James assignment 1

Assignment 1:Pre-production Techniques for the Creative Media Industries                                     29/10/2015                                                                                                                    Kyle Preston                                                        

What is pre-production?

Pre-production is the point where you think about how you will create a game idea and take into consideration your vision and the goals of your project as well as things hiring staff you also create the standards you expect from your staff. Production is the stage in games design in which you create the game itself when doing this you need to finish the game as quickly as possible as the more time it takes you the more profits you lose.

Finance

When making a game you have to consider financial issues whilst in production first you have to consider the cost of hardware and software as well as how you’re going to fund the game. My game will be made on the game maker software the version I have costs £150 and cost nothing to publish games from but you need and android module. To create my game I am using a school computer which doesn’t cost me any money but does cost the college itself to buy them and as the game doesn’t require funding I do not have to think about it but funding is a vital point you need to consider when making games at home as you will spend money on things like internet and electricity cost. You can get funding from places like kick starter.  

Materials

Materials like internet and electricity which you need to run the computers and its software but there are also costs for things like concept arts, storyboards and audio which may lead to cost of voice actor or actors depending on how many characters you have in the game. All of these are things you need to think about when making a game as you do not what to spend too much money making the game and not make a profit from the game. You can also buy artists to make your concept arts and storyboards for you and although this may cost more money it can help a lot in the long run.

Time constraints

You really have to think about time when making a game the longer it takes you to create the more profit you will lose things like deadlines are good things to think about. To judge what your deadline should be you also must talk about availability of equipment making games uses equipment like computers which will all need the software you use on the computers and can add to the cost of the game a lot and the longer you have the equipment the more money you will spend. You also have to take into consideration the availability of your staff as they also cost you money every day they are working for you.it is best to set a deadline that the game can be finished in but will not destroy your profits. There are also time scales for the legal side of things like copyright laws and other things.

Personnel

Personnel is a really big thing when making a game as you need to know how many people it takes to create your game. Staff can cost you a lot of money and you have to find the middle ground between the time it takes you to make the game and the amount of staff you need as they both tie into each other the more staff you have the faster your game gets finished which could end up costing you too much but if you have to little staff the longer it will take to make the game and could end up again costing you too much money.

Equipment and facilities  

Equipment is an essential when making a game as you need it to get your software as well as needing it to make the game itself this also ties in with staff as they are each going to need a computer to work with to help finish your game. A computer can cost about £600 if you want one that is relatively powerful and can run games easier than a standard laptop. You also must think about a facility to work in as you need some space for your co-workers. Facilities also cost money and you also have to decide whether you need to buy a property or rent a place out which could end up costing more later on. Availability of these things is a big subject as you even know how easy it could be to get the need thing s and the lowering of availability may cost you even more money than you what it to.

Contributors

Some games require other things like pictures from people and guns. Call of duty uses guns to model the guns in their game so they look as realistic as possible again this cost you even more money but makes your game far better and could make profits higher. Also you could hire actors for character voices which could make your game profits even higher but this is a choice you would have to make yourself. You can also hire people to create things like concept arts and story boards as well as people to make audio sound effects but again each of these cost money.

Codes of practice

Code of practice is something you must really think about as if you don’t it may end up costing you quite a bit of money as you may get sued for things like copyright, health and safety and insurance without these you can get sued for a lot of money so you have to organize all of the legal things.

My game
For my game I have took into consideration many of the things I have wrote about. I am using the school to work on my game this means I already have the software I need and the facilities. For my game it will just be me working on it which may take longer but means if I published it I would get more of the profits from it.I have also decided to make the game available to ages above 12 as the game main contain some gore. As I am making the game by myself all the sound and concept art will be produced by me.