Production

The Production Phase is focused on creating content and integrating assets into the game and executing on all aspects of product development. The team will implement the learnings and knowledge from the vertical slice delivery into the product development and production processes. In software reviews and playtests combined with continuous scope & capacity assessments are required to adhere to quality and schedule requirements.

In the PEOPLE category, the team structure is organized for full production while allowing flexibility for assembling short-term Strike Teams for targeted objectives during Production. Team support and development best practices continue, ensuring individual growth and development during production while monitoring overall team health and engagement.

In the PRODUCT category, the focus is on continuous in-software reviews (both internal & external), monitoring quality and progress while balancing the funnel of feedback with the existing Product Backlog and product roadmap. The Feature List, Content List and Product Backlog may be trimmed or adjusted depending on progress, risks, challenges, and new opportunities, although this should follow your project's Change Request process. The key product deliverable at the end of the Production Phase is a strong Alpha that allows for an assessment of the start-to-finish player experience. "Alpha" indicates all features are fully integrated (eg. all coding is complete, except for tuning/debugging), although content can still be placeholder as needed (art, animation, audio, etc).

In the PROCESS category, the focus continues to be on the project’s RAID areas to support the teams as they face various development challenges throughout production. Project progress relative to scheduling constraints are continuously monitored and communicated, as well as continuous Scope & Capacity exercises. In addition, Change Request processes are implemented to ensure the scope remains focused and properly prioritized. Strong communication channels and proper monitoring of Project KPIs are critical throughout the Production Phase as the team drives to Alpha.

At the conclusion of the Production Phase, the team must pass the Production Gate and the associated Alpha deliverable to move into the Finaling Phase.

The Alpha build delivers all game features, systems and content at “feature complete” (coding is done except for tuning and debugging), enabling assessment of the full playthrough experience from beginning to end, across all primary and secondary missions and throughout all game modes (offline and online). Although game content (art, animations, VFX, audio, icons, etc) can be placeholder, as needed, all content must still be properly represented in game to allow for proper performance, memory and gameplay experience assessments (correct size/ scale/metrics/formats/memory budgets).

Below are example deliverables for an Alpha build; actual deliverables would depend on each project's unique characteristics.