HA3 Task 5 – Contracts of Employment

Contractual

Definition
A contractual brief is a type of brief or contract where a media company is employed by the client in order to complete a project within the brief which is set to specific guidelines which the media company must follow. It will be very important for the media company to follow these guidelines and do exactly what the client states within the brief, if they fail to do so this can result in a breech of contract and the company could face legal actions.

Advantages
Having a contractual brief will be good for the media company involved as they will know exactly what the project is and what they are being asked to do as the brief will be very detailed and go into specifics that are not to be negotiated.

Disadvantages
The disadvantage if this type of contract would be that if the media company think that there are issues within the brief and they produce the product to their own standards this would not be producing the product to the standards set by the client and they could decide to take legal action and this could result in your company having a bad reputation for not completing projects to a set brief.

http://creativemediaatjt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/contractual-brief.html

Employment Contracts

The purpose of this contract is to set forth the terms of your employment, what the company expects you to do for the company, what the company will do for you in return.Employment at game company's are just the same as any other company's contracts. The game industry's contracts is likely to include clauses about benefits, confidentially, inventions and not competing with the company during or shortly after the term of employment.

Development Agreements
Game publishers often hire game developers to create games for them. A development agreement is a contract that spells out the terms of the development deal.
Terms- This part of the agreement spells out how much the publisher will pay the developer in the time frame the developer has to develop the game and if there are royalties, what the royalty is. 
Ownership- Its important to clarify who owns the IP for the game.
Warranties- The developing company cant use anyone Else's code and the publisher has to ask the developer to create this particular game.

License Agreements
When the publisher wants to make a game about a movie or something the publisher and the movie IP owner and make a contract saying the terms of the license.
What's Be Licensed- The contract states out what the publisher has to follow to make the game that works on the consoles.
Territory- The contract specifies what part of the world the publishers game will be published in. Publishers always want worldwide rights but licenses don't always give it to them.
Term- The contract doesn't run forever. most of them last no more than 5 years.

NDA and confidently Agreements

Non-Disclosure Agreements, Disclosure Agreements and Confidentially Agreements are kinda the same thing. one company in order to business with the other company has to disclose a plan to make a certain game or new technology that hasn't been announced to the public yet they have to share this information. If the other company agrees to not share the information public. If the other company shares the information then they can get taken to court. 


Collaboration Agreements
The contracts above cover the more frequent contracts in the game industry. But people who build indie games or hobby games, it is very important need is an agreement that covers all issues of ownership and compensation in the the creation of the games that exist outside the mainstream of the industry. The majority of indie and hobby games fail so they use a collaboration agreement to set forth who owns the IP, how the game is intended to be used, how any income is to be handled and how the termination of the project is controlled.

HA3 Task 4 – Industry and Market Trends

IP- Intellectual Property
IP is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized.
Under intellectual property law, the owners are granted certain rights to a variety of assets, such as musical, literary and artistic work.
Common types of IP are copyright, trademark and patents.

Licensed IP
Characters and setting are licensed.
Authorization to use the licensed material is given from the holder of the licence to the person who wants the licence.

Serialized Original IP 
Created from scratch (often inspired by other copyrighted work) and then built into a new series. 

HA3 Task 3 – Current Financial Issues

Financial Planning is important to a business here are 10 reasons why it is so important.

1. Your business is more likely to fail without a financial plan. A lack of financial planning is one of the main reasons why small businesses fail, whether it’s being caught out with cash flow or overestimating their revenue.

2. It can help with everyday costs. If you have a plan already in place you can see how much you can afford to spend on every day extras, for example how much expenses you can give employees and training budgets you can set aside. This will help your business to run more smoothly in the long-run.

3. It can help you focus on the future of your business. It’s easy to lose track of the long-term view of your business when you have so many immediate pressures at hand. A forward-looking financial plan can help you see what expenditures need to be made to grow your business in the long term.

4. You probably won’t be able to access financial support without one. Lenders will not consider your business viable for a loan or other financial assistance if you don’t have a sound financial plan in place, complete with a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow forecast.

5. It can help with your marketing decisions. A financial plan will provide you with the information you need to know if the strategies you’re putting into place are actually delivering increased revenue. Did the money spent on advertising lead to an increase in sales that justified the expenditure? A financial plan can tell you.

6. It can quickly identify a financial downturn. If your revenue is lower than you forecast, you can focus on sales and marketing to try and increase it. Or if your overheads are coming in higher than expected, you can take steps to reduce them. By reviewing your financial plan regularly you can address any issues straight away, rather than being caught out by bigger problems down the line.

7. It can measure your progress. Is your actual revenue better than what you forecast? Seeing how your business is achieving profit growth in black and white is a great motivator.

