Creative City Berlin
Knowledge
Lessons learned
Step by Step
Since 2006, Christoph Brosius has been a student at the Games Academy Berlin participating in the very first course of "game producing". After two semesters with another two terms to go, he takes stock of his experiences:
The first child has always the roughest ride. Fortunately, I am the second of three children. Most problems were battled out with my parents by somebody else before I had to face them. Today, however, I understand my sister better. It is all about small steps if you want to reach your goal as the first child. The first children of the Games Academy have been pursuing the following way.
Step 1: "Can you make a living from games?"
Each of my four fellow students has applied for this course because of different reasons, but we have one thing in common: We had to justify our decision to deal with computer games to our families. Thank you very much, German media! A glimpse on the curriculum helped us: An intensive business administration course focussing on games; special basic knowledge and tools; practical application of what you have learned in student projects; classes with tutors who make up the who's who of the branch. The aim: a responsible management position in a growing industry. The moral and financial support was secured in a second.
Step 2: "We need no producers!"
In October 2006 we were thrown into the minefield of programmers, artists and game designers. Since the foundation of the school, these students have pursued their projects on their own. So what for should we as producers be here? In case of doubt, a producer is neither fit to program, script, model, design textures, rig, animate nor do they have a clue of game design. This attitude between mistrust and inexperience endured until we delivered a presentation in front of the entire team. The main problems that we tackled were, besides a general explanation of the job of a producer/project manager, a series of questions. E.g.: What problems does your team have? Where could you work more efficiently? What is your plan and your aim? 48 hours later nine in 16 running projects asked for our support.
Step 3: "What is your aim?"
Most students didn't have a clue of the advantage that would come with us. Now it was up to each of us to analyze every single project - all of them having run for one month. Eventually, we often ended up with the same result: unclear and missing aims, unsharp and controversial visions of the final game and most notably a brutal overestimation of their own capabilities. To make things worse, they didn't even have a planning. But how to explain the team that? The answer was to say nothing at all - they had to find it out on their own.
A good example is the RTS 'Red Horizon' which was already presented at the GC 2006. After one semester of work a mere model viewer was 'playable' - the moral evaporated. Since the team didn't have a documentation, nothing helped but asking. A sobering meeting made each involved person clear that everything they could actually realize of what once was their project, wouldn't be fun. "Didn't we have this idea of a construction game?" asked one participant cheering all hearts. On December 12th 2007 in the course of the German Developer Prize, the team of the construction manager 'ABM' was awarded the first place of the Gamesload Newcomer Award.
Step 4: "That's only a game, isn't it?!"
Not only students have changed. In the course of time, clear documentations, detailed plannings and obligatory engagements became the rule. There are hardly no teams left without an organizational structure. The Academy is impressed and requested at the same time. The support of the projects that once based on cooperation is increasingly becoming something similar to a relationship between developer and publisher. By now, not more than 15 persons are on one team to eventually work towards a fixed deadline. However there is no limited budget that needs to be kept in mind. Thus, many problems that usually appear with a real production do not show up. Nevertheless, an increasing number of visitors confirm our work. One of the tutors recently put it in a nutshell: "I have never thought that this simulation could be so realistic!"
Step 5: Putting the rule to the test
The arguably most exciting part is still due to come. Even if we train our competences, it remains to be seen how we do in the real industry. Will the quality of the students satisfy developers and publishers? Such measures will show what the education is worth. It is certain that we are in demand for the market. Each year, the course is becoming more popular, as there is no comparable education in Germany. We will do our best to persuade the branch - step by step.
