Process involved in development of Serious games

Serious Games are custom built Casual game solutions, and are developed very much the way Standard 3D games are built. The development of a modern serious computer game involves a variety of skill sets and support staff.

A typical present day development team usually includes:

• At least one designer
• Artists
• Programmers
• Level designers
• Sound engineers
• Testers

A. The development process
The development process of a game varies depending on the company and project. However development of a commercial game usually includes the following stages:

• Feasibility analysis
• Role definition
• Pre-production
• Production
• Milestones
• Maintenance

A1 Feasibility analysis
        Feasibility analysis defines how feasible the current project is and the steps required for its development. Feasibility analysis takes into consideration many factors. These factors may include duration of production, costs involved, risks involved and others.

A2 Role Definition
        Role definition includes the task of splitting the party roles. There might be different parties involved in the project development and there needs to be some sort of rapport built between them as to who performs which task say process of project management, fund management etc.

A3 Pre-production
        Before the actual development can begin there needs to be approval from various sources. The approval can be anticipated either from the developer or the publisher. Games are rarely produced without finding a prospective publisher.

A4 Production
        During mainstream production a great deal of work is accomplished. Programmers churn out volumes of source code, artists design sprites or 3D models, sound engineers produce sound effects or music required for the game. All the while the game designer implements and modifies the game design to reflect the current vision of the game. Testers are assigned to the game once there is anything playable.

A5 Milestones
        Almost all commercial game development projects have milestones they are required to meet. Milestones are project goals and are synonymous with deadlines. Milestones include a pre-release version of the game with an agreed upon set of features. The consequences of missing a milestone vary from project to project, but usually include an installment payment (in the case of third-party developers). The usual milestones to be met are:

• Technology Demonstration

Technology demonstration implies demonstration of engine capabilities which include what the engine can accomplish what it can accommodate and to what extent it can perform under pressure. Technology demonstration also includes a team’s adaption and development capabilities.

• Proof of Concept (Pre Alpha)

Pre Alpha normally implies a playable demo. This typically includes proof of gameplay concepts. In layman words this includes a simple version of the actual game with all features not fully implemented.

• Alpha (Feature Completion)

In this milestone, the game features are completely implemented yet the game is not totally complete. It is a playable demo with some bugs and testing not complete.

• Beta (Feature Complete/Asset Complete)

In this milestone, all the assets are complete, technology is complete and all the features are complete. It is the full game without bug fixing.

• Master

This is the actual fully completed product which is going to be printed and shipped. This version has been throughouly tested and all the featured bugs resolved to maximum extent.

A6 Maintenance
PC games can have numerous conflicts with hardware and configurations. Developers try to account for the most prevalent configurations, but cannot anticipate all systems that their game may be tried on. Therefore, it has become common practice for computer game developers to release patches for their games after they ship. There are three varieties of maintenance that can be implemented are:

• Patches

Patches are executables which fix bugs that creep in during alpha / beta phase. There are always various bugs that can enter a project during any of the phases. These bugs may not be identified in the typical bug list. For fixing such bugs patches are released.

• Updates

Updates are programs / executables which add additional features to the game. Some features may have been just thought of during the actual game development but not materialized. Some features make the game more playable. To add these features, updates are released.

Advantages of training and learning through serious games

The problem with today’s training methodologies are that they are still backward techniques, compared to the advancement in technology the last few decades, General classroom techniques will not help when used with today’s new recruits as most would have grown up playing Video games and watching Television. By training them through the serious games medium, we can

• Improve the attention span, since it’s on an Interactive medium, giving a virtual one-on-one session.
• Mass deploy the training, and also keep it up-to-date to the current topics.
• Handle Qualitative processes as well as Quantifiable data, thus being able to measure the efficiency of the personnel.raditional Simulators were built early on, and companies had to spend millions on development and also to deploy (due to necessity of specific harware). With the advancement on today’s technology, similar set of graphics and controls are now available for a fraction of the cost. They can be deployed even by offering them for download and making it compatible with certain kinds of game hardware, even custom built cheap interface units can be built if necessary. Even though Serious Games are meant for training, they need to be engaging, mainly to be able to let the user explore the virtual environment or equipment, in a safe setting. The Game can also test his ability to follow processes in this virtual setting. The fun factor also helps retention to be kept at a minimum.

10th December 2007
Raptor has completed it's 6th year in operations, we would like to thank all our clients and community for giving us the strength and support for making this happen.