Pre-production for maze games

Pre-production 

Maze game

What particular pre-production requirements will you need for Wayne's maze game?  

I will have approximately 3-4 weeks to plan, design, develop and publish my maze game.For this type of game of need a budget of around £5000 to cover the cost of the hardware and software. However as I am make this game in college all the software and facilities I need is free for me to use to develop my game. 

Software:

Game maker is a piece of software that allows you to create 2D games of different genres using sprite and objects, your character can be made in game maker or using adobe Photoshop for better looking graphics and the way this software works is it has codes that are pre-set for different traits or action. There are version of game maker that are free but if you want the full version with all the tools it costs £799 and in the professional world have this version will give you everything you need for a game of this type. I will be using game maker primarily for all the

coding and and level design:

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics design software that allows the user to change a picture or animated image or create one of their own, it cost £329 to buy. I will be using this software to create my character and the enemies it will be facing. I will also be making the objects in my game e.g. walls, doors and object my character will have to collect.

Paint comes free with ever computer that uses windows operating system, it is a simple piece of software that allows the user to draw or write on. I am going to plan the five different levels and characters on paint and then develop its further in game maker or Photoshop.

Hardware:

I will need a PC which can run theses programs, as its only a 2D maze game i am creating i don't need high specs computer but if I was doing 3D modelling and creating a 3D game the software is much more demanding. But for a project of this type I could get  the specs I need for around £800-£1000.

Facilities/Resources:

I am going to develop this maze game in college so I have access to the software above for free and I have the facilities I need at college for free. However if I was producing this game without the college I would have to plan a budget contain everything I will need e.g. software, hardware, facilities and travel. Research material can be found on the internet, books, magazines and are available in the college library.

Time:

The game should only take a 3 to 4 weeks so to make the best out of the time I will schedule everything to keep to the deadline. There are some thing about game maker and Photoshop that are unfamiliar to me so I will have to learn certain thing as I develop the maze game.

Crew:

I will be developing this maze game by myself but i might take a look at other people’s games for inspiration and ideas. I could also ask some students that are musician to help with the music for my game. If I was developing this game outside of college and had a budget I might hire musician and other developers to help with certain parts of the production as they could add there ideas

and experience to make the game better. 

Contributors:

As this project is for a college assignment, I am the only  contributor for the maze game but if i was creating this game outside of college I could hire a celebrity to use there voice or model for a character and use this as a selling point and advertisement to get more sales and make  more of a profit. 

Copyright:

If i use anyone else work of the internet I need to ensure that it is copyright free to avoid violating copyright laws. There are site which have images and sounds that I can use copyright free, like the website free sound. If I look at characters for inspiration i have to be careful of how I

implement it into my character as I don't want to my character to look too much like an already published and copyrighted character. There are lots of age rating from 3 - 18 and the more offensive and violent the game is the higher age rating it will be given.  

Rules and Regulations:

To be able to sell my game in Europe I will have to send a copy to PEGI (Pan European Game Information), which will asses my game and give it a age rating for consumers to look at and decide weather this game is suitable for them or there children. As I  am making a simple 2D maze game I will not incorporate any violent or offensive content into my maze game. I may want to create a advert for my game for publicity and higher sales, however I would have to pay for the equipment need to record my advert and its will have to be assessed by the ASA (Advertisement Standards authority)  to make sure it dose not contain any offensive or violent content and is suitable for broadcasting.