Pre-production

Unit 1

Pre-Production

What is pre-production?

Pre-production is the first phase in of a new product and the final phase of the product development process. Pre-production is used for multi media industries e.g. advertisement, radio, television, games development, internet and press. Pre-production is key for planning to make sure everything goes to plan and meet the requirements. 
Pre-production in games development has the same principals and media and film with slight differences e.g. in pre-production the developers will think about what genre they want their game to be and the general plot/feel and look. Games for pcs and consoles are usual funded by publishers. Pre-production or design phase as it is known in game development, is a planning phase of the whole game development project.


They produce clear and easy documents for the design team to understand what the total aim of the development team is and what individual parts each team member will be doing and deadlines that should be meant to show the publishers the progress the team has made. The game will then go into full development if the publishers are happy and the team have enough information and prototypes.

Finance
Finance is a big part of pre-production as there is lots of resources that you may need while developing a game/film or other media , equipment needed to develop these can get pricey e.g. pc's, software, green screens, cameras and offices/work space which you would either buy or  rent and maintain. You may need to go to different location that you may be using in your game or the use of other facilities so you will hire transport to get you and your crew to those places.
Personnel need to be taken into account setting budgets to different takes forces or section for your development team. Planning is key to keep to schedules and money stopping you going over on your budgets and spending too much time on one part of the development. It is good to keep to schedules and deadlines especially if being funded by a company or publishers which wants prototypes and presentation.
GTA5 was one of the biggest games released in 2013 by Rockstar north. It was in development for 5 years after the release of GTA4. The total cost for the development of GTA5 was £170 million but made a profit of around 1 billion in the first 3 days of the game being published.
The hobbit an unexpected journey was partly film in New Zealand and they used five helicopters to pick out perfect spots to star in the film. They would have to pay for flights to New Zealand for all the crew and all the equipment. They also had to pay for the helicopter ass well, so even before thy have started filming there already spending lots of money which would have been planned in the pre-production of the film.
Personal
 The number of developers included in your project will have to be pay a monthly wage, if your game is in development for 2 years the budget will have to include wages for those two years because if the developers aren't getting paid because of budget errors they aren't going to continue work .This is why planning budgets and having deadlines is essential as company's or publishers which are funding your project don't want to lose money and they want to make a profit. You’re also going to interview people who have applied for the various jobs, look at their experiences and qualification and decide whether they are suitable for the job they are applied for, this is a time consuming part of the pre-production and can cost money to set it all up. 
Producers is the overseer of the development weather it’s a film or game or other types of media their role is to manage the development team, schedules, reports progress and budget. A Designer in game developments role is to design the game play and the structure of the game, there is usually a lead designer who manage other designers.
An artist’s role is to draw and model characters for a game or film there is usually a lead artist in charge of other artist that work on individual parts of the development. 2D artist mainly work on concept are and 3D artist produce models, animation and environments. Programmers in game development produce all the game physics, mechanics, integrates sound speech and sound effects into the specific areas of the game and scripting.  The level design develops the levels mission or challenges for the game using a specified set of programs. Sound engineer develops the sound effects, the specific sounds of objects like a weapon and sound positioning.
A cast for a film is all the actors that will be staring in the film, main characters, back ground characters/filler and characters that only have a small role to play. Script writers for games, films and other media, write the dialog and story of the entire game or film.
Time
Having deadlines is very important when producing a game especially if you are being funded by an outside source. They will want drafts and presentation on your progress and a final dead line, this links in with finance because if a company is funding the development there not just going to give you money and tell you to get on with it. They will want deadlines and finishing dates so they know there money isn't going to be wasted and they know they’re going to make their money back.

So in pre-production it important to work out deadlines to keep to a schedule to save money and to get the game finished. Equipment and facilities you’re hiring may not be available forever. Personnel you’re hiring may have other projects and their own deadlines so there availability is limited.

