#DD2000Futureworks

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research:

How to structure a portfolio as a graduate to prepare to enter the role of game producer?

Upon analysing many game producer online portfolios whilst some display creative work such as concept art and 3D modelling, the majority of them display non-typical creative work such as design documents, project timetables and management excel sheets, visual representations of how someone has managed a project from beginning to end and what concepts, milestones and development process the project when through its lifespan.

With the role of game producer not being a heavy creative output role within the games industry I asked a few game producers such as Fernando Melo of Bioware, Ryan Treadwell of Certain Affinity, Dan Saxon of Astro Manatee, and Kel of TEAM 17 and they all provided me with the same piece of advice when approaching the subject of displaying one’s skillsets and work talents when looking to enter the role of game producer.

In case of looking to enter the management sectors of the games industry it becomes a case of your CV and resume are more important than your physical work, one of the key elements when designing a CV or resume for the role of producer to look out for and not fall into is to not structure your cover letter/CV around the idea you are interested in using the role of game producer as a stepping stone to reach another ideal role, when you apply for the position of producer your CV should reflect the fact you wish to enter the role of producer specifically.  

So in terms of a game design student structuring a portfolio of their creative work such as level design, artwork, 3D models, environment art to suit the role of game producer, one the key fundamentals to display is the methodology behind the work and what it took to complete the work.

The difficulties, struggles, development milestones, and how all these aspects tied into you completing the project these are all key aspects of displaying how you began the project and was able to manage the multiple creative aspects that led to you finishing that specific project, use the finished piece to draw attention to the challenges and development you overcame.

This is an approach I have taken within my own portfolio and within my own Tumblr development project blog, within my blog I display my entire project development from beginning to end, shows the production and development of all creative aspects (3D models/artwork), and I explain the creative challenges and milestones I hit and how these influenced my ability to manage and produce the work for the project.

As you can see in the screenshot above I have conducted research on the type of cover letter/CV that is best suited for applying for the role of producer, as per my interview with game producer Keiva of Cold Sun Studio she provided me with an example of game design student graduate CV suited for the role of producer which led to her securing a job within the games industry.

Above you can see the current state of my producer CV cover letter which manages to display my skillsets, experience and current work without going over a single page and managing to convey all necessary information and aesthetically stand out which is key factor to ensuring you can be remembered within the eyes of an employer whilst also displaying all skill sets and links to any project management work related sources you have.

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research:

Networking:

With any job vacancy within the video games industry one of the key aspects of being able to find a footnote into a working studio or development team.

During my interviews with game producer’s Ryan Treadwell of Certain Affinity, and Kieva of Cold Sun Studio’s and through my own independent research one of the key elements of being able to find a route into the games industry is through establishing a professional and rememberable appearance with an active member of the games industry, with my aim of being a game producer this could include members of a development team such as QA testers, game producers, designers or senior members of a game studio's management, publishing or marketing teams.

One of the key ways of gaining access to individuals within the industry and the producer sectors is for networking purposes, is through the advantages of social media.

Social media websites have allowed me access to reach out and communicate with people within skillsets that specialise in the both the hard and soft skills sectors of project management, some of the social media outlets that have proven to be very effective to me as a student for communication and access to active members of the gaming industry as a whole have been twitter, selective Facebook game developer groups/pages, Slack App groups such as the Manchester Game Developers Slack, LinkedIn, and Discord.

Facebook groups such as The Unreal Developers group and Manchester Indie Games group pages have allowed me to gain access to knowledge of events taking place within the Manchester area such as conferences, get-togethers, and work displays and the means to attend these events to gain physical contact with local developers and the chance to present my own work and collaborate with them and over time develop a professional relationship through social media platforms.

A key way I have also gained access to networking through the feedback and constructive criticism of my own work route is through Discord, through this method of social media I have joined several game developers chats such as  Jeremy Estrellad‘s (Senior Environment Artist at Ubisoft) 3D art chatroom/feedback stream where on a regular basis I upload development and final pieces of work to receive feedback and communicate with 3D artists from all around the world to discuss methods of work and different work pipelines/techniques to take when approaching 3D art and modelling.

Social Media sites such as LinkedIn and Slack have allowed me to create a business style social media presence in which I have been able to professionally collaborate with working professionals within the producer and 3D Artist specialist to build a professional networking presence, I have used Slack for similar purposes as the app has given me access to a localised group of Manchester Indie Developers to gain feedback on work from and network with.

