Transcript Lect 12 - Revision 272KB Nov 06 2007 07:01:32 PM

ITB/ITN751 Games Production
Lecture 11 - Revision
Ross Brown
CRICOS No. 000213J
Queensland University of Technology
Lecture Contents
• Unit Revision and Exam
• Guest Lecture – David Waller, Senior Trade
Officer, Export Capability, Trade and
International Operations, Department of Premier
and Cabinet
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Revision
• “It’s never too late – in fiction or in life – to
revise” - Nancy Thayer
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Feel Free to
Ask Questions during Lecture
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Lecture 1
Game Development Life Cycle
• Game Development as a “Wicked Problem”
• LifeCycle:
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Concept
Prototype
Pitch
Green Light
Pre-production
Production
Quality Assurance
Gold Master
Maintenance
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Lecture 1 Game Producers
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Games Producers = Project managers
Overseeing creative and technical development
Ensuring timely delivery of deliverables
Producer is the “boss” of the game, to bring
about the overall vision for its development
• Thus is an executive role – as a*hole…
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Lecture 2
Game Conception and Design
• A Game Design is a
blueprint for a game
• A game designer creates
this blueprint
• Also known as the
Design Document
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• Document contents:
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I. Core Overview
II. Game Context
III. Core Game Objects
IV. Conflict and Resolution
V. Artificial Intelligence
VI. Game Flow
VII. Controls
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Lecture 2 – Game Conception and Design
• Prototyping - Not necessarily on a computer –
cards are common
• Scripting - process of final game integration and
tweaking using special language
• To take the content and making it fit the design
document, and the lead designer’s vision
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Lecture 3
Modelling and Animation
• Creation of digital assets
• Assets being media that has been converted into
a binary form
• Must be legally usable by the owner
• Or from studio’s perspective, it contains your
own IP and metadata to help you manipulate it
• This content is loaded into the Game Engine
software and forms the look and feel of the
game
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Lecture 3
Modelling and Animation
• Geometric model is a mathematical construct stored in
memory which allows the game to animate and render it
for game play purposes
• Polygons are used to form meshes that are used to
represent the surface of an object in a game
• Stripped down for use in the games engine – low
polygon
• Surface basis for animation is rigged with a skeleton for
animation by animators- using scripts or mocap
• Geometry then has textures applied to form final
appearance
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Lecture 4
Game Audio
• Music is the emotional component of the sound
• Sound effects are a part of the simulated reality
of the environment
• Remember, sound like any creative component
of this work requires reference to the designers
of the game
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Lecture 4
Game Audio
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Ambient
Battle, combat or action score
Musical stingers
Scored cinematics or interstitial movies
Licensed songs with lyrics
Audio forms part of the digital assets of the
game
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Lecture 5
Game Engine Programming
• Underlying software technology that supports the execution of the
game
• Contains a number of software modules (amongst others) integrated
together to provide the gaming experience:
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Graphics
Physics
Sound
Scripting
Animation
Artificial Intelligence
Networking
User Interface
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Lecture 5
Game Engine Programming
• While user input not exit
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Update Scene-Graph with network cache
Update Scene-Graph via AI
Update Scene-Graph via Physics and Animation
Render Scene-Graph to Screen via Graphics System
• Endwhile
• All of this has to be updated at ~30 frames per
second for a game
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Lecture 6
Quality Assurance
• The step of the game development life cycle that
ensures a game is:
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Bug free
Functional
Usable
Fun
• Improves acceptance of game
• Makes sure that game concept is going to sell
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Lecture 6
Quality Assurance
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Alpha Testing
Focus Group Testing
Beta Testing
Ongoing Bug Reports
Competitive Analysis
Publisher Testing
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Lecture 7
Game Development Tools
Geometric
Packages
Texture
Packages
Raw Content
Asset
Tools
Formatted
Assets
Game Engine
Audio
Packages
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Lecture 7
Game Development Tools
• Game development tools can be described as the glue
that holds the whole process together
• Preproduction is where the tool assembly line is formed
• Thus the tools developer writes the utilities to convert
and manage this data to forms that suit the game engine
• This asset pipeline is controlled by a master tool, known
as the Build Tool
• It takes the output from all the content software, and
synchronises the asset tools to develop a complete set
of content for the game engine
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Lecture 8
Human Resource Management
• Is the process of managing employees to help
them achieve satisfaction in their job challenges,
career progression, relationships with coworkers
• HRM is also seen as a far more effective way of
managing employees full-stop
• Instead of controlling the employees, the intent
is to win the employees commitment
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Lecture 8
Human Resource Management
• There are two basic models of HRM
– Soft - this approach is soft due to reliance on people
outcomes
– Hard - employees are treated as a means to the
organisation achieving its ends – Strategic HRM
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Lecture 9
Business and Financial Issues
• entrepreneur - someone who organizes a
business venture and assumes the risk for it
• chief executive officer - the corporate
executive responsible for the operations of the
firm; reports to a board of directors; may appoint
other managers (including a president)
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Lecture 9
Business and Financial Issues
• Steps to building a business:
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Business Concept
Business Plan
Marketing Strategy
Getting Finance
Legals
Premises
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Lecture 10
Research and Education
• Research is a thorough
investigation
• Often to solve a problem
– Applied
• Or to extend knowledge –
Pure
• But the lines often blur
between the two forms
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Steps Involved:
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Identify a problem
Formulate a hypothesis
Test the hypothesis
Collect and analyse the
data
5. Make conclusions
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Lecture 10
Research and Education
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Primary, Secondary
Vocational Education
Software Training Positions
University Teaching
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Lecture 11
Game Culture
• Journalism: “the profession of reporting or
photographing or editing news stories for one of
the media”
• Examples:
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Magazines
TV/Radio Shows
Blogosphere
POD Casts
Portals
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Lecture 11
Game Culture
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Conferences
Organisations
Stores/Distribution/Publishing
Government Support
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ITB751/ITN751 Exam
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Exam is on 8th Nov 2007 at 08:30 am for 2hrs
CAVEAT: Please check timetable for details
There is one question on the guest lectures
You should have a set of reflection forms from
the guest lectures during the semester…do you?
• If not, you have 12 hours of lectures to study
over the next fortnight
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CRICOS No. 000213J
ITB751/ITN751 Exam
• The rest of the exam is on my Lecture material
• HINT: study the tutorials!!!
• It is not a memory test (much), but you will have
to think about the components of the game
production process as well as the whole
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ITB751/ITN751 Exam
• You will need to understand the people,
processes and technology behind games
production
• Read the chapters in the textbook readings as
one question refers to such information
• Good Luck - it has been a pleasure to teach you
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CRICOS No. 000213J
Guest Lecture
• David Waller - Senior Trade Officer, Export
Capability, Trade and International Operations,
Department of Premier and Cabinet
a university for the
real world
R
CRICOS No. 000213J