Friday 24 March 2017

Time Constraints

Time Constraints
Over this task I will talk about the issues regarding time constraints and how and why you should schedule your work for efficiency in the working world.

Deadlines-
To begin with its a good idea for an independent develop to set deadlines for their work which helps them set milestones on how much they will need to work on leading up to the deadline. If you are working for a big games company they are going to set deadlines for you so you must finishing all work by this stage so the whole company can then sell the game. With setting a deadline you need to give yourself enough time to get everything complete, if you set a small deadline and have already promoted the release game to your audience you will have to rush the game which could mean it looses alot of quality and could disappoint the audience you are aiming at. However if you set a reasonable deadline that both suits how you like to work and doesn't rush you then it should be fairly easy for you to nearly perfect the game and make it the best it can be for your audience, you should be able to put a whole lot of care and dedication into this project and don't rush yourself. Just set a date that is good for you and suits your life and is flexible to you, if you are running abit behind you could alter the date a bit if you are an independent developer. Another thing to think about is that you don't want to keep your audience waiting to long for a game, with this they may become disinterested and you may loose followers but some people will try to understand that you need time to create the best possible project your talent can produce.
There are also multiple reasons why you should make deadlines, for example deadlines allow you to think about how you will accomplish the goal, you will have to think about the time it takes to do each task. Next is that deadlines help you prioritize what you will work on and for how long you will do it for. Deadlines also push you to really try and accomplish something in the time frame so you can then feel proud of your accomplishment.
Along with the deadline you should make a to do list with different milestones you should complete at different stages- say within the first month of developing you want to create a fully fleshed out story line full off different characters, moods and themes, then onto the next month you could set a milestone to begin creating some concept art on what the games and characters might look like- think about artistic styles and what suits you the best. Then the next month you can then start developing the game on a game engine and sorting out the coding and so on and so forth. Put in mind that it takes alot of effort to make a game and you must think about having a solid plan at the start as your basis and these milestones will be sure to help you on your way to making a successful game as they give you motivation to try and keep within the schedule while still maintaining the quality of work. Also make sure you take the milestones and deadlines seriously as you don't want to get behind and have alot of work to do in a limited space of time.
Overall just make sure you set deadlines that suit you and make sure you stick to it to achieve making a game. Also set realistic deadlines and don't rush yourself but if you do start to miss deadlines this is a very bad habit as you will probably continue down this path of forgetting deadlines and your work will end up very messy and unorganized so be sure to keep to it.

Availability of Equipment-
When making a game there is certain equipment that you will need to rent out or borrow. For this you will need to have agreements with the people you borrow from and work out how it will fit in with your schedule. For example if you need some sort of recording system to record some of the sound effects and music for your game you are likely to get in contract with some sort of studio which has the equipment already set up. With this on some occasions it can be likely that they are booked on a day you want to record so you might have to reschedule- this can mess up your plan and milestone date as you would've plan when and how you would've recorded the music. In this case in the very early stages of game making it is a good idea to pre book all the equipment you will need to have to complete a certain task, for this you will then stay within the deadline and everything will be organised without you having to stress and desperately try to find someone who has the equipment you need.

Availability of Personnel-
In most situations when working you will need personnel to be there to help get the work done. Sometimes however due to unfortunate circumstances they can be unavailable. There needs to be a solid amount of people working on a task at any particular time to get the job done and completed. For if any reason employees are ill or taking a holiday you might have to hire other individuals to complete that task while the others are gone so you are able to stick to the deadline. This also relates to whether you want to hire someone to do a piece of work you cannot do yourself, for example if you are talented in coding and programming but not so much in art and creating characters you could pay someone to make characters and background for you for a specific amount of time. With this is also the issue that the specific person you want for the job is not available at the time you want them, for this is best again to book such things early on so you can try and guarantee that they are free to work for you or if this does not work you can search online and talk to people to see if they know and artists that use the same artistic style and aesthetic that your game has. Overall it is important that there are people working for you that help you make the game, if they are not available you will have to think of different options of hiring people so the work gets completed.

Timescales for clearances (legal, age rating, platform approval)
When you have finished the production of your game and have sorted out all the bugs and glitches it is time to sell your game. For this you will need to schedule a time where you can add age ratings to your game, this can take quite abit of time and you will need to book this part within your deadline. Age rating are necessary on games as they tell the audience about what age range is suitable for a specific game and what sort of content lies within (bad language, discrimination, drugs, fear, gambling, sex, violence, online) (age ranges go from 3,7,12,16 and 18). Games are not allowed to be published without this age ratings so you much put a milestone in your schedule to get this done so you will then be able to sell the game  (PEGI is usually used for box games but can be applied to downloadable games off the internet). It also states that a failure to add the age rating feature could get you a minimum fine of 500,000 euros.  So therefore you will have to get people to age rate your game to avoid being sued and also schedule this as it takes awhile for the professionals to fully review and analyse your games suitable age range. Another thing is you will need to think about platform approval which is where the certain platform you want to develop for has to review your game to see if it is suitable to play on their specific device. For example if you wanted to make a game for the Playstation you would have to ask the company whether you would be able to then they would look over your game to see if its good enough. Again this can take quite abit of time so be sure to book when you will do this before you reach the deadline to make sure you have enough time. Finally you should take abit more time aside to make sure you have all the legal things covered and then finally your game will be completed and ready to sell and if you have stuck to all these deadlines you are on track and ready to reap the reward.

References-
http://www.gamingdebugged.com/2012/08/11/indie-game-development-tips-deadline-%D1%96t-%D0%BEr-deadlist-it/
http://www.mikedelgado.org/productivity/deadlines/
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/01/13/uk-video-game-age-rating-system-works-doesnt

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