One of the most progressive ways I have found to network with game developers and people within the games industry is by attending events that are designed around the purpose of interacting with people within the games industry and networking, for this approach I have begun to attend local conferences and networking events within the Manchester area such as, Gameopolis events, MAD LAB meetup nights, and Manchester Indie Drinks as these events all give you access to local game industry personnel, a chance to display your projects for constructive feedback and examine existing job opportunities available.

The most direct route I have been able to obtain a large amount consisting networking opportunities and a network of contacts within the game producer specialism is by creating my own gamer’s and game developers organisation Manchester Gamers Unite and hosting regular events every month where both the general gaming public and game developers can get together to network and communicate with each other to show off projects for constructive feedback and early alpha demonstration to the gaming public.

By hosting these events I have been able to build up regular networking opportunities that allow for me to receive constructive criticism on my projects and also develop a regular networking relationship with regular game developer attendees of the events, thus allowing me to increase my networking range but also gain access to regular knowledge of upcoming game development opportunities that are available.

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research:

Key games that focus on Game Producer role:

With the role of the game producer not being a heavy creative output role and more of a managerial position almost all games and their subsequent design within a fashion have producers affect how the games turn's out overall, and thus all games in one design way or another focus on the producer role.

Producers act as the general overseer of the entire project, it’s their job to ensure that they get the project from point A to point B and ensure the game is released on the creatives team’s chosen output device. (i.e. Steam, Origin, PlayStation 4)

Due to producers needing to keep the project organised and on track and ensure it hits all milestones, all games have been affected by a producer of some kind in some manner, whether it be a one man team, a small indie development studio, or an AAA game company there will be someone managing the time schedule and publication of the game, thus all games that have been managed in some regard have been a game that has focused on the role of game producer in some regard.

To use an example of a game where a producer has played a key focus within its production, is Fernando Melo of Bioware, upon my interview with the producer on the upcoming game Mass Effect Andromeda he explained how a game with a big publication and marketing budget can be a huge tasks for the project's producers as they have the task of tackling how to get the final amount of game build data distributed onto multiple output devices such as physical disks, digital distributors such as Steam & Origin, and work with marketing to get it distributed around a global marketing region.

Thus Mass Effect Andromeda is an existing example of how a game that is currently in its development gold stages before release, can be an example in focusing on the job responsibilities and focuses of a game producer can be highlighted and how they play an important part within the final stages of a game release outside it’s creative development stages.

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research:

What skills would a student need to learn in order to begin the task of entering the role of game producer?

Upon my online interviews with game producers Ryan Treadwell of Certain Affinity & Kieva of Cold Suns Studios, I asked them about what type of skills and skill sets a student such as me would need to learn in order to enter a graduate role within the games industry.

Upon asking both producers this question the key response was learn and understand how games are made and understand the different creative teams and departments that work within games design and are working on a project, and understand what all the positions working on a project are and what they do and how a game is functionally made.

If a student such as myself was aiming to enter the department of production when entering the games industry one of the skillsets a student should aim at specialising within is project management, with game producers acting as project task masters, and overseers learning how to manage a project whether game design or not will give an individual an understanding of what the typical workflow of a team working on a project is like and how to gain the skill sets necessary to manage a project and keep it on track, and most importantly learn how to get a project from beginning to end.

And one of the key skills both producers recommended displaying within a student portfolio and CV and after inquiring from multiple industry management role specialists such as Fernando Melo of Bioware and Dan Saxon of Astro Manitee, is that one of the key skills to display when looking to enter the project management sector is the ability to finish a project.

Regardless of role within a project whether it be 3D modelling, producer, programmer, artist if an individual can show how they ensured their work and the project reached from beginning to end regardless of quality and originality this will be a good reference point to show how they are suited for the role of game producer, as displaying a good amount of the project and it’s tasks from beginning to end and how they developed over time will be a good way for a graduate to develop project management skills and skill sets that will reflect well for them when looking to enter the project management department of the games industry.

An example when referring to my own work would be my university Tumblr blog, when beginning a project whether it is a technical or creative project, I document and display the progress of the entire project from initial concepts, to work in progress, pre-production, alpha stages, and then finished product, and how I tackled all development ideas, concepts, milestones and the project's timetable.

