The key to being successful in producing anything is good planning. This applies to the video game industry as much as any other. Planning is put into everything prior to the production of the game based on the allotted production time; for example marketing strategies, genre of the game or visual style.

The first stage in pre production is the initial inspiration for the game’s concept. Inspiration can come from anything whether it be from a film or playing other games. It can also come from the most unlikely of places like food for example. Whether you are part of an independent company and have an original idea or you are given a format or concept for a game by a publisher, inspiration still takes place. If you have been given an idea you must inspire your team to re-imagine and create new concepts around that idea, for example a game play mechanic. Good evidence of this is seen in the Call of Duty franchise in which the 5th instalment introduced the highly popular Nazi Zombie mode, most likely inspired by the WWII setting and the many many zombie films that exist.

A games next stage in pre production is which genre the game will fit into. When picking a genre you need to consider multiple things such as how crowded a certain genre is and also how popular it is. The first person shooter genre is the most successful genre in the last few years thanks to games such as Call of Duty or Battlefield. If you were to plan on entering this genre you need to carefully consider your competition and figure out how you can work around it to be as successful as possible rather than attempting to directly compete. A good idea would be to merge with another genre making your game fresh, a game that successfully achieved this is Borderlands by Gearbox Software by merging action based FPS game play with an RPG style character development system and solid drop in drop out co-operative play.

The next step would be to decide which platform your game is played on. This will tie heavily into your choice of genre and control scheme. PC games are home of the real time strategy and MMORPG’s (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) which tend not to work successfully on any other platform due to the need of many inputs. PS3 and Xbox 360 along with other home consoles are seen at their best in the fps, fighting and racing genres due to their easy to use control inputs. Hand-helds most popular genre is puzzle games as they provide short bursts of entertainment and easily allows you to share the experience with friends, also these games work hand in hand with the device’s often minimalistic input and graphical capabilities. An example of where developers have failed at this stage is with Halo Wars, a spin-off from the canon Halo series, in which they made a RTS game but instead of making it for the PC platform where it could have been highly successful they instead brought it out on the Xbox 360 where an RTS simply cant work due to the high demand of many buttons (i.e. a keyboard)

Game play is one of the most important elements to a games success. Game play needs to stay fresh and keep the player interested, it also needs to work well. In many games like Street Fighter or Tekken game play needs to be “balanced” so that all players have a fair chance of winning. If the game you are tasked with producing turns out to be a direct sequel to a previous game you need to consider what worked well in that game and what didn’t so you know how to improve on it and provide the fans with what they want. Game play is probably your best chance to include a USP (unique selling point) to make it stand out from others in the same genre in turn drawing attention and improving sales.

Once all of these processes have been made and a final concept has been decided upon, a design document needs to be created. This is done by the lead producer and will be used for pitching, the lead producer may also receive help from the art team with this. The document will include all of the above along with designs for plot, characters and environments. Anything else you may want to be used when pitching can also be included. The creative director will then evaluate this document and make sure it accurately explains your game concept.

This document is then passed on to the lead programmer who will write the technical design document. This will include everything the team must do to successfully create all the ideas seen in the design document. All game play mechanics will be explained in high detail in preparation to be pitched. This will then be checked by the technical director to ensure all the information is correct.

Scheduling is key to efficiently producing the game. This is done by the internal producer, depending on company size assistant producers may also be used to help them. They are in charge of organising the teams and making sure everyone is working productively. The lead designer and programmer are given the responsibility to make sure their team is creating the correct elements of the game.

Finally amongst all of this is the games budget. Games are highly expensive to make especially if they’re produced by a big team of developers. Estimating the budget is the role of the internal producer in which they must write up how much the game will cost to make. They will have to consider wages amongst the teams and production equipment or software; they will have to manage the teams and make sure they are sticking to the given budget. Big publishers such as EA or Activision will be able to afford massive pre production budgets along with professional equipment and larger and more experienced developing teams. Unfortunately however this means smaller developers may struggle and will be limited to less professional software and inexperienced employees.