Build a Game: The @IWDev Challenge 2014

Presented by @MattDrivenDev and @GarethIW at the Isle of Wight College, January 2014. Kicking off a project to plan and design a MMOG.

Transcript

1. Build a game The @IWDev Challenge 2014
2. Matt Ball • IT Solutions Developer at Liz Earle Beauty Co • 10 years experience • Founder of IWDev (that makes this my fault) • Gamer (once upon a time) ! Gareth Williams • Senior Developer at MyCRM Ltd • 12 years experience • Built 12 games in 2013 • Gamer Who are we?
3. • We’re going to give you all jobs - at our new games development house, Happy Submarine Games • We’re your new bosses • You’re going to Do Some Work - (you won’t get paid, sorry) • We want you to build us a game… - A MMOG • Hold the fort! - What’s a MMOG? Why are we here?
4. • Plot • Theme • World Lore • Mood • Art & Design Style • Storyboarding • Mechanics How do I, game design?
5. • What is the business model? - Subscription based - Free to play - ‘Freemium’ - Expansion packs - Big Bang release? or 
 regular/iterative MVPs? • How quickly can you break-even? Show me the money!
6. • MVPs - Minimal - Viable - Product • Get your customers to pay to play-test
 your game! • Gather all of the usage stats: - Make informed decisions on
 what to add and remove to
 the next version. Most valuable players?
7. Surely we’re going to need a plan to do this? Well of course! • Project manager(s) • Time management • Development processes • Milestones, x-functional interactions
 and critical paths: - Front-load the hard parts - Gantt charts • Bug tracking Project management
8. What kinds of things will live centrally, on our servers? • A ‘server side’ game engine, that coordinates many different game clients. • Data Persistence (databases, documents) - Characters - Worlds • Hosting - Build your own data centre? - Use a cloud platform? • Think about integration the ‘server side’ of the game
9. What does the game client ‘look’ like? • Think about target platforms: - PC/Mac, Consoles, Mobile Devices or X-Platform? • The Game Engine: - Build your own? - Use an existing engine? • Data Persistence - Caching data from the server The ‘client side’ of the game
10. What do the players see? • 2D or 3D game? - Select a 3rd party graphics rendering engine? - Build your own? • Building the game assets: - 2D sprites and maps - 3D models, textures • Think about how animations can
 be designed and brought into
 the finished game. the graphics engine
11. Computer games have a lot of sounds, don’t they? • Music • Effects • Voice acting • Food for your ears… All of the sounds
12. We’ll also need a few websites: • Commercial facing: - Selling the game - Registering accounts, manage billing etc • Community facing: - Forums - In-game interactions • Marketing - SEO and PPC - Social Media campaigns Website
13. MMOG’s tend to draw players from all over the world, but what does that mean? • Locales (countries), and the things that change: - Languages, currencies and time-zones • Globalisation - Make all of the software easy to
 change ‘locale’. • Localisation - Make a version of the software
 for a new ‘locale’. globalisation and localisation
14. We promised you a challenge: • We’ll get you into teams… - …and help you select your project managers • Over the coming weeks you’ll need to: - Plan the development - Design technical specifications - Prepare a presentation • We’ll be back! - On the 14th of March - You’ll be presenting your plans to us So what is the challenge?
15. Your presentation should be accompanied with: • Design documentation: - Data flow, ERDs and systems architecture • Visual designs: - Website mockups, character designs
 and game storyboards • Business plan • Selected platforms, languages and
 tools (and reasons why) • Bonus points for prototyping ideas What we’re looking for
16. If over the next few weeks you have questions, or require a little help or clarification - get in touch! • Web: http://iwdev.it • Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/iwdev • Twitter: @IWDev • Join the conversation using 
 #IWDevChallenge on Twitter questions and support
17. (Do Some Work) Let’s dsw