Contributors

When producing a game/film you might want a celebrities to star in you game/film or a specialist that will help with the concept art, filming, producing or music. These will have to be scheduled and budgeted to see how much time and availability there is and you will have to account for the time that the specialist or celebrities can work for and how much you have to pay them. The Sims super stars had a number of celebrities stared in this game e.g. Avril Lavigue, Cameron Diaz and a few others. Kat Williams and Ricky Gervais also stared in comedy clubs in GTA 4. 
Codes and regulations
There are rules, codes and regulation you have to consider as you don't want to have to re make your game or go to court over copyright as it can affect the development and you can lose time and money. Health and safety has to be check and insured for any accidents with equipment or workers. Procedures to make sure that none of the pictures or art in your game is copyright and you game will need to be check and given a pegi rating. 
Trade union is Completion insurance that makes sure that when the product is finished it is delivered to the distributor and the payment will be sent from the distributor to the producer and this insurance keeps the independent developers protected.
PEGI or pan European game information is a video game content rating system for consumers. So when they look at getting a game for themselves or their children it helps to show if it’s suited for them or their children to play. This system is used in thirty different countries and is based on a code of conduct. PEGI is a stander set of rules for games developers to follow to make sure there games is suitable for publishing and does not cross any lines. The more offensive material the higher the pegi rating give to that game. 
Public liability is another consideration to make sure while your film or game is in development its doesn't harm the public e.g. A member of the public can sue you if they trip over or get hurt by any of the equipment you are using.  
ASA Advertising standards authority, regulates UK advertising across all media. So if you wanted to create an advert for your game or film, the ASA would check you advert to make sure it is suitable for television or online advertisement. Ofcom oversees all broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries in the UK and is government approved. The purpose Ofcom is to make sure that industry's named above keep to a set of rules to protect the public from harmful and offensive material. 
Ellen Paige was used in beyond two soles as the model for the character Jodie Holmes and in the game, The last of us the character called Ellie had a resemblance to Ellen Paige thought no legal action was taken against naughty dog there have been other cases where celebrities have sued game developer for being in there game without permission.

 Facilities
When developing a film or game, the project may require certain facilities to help with development e.g. cameras, software, green screens and other expensive facilities which will have to be Incorporated into the budget and schedule. You may want certain places incorporated into you game or film, so getting permission from the local council in that area to film or use pictures of buildings in your game. Software like 3d studios max and adobe Photoshop and professional tools that are used in lots of different media types. Photoshop is used to edit pictures to give them certain effects or can be used to make sprites and other art for games, another software used to create 3D characters is blender.

 
Bibliography

http://gamerant.com/ellen-page-last-of-us-character-beyond-two-souls-cast/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/09/09/gta-5-budget-most-expensive_n_3892602.html

 

 

 

 





 



Games in society

Games in society

Impact of computer games on society  

 

Computer games can become very addictive and causes you to play for hours on end with no contact to the outside world. There is many reason for people playing computer games endlessly e.g. games offer different worlds and experiences to reality and peoples experiences on games can be  better than their own lives so they get sucked into the games to get away from the problems there having in their lives.

Kids and teenagers that don't enjoy school and get bullied spend hours online because they can meet other players and it gives them a sense of belonging even if it is just a game.

The negative effects of playing games for long periods of time can be physical or mental, physical effects can be losing weight from not eating or gaining weight form doing no physical activities. You can also to damage your body from being in a single spot and not moving. Sleep deprivation can also affect your social life, missing school and appointments because you sleep in after being up all night gaming.

Gaming addiction can also have negative effects on your brain. It can cause hallucination, headaches irrational thoughts and also the tetras effects, this is where a people devote so much time and attention to games it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images and dreams.

When playing games that are addicted and all you want to do is play as much as you can you get isolated your friends and the outside world. You can end up losing friends all together which continues the isolation because you want to play your games more to meet new people online and you slowly get more and more drawn into the game. This also links in with separation of reality as you get took away from the outside world into the world of your game. In some extreme cases some gamers have recreated things from the game  in reality causing harm to them self's or to others because their been addicted to the game for so long the link between reality and fiction has blurred in their mind.

Buying games, dlc, add-ons, online memberships and special addition can get very expensive especially with all the different platforms, consoles and the wide variety of games. There is also a lot of pressure in communities to have the version of new games and the latest hardware and software.

 Game developers put dlc’s and games on sale to make their games even more resistless

Education can be effected by game addiction because all that person is thinking about playing that game, they lose focus and fade in and out of reality making their grades to fall, gamers often take days off school when new games come out effecting there attendance, which can lead to them being suspended or getting kicked out of school or college.

