Task 6 Using Project Management Techniques

Recce Report.

Recce Report	Pros	Cons
Wii U	Easy to record as it is small and compactable. Lot of exclusives. Backwards compatibility with old Wii games. Off-screen play.	Lack of 3r party support. Game droughts. Weak hardware. Online interactions and communications surprisingly weak.
Video Game Capture card	Record both console and PC. Good quality. Playback option (Software has to be open. Small and compactable.	May not be compatible. May end up broken.

The recce report has helped me in different ways, it helps to produce cons and pros of X place, method, consoles etc (Example). Gives a clear picture and it helps to develop a better understanding of what it is being shown as the example. 

 Cons: 
May not be as detailed as it should

Pros:

It help to produce pros and cons of what we are focusing on 

Risk Assessment.  

Hazards List what could cause harm from this activity		Who exposed List who might be harmed from this activity	Control measures For each hazard, list the measures you will be taking to minimise the risk identified	Risk For each hazard, decide level of risk once all your controls are in place
1	Equipment that ends up broken	Students – Teachers	Being careful with equipment and using the equipment correctly.	Medium
2	Budget	Students	Use equipment that is already owned, and do not use more money than what was in the budget in the first place. This will keep	Low
3	Noise/High level sound that disturb production	Students	Locate a place in where you can record and there is no one around, ask family to keep silent while the recording happens.	High
4	Talent release contracts	Students	Make sure that the people that are being recorded have signed talent release contract.	Low
5	No backing up data	Students – Teachers	Make sure that the keeps being saved every certain time.	High
6	Cables around lead to trips and falls	Students – Teachers	To ensure security, the best idea is to put everything in order, tied up the area and do not leave anything around.	Medium
7	Any electric equipment around water/liquids	Students – Teachers – Equipment itself	Make sure that any liquid is far from electronics.	Medium
8	Arguments over gaming discussion can lead to a fight or unnecessary physical actions	Students	The filming should be friendly and fun, if the gameplay is from a Fighting game or racing game, that may imply playing with other people in the same room. Make sure that games are played with people who will not be mad and start over a game, so fights and violently discussions are not started.	Low

Pros: 

Looking at mainstream information security doctrine, risk is a basic metric in security management.

After creating risk assessments,  appropriate controls are put in place to ensure reasonable and appropriate protection and to ensure the elimination of all risk. 


Cons: 

They can correctly and unambiguously compare only a small fraction of randomly selected pairs of hazards and can assign identical ratings to quantitatively different risks.



Contracts. 

Contracts are spoken or written agreements between two or more parties (Usually is 2 parties), this agreement is enforceable at law as a binding legal agreement. The most common type of contract in within the game industry is a contract that has to do with employment.
Examples of Employment contracts:

Zero Hour Contracts: 

Zero hour contracts (Casual contracts) are usually for "piece work" or "on call work".

This means:

• They are on call to work when you need them 
• You don't have to give them work 
• They don't have to do work when asked 

You can’t do anything to stop a zero hours worker from getting work elsewhere. The law says they can ignore a clause in their contract if it bans them from:

• Looking for work
• Accepting work from another employer

You are still responsible for health and safety of staff on zero hour contracts. 

Full-time and Part-time: 

As an employer you must give employees: 

• A written statement of employment or contract
• The statutory minimum level of paid holiday
• A payslip showing all deductions
• The statutory minimum length of rest breaks
• Statutory Sick Pay
• Maternity, paternity and adoption pay and leave

You must also: 

• Make sure employees don’t work longer than the maximum allowed
• Pay employees at least the minimum wage
• Have employer’s liability insurance
• Provide a safe and secure working environment
• Consider flexible working requests
• Avoid discrimination in the workplace
• Make reasonable adjustments to your business premises if your employee is disabled 

The next example is a really common example in the games industry, the next contract is for Freelancers 

Freelancers: 

If you hire a freelancer it means that: 

• They are self-employed or part of other companies 
• They often look at their own tax and national insurance contributions 
• They might not be entitled to the same rights as workers, an example is Minimum wage 
• You are still responsible for their health and safety 

Game Design Documents 

This type of document is a highly descriptive living design document of the design for a video game. 

A GDD is created and edited by the development team and it is primarily used in the video game industry to organize efforts within a development team. The document is created by the development team as result of collaboration between their designers, artists and programmers as a guiding vision which is used throughout the game development process. When a game is commissioned by a game publisher to the development team, the document must be created by the development team and it is often attached to the agreement between publisher and developer; the developer has to adhere to the GDD during game development process. 

The game design document has a structure, The purpose of a game design document is to unambiguously describe the game's selling points, target audience, gameplay, art, level design, story, characters, UI, assets, etc. In short, every game part requiring development should be included by the developer in enough detail for the respective developers to implement the said part. The document is purposely sectioned and divided in a way that game developers can refer to and maintain the relevant parts.

The majority of video games should require an inclusion or variation of the following sections:

• Story
• Characters
• Level/environment design
• Gameplay
• Art
• Sound and Music
• User Interface, Game Controls

Some of this sections may not appear in the Game Design Document.

These documents have helped me to develop a knowledge about the contracts within the game industry, they have taught how they work and how I may used them in a future. I will use them once I have a job opportunity and I will know how the contracts is broken down and how it works.