Developing a game - From concept to market

From concept to market
The long and winding road for the production of a video game
What questions should you ask yourself?
Which key decisions will you have to take?
What are the pitfalls to avoid?
________________________
Pascal Luban
Game design consulting & services
www.gamedesignstudio.com

How do we use our time in a development?
________________________
Pascal Luban

Assets development and
code
Concept and design
Tuning, debuging and
polishing
________________________
Pascal Luban
How do we use our time?

What makes a game development different
from other media …
… is the importance that must be given to the gameplay, the debuging
and the tuning …
… issues that can only addressed toward the end of a development.
Making the right decisions at the begining of a development is a key
success factors.
________________________
Pascal Luban

The various stages in the development process
________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage

________________________
Pascal Luban
The concept stage
Key questions to ask oneself:
 What is my audience and what will it enjoy?
 What is my core gameplay? What will make it appealing?
 Do I want to offer a one-player or a multiplayer game?
 For which platform(s) do I want to develop for?
Mobile (iOS, Android, Windows)
PC/Mac (stand-alone, game portals, Facebook)
Game consoles (home, handheld)
Tomorrow: Smart TV, internet providers?

________________________
Pascal Luban
The concept stage
 What is my business model?
Premium
Premium with additional content
Freemium
Paymium
Advertising, sponsorship
Subscription
Limited access
Episodic content

________________________
Pascal Luban
The concept stage
 What is my business model?
 Do I need a partner?
Game publisher
Sponsor
Self-publishing

________________________
Pascal Luban
The concept stage
The pitfalls:
 To do a game for oneself
 To build a game concept with no REAL gameplay
 To lack focus
 To underestimate the importance of the business model and the
platform choices.

________________________
Pascal Luban
The concept stage
The output of the concept stage:
 A clearly defined audience
 A USP (unique selling point)
 A core gameplay concept
 The platform(s)
 The business model
Options:
 Art concept
 A story pitch (if the game is story-driven).

________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage
Prototype
stage

________________________
Pascal Luban
The prototype stage
Its purpose:
 To test the value of the core gameplay
Is it fun?
Are variations of the core gameplay interesting?
Is it compatible with the target platform(s)?

________________________
Pascal Luban
The prototype stage
Its purpose:
 To test the value of the gameplay
 To validate the technical choices
Do we have the right game engine?
Do we witness a quality loss when assets are integrated in the
game engine?

________________________
Pascal Luban
The prototype stage
Its purpose:
 To test and set up the production pipeline
How complex is it to deliver assets at the right format?
Do we need specific developments?

________________________
Pascal Luban
The prototype stage
Its purpose:
 To test the production pipeline
 To write the game design document (GDD).

________________________
Pascal Luban
The prototype stage
The pitfalls:
 Not to test the gameplay
 Not to write a GDD.

________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage
Prototype
stage
Development
stage

________________________
Pascal Luban
The development stage
Its purpose:
 To code all the game features
 To develop, to integrate game assets and to build the game
Two methods:
Waterfall method
Agile method

________________________
Pascal Luban
Its purpose:
 To code all the game features
 To develop, integrate game assets and to build the game
 To start the public relationship work (PR).

________________________
Pascal Luban
The pitfalls:
 Underestimating the time it takes to develop the game as planned
 The “feature creep” syndrom
 Changing the technology
 Not giving enough importance to level design
 The lead designer refuses changes to “his” concept
 The project leadership becomes overbearing
 The discovery that the project needs a business model.

________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage
Prototype
stage
Development
stage
Tuning &
debugging
stages

________________________
Pascal Luban
The tuning and debugging stage
The purpose:
 To correct bugs
 To tune the game’s difficulty, to improve the player’s experience
PR steps up.

________________________
Pascal Luban
The tuning and debugging stage
The pitfalls:
 The absence of playtest
 The lead designer refuses changes to “his” concept
 The lack of dedicated testers to identify bugs
 The lack of time to do time-consuming debugging.

________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage
Prototype
stage
Development
stage
Release
stage
Tuning &
debuging
stages

________________________
Pascal Luban
The release stage
Full launch versus soft launch:
Full launch: The application is released on all market will all the
marketing the publisher can muster.
Soft launch: The application is released on a few selected markets with
little or no PR in order to test it and improve it before going for a full
launch.

________________________
Pascal Luban
Concept
stage
Prototype
stage
Development
stage
Release
stage
Post-launch
Tuning & stage
debuging
stages

________________________
Pascal Luban
The post-launch stage
Purpose:
 To adapt and improve the game
 To build a strong relationship with the community of players

________________________
Pascal Luban
The post-launch stage
Pitfalls:
 The absence of means to “monitor” the game
 The absence of real community management
 The change of business model after the game release
 The lack of resource to continue the development of the game.

________________________
Pascal Luban
Conclusion – Key learnings
 Build your game around a gameplay, not its story or theme
 Be focused
 Never underestimate the time it will take to develop and tune the
game
 Be humble
 Invest in a strong project management.
Follow me on Twitter: PASCAL_LUBAN

________________________
Pascal Luban
Pascal Luban
Game designer & creative director, freelance
19+ years of experience in game and level design
Main clients: Activision, Ubisoft, SCEE, DICE

Follow me on Twitter: PASCAL_LUBAN
Looking for game design tutorials?
www.tutorialsgalmedesign.com
________________________
Pascal Luban

Developing a game - From concept to market

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