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Loremaster - Game Crafting: Project Initiation

    • Game Crafting: Project Initiation

      by
      Matt James
      Published on 09-17-2012 11:45 AM  Number of Views: 1075  
      4 Comments Comments
      In an article I wrote awhile ago, I spoke about process management as it relates to game design and development. I wanted to expand upon those ideas and actually amend it to the Realms fan-fiction project we are currently ramping up here on Loremaster. By the end of the series, we'll have a fun, simple product that you are free to use to your heart’s desire. First, though, we need to lay the ground work with the process initiation phase.

      If you’re not familiar with the project I’m speaking about, check this thread out: http://www.loremaster.org/showthread...ume-I-Villains

      Process initiation is just a formal term for defining the parameters of the overall project. This allows the team to establish quality standards as well as go over broad topics that will affect the process moving forward. One key point during this process is to ensure that the project definition is acknowledged, understood, and accepted by all stakeholders. Stakeholders include anyone that will be working on the project, from the game designer (writer), to developers, editors, artists, and graphic designers (layout). The more you put into this part; the better off you’ll be in managing expectations as the process goes forward. It will save a ton of heartache and will save you in costs; both time and money.

      For our Realms project here on Loremaster, we’ll want to put as much into writing as we can (within reason) to set up our project plan. Developing this plan is crucial to ensuring that many issues that might arise are mitigated early. The project plan includes:
      • Project Charter: The definition of the project that will provide the foundation for all efforts that go into the product. For our project, we can keep it simple and adapt it as necessary. We are creating a book on villains. We want to include a variety of ideas as it relates to villains, and not just something as simple as non-player character (NPC) write-ups. This includes profiles, locations, organizations, items, and more.
      • Cost: What is the cost of developing this project? Cost can be defined in terms of money, or time. Think: resources. This one is a bit trickier with this kind of project because I am spending my own money and time. That said, I will have to consider the amount of resources I am going to dedicate to the product's final layout, as well as the stories and content that goes into it. I will need to decide if I will pay a professional editor, layout guru, and also consider the cost of incorporating art. This portion of project initiation can be it's own solo topic, but I won't go into it here. Just know that understanding your budget constraints will go a long way in defining how your project will look in the end.
      • Scope: The scope of your project are like bumpers on a bowling lane. The scope defines your parameters so that things don’t get wild with additional ideas. Adding to a project is fine, but you need to know that the cost and scope of your project (and maybe even your charter) will change and increase. As a project manager, I carefully chose to restrict the content of this first booklet on purpose. It helps to define a specific outcome and allows me to manage the project more efficiently. In the end, the product will be better for it, and the consumer will enjoy the specificity of the outcome.
      • Schedule: This one is self explanatory. Scheduling is crucial to a project’s life. It can affect cost and can derail a project if it is not adhered to. I have put out a call for authors and have given a deadline for submissions. Because I know the rough estimate of how long editing and layout will take, I can afford to keep my window open this long with the intention of publishing in late January, around the time that the Winter Fantasy game convention comes around. In many cases, you want to plan backwards from the date of completion. We'll talk about this more in future articles as we go through the project's various phases.


      After your project plan has been finished, you then move on to plugging it into tasks required to finish the project initiation phase. After all is set, and approval has been reached, you can move on to the next phase: Planning and Design

      Matt James is an award-winning game designer from Washington, DC. In addition to many articles in Dragon and Dungeon magazine, his works include Soldiers of Fortune (Open Design/Kobold Quarterly), Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale, Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook, and Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw. Follow Matt on Twitter at www.twitter.com/matt_james_rpg

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      Comments 4 Comments
      1. TheGreatZomboni's Avatar
        TheGreatZomboni - 09-17-2012, 06:41 PM
        Very nice, just a thought though (and this comes from what I know about Project Management) - where does "quality" fit in during your process?

        The way I learned Project Management was the triangle of "Quality-Cost-Time". So if I set my project as "Prepare for next session", and we'll say the next session is 3 days away.

        Time wise I'm constrained - I only have so much time I could invest in preparations.
        Cost wise I may or may not have constraints - I could write the adventure myself for "free" or I could buy a premade adventure for a few bucks.
        So left is quality - Now perhaps in 3 days I could write an adventure that is of equal (or better) quality than one that was pre made. If I had more time, i could write a great adventure and make hand outs, make some custom scenery.
        If cost was an issue, and I was really short on time (game starts in 30 minutes) then the quality of my product might be less than desired.

        I know how exciting project management is to talk about but thought it could be "fun" to discuss the PM side.
      1. Matt James's Avatar
        Matt James - 09-17-2012, 07:38 PM
        I use performance in place of quality when talking about that triad. You are not incorrect, but I was using a more generic PMBOK-type of description to apply. Quality (performance) is a product of cost, schedule, and scope.

        Remember this is for projects as they relate to producing game products, and less about DM preparation. Though, there is a lot of cross-over. You've definitely spawned an idea for my next series of articles!
      1. TheGreatZomboni's Avatar
        TheGreatZomboni - 09-17-2012, 08:08 PM
        I've only been doing the whole PMBOK stuff for about two years now - but that has been mostly as a business process analyst, but been moving forward with it pretty quick.

        This will be a great read, since it's a topic I care about (gaming) and a topic that helps me with work (project management)
      1. gaming tonic's Avatar
        gaming tonic - 10-10-2012, 10:28 PM
        Thanks Matt. I enjoyed this and it is great to hear from those who have had some success the processes and methods that they use(d) to achieve that success. I think that you have to really care about the product because if you are expecting wealth and using that as your end goal you will probably be disappointed.