Albert Naumov - Tomb Survivor

TOMB SURVIVOR - GAME DESIGN CLASS PROJECT

TOMB SURVIVOR

'Monsters, Competitive team play and a customisable weapon system all packed into one online first person shooter.'

A game design document created by a team of 20 individuals in 3 days, directed by myself.

Role:

Director, Designer

Team:

Class of 20* students.

Software Used:

Microsoft Office, Photoshop.

Purpose:

To work as a team creating a game design document for the client, approved by the client.

Requirements:

To produce a full game design document, outlining the features and structure of the game, the unique selling points, the budget and competition. A presentation must accompany the document.

PROJECT SPECS

MY ROLE AS TEAM LEADER / DESIGNER

The purpose of this assignment was to teach pupils how to work in and manage a game studio. No help was given from the lecturers. Rather, the team was given two deadlines - first to submit five game concepts to a publisher by the end of day two, and a final game design document at the end of day five.

To start, we split into five teams of four and each selected a team leader, who then allocated work to each team member in the creation of these game concepts. I was one of these leaders, my initial process was to get the team to brainstorm various ideas and draft up a few prototype game concepts, to eventually pick a concept to go with by the end of the day - which was a self imposed deadline. This way we could spend a day gathering ideas, and another day refining our best concept.

By the end of the second day we had a concept for 'Tomb Survivor'. At this point the publisher entered the room. The publisher was guest with previous such experience. Each team presented their concept to the publisher and answered the questions that followed. I represented my team during this presentation.

We ran into small hick-ups with the general budget expectations of our title - we were unable to answer some questions in regards to the costs and profits of the project, which is what the producer seemed most interested in, but generally the presentation went well, and thankfully our concept was picked by the producer as one of the two out of five concepts he was willing to back.

Following this, the whole studio had to choose which of these two titles to continue working on. I gave a convincing presentation and managed to win a majority vote, with over 80% of the studio voting to continue work on Tomb Survivor.

OVERVIEW

Taking on the role of director, I managed a team of 20 individuals leading to the eventual creation of 'Tomb Survivor' - a 20-page game design document for the University of Bolton.

This document was part of a larger assignment that saw a class of designers form a studio with the end goal of producing a full game design document in the space of 5 days.

Two days were spent drafting up game concepts and pitches that eventually led to the selection and further development of this particular document.

MY ROLE AS STUDIO DIRECTOR

Following this, I was appointed as director, overseeing the entire creation of the full Tomb Survivor game design document.

I appointed five seniors to oversee certain areas of the document, who would manage a team of individuals all working on that area of the document. These seniors would then report back to me, and vice versa.

At the end of each day I expected to see a certain amount of progress made on each area of the document, which I would compile together into the full document and review. I also participated in maintaining and writing various areas of the document.

By the end of day five we had compiled a comprehensive 20 page game design document, which was printed and presented to the producer once more. The final result was quite satisfactory, with each requirement set out by the lecturer filled, and a majority of the team scoring high marks.

My biggest challenge in this role was definitely managing the work load across the studio, as at times the work that was promised was either not delivered on time, or not completed to a satisfactory standard, in these situations I usually had to appoint the task to someone else who was more able, or I had to take the task into my own hands, pushing the managing duties aside for the time. Generally I was satisfied with the project, as I managed to lead the whole class towards a solid end product and a high mark.