
to use the license at no extra cost if you are releasing additional content for the main
SKU of the game. Some vendors do cut deals if you are doing multiple titles and
multiple platforms, but all platforms and SKUs still need to be licensed.
Typically the publisher pays for the licensing, but this ultimately depends on the
project. Who pays what depends on the contract between developer and publisher.
For example, if the developer is shopping for a publisher it’s likely they will need to
front any middleware licensing fees. In this case, it’s possible for the developer to
ask the publisher to reimburse these fees during contract negotiation, or the devel-
oper may include them in the completion budget they request from the publisher.
The negotiations for the vendors I’ve worked with usually take little time.
Usually, you get the licensing agreement from the vendor, have the legal department
review it, sign it, and return it with a check to the vendor. Once they get the check,
the vendor will release the SDK so your team can begin working with it. In some
290 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
16.8 GAME PLAN OUTLINE
Figure 16.14 (see following page) is a summary of each step that must be com-
pleted in the game plan phase. This is based on a two-year development cycle.
16.9 CHAPTER SUMMARY
The game plan is a critical component of pre-production as this pulls together
all the requirements and shows how the work is all going to get done on time.
cases, they will provide the SDK before the contract is finalized, which is very useful
if the team is working on a tight deadline.
Integration of middleware is typically where you may or may not see issues.
How familiar is your team with this middleware? Have they used it before? How will
it work with the title it is being used for? What is that middleware’s support system
like? Will they be available to guide us through integration/issues? The reality is that
the experience and talent of your development team will dictate the types of issues
that will occur with integration.
If you run into problems, you can get technical support from the middleware
vendors. Most all of the middleware vendors I’ve worked with have provided fan-
tastic support. Demonware, Quazal, and Unreal all have tech-support websites that
contain information on their product. They also have a support email which is very
useful for getting questions answered. They have all been very responsive and help-
ful in answering development and integration questions. More often than not, all
issues can be resolved via email, but sometimes a call is required for more in-depth
issues. In some cases, middleware vendors will send integration specialists out to
you—for example, Punkbuster will send an integration developer out to the site to
work with your team to integrate their anti-cheat software.
Once you have integrated the middleware into your game, you may need to
submit it to the vendor for approval. This is mainly to check that your implementa-
tion is correct. The approval time will vary, so find out about this up front so you can
build it into your production schedule. Because they know the team is already work-
ing on a tight deadline, the vendor will be as flexible as possible about setting up
the approval process. Most middleware approvals can occur concurrently with game
development as they will not be looking to approve the same things your publisher
would be. They may also want to sign off on the packaging to make sure that their
logo and legal text are used correctly (and as contractually agreed to).
..................Content has been hidden....................
You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.