Game: The Division 3.
Tom Clancy’s The Division was a game that launched to massive success, developed and published by Ubisoft, the game looked amazing at the time of release and is long overdue a sequel.
When it comes to managing a project of this scale, it will be helpful to have a project management tool and a project lead to manage the project. The project lead is typically the producer of the project. As I have explored before, a producers role is to make sure that all operations are running smoothly and that people have the resources they need to create the product.
A project management tool we could use could be something like Trello as an example, Trello allows you to invite users to the project and assign those users to tasks that you create, once that user is done, they can mark it as done and move that task to the next card for the next person. It allows for easy organization and project management.
In terms of documentation, we would need things like Game Design Documents, Asset Lists, Burndown Charts, Technical Aspects and Production Schedules. A Game Design Document outlines the project details and specifications of the project, from a brief description of the gameplay to the core mechanics of the game and the assets needed.
Technical Aspects will outline the specifications of the games design, such as the software used in the game, how many poly’s models should have, the art style and direction for the game, what kind of staff will be needed and the work they will be doing will all be part of a technical consideration overview.
An Asset List consists of the assets needed to create the game from 3D objects, concept art, character models, sounds in diegetic or non diegetic form. This can link into the burndown chart which shows the completion progress over the duration of the projects development cycle. Finally there is the Production Schedule. The Production Schedule outlines milestones that need to be hit and make sure that everyone is working towards the same goal.
Milestones will include things such as a pre-production deadline, an alpha build, a minimal viable product, a beta build, release of the final product and post production additions, such as patches for bug fixes and DLC.
Production management is important as it allows people to work towards the same goal and contribute and effectively collaborate on the same project. When projects are this big it makes sense to use the available tools in order to increase productivity and workflow in the workplace.
During production, there may come a point where the team is hit by pressure points and potential cash flow problems. Pressure points are caused by deadlines not being hit and in turn, may cause assets / features to be cut from the game, a deadline to be extended which may have a knock on effect on the final products release date and changing originally planned features. In some cases, should milestones not be hit, it can result in staff not getting paid until that particular milestone is complete.
Deadlines aren’t the only thing can cause pressure points however, there could be other cases, especially in todays day and age of staff being off sick, staff leaving the company or taking time off for maternity / paternity leave. In the event of any of these happening, realistically speaking you can only really plan for one of these things whereas the other two could happen at any point.
Some pressure points aren’t always bad however, as some may contribute towards the end product, as an example promoting the game at an event or working with a media specialist to create a trailer / advert for the game, yes staff will be missing from the studio but if this is planned correctly, you can prepare for it. Hiring temporary staff and planning for the events in advance would be a good solution to this problem.
If I was to put my own twist on The Division, I’d make it less complicated for casual players. The game features a weapon crafting system and armour perk mechanic that isn’t very accessible or user friendly. As an example, for an armour perk to be active you have to have 3 types of armour from the same manufacturer equipped, however the perks might not match your skill tree.
In a way this is good because it allows players to try and explore different things in the game such as builds and different skill sets. It also enables players to keep playing to get the gear that they want and to keep levelling their character up to be the best they can be. The issue with it is that it is not user friendly and players may lose interest, this is what happened to me after playing the game. After hours and hours, I could not get the gear I needed to match the skillset I wanted to use, even after I exhausted my other options of trying the other skill sets, there was a particular one I had the most fun with and my gear wouldn’t accommodate that.
When it comes to weapon crafting, it allows you to take a stat or a perk from a weapon and apply it to another weapon at the risk of dismantling and lowering another stat or removing a perk. This is fairly straight forward and understandable so I wouldn’t change this personally.
Another core mechanic of the game is the end-games raid functions. The Divisions raids are essentially waves of enemies coming at you who have the same if not higher gear score than you. The raids are very rewarding if you manage to beat them and thats the problem, a lot of people can’t beat them and this relates back to the armour situation mentioned before. Yes, it enables players to keep playing to try and level up their gear with the perks they want but if it becomes to much, players will turn away and find something else to play.
For this situation I’d take a leaf from Bungie’s book with Destiny 2. They have a reward system that refreshes weekly and enables players to level up to maximum level by completing activities. There activities are known as pinnacle activities and the rewards drop at a higher level than the gear you currently have. There is a catch, where there are 8 pieces of gear in total, 5 armour pieces and 3 weapons, you might not get the pinnacle piece of gear you are looking to level up, and that’s okay because you know that its achievable and at the end of that activity you will be rewarded with something that is higher that what you have. Furthermore, with it being refreshed weekly, it allows players to complete the activities in their own time, if they want to take a break they can and then come back next week or if they want to keep playing, then they can do that as well.
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