8. It can help you prioritize spending. Ready cash is vital to the success of small businesses. The financial planning process can help you to identify your most important expenditures against those that can wait until your cash flow is better. It’s a common mistake for small businesses to underestimate the ready money they need to keep their business running — a mistake that unfortunately leads many businesses to falter before they really have the chance to get up and running.

9. It can spot sales trends — and enable you to capitalize on them.Are certain products delivering higher returns? Or others less so? With accurate sales records as part of your financial plan, you can identify your best – and worst – performing products and market them accordingly.

10. It will help you better understand your bottom line. Bringing in tons of money won’t matter if your expenses are almost as high, or even higher. Your business success is down to profit, not revenue. A financial plan can clearly document your net profit, and help you identify ways in which you can increase it.

Even in the best of times, running a business is extremely hard work. As these aren’t the best of times, it becomes even more important for you to closely monitor your finances through a financial plan that can give your business a solid foundation for success.

http://smallbusinessbonfire.com/small-business-financial-planning

There can be a variety of financial issues that could occur within the games industry which may prevent the completion of a project for example the business may have though they have got the money to create the project but it turns out they haven’t, which results in the closing of the project unless they can find funding. Another reason may be because the publishers have pulled out because the deadline hasn’t been met. This means that the funds stop coming into the project from the publisher funding organisation. When the publishers pull out of a project they will require a fee because of the time the developers have wasted. Another thing they may happen is the gaming business may have gone bust.


Milestones are in place in the development stage of the business to ensure that no financial issues or deadlines are a problem. They keep the business organised so that every step of the way the project is at the stage it needs to be. The milestones are usually set out in the three stages; alpha, beta and gold. All three of these stages occur in the production stage. 

Alpha is usually the stage that most of the bugs in the game are found as well as errors. This gives the publishers an idea of what stage the game is in and gives them a rough idea on when it will be completed. After this stage comes beta. This is the stage where the game goes to public testing, to ensure that the game is operating the best it possibly can. Once released to public testing and the game have passed; the next part of the milestones comes in. That is gold. During this stage QA testers will take a look at the game ensuring that there are no longer any bugs in the game. These bugs are ones the public don’t seem to pick up. This stage is also when the retailers are waiting for the product to arrive. 

In some occasions the publisher may bring the gold release date back giving the developers less time, to make copies of the game and finish off the gold stage. This is why some games have bugs when released. 

One of the biggest issues to the financial side of the industry is piracy. This is very common as many people take part in this crime. It is basically stealing Video games. An example of when this has affected a business is when ‘Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’ was coming up to be release. Before the game had even reached the shelves people had contact with the game and they were playing on Xbox live. This created an issue for retailers as well as ‘Infinity ward’ and their publishers ‘Activision’ as people already maintained the game, which means that they will not pay for the game as they have already played the campaign as well as the online game play, so the business will not receive any money for those games. Luckily it hit sales hard and still game the business profits, but this is very nerve racking for businesses. 

Here are a few of real life examples of financial issues that have occurred ion the last few years:

‘Sam Baker, an animator with Factor 5, has revealed that the developer is undergoing "financial issues" since the collapse of the publisher Brash Entertainment, leading to the cancellation of a project and unpaid wages.’ This is basically saying that ‘Factor 5’ has discovered that their developers have been undergoing financial issues because of the closing down of their publisher ‘Brash Entertainment’. This has lead to the shutting down of the project and has resulted in a lot of unpaid wages. 

Kath Brice explains that ‘Lower the price of the PlayStation 3 would have made a difficult year even worse for Sony, according to Epic Games' vice president Mark Rein.’ This means that the businesses had a hard time in getting the funding in order to make a profit on the PS3. This is why in the future the Playstation and Xbox are both releasing a full motion device. The Playstation’s is called ‘Wand’ and the Xbox’s is ‘Project Natal’. These two projects are being created to ensure there are no financial issues; basically they are playing it safe, because both companies do not want to release another console e.g. PS4, because at the moment not everybody has got a HDTV television in their home. This will be needed for the new consoles. If people have not got these televisions in their homes is causes the problem that Playstation and Xbox aren’t going to sell that many console as the customers won’t have the facilities to support them. That is why they are going with the motion projects. 
http://financialissuesinthegamesindustry.blogspot.co.uk/

HA3 Task 2 – Job Roles

Creative Development
Game Designer
A game designer is responsible for devising the game and deciding what the game has in it and what it consists of.
They make all the elements and components of the game for example the setting, structure. A game designer is essential in the making of a game.

Level Editor
A level editor designs the level which the player will play in they follow the game designer in how the level should be created but they often have a freedom to give the level a specific look and feel.

Lead Artist
The lead artist is responsible for the overall look of the game. He works with the game designer in the first instance, the lead artist devises the games visual style and leads all visual production of the game.

Technical Artist
The technical artist works wit both the artists and the programmers in the production of the game. The lead artist designs the visuals and directs all production toward the visuals through the entire game production.

