Pre-Production
The objective of the Pre-Production Phase is to prove the core gameplay experiences, lock the Feature List and their design & technical specifications, and confirm expectations on scope and feasibility of content. All tech and game areas should be de-risked, with content creation pipelines proved out with actual production tools & workflows. Content and Feature benchmarks have been stood up to confirm pipelines, prove estimates, and set targets for production.
In addition, the production roadmap is ready through launch, with all production processes in place for managing, tracking and reporting to Alpha and beyond.
In the PEOPLE category, the team structure & organization will be continuously monitored and adjusted throughout the phase depending on the evolving risks and priorities during Pre-Production. Onboarding processes will also evolve as project complexity increases, along with training programs. Team development practices continue, matching individual development goals to project and studio needs now and in the future, along with team health monitoring and associated action items.
In the PRODUCT category, the focus is on answering open questions, solving risks, and establishing benchmarks by driving toward and delivering the product’s Vertical Slice (or MVP, depending on your project's scope). The Vertical Slice is a condensed, playable, final draft representation of the core experience of your game. The Feature List, Content List, and resulting Product Backlog will also be continually assessed and refined as the product vision becomes more and more a tangible experience in the player’s hands. In addition, product vision content (one-pagers, posters, concept art, videos) are created and continually utilized to crystalize the product vision, align the team on expectations, and facilitate prioritization and decision-making.
In the PROCESS category, the focus is on tenaciously assessing and addressing the project’s RAID (Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions), as well as having a clear mechanism for managing dependencies across teams and work items. Building and tracking against the Pre-Production Exit Criteria, utilizing production status dashboards, and implementing soft & hard lock processes help ensure a successful Pre-Production phase.
At the conclusion of the Pre-Production phase, the team must pass the Pre-Production Gate and the associated Vertical deliverable to move into the Pre-Production Phase.
The common in-software deliverable for the end of Pre-Production is the "Vertical Slice," which is a playable, work-in-progress draft of the core experience of the game (missions, systems, narrative, progression, UX, etc), and should enable experiencing the core fun of playing the final game.
The goal of the playable Vertical Slice is to showcase the game intent, its stand-out innovations, and validation of the players’ experience. A successful landing of the Vertical Slice ensures readiness of workflows, tools and pipelines, clarifications of benchmarks & estimates, and confirmation of production management processes for full production.
All game features & systems are at "Playable" (functioning) Level-of-Completion and are sufficiently tuned and properly interact with each other to allow for proper evaluation of the player's experience
Missions should, at minimum, be at “Prototype” quality level, demonstrating proper gameplay and narrative interactions, with certain missions at final draft quality for adequate assessment of the final experience
Certain portions of game content are pushed to final draft quality, serving as benchmarks for the final game (character, biome, asset(s), unit(s), audio, UXUI, cinematics, etc)
Usability testing of the Vertical Slice is also highly recommended.
Below is an example of deliverable expectations for a title's Vertical Slice; actual deliverables would depend on each project's unique characteristics.