This reflects well as a way of displaying how I have managed, developed and produced an initial project idea to a final developed piece of work regardless of quality or originality, and acts as a way for developing the skill sets necessary to enter the management sector of a creative project and industry.

To take this knowledge and its influences on my work further, as part of a independent project with fellow university students we are working on an in-house development game project, to take my knowledge of the construction of a game producer portfolio even further when continuing to develop the student project I can use external software such as Microsoft Excel, Dovico, and Google Charts to manage the project and show the progression of how I managed the project and how I got the project from point A to point B.

This will allow me to develop my portfolio of evidence of displaying how I have crafted my way into the role of a game producer and understand the prospects of the job and how to craft an engaging portfolio.

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DD2000 Producer Role Research.

DD2000 Research: What are the responsibilities of a game producer?

The ultimate responsibility of a game producer who is working in either AAA or indie game development is to ship the product the creative team is working on, and that is the goal that underlines the ultimate task and responsibility of a game producer from beginning and end of the project.

A producer role is to ultimately ensure the project is finished and shipped, upon my interview with Certain Affinity and Bioware game producer Ryan Treadwell he clarified that a producer does fill the role of project organiser and advisor by structuring the teams time schedule, collaborating with the external parties such as marketing and publishing, and ensuring the project reaches it’s milestones a work out what features can and cannot belong within the final project.

All these responsibilities do overall relay back to the primary an internal goal that ensuring the project is finished and shipped, as anything that is required to ensure a project ships properly is what the game producer is responsible for.

How does a producer go about getting a project shipped?

To boil down the bulk of the objective of a game producer, shipping is ensuring the game lands in the hands of the target audience.

Shipping games can vary depending on the type of game being created. If a creative development team are producing an early access game and are not using a distribution platform or has its own distribution platform such as H1Z1 which in the case of early access is just shipping an update to a platform such as Origin or Steam and letting people play it, the producer and team still have the task of ensuring the build get’s put up on the platform, game maintenance and server maintenance, and stability, but this still counts as publishing the game and get it into the hands of the customer.

However when comparing the process of publishing a triple-A game title on a platform such as the PlayStation 4 or XBOX ONE the whole game producer role becomes a bit more complicated.

In this process, a game producer has many more factors to consider when managing the project to get into the hands of the consumers these factors can consist of variables such as making sure production is ready, ensuring you have gone through the certification process early enough, ensuring the build of the game the producer is handing over to publishers has gone through its,no bugs process, ensuring the build goes through ZDR day one patches process, and making sure the data all fits on a disk, and then handing that release build to the marketing and distributing teams to make available to the target audience.

These process can vary from project to project but the processes that the game will go through within AAA game development remain the same.

All this information was acquired about the responsibilities of a game producer through my Skype interviews with game producers Ryan Treadwell and Caoimhe Roddy.

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research - Certain Affinity/Bioware producer interview:

When conducting research into my chosen ideal job role within the games industry games producer, I decided to contact several game producers and ask them about multiple factors and aspects about their job and how their current position within their game studios can be relayed back to my graduate position at university.

To gain a better understanding of the game producer role, game producer at Certain Affinity and former Bioware producer Ryan Treadwell kindly agreed to an interview where he talks about the multiple aspects and responsibilities of a game producer within the game industry.

Within the interview I discuss multiple aspects of a graduate wishing to enter the role of game producer such as portfolio building, networking and how to get a foothold within the industry from a graduate position.

Due to technical difficulties with my microphone during the interview and the recording software I have listed the questions I asked within the interview below, in addition Ryan repeats the question asked to make the subject we are talking about clear.

Question 1: What is a game producer?

Question 2: What are the responsibilities of a game producer?

Question 3: What skills are necessary to become a game producer?

Question 4: What’s the general workflow of a game producer? What does a typical day in the role feel like?

Question 5: As a game design student what skills would you say we should start learning to become ready for the role of game producer?

Question 6: So with game producer not being a heavy creative role, how would you recommend structuring a portfolio? What things should be present within a game producer portfolio? And what are you aiming to display in terms of skillsets and work?

Question 7: How did you find your route into the role of game producer from a graduate student?

Question 8: What makes a bad game producer? And what should you be aiming to avoid and avoid doing when applying or working in the role?

Question 9: Are there any skillsets or roles that you could say are not generally advertised that producers have to do when working on a project?

