Unit 1 - What is pre-production?

Pre-production isn’t just the design before development, it includes the following.

Finance

Gears of war (2006)

In order to make a game you need to have a budget, this would cover costs for the use of programs, and trips to locations for inspiration, pay for any crew that work on the game with you and maybe more machines for you to use. You could get things like investors to finance the game, however they also need to be updated regularly and have the right to suggest changes as it is their money you’re using. You could also get out a loan in order to cover the budget, however you need to work out a payment scheme to give them the money back. Depending on what game you want to make, you may need to get a license in order to use certain characters and these would go into the budget. Now that websites like kick-starter mean that you get marketing, budget and a fan base willing to buy the game, making the industry a lot more accessible.

‘the original Gears of War only had a budget of $10 million and while that seems like a lot take into consideration that it was the flagship game for the brand new Unreal Engine 3 back in 2006. New engine plus new game for only $10 million isn't bad at all’ (Usher, 2012) – Tim Schafer from DoubleFine.

Time

With time in considering pre-production you would have to consider deadlines set by investors, kick-starter or the company you work for. You would also have to consider the availability of equipment and employees in accordance with how long it takes to make a game. With an indie game like ‘Limbo’ it took 4 year to create game, including concept, creating a gameplay trailer and finally game release. (Thomsen, 2010)

Personnel

This covers your development team in terms of its size to fit their project, the roles that each one has, skills and experiences of each member, availability of the staff and costs of pay. This means looking into peoples CV’s and choosing the best candidate for the role. Most likely if you’re an independent games developer you would be looking for the cheapest workers that can still produce at a level you are happy with, whereas if you were a larger triple A company, then you would want the best people for the job, no matter the cost. This mind set also counts for the size of the team, as the bigger the team the quicker the game will be produced but the more money it would cost.

Facilities

The sorts of facilities used for making a game are considered in pre-production, for example, if you want a professional piece done, you would outsource to others in order to get the best work possible, obviously this would be another cost but for a bigger or larger scale game or development team, then it would be worth it. This also includes production equipment and other places like recording booth. This could be done out-house but in larger development teams they will have on-house facilities.

Materials

Sometimes you can get some of your assets for free from the internet, places like Machinimasound (machinimasound) which you can use sounds for free, and there are places similarly where you can get images for backgrounds or characters for free too.

Contributors

Ellen Page in Beyond two souls

Includes the investors and kick-starters again, while also including people who do any out sourced work and specialists that you may bring on to the project to improve any areas that you may be lacking in. They can also be celebrities that you want to voice a character (like Ellen Page who was the main character of ‘Beyond; two souls’). With these contributors, they are split into specialists, experts and talent.

Locations

Arma 3 (2013)

For some games, ether set in or inspired by certain locations, the developers may want to go on a trip to recon the area, although with this comes the limitations of weather, distance, cost, and the accessibility of the location. For Arma 3, the developers ‘Bohemia Interactive’ were arrested by the Greek government for espionage, as Martin Pezlar and Ivan Buchta the two men claimed to be working for Bohemia Interactive in an official capacity, recording videos and taking photographs. However under Greek law, as it’s illegal to take pictures of military institutions. (Greek news, n.d.)

Codes of practice and regulation

Within this section, you have to consider the governing bodies of the media industries, Including things like PEGI who govern censorship and age-gating, ESRB who are responsible for outlining themes of the game and making the buyers aware, and Ofcom who ‘is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.’ (Ofcom, n.d.). Whilst also including the Regulations for Health and safety, copyright and Insurance.