Hey
When a game developer starts to create their game what are the emplyees role within the business and how many of them does it take to achieve the indervidual roles, also when a Game developer has completed their game how do they get it on to disc because surely they cant just go down their computer store, pick up a few discs and burn everything they created onto the disc, so what do they do to put the games on to a working disc so it can be played?
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What roles do employees play in a Game dev company?
Those are some big questions!
On the roles questions, you can take a look at this - IGDA Credited Roles.
On the getting the game onto disc part, that is a pretty complicated processes. You have to use proprietary dev kits, disc writers, and discs from the manufacturer - Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo. Once the game is signed off my the console manufacturer, the publisher then sends the approved discs to a manufacturing company for mass production. That is a highly condensed explanation [wink]
On the roles questions, you can take a look at this - IGDA Credited Roles.
On the getting the game onto disc part, that is a pretty complicated processes. You have to use proprietary dev kits, disc writers, and discs from the manufacturer - Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo. Once the game is signed off my the console manufacturer, the publisher then sends the approved discs to a manufacturing company for mass production. That is a highly condensed explanation [wink]
Quote: Original post by tomsteels123
1. Hey
2. When a game developer starts to create their game
3. what are the emplyees role within the business
4. and how many of them does it take to achieve the indervidual roles,
5. also when a Game developer has completed their game how do they get it on to disc because surely they cant just go down their computer store, pick up a few discs and burn everything they created onto the disc, so what do they do to put the games on to a working disc so it can be played?
1. Yeh
2. Do you mean a professional game development company? Creating a packaged product game for a game console like Xbox 360 for instance? Is that what you mean?
3. View Forum FAQ. This thread is now in the Breaking In forum. Scroll up from these words and look for the tiny little "View Forum FAQ" link, click it, and read. Read, and read, and read.
4. Open the instruction manual for a game and read the credits.
5. A DEVELOPER doesn't mass-duplicate games. A PUBLISHER sends the disc to a MANUFACTURER and the manufacturer mass-duplicates them. There are also PRINTERS and ASSEMBLY LINES to put all the parts together into a packaged product. If this is a console game, then the PLATFORM HOLDER also has to be involved. If you don't know what these terms mean, start with the Game Biz Glossary: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson28.htm
Quote: Original post by tomsteels123
Hey
When a game developer starts to create their game what are the emplyees role within the business and how many of them does it take to achieve the indervidual roles, also when a Game developer has completed their game how do they get it on to disc because surely they cant just go down their computer store, pick up a few discs and burn everything they created onto the disc, so what do they do to put the games on to a working disc so it can be played?
For PC games you could actually do that, allthough your customers might be a bit upset with the lower quality discs, and if you are printing large volumes its cheaper to have it done properly anyway.
Getting games onto consoles is harder since those games has to be signed by the console manufacturer (homebrew is an exception but its legal status varies between jurisdictions since it often requires console modification to run (Microsoft however does provide an officially supported way of getting homebrew and inde games and applications onto the xbox360 but they are the only ones doing that)
If you are targeting the PC you could have a company like Disc Makers(300 unit minimum for disc replication) handle the dvd production for you, there might be better or cheaper alternatives ofcourse (They were the first i found using google), Getting your games into multiple stores across the world without a publisher is pretty much impossible though. (You can still sell the game yourself online though and getting local stores to carry your game is perfectly doable)
Quote: Original post by tomsteels123
....and how many of them does it take to achieve the indervidual roles,
That would depend on what type of game and how big it is. One size does not fit all.
Quote: ....also when a Game developer has completed their game how do they get it on to disc....That would also depend. If it's publisher funded then the publisher would do that. Most developers don't have the resources to do a disc based (retail) game. They would most likely do a digitally distributed game that doesn't need a disc at all.
Well on Monday we tell everyone that whatever they are doing is awesome.
Then on Tuesday we tell everyone that whatever they just did isn't good enough and it sucks.
On Wednesday eat cake.
On Thursday we all think that the schedule is impossible and stress over it.
On Friday we get our stuff done, check it in so the build breaks friday evening and go home before we get the email from the build machines that we all just broke the build.
So I would say that the answer is that employees play the role of headless chickens.
Then on Tuesday we tell everyone that whatever they just did isn't good enough and it sucks.
On Wednesday eat cake.
On Thursday we all think that the schedule is impossible and stress over it.
On Friday we get our stuff done, check it in so the build breaks friday evening and go home before we get the email from the build machines that we all just broke the build.
So I would say that the answer is that employees play the role of headless chickens.
Well on Monday we tell everyone that whatever they are doing is awesome.
Then on Tuesday we tell everyone that whatever they just did isn't good enough and it sucks.
On Wednesday eat cake.
On Thursday we all think that the schedule is impossible and stress over it.
On Friday we get our stuff done, check it in so the build breaks friday evening and go home before we get the email from the build machines that we all just broke the build.
So I would say that the answer is that employees play the role of headless chickens.
This is right we have a publisher that has the habit of asking for builds randomly, and that is usually when nothing works, so we struggle all through the night to get alteast a part working and tell them that we are doing some major changes to the system and that is why stuff is not working.
BTW google mike the headless chicken, we call everybody from our team mike.
This is right we have a publisher that has the habit of asking for builds randomly, and that is usually when nothing works, so we struggle all through the night to get alteast a part working and tell them that we are doing some major changes to the system and that is why stuff is not working.
A sad case of poor management. Deliverables (milestones) are defined in the contract and can't be randomly requested (unless the developer's managers are stupid and don't negotiate a proper contract.)
This is right we have a publisher that has the habit of asking for builds randomly, and that is usually when nothing works, so we struggle all through the night to get alteast a part working and tell them that we are doing some major changes to the system and that is why stuff is not working.
[/quote]
In addition to poor management and lack of a contract this could point to an infrastructure and process issue that could be addressed in-house. Are you using any kind of SCM? Do you tag working builds? Do you have continuous build integration?
See points 1-3 by Joel Sposky:
http://www.joelonsof...0000000043.html
This is right we have a publisher that has the habit of asking for builds randomly, and that is usually when nothing works, so we struggle all through the night to get alteast a part working and tell them that we are doing some major changes to the system and that is why stuff is not working.
In addition to poor management and lack of a contract this could point to an infrastructure and process issue that could be addressed in-house. Are you using any kind of SCM? Do you tag working builds? Do you have continuous build integration?
See points 1-3 by Joel Sposky:
http://www.joelonsof...0000000043.html
[/quote]
I fully agree here.
You should ALWAYS have a playable build available. Further, people should work outside the main code line and submit to it after features are ready to be publicly seen. In the rare case that something accidentally makes the game unplayable, the previous build will still be accessible and the changes should be backed out or corrected immediately as the highest priority action.
Just because you have scheduled delivery milestones does not mean you cannot be asked for a build at any time. You cannot predict that a VIP will visit the studio and you need to immediately show off your product. As an example, we had one of our state senators recently pay a visit, and we had no notice as a team that he was coming. Our producer was able to pull the latest verified build (from the day before) and confidently fire it up knowing it would play well.
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