For any kind of work, it is worth investing a bit of time to create a plan with details on small deadlines and milestones. The same is true for game development. If there is no plan or a schedule, there is no way of knowing how long a game would take and as a result it would not be possible to estimate how much it would cost.

A factor that determines a good accurate schedule is a good design. It would be almost impossible to predict a schedule if the design is not done. The design should cover all the components that should be included in the game and this would give an easy estimate for the time to complete. Then the overall complexity of the project would be clear.

It is normal for scheduling and costing to go through more than one cycle. The initial schedule would be carried out for the proposal and is mostly based by an experience person. It may contain guesses and a bit of allowance time to compensate if any face any unexpected problems.

The secondly schedule is created during pre-production and this schedule should be far more accurate.

However, it is important to note that even though you may have included all details by breaking them down to tasks, there may be instances where you some tasks have not been scheduled accurately even when it goes into production. Hence it is worth keeping tab on schedule as development continues.

With a good schedule it is then possible to do a cost analysis so that budgets can be set into motion so that the game project can be completed without having to halt due to lack of funds.

So let’s now take a look at task analysis and cost analysis in greater detail.

A producer is primarily responsible for getting the schedule sorted. The producer will discuss with the team and come up with:

• A breakdown of the project into tasks
• Estimate the time needed to complete each task and decide the most critical tasks
• Allocate the tasks to different members if the project involves many people
• Generate a schedule (preferably a graphical representation) showing when the game will be complete

When beginning a game, we have a set of goal of what the game should do. For example, we may have a character and his objective would be to battle out with soldiers and guards to save a princess. In order to create such a game, we need to know the basic components that should constitute in the game. What kind of AI components we need, sound we need, game physics etc.. That again gives us a broad list of tasks.

We would then need to break this list into smaller parts so that we have a full picture of detailed tasks that need to be completed.

Then if we take one such broad task, we can further break it down into sub tasks as shown in figure 2.

You may think this level of expanding is sufficient, but then you would be wrong to assume. It would be best to further define the tasks given. Each of the tasks should be broken down into smaller tasks until it can be broken down no more.

Once you have the task list at hand, then it is time to give an estimate for completing each task. This process should not be rushed. A producer should base the task duration on records from previous projects and also give an opportunity for those doing the tasks to estimate a task’s duration.

When estimating task duration, it is often helpful to do a best and worse case value rather than a single figure. Having a range maybe the most accurate way of defining the best estimate that can be made. It is worth noting that as the project goes by, it becomes clear on giving an accurate estimate.

Figure 3- MS Project task allocation and gantt chart

Figure 4- Zoho project collaboration and management

There is a number of scheduling software used and a few recommended ones include Microsoft Project and Open Workbench. See the list of software (at end of this article) to select your preferred choice.

When determining the cost analysis, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

• Salaries
• Office equipment
• Software and hardware
• Management
• Legal costs and accounting
• Office overhead

I may be stating the obvious but salaries would be the largest expense in game development. When considering about salaries, you must take into account other factors such as benefits, allowances and bonuses.

Office equipment would be tables, chairs and may not be a big factor but it must be included when considering the costs analysis.

Good hardware results in good performance so it is wise to provide the development team with modern computing equipment so that they would not be slowed down by low end memory or graphics. Remember that developers time is very valuable to you. Similarly go for the best software that gets the job done, even if it cost twice as much as one which can be just sufficient, getting the best software ensures that you can give a good output and hence its good to invest in the best software for the job at hand.

Management cost is made up of producers cost and a proportion allocated for senior management. These costs vary and depend on the company involved.

Contracts are important when undertaking creative projects such as game development and in order to create such contracts, legal costs are incurred. So keep in mind about legal costs and accounting when it comes to analysising costs for a game project.

Office overhead may not be something you would look at when basing your cost, but you must remember that your office space does not come for free, neither does electricity. So look into detail about overhead costs. They may include:

• Office rent
• Lighting
• Cleaning
• Power consumption for machinery
• Etc..

So I hope you take these points into consideration when doing the project schedule for your game. In next month’s issue, we will look into the role of pre-production.

Project scheduling software sites:
http://www.openworkbench.org/
http://www.attask.com/
http://projects.zoho.com
http://www.aecsoftware.com/products/fasttrack/

For further reading:
http://www.pocketwatchgames.com/bizdev/the-indie-infrastructure-scheduling
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1503/qa_producers_of_the_roundtable__.php
http://constructionenglish.net/art-project-scheduling/

Image sources:

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/openproj_ubuntu.png