Question 10: What would you say is the best way for a graduate or game design student such as myself to enter the role of game producer and the best way to get a footnote within the industry for the role?

Question 11: What’s the best way to get noticed and to network for the role?

Question 12: How is being an indie game producer and a AAA game producer different? Is there a difference in roles and workloads?

Link to interview video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qENgdCNr4WM

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research - Cold Sun Studios producer interview:

When conducting research into my chosen ideal job role within the games industry games producer, I decided to contact several game producers and ask them about multiple factors and aspects about their job and how their current position within their game studios can be relayed back to my graduate position at university.

Within the interview I discuss multiple aspects of a graduate wishing to enter the role of game producer such as portfolio building, networking and how to get a foothold within the industry from a graduate position.

Due to technical difficulties with my microphone during the interview and the recording software I have listed the questions I asked within the interview below.

Question 1: What is a game producer?

Question 2: What are the responsibilities of a game producer?

Question 3: What skills are necessary to become a game producer?

Question 4: What’s the general workflow of a game producer? What does a typical day in the role feel like?

Question 5: As a game design student what skills would you say we should start learning to become ready for the role of game producer?

Question 6: So with game producer not being a heavy creative role, how would you recommend structuring a portfolio? What things should be present within a game producer portfolio? And what are you aiming to display in terms of skillsets and work?

Question 7: How did you find your route into the role of game producer from a graduate student?

Question 8: What makes a bad game producer? And what should you be aiming to avoid and avoid doing when applying or working in the role?

Question 9: Are there any skillsets or roles that you could say are not generally advertised that producers have to do when working on a project?

Question 10: What would you say is the best way for a graduate or game design student such as myself to enter the role of game producer and the best way to get a footnote within the industry for the role?

Question 11: What’s the best way to get noticed and to network for the role?

Question 12: How is being an indie game producer and a AAA game producer different? Is there a difference in roles and workloads?

Link to interview video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_QPWSW7x4I&feature=youtu.be

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research - Routes into the job role

Typical Career Routes into the industry:

When trying to enter the role of a game producer in today’s modern game industry one of the best stepping stones a graduate can take towards entering that role is assistant producer.

While the role of Assistant Producer is not an entry-level role or something a graduate student may be able to walk into straight away, it is the most junior production role and candidates may find they can access this role relatively early in their careers or find a way of accessing this role through the use of other roles within the studio/company.

Producers for video games generally complete a bachelors degree or have achieved a qualification within games design, media studies or IT, diffrent courses and programs can provide a foundation for the skills producers need to learn to manage diffrent teams and manage the teams in the business, technical and creative aspects of a game's development.

A key stepping stone into the role of assistant/producer can be through a beginner role within the studio, a role such as QA tester.

QA can be a great way for a graduate student looking to enter the role of producer as it a role that provides people who are looking for a gateway into the games industry with a job that gives them access to a creative team of game developers and game design teams on a regular basis and put them first in line with access to the creative director should any posisitions within the company arise.

The experience of being a QA tester offers a good grounding and learning oppurtunity in the development process of video games, access to software and tools, and an insight into the different job roles, thus helping people who are working within the role hone in on a specific role they are interested in and develop their skillset so that when oppurtunities within the studio surface they are able to be first in line to hand over their portfolio’s to the creative director

This thus gives them an advantage over other applicants as they can be first in line to have their work reviewed and kept fresh within the mind of the developer, and due to already having experience and work history for the company making them a prefered choice.

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DD2000 Producer Job Role Research - Routes into the job role

The role of a producer is not restricted to simply the games industry, as a producer’s main responsibility is to be heavily involved within the management and organisation of all sectors of a studio whether technical or creative, and keep the project on a timeline, guide the project teams on what design goals they can and can’t implicate into a project, and ensure that the project is released within a set deadline time period.

Thus having experience in project management or organisation within any field or industry is a good foot note to enter the industry as the management skillsets from other industries can be used within the role of a game producer.

However for a graduate student wishing to enter the role of Game Producer their are a few typical routes into entering the role.

Most game producers have a degree level related to the game industry and have graduated from courses within the field such as game design/development, computer science, digital media and buisness, different courses can provide an educational foundation for producers and teach them to manage different teams in the business, technical and creative aspects of a game's development and the industry as a whole.