Game development offer lots of jobs in loads of areas e.g. media, music, coding, management and others. This industry is one of the biggest going and is expanding offering lots of jobs for experienced and college/university graduates. Games development and i.t. will have a big impact on the future as more software and hardware is developed, it is starting to be used in all types of work

There are loads competition in gaming from call of duty to StarCraft which is massive n Korea competitive StarCraft players in Korea are idolized like professional footballers is Britain and as the gaming industry expands the more people are into watching others or playing competitively, Minecraft is the most stream game on twitch tv and there are people that get paid to upload gameplay on YouTube.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Game genres

Genre	description	example
Survival Horror	A survival game focuses on scaring the player using methods such as, atmospherics, death, jump scares. It uses these elements to give the player a heart racing experience.	Outlast is a survival horror, You start as journalist investigating a hospital for the mental ill when you get trap in the hospital and have to try and escape, there are many people in the hospital that have been experimented on and mutilated they can run around the map and some can as you and try to kill you there is also a insane doctor that’s chops you fingers of and you have to escape from him eventually trapping him between the lift and the floor as the elevator goes down killing him. This games has lots of jump scares gore and atmospheric changes. Its uses very dark slow sounding music to give it a horror game feel.
MMOFPS	MMOFPS OR Massive Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter is an online shooting games where players from all around the world can play on massive servers on the same open world.	Destiny is a MMOFPS. Destiny is a fully online game with a campaign story where other players can drop in and out of the same mission your on and they can help you progress there is also a multiplayer team v.s team  called the crucible which has different matches with different objectives e.g. domination , death match and many more.
Racing	Racing games are games that have different types of cars and race track from all around the world that allows the player to experience theses elements from the comfort of his or her sofa	Froza 5 is an example of a racing game that is develop by Turn 10 studios. All they racing maps were digital map so that they would be as realistic as possible. They also added as many manufactures, makes and types of cars they can to give you a wide variety and choice.  They also have a lot of customization you can do to your cars and there is also a online multiplayer so you can race against you friends and other Online players.
Sandbox RPG	Sandbox RPG are open world which allows the player a Hugh amount of freedom on where there go and what they do. They contain a huge amount of content and lots of secondary content not essential to the main story line but add hours of playing time.	Skyrim is a sandbox RPG its is a fantasy/medieval game with a massive map and lots of places to be found and explored. The pc version of this game offers lots of mods and modding to add more content and different experiences
Construction and management Simulation	Construction and management simulations are types of simulation where you have to build, expand and mange fictional communities or projects.	In SimCity The player is given the task of developing a city while maintaining the happiness of the citizens in your city and keep a stable budget. The player can designate zones for different types of production, residential and community to expand and make you city better. The game also includes natural disasters e.g. bad weather, earthquakes and others.
Traditional fighting games	Traditional fighting games use one on one combat between two players or a player and AI they use chains of button presses to attack the other character and multiple button press as combos for different types of attacks.	Mortal combat is a traditional fighting game that has been develop over a number of years it use lots of characters with different fighting styles, different combos and different special attacks to give the player a variety of choice to use.
Platform	A platform games using little sprites or characters usually 2d top get from point A to point B with obstacles you have to jump over or go under and enemies you have to avoid.	Platform games like Mario have lots of obstacles to jump over, to and under there are enemies you can avoid or try and kill and you can get power up like the ability to throw fire balls Mario also contain different characters e.g. luige, tod, Yoshi and princes peach in the early Mario platform games they all had the same abilities and the same power ups.
Stealth games	Stealth games are games where the player has to complete an objective without being caught or seen	Hit man absolution is a stealth game that gives you lots of option to complete an objective or assonating a target, you can go in guns blazing and kill as many people as you can to complete the objective or you can sneak in quietly and only take out the target which give you more points, you can even find a different way of killing that target rather than getting your hands dirt e.g. poising drinks or foods setting traps or setting someone else up which will get you more points.
Text adventures	Text adventures where games purely based on text and a few pictures. The text would come up with different scenarios e.g. you have come to a fork in the road which path do you take and you respond with your choice.	Zork was a popular text based game in the 1970s. Zork was well like because of its story telling and the sophistication of the text phrases.
Sports game	EA are the main developers of sports games there e.g. football, NHL, NBA, madden and NCCA football	FIFA is EA most popular game. Its is a football game contain all team from around the world plus country’s is also has a game type called ultimate team where players can buy and trade players to make the best team possible to play against other online players team.