Make it happenThe story of a production cycle

Dan Olthen

Production cycle

Pre-Production Production Release

10% -25% 75% - 90%

Pre-Production

Outcome

• What is the game?

• Who is involved?

• What is the plan?

• Proof of concept – First playable

Pre-Production

Mission statement – Vision and Scope

Everyone understands the Mission

Share the same vision

Pre-Production

Stakeholders

• Investors

• Board

• Publisher

• External departments

• Team

Talk early and often

Pre-Production

Lay the groundwork

• Agree on how to work

• Document everything

• Game specs, Schedule, Budget, Staffing

• Recognize your risks

Update and share your documents

Pre-Production

First playable

• Prototype however you want

• Iterate often

• Do not get emotionally attached

• Get asap to something everyone can play

Start playing early

Production

Outcome

• Plan implementation

• Tracking

• Task completion

• Testing

• Ship the game

Production

Plan implementation

• Define things together

• Give directions not instructions

• Have a common information platform

• Check on your vision

Work TOGETHER

Production

Tracking

• Agree on how to track

• Review your progress

• Make it visible for everyone

• Constantly improve your process

Keep the overview

Production

Task completion

• Define acceptance criteria for each task

• Get sign off on the quality bar

• Make the information understandable

Always have something showable

Production

Testing

• Get QA in ideally mid Pre-Production

• Agree together with the team on QA process

• Facture in QA time into your milestones

• Get QA and CM together

QA is your safety net

Ship it

Summary

• Share the same vision

• Talk early and often

• Update and share your documents

• Start playing early

• Work TOGETHER

• Keep the overview

• Always have something showable

• QA is your safety net

Thank you

Email: d.olthen@me.com