Or a producer already as prior experience within game development, this a big stepping stone to entering the role from a graduate perspective, one key way for a graduate to gain experience within game development is to create games, whether creating a full fledge game, a prototype or taking part in game jams, these activities allow a graduate to develop skills within the producer role, as they will have to plan and organise a project.

Creating a game/prototype

To develop skills and experience within game development aimed at the role of a producer, a graduate can plan a project and ensure it reaches it’s milestones.

They can develop Game Design Documents which cover all aspects of the game project/prototype thus showing how they can manage multiple areas of game design and show how they understand how much project planning each sector and what skillsets are needed in these areas, and how each skillset works and what workflows can be applied to game design.

Creating games/prototypes also allows a graduate to gain skills within project management as they have the responsibility to design the timetable for the project, ensure it works to the timetable and hit’s deadlines, if a project hits a milestone re-design the timetable for the project to accomidate the milestone into the project, handle all communication between the diffrent teams/memebers working on the project, and handle the publishing side of a project should it be released.

Releasing a project or prototype and being listed within a games credits or production is a way to display game design experience when entering the role of producer as even the prototype is released free, as a full fledged game, a teaser prototype, early access on steam or mobile it all still counts as game development if it is used for student purposes.

This is a way for graduates to gain the game design experience that is often needed and listed within most producer related jobs requirements when applying without having to have already found work within an established indie or AAA development studio, which can be a difficult aspect to acquire for a graduate student.

Game Jams

An oppurtunity to gain great game producer workflow, skillsets and experience for a graduate looking to enter the role is through game jams.

Game Jams work within a similiar fashion to that which resembles actual game development within a studio, a team must make a game/prototype within a set deadline time period and present it to an audience, this a great way for someone to gain the understanding and experience of working on a game project a lot of companies look for when hiring producer related posisitions.

As in a game jam a producer will have to create a timetable which covers all milestones of both creative and technical development that happens over the course of the game jams quick development cycle, ensure all teams are meeting the deadlines on their assigments and working at maximum effort and using their time effectivley, and ensuring that the project is kept on a steady track and remove any aspects of development that will prevent the project from being finished by the set deadline for the game jam.

All of this counts as experience within the role of producer as you have worked under game development like circumstances to manage a creative game design team and produced a fully working game that can be released to a public gaming audience.

All these activities can act as an active way for a graduate student to gain the necessary “experience” most job applications game studios look for when examining applicants for the role of a producer as they all count towards industry experience and working on previous games.

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DD2000 Key Designers within Game Producer role:

To begin my path of researching ways into entering routes into the producer role within the video games industry, I shall be looking at producers who have worked on games that I have had a keen interest in or at companies that products I have come to purchase.

One key video game producer who has played a crucial part in the foundation of my interest within the role of producer, is the game producer Ryan Treadwell, over the last year I have had twitter social media communication access to Ryan through the use of private messaging.

Ryan has informed me of the responsibilities of a producer when working on a project can vary to a diffrent number of duties when working on both a AAA studios such as Bioware on the game Dragon Age Inquisition or an indie development studio such as SuperGiant, a lot of this can come down to the amount of staff working on a project.

Ryan described the role of a producer when working on a project as the organiser, it’s his job to ensure everything stays on track from staff progress to communication with the development studios marketing team.

The role of producer consists of responsibilities such as handling communication between teams and ultimatley ensuring each team is meeting their personal deadlines and milestones.

A producer also acts as the go to guy for when a project hits a milestone and set back and must find a way to get the project back on track and design a new time scheduel for the project, Ryan told me of one such example of when SuperGiant had to go without any concept artists for a while but needed monster designs for their project, so the team had to scan monster designs of a Dungeons and Dragons book for their monster designs to get the project back on track, it was Ryan’s responsibility to then design a new time scheduel for the team.

Through social media access to Ryan I was able to find out how he was able to find a route into the industry and the role, one of the key ways he found a route into the Producer for video games role after graduating from Texas university was by not just resricting yourself to video games, producers manage time and teams above all else, that is not a skill that is just needed for video games it can be used in industries such as TV, pharmaceuticals, construction, healthcare, almost any industry has need of producers.

Ryan has also instructed me on ways to construct a portfolio that suits that of a game producer, when designing a portfolio have sections dedicated to project managment and leadership as these are qualities needed for the role of a producer.

