Creating computer games is not only interesting, but also profitable. According to the forecasts of the analytical company, the gaming industry this year by volume will exceed $152 billion, and the revenues of individual game companies have long been counted in the billions of dollars. At the lectures, instructors in the education program. We will tell you about the first steps of mobile game concept.
Building a teamwork process for the game
There are important processes of work on the project: defining the product concept and selecting the “product owner”, selecting the team, assigning roles in the team and selecting the SCRUM master, compiling the backlog and working with it, estimating tasks and sprint planning. Every game starts with an idea, which will go a certain way before ending up as a finished product. But not every idea will make it all the way to the end. According to statistics, less than 1% of all game launches achieve a commercial launch: aspiring developers often mistakenly believe that a game idea is the most important thing. But an idea becomes valuable only when two conditions are met:
- It is formalized at least in the form of primary documentation.
- You have a team capable of bringing the idea to life.
Game development consists of the following stages:
- Preparation.
- Pre-production.
- Production.
- Release.
Preparation
The preparation stage includes idea generation (vision), strategy search, preliminary market analysis, team search and formation, choice of management methodologies. There are a lot of indie projects on the market which are released on their own. Predominantly these are games for the Steam platform. We should not forget about crowdfunding. Market analysis is one of the most important steps in preparation. The key point is to understand your audience: who will play your game? Why will it stand out in the market? These questions must be answered during the preparatory stage, otherwise after the game’s release it may turn out that no one is interested in it.
Vision is the most important thing you have at the initial stage of development. A good vision takes up one A4 page which should contain a description of the game (platform, genre, setting, distribution model, gameplay description, main features and mechanics, player’s goals), references, USP (1 killer feature + 2-3 unique/new features, etc.)
There are two main approaches to team/project management used in game making: Agile and Waterfall. Most companies use hybrid methods that take elements from both of these approaches. Waterfall is an approach to team management based on a consistent, linear development cycle. Agile, on the other hand, is based on flexibility and iterations in product/project development. Each has its own disadvantages and advantages. SCRUM is one of the most popular methods of practical implementation of Agile philosophy in IT teams, it defines roles, responsibilities and key “ceremonies” in the team. Iterations in SCRUM are called sprints. The best way to implement a game idea is game development outsourcing.
