An Introduction To Video Game Production

A brief overview of the component parts of the game production cycle.

A detailed look at the Pre-Production phase of game development.

A detailed look at the Production phase of game development.

A brief introduction to the next section, which is focused on key questions to answer before you begin making anything.

You will understand the importance of deciding what type of game you're making and defining it.

You will understand the importance of engine choice in allowing you to make your game.

You will understand the importance of platform choice when developing and launching your game.

You will understand how hard constraints will affect how you decide what kind of game you can make.

A look at some simplified pipeline examples and why pipelines are important generally.

You will have an understanding of the prototyping and vertical slice process within the game development cycle - why they're important and what they're for.

A brief introduction to the next section, which is focused on scoping, backlogs and planning a game.

You will understand what a game backlog is and how to begin creating one.

You will learn how to begin visualising a backlog and how to break it down into releases and discipline.

You will understand how to begin estimating and assessing your backlog, which is key to making your game.

You will understand how to break a backlog down into releases, and then how to create a crew plan to take the work from backlog list into something that plans work for a fixed time period.

You'll understand how to begin creating a high level roadmap and the first stages of adding detail to it.

You will understand how the backlog is used in development, specifically how you groom it and how this forms the basis of planning.

You'll have an overview of why backlog software is useful, along with some examples you can research.

A brief introduction to the next section, which is focused on general topics a game producer needs to concern themselves with, from daily jobs, to ethics, to marketing and beyond.

You will understand what an MVP is and why it's a good approach for game development.

You will understand how to set up a team for making clear decisions that are communicated well.

You will understand the importance of documentation, what key documentation you need for game production, what it should contain and when you need it.

You will understand the fundamentals of where a game budget goes and things you need to consider when assessing how much your game might cost.

You will understand the best composition of a game team in terms of experience and skills, and how this can affect your game.

You'll understand the key concerns when recruiting a team to make your game.

You will understand what localisation is and the importance of it to your project and how it can affect your plans.

You'll understand how to begin making your games accessible to all and why it's important.

You'll get an overview of what play testing is, how to use it, and why it's very important to the production of your game.

You will understand the key areas in which marketing can affect your production plan and how to deal with it.

A brief overview of version control systems and how using them poorly can heavily affect your production plans.

You'll get a picture of what a game producer does each day and what their key activities should be.

A brief introduction to the next section, which is focused on the last phase of game development - when you "close" the project and ship it.

You will learn about how to treat bugs in your backlog and how to manage them in the final phase of your game's production.

You'll learn about the importance of cutting as a tool to ensure your game get's made, even if it's unpleasant.

We'll briefly cover what TCR/TRCs are and how you need to approach them to ensure you don't sabotage the development of your own game.

A brief discussion of what Going Gold means in our digital era and how you need to prepare well in advance to "Go Gold" at the right time to meet your launch window.

You'll learn the importance of being meticulous about crediting people for their work and some examples about how to do it in an inclusive way.

You'll understand some of the key ethical concerns of being a producer in the games industry and gain understanding of the ethical way to manage teams and projects.

A brief thanks for following the lectures so far and a note on the Example Project section that is coming up next.

A brief introduction to the next section, which is focused on using an example project to utilise what we've learned so far.

You'll learn the key considerations we need to figure out before we can begin making our example project.

You'll learn how to decide what the vertical slice for our example project should be in order to prove that we can make the game.

You'll learn how to create a backlog for our Vertical Slice based on the scope we agreed on in previous lectures.

You'll understand how we can estimate our example project backlog and then visualise it as a crew plan, alongside making calculations to check it's feasible.

You'll understand how to assess your VS and what kind of data you should be looking out for and what to do with it.

You'll understand the next steps in expanding the VS backlog into a full game backlog.

You'll learn how to create milestones for your project and plot them onto dates fitting within your production time frame.

You'll understand how to build in the key elements of localisation, marketing and play testing into your production plan.

We focus briefly on the importance of closing and how to approach it, along with some things to bear in mind.

A list of credits, thanking those who worked on the course.

A brief thanks from me and a reminder that I'll be updating the course based on your feedback.