One of the key elements to display these qualities within a producer portfolio is Game Design Documents you have produced, the reason being is that GDD’s allow you to display your understanding of the multiple areas of game design and how each sector of both technical and artistic elements of a project needs to be planned out.

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DD2000 Assignment Two Proposal

DD2000 Assignment Two Proposal

For assignment two of the module DD2000 Contextual Studies the role within the video games industry that I am interested in and will be conducting research into will be the role of game producer.

I have chosen to go for this role due to my previous employment skillsets within management and organisation skills I have developed through running my own gaming organisation, skillsets that some of the key elements needed for this role and the responsibilities that come with it.

A game producer is comprehensively involved within the development cycle of a video game; overseeing multiple sectors such as the art and design teams (3D modellers/artists) the technical development teams (programmers/designers), certifying that these teams meet deadlines and deliverables and scheduling QA testing, a producer must manage the overall time of a games development and should a team hit a milestone in development, create a new time workflow for the project to follow.

Usually a producer will focus on specific areas of the game they are working on development process. This could involve handling the communications between the publisher and developer, or co-ordinating work on some of the project's important progressions such as managing the outsourcing of technical/art assets or game code.

A Producer's role and responsibilities change during a games development process, as different sections of the game are polished or created. Important aspects of the job can include task, team and milestone planning and tracking. They are usually responsible for filing and archiving game assets such as concept artwork, marketing and press assets, and managing relations between the game development team and external department such as publishing, marketing and advertisement.

Responsibilities of a producer:

. A producer needs to be able to work well with multiple different creative teams

. Needs to possess good sense of time management and organisation when designing time work flows for deadlines and milestones for different departments of a studio

. Knowledge of skillsets possessed by different members of creative team to design workflows for their time schedules

. Experience with time managing software such as Microsoft Excel for managing team time flows

. Good communication skills for acting as go forth between different departments and outside studio departments such as marketing and advertising

. Also requires that you be able to calculate alternative work flow paths for if a project hits milestones during its development stages and requires more time within a certain aspect of its production

I am choosing to go for this role for the module as it’s an area of games design and development that I have a keen interest in and I shall conduct my research for the assignment by looking further into role and performing an in-depth analyse of what the job requirements are and how to best access this route within today’s modern game design industry.

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DD2000 Essay Research - Video Games being used to help those with autism

Upon choosing the question Can Autistic Spectrum Disorder affect contemporary design in video games? I have researched into how autistic spectrum disorder has been used to help in the creation of games aimed at a specific gaming target audience who have been diagnosed with autism.

One example of a game being developed for this purporse would be in the TED talk Overcoming Autism... With Video Games by Renae Beaumont is a clinical psychologist and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, who developed the computer game Secret Agent Society that trains social and emotional skills for children with autism, helping them learn how to feel happier, calmer and braver and to make friends and keep them, through the use of educational video game therapy in schools.

To date, the program has been delivered to over 10,000 children with optimistic results this serves as an example of how autism has had an affect on the contemporary of a video game.

The game helps those with autism by targeting all aspects that the disability has an effect on, and creating an entire gameplay section dedicated to tackling that one key learning difficulty and helping the individual improve upon through interaction with that specific section of the game.

This is an example of how autism can have an affect on the contemporary design of a video game and in turn how a video game can use it’s contemporary design to help those with autistic spectrum disorder.

How could this have an effect on video games and autism in the future?

We have seen how autism can influence a games contemporary design as seen with TeachTown being introduced into education systems, however Secret Agent Society is one of the few sucsessful examples of how autism can affect contemporary within a video game and how it’s influence can be used to increase the awarness of autism having an active hand in the development of educational games.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQVv2hKipYQ&t=444s

http://www.sst-institute.net/

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DD2000 Essay Research - Games designed for Autistic Spectrum Disorder

For my essay for DD2000 I have chosen to structure the essay’s content around the question Can Autistic Spectrum Disorder affect contemporary design in video games?

For this I have been researching into specific games that may have had their design process or overall design/functionality impacted by autism, one game serves as an example of who’s design purpose was designed around improving the academic, behavioral, and adaptive functioning of students with autistic spectrum disorder TeachTown.

Created by game designer Christina Whalen and her colleagues to aid autistic students to increase a student’s vocabulary, listening skills, social-emotional development, independence, academics and cognitive skills. TeachTown automatically adapts based on each individual's progress providing meaningful instruction to all participants. Each players data is recorded, analyzed and organized into reports automatically providing educators with an effective and automated progress monitoring system.

