Steve White

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Introduction
Steve White - Technical Director Vaughan
Marshall - Designer
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Topics today

• Who are hell are Torus?
• Industry Overview
• Structure of a Development Studio
• Roles within a Development Studio
• How is a game made?
• Opportunities for Australian game developers
• The current game markets and future trends
• How students can prepare themselves to enter the
  industry

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Torus Games - History

• Started in 1994 with 3 people
• Currently around 45 people
• Developed more than fifty titles
• Worked with a wide variety of publishers
• Developed on a wide variety of target platforms
• Approved developer on all consoles

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Industry Roles

• Developers
• Publishers
• Distributors
• Retail outlets
• Customers

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Structure of a Dev. Studio

• Management
• Administration
• Production Department
• Design Department
• Programming Department
• Art Department
• QA Department
• Audio Department
• Business Development

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The Producer

• Assigns and manages project tasks throughout the
  project lifecycle
• Manages relationships with customer and manages
  their expectations
• Controls time frames, milestones project costs
• Sources solutions for project requirements, eg.
  voice actors, contractors etc

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Programmers

• Types of programmers
• Lead programmer
• Content programmer
• Engine programmer
• Tools programmer.

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Lead Programmer

• The Lead Programmer
• Oversees the programming efforts of the other
  programmers as well fulfilling their specific
  role on the project
• Focuses on the "big picture how the systems
  worked on by the other programmers fit together
• Manages the relationship between the programming
  team and the Producer/Artists/Designers/QA team.

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Content Programmer

• The Content Programmer writes
• The game-specific code that supports the game
  play rules and logic
• The AI scripting specific to the game.

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Engine Programmer

• The Engine Programmer writes
• The game engine. This represents the reusable
  systems that are common to many games such as a
  graphics rendering system, a sound system,
  networking code etc
• Reusable components that are helpful to the
  Content programmer when writing the content code
  for a game.
• Famous game engines Doom, Unreal and Half Life.

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Tools Programmer

• The Tools programmer writes
• Utilities and editors that are helpful to the
  other members of the team during the game
  development process.
• This includes level editors, tools for exporting
  art content from 3D modelling packages into a
  format that the game engine can use, and other
  miscellaneous utilities to improve productivity.

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Game Designer

• Responsibilities include
• Game Design Document
• Level construction (project dependent)
• Cutscene and entity placement
• Game Play Balancing
• Game testing and testing and testing and testing
  
• Writing and presenting proposals/game pitches
• Market research

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Level Designer

• Responsibilities include
• Level Design
• Level construction
• Entity placement
• Game testing and testing and testing and testing
  

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Art Director

• Translates the designers written descriptions
  into concept sketches.
• Assembles an Art Style Guide.
• Follows the building and texture work that makes
  up in game models and through the Lead Artist,
  instructs if changes are necessary.
• Oversees lighting effects
• Visualises cut scenes

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Lead Artist

• Compiles a schedule of Art assets and time
  frames.
• Delegates work to artists.
• Finds solutions to art issues.
• Ensures that the Art Visions are met.
• Remains on the project until it is complete
  (Alpha, Beta, Final Gold).

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3D Artist

• Builds 3D models for in game cutscenes/levels.
• Ensures models are ready for textures. (UV
  unwrapping )
• Applies textures to the models.

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Animator

• Animates all models in the game (human or
  machine)
• Sets up cut scene art on instruction from the Art
  Director.

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Audio Design

• Key roles include
• Identification and documentation of project audio
  requirements (audio design)
• Foley recording
• Sound effect production
• Music composition
• Sound engineering.

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Quality Assurance

• QA perform a vital role within each project.
  They
• Play the game with a view towards the vision
  expressed in the Game Design Document
• Expose errors, crash bugs, story issues
• Log and assign bugs to individual members of the
  project team.

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Typical gamedevelopment scenario

• Publisher approaches developer with a license
• Developer approaches Publisher for a license
• Negotiation and approval phase
• Contract signed milestones agreed
• Project kick-off
• Alpha
• Beta
• Gold Master

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Current Budgets

• Console - about US4 000 000 with a team size of
  about 30-40 taking about 18 months to 2 years
• Handheld - about US400 000 with a team size of
  about 8 taking about 4 to 6 months

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Current Game Markets

• PC
• Consoles
• PS2
• XBox
• Gamecube
• Handheld
• Gameboy Advance
• Nintendo DS
• N-Gage
• Leapster LMAX

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Future Trends

• Handheld about to explode
• PSP
• Gizmondo
• GBA2
• Others?
• PS3, XBox2(360) and Nintendo Revolution
• Mobile phones
• Set top boxes

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Future Trends

• Expect timeframes to remain unchanged
• Expect budgets and team sizes to grow
• gt US20 000 000
• gt 100 developers
• Expect Consolidation
• Market share / shelf space
• Number of publishers
• Number of developers

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Future Trends

• Competitive benefits from
• Reducing risk
• Increasing production speed
• Increase quality by means of shorter turn around
  times
• Outsourcing

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Future Trends

• Competitive benefits from
• Content creation tools

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Getting intothe games industry

• Passion
• Industry knowledge
• Understanding of how the role relates to others
  within the industry
• Ability to work fast while maintaining quality
• Learn to be creative no matter what the
  restrictions
• Have the right attitude and temperament

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