# Pipeline project - Love Shock personal journal # Student number 21385886 Rachel Forshaw For this project we are bringing to life Holly's idea for a dating simulator for kitchen appliances. We intend to distribute the workload between us and create characters, an animated loading screen and logo, GUI, etc. with extensive research on the production pipeline. --- ### Pipeline research I decided to research some of the top publishers for videogames because if we were to fully develop Love Shock this would be vital to make the game known. There are two ways of publishing games - internally and externally. This means that indie developers such as Hades and Stardew Valley can develop and publish their games themselves in their own studio. However, bigger games that cost thousands and millions will use an external studio that publish it for them. A couple of examples of games that chose to publish with companies are Elden Ring and The Last of Us. Some of the largest publishers in the industry right now, according to learn.g2.com are Sony, EA, Activision Blizzard, etc. *Activision Blizzard:* Owns/partakes in Treyarch and Major League Gaming (the leading Esports organization). Notable games are World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Diablo. *EA:* Owns/partakes in Ubisoft and DreamWorks Interactive. Notable games are Madden, Apex Legends, The Sims. *Sony:* Owns/partakes in Naughty Dog and Guerilla Games. Notable games are God of War and Uncharted. Publishing companies have their own unique way of governing the game development cycle which becomes very important when game creators come to get their game out into the world. Some publishers are "notorious micromanagers and require check-ins after every milestone." however, on the opposite end of the spectrum some publishers provide creative freedom to studios so the studio takes on the responsibility for deadlines dates and ultimately the launch date of the game. ### The production cycle A big part of this project is understanding the production cycle of games, so I wanted to delve deeper into the subject in week 2. There are 3 main stages of the pipeline - pre production, production and post production. #### Pre production Pre-production is the very first stage of making a game. This can take anywhere from a week to a year depending on the game and its complexity; to compare it to our own time frame, the first 3 weeks in my opinion we will be spending answering the pre-production questions. Within a larger game, this will only include a small group of people like the producer, programmer and concept artist. However, if you were to be making a game alone, you would be taking on all these roles. The concept artist sets the tone for the game early on by creating art in order to give everyone an idea and feel for game initially. Many ideas do not make it past the prototyping stage of pre-production; this is when the very core of the game is tested to see if it would be mechanically plausible and worthwhile to develop, whilst also being cost effective. "Prototyping can also reveal unexpected challenges, which could potentially change the entire course of your project. It’s important to have others test your prototype too, because things that are obvious to you, may not be to others." [Information](https://https://www.cgspectrum.com/blog/game-development-process#:~:text=The%203%20stages%20of%20game,production%2C%20and%20post%2Dproduction) #### Production Production is the longest and most arduous stage of the pipeline, but it is when the creators really start to delve deeper into the game. It is also the most exciting; assets are being made, worlds are being built and the story is being refined. While researching I found that the games are constantly being tested throughout this stage of production as initial ideas do not always translate effectively and complications arise, so it is important to find and solve the issues during this stage before it becomes too late to solve. This stage definitely takes the longest with years being spent on it in bigger games; our production pipeline I expect will take around 6-7 weeks of our alloted 11. ##### According to Troy Dunniway, an industry veteran, 75-90% of the videogame budget is used towards visuals, with competition getting more intense and the target market expecting movie-like graphics. There are many milestones that the various teams work towards which mark a step closer to completion... Prototype: first initial test of the game in pre-production. First playable: this milestone gives a clearer idea of the aesthetic and gameplay, and while it is still far from finished at this stage artwork is added and higher quality assets are worked into the game. Vertical slice: this is a playable snippet that can be used to pitch a game to studios and investors. Pre-alpha: the majority of the content is developed in this stage. Big decisions are being made with some content being cut due to gameplay/budget and elements will need to be added. Alpha: at this stage, the game is fully playable from start to finish. It is feature complete but assets are being added still and most controls and functionality should be working efficiently. The QA (quality assurance) testers are testing the game to check how good the user experience is and if there are any bugs to reevaluate. Beta: At this stage all the content and assets have been integrated, and the teams will be focused on optimizing the game rather than adding functions and features. Gold Master: this is the final stage, the game is ready to be sent to the publishing outlet and released to the public. --- ### Week 1-3 Throughout these weeks we were writing in the group hackmd and making progress with the story and characters. During this time we made sure to equally assign work to each other e.g. backgrounds, characters and writing. We had to consider the unique aspects of the game, how it would run and on what kind of machines, single-player or multiplayer, etc. in the pre-production stage. This is also when research would be effective to look into, like finding examples of game and style inspiration. Holly had a vibe in mind for the game before we started the production - she wanted it to be similar to something like Dream Daddy Simulator. ![](https://i.imgur.com/9rDBan8.png) ![](https://i.imgur.com/OpsHINl.png) A 2D dating simulator with text boxes instead of voice acting, with minimal intense animation. --- ### Week 4-9 Weeks 4-9 were the main bulk of this project. We spent this time doing our assigned parts of the project. For me, this was developing the microwave and toaster characters, as well as making the loading screen. I had the idea at this point to make a small animation along with a loading screen image because this is typical of any loading screen in games. #### Microwave character - Mica ![](https://i.imgur.com/kNmV7Tc.jpg) Time spent: 3.5 hours Date completed: 7th November 22 Notes: I drew this character in a simplified style in order to match the group's style as if we all did our drawings in our own detailed style then it would look mismatched and unprofessional in the final product. I used Procreate. #### Toaster character - Todd ![](https://i.imgur.com/xHweXsc.jpg) Time spent: 3 hours Date completed: 10th December 22 Notes: I used Procreate to draw this character and wanted to use Johnnie Guilbert as an inspiration for this character. ![](https://i.imgur.com/Qy2TC7p.png) #### Loading screen and animation Time spent: 2.5 hours Date completed: 17th December 22 Notes: I used Procreate to make this loading screen and animation. Procreate has a great animation assist mechanism. I made a repeated pattern background using pale colours to make the loading text pop. I also used the logo that Poppy made as a guide so that the game logo and loading screen would flow. This is the end result... ![](https://i.imgur.com/KYp10CO.gif) #### Text Box Time spent: 1 hour Date Completed: 3rd Jan Notes: This is the text box that would be displayed in every speech part of the game. Again, I tried to replicate the same colour palette as the logo and loading screen. ![](https://i.imgur.com/k2iGag0.jpg) --- ### Weeks 10-12 We spent this time making the final touches to the project, for example writing up our processes and putting our final drawings into the group HackMD. Conclusively, I think that we have worked effectively as a group in collaboration and have communicated successfully. I think the only substantial challenge has been getting into a workflow at the very start of the project.