TeachTown has already been implimented into many diffrent educational facilities and institutes with the goal of aiding autistic students in developing their communication, language, and social skills through the use of educational interactive games.

Does this mean that autism is having an impact on contemporary design in video games? so far yes as it has been the main design insperation behind TeachTown a game that has already started being introduced into the educational system, this could potentially lead to autism affecting contemporary design within the educational gaming industry.

Due to the complexity of autism as a disability and it’s affect on multiple area’s of one’s capabilities to learn, developing games for Autism can be a difficult design challenge for both AAA and indie developers outside of educational use, as every individual with autism is affected diffrently some may respond well to narrative within video games, others will take more liking to the gameplay aspect of video games thus developing a game that is able to find a balance to approach all aspects of autism  could be a great time consuming and expensive design challenge.

References:

http://web.teachtown.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LFPh4a4m_A

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DD2000 Indie VS AAA

Within today’s modern game’s industry one common question that seems to surface very often is What is the diffrences between indie development games and triple A games?

There are many diffrent factors between the two diffrent classes of game design and development, from funding to marketing both sides vary from each other, and each one has many diffrent elements that affect how they develop their games and are seen from both an industry and social perspective.

Many people within today’s modern gaming target audiences view indie development as a lesser quality of gaming and game design, a large portion of this perspective is due to lack of funding for global marketing, one key diffrence between indie game developent and AAA is that indie development has less funding for marketing recources such as advertisement.

Lack of advertisement can lead to cases of a lot of indie game titles not being noticed before release thus the assumption that the product is low quality, whereas most AAA release regardless of quality tend to have more funding and marketing recources behind them thus helping become more recognisable in the public eye.

Some indie development games such as Firewatch, The Stanley Parable, and The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, have risen above this perspective and show how indie development games are capable of producing high quality gaming experiences for players that match those produced by AAA game companies.

But overall what is the decisive key diffrence between indie and AAA development? Creative Freedom, within AAA game development developers are under a set of creative restrictions that they must obide by in large part of funding, money from AAA comes from board of directors who get it from investors who in return are expecting to make a profit.

This generally leads to investors having no personal interest in the product they are investing within and only the return profits it is expected to make within a certain time frame, this can lead to AAA game developers not being able to express creative design idea’s or functions within a game that most indie developers would be able to invest time and recources into implimating due to lack of time preassure from marketing investors.

Creative freedom is one of the key advantages indie development has over AAA development, as whilst AAA games push and develop new technological achievments within video game contemporary design, indie games look into new ways to creativley expand those achievements and impliment them into video games.

One key example of this is the game No Mans Sky who’s original indie development nature harnessed the technological achievment of procedurally generated game environments and turned it into a sandbox game with potentially limitless explorable environments for players, thus setting a new bar of quality for this type of technology used in AAA game development.

Does this mean that indie games will escape the perspective of being lower quality next to AAA? in my opinion I believe that indie games have already began the process of becoming a more active part of the AAA spotlight and community, as demonstrated by Mark Cerny as the Sony PS4 Pro reveal confrence where Sony revealed they will be working alongside third party indie developers to produce futher content for the PS4 Pro.

Could the diffrences between indie game development & AAA game development tie into my essay question Can Autistic Spectrum Disorder affect contemporary design in video games?

This topic could have huge impacts on how autism could affect contemporary design in video games as development funding and marketing on the AAA development side, as due to the complexity of autistic spectrum disorders affects on an individuals motor and learning skills affecting multiple area’s of an individual’s ablity to learn, AAA games have the funding necessary of performing the necessary design production and research into what areas of video games could best be influenced to best attract the attention of an autistic gaming audience, or help improve their learning abilities or motor skills by developing games that target these select area’s of the disability.

[simranwhithamfutureworks-blog]

DD2000 Biomimicry

Biomimicry is a form of design like any other, except that it is design based around biology as whole from animals, plants, wildlife, energy, elements, natural recources to raw materials themselves.

Biomimicry is an approach to innovation and design that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges such as architecture, population growth, and mass declining of natural environments by emulating natures time tested patterns and strategies into new and innovative ways human beings conduct and design new innovations and idea’s around the world.

Biomimicry has been a key instrument in providing the inspiration behind some of the most innovative design ideas based around the concept of biology, one existing example today can be seen by Mercedes Benz with the Boxfish car, a car which was designed after the shape of a aquatic Boxfish which led to %65 less drag on the car.

Another example of Biomimicry affecting design can be seen in architecture through the use of the raw material wood, one of the clearest demonstrations of the use of of wood as a Biomimicry design is in the TED talk, Why we should build wooden skyscrapers by architect Michael Green who introduces the prospect of introducing Biomimicry into the contemporary design of modern architecture.

In this TED talk Michael Green presents the seriousness of introducing the material of wood into the mainline production of most skyscrapers in the modern world in an attempt to tackle both the contemporary design issue of profit and as a way to tackle the ever growing global population crisis by creating alternative housing methods in the future.

This could be seen as Seriousness in design as the seriousness in this idea was the approach and research undertaken into constructing the contemporary design idea behind wooden architectural structures such as the statistics of 40% of the world’s population needing a new home within the next 20 years and how the wood structures could be constructed to deal with real world issues such as deforestation, high winds and durability.

Can Biomimicry be used within my essay of Can Autistic Spectrum Disorder affect contemporary design in video games? The method of working demonstrated in the example can be applied to my essay structure and wording, as it serves as a clear example of Seriousness when tackling a design challenge, and how a contemporary designer undergoes the process of serious design beforehand.

References:

https://biomimicry.org/biomimicry-examples/

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/03/mercedes_benz_bionic_car_boxfish_stability_and_agility_paradox_finally_solved.html

[simranwhithamfutureworks-blog]

DD2000 Constraits and Centric Design

Working with constraints and user centric design, one approach to centric design is through HCD also known as human centric design, this form of approach that put the users human needs, capabilities, and behaviour first above all else.

Human and interface/machine interaction is a very important stage within centric design and human centric design, as machines by their very nature require cognitive process and for someone to activate all its functions, a machine by its very nature is not intelligent it’s whole functionality is based around user input, it cannot perform a task without being told what to do every step of the way.

Whether it is from simply clicking a button to activate a piece of software or launch a browser, the computer is constrained to requiring user input every step of the way for every function it can perform, this is a constraint that is present throughout user centric design with machines in general, but this does not mean that this particular constraint is a negative towards the overall design of a product.

If a machine had no constraints for its centric design there would be no requirement for human interaction thus this could render a machine obsolete of cognitive aspects that help make it required by humans to begin with.

To use self-driving cars as an example, in today’s modern transportation functionality cars require human centric design to work, a human being is needed to activate the cars ignition, pull the gears into place, use the pedals to move, and use a petrol pump to continue to keep the car mobile, without human centric design a car is rendered useless.

So suppose you take away the human element to a cars centric design, and replace with an interface that can calculate and operate all its functions by itself, yes in theory a car that can operate itself could remove human error elements, such as less accidents and traffic but in situations like this would lose human cognitive thought and responses, something machines don’t have the ability to possess, this could lead to a machine making an error in its decisions as it cannot make a conclusion that does not exists within it’s set of logic, that otherwise a human being would be able to think of.

In a situation such as this attributes of design would have be incorporated into the centric design of the car as attributes are constraints that would serve as guidelines throughout the products production and creation.

Design constraints in the right hands can be a great benefit to the designer; tight constraints often result in the production of the most innovative ground-breaking new insights. One example of this would be video games, most games that are developed are given a set of constraints that the developers must work within and create a product that functions as an interactive media experience whilst remaining within its assigned constraints.

One example of constraints helping create something innovative would be Candy Crush, it had the constraints of creating a mechanic that would be accessible, easy to use across a wide range of audiences, and be simply to understand, through the use of the assigned constraints the gameplay of Candy Crush became a gaming cultural phenomenon.

Whether the game is considered “a fun game” is irrelevant as the assigned constraints applied to project made the final result something considered by audiences innovative and easy to use, this does not mean that easier to use makes something innovative but shows that tight constraints applied to human centric design can lead to designers exploring ways to make it so that centric design of the product is not completely deprives of human cognitive functions and prone to errors within the design like with the driverless car.

If I was to interject my own opinion into this I believe human interaction with centric design is an element that should always be present within design and centric design as a whole, as machines even if created to be more perfect than a human being, will always be trapped within a set of binary logic that has no room for outside cognitive or constraints thus innovation is taken away from the design and it cannot develop further.