Artist
The artists create the visuals for the game such as the characters, surface elements, vehicles etc.
The artists also create the storyboard for the game which helps create the visuals.

Animator

The animators are responsible for the movement and emotions of the character.

This is most often applied to the character to give them life they can also be used for environmental effects and objects.

Audio Engineer
The audio engineer creates the soundtrack for the game for example: gunshots and explosions, music.

Technical Development
Lead Engineer
A lead programmer leads the programming team which creates all the computer code which runs the game.
different programmers have different roles for example: User interface.

Programmer
programmers make the code which runs and controls the game. They test the game and fix the bugs and they develop tools for use of the other development team.

Project Implementation
Project Manager/Producer
The project manager is delivery of the game on time and within the budget. They control the resources needed for the project, they also control production team making sure the quality and the vision of the game is maintained.

 Assistant Producer 
The assistant producer works with the games production team to assure delivery of the highest quality in the deadline time.

External Producer
The external producer is responsible for ensuring the delivery of the game while working externally from the development team. External producers are always employed by the publisher.

Creative Director 
The creative director is the key person during the game development process, they overlooking the game and make decisions that affect how the game plays, looks and the sound. Creative developers are employed by the development team. Not all companies employ creative developers.

Quality Assurance
QA Tester
QA testers test the game for bugs and suggest detailed refinements for the game that ensure the games quality and play ability of the finished game. The job involves playing the game analyzing it as you play identifying problems and suggesting improvement

Business Development
Public Relations Officer
He/She is responsible for managing the company's image and reputation. They need to have excellent communication skills and have to be good at managing time and working with multiple different people.

Product Manager
The product manager helps and implements the marketing to help the sales of the game.
They support the senior marketing managers who organize the campaigns.

Marketing Executive
There job is promote the employers products services and ideas. They use their communication skills in a creative way.

Marketing Manager
A marketing manager plans the best way of promoting the employers products services and brands,.
They need management skills to motivate and control the group.

HA3 Task 1 Structure – The Value Chain

Developers
Make The Games
A video game developer is a developer that specializes into creating video games. A development team can range from one person who undertakes all the tasks to an enormous company which is made of a lot of people. There are 4 types of developers

First Party Developers
1st party developers which In the video game industry, a first-party developer is part of a company which manufactures a video game console and develops exclusively for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by the console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer

Second Party Developers
Second-party developer is a colloquial term used by gaming enthusiasts and media often used to describe two different types of game development studios:

Independently owned studios who take development contracts from the platform holders and what they produce will usually be exclusive to that platform.
Studios who are partially or wholly owned by the platform holder (also known as a subsidiary) and what they produce will usually be exclusive to that platform.
In reality, the resulting game is first party (since it is funded by the platform holder who usually owns the resulting IP), but the term helps to distinguish independent studios from those directly owned by the platform holder. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, while maintaining independence. Examples are Insomniac Games (which previously developed games solely for Sony's PlayStation platforms as an independent studio) and Game Freak, (which primarily develops the Nintendo-exclusive Pokémon game series).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer

Third Party Developers
Third-party developers are usually called upon by a video game publisher to develop a title for one (or more) systems. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However, the publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer.

The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct the developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties. Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit team. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may be dependent on income from a single publisher; one canceled game may be devastating to a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived.

A common exit strategy for a successful video-game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in the design and content of a game compared to third-party developers. One reason is that since the developers are employees of the publisher, their interests are aligned with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense.

In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999); Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition, the primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers.

A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be a database, Voice over IP, or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware. A good example of this is Speedtree developed by Interactive Data Visualization Inc.

In addition, accessories like headsets may be known as third-party headsets; the company manufacturing the headset may be different from the console company. For example, Turtle Beach is a third-party headset manufacturer for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_developer


Publishers
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer.
They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this external development) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio. The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any license that the game may utilize; paying for localization; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher

Console Manufacturers/First Party Publishers

First party publishers are companies that make the hardware for example: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. These companies all make video game consoles but there are also mobile based publishers for example Nokia, Apple and Samsung.

These companies decide whether a game can get published on there consoles or not. They choose whether or not a game can be played on there console.

First party publishers provide help and support for publishers working on a particular platform.

Distribution and Retail
You can get distribution and retail in both physical and digital.
Physical: distributors sell to retails delivering the games to the retailer through disc form which the public purchase from the store. The retailer also has to allocate space for the title and has to organize sale promotions for the game.
digital: games are being sold electronically more often as via sites like steam and Xbox live marketplace. This is a lot cheaper as in cuts the cost of having to make the disc for the game and the packaging, warehousing, transport and retail space. Now that things such as mobiles and social networking have  games on the digital side is becoming more popular.


Outsourcing Companies
These provide different sources for developers and publishers. This includes everything you need to make a game for example art, animation, design etc.


Press and Media
This provides journalist output on reviews and analysis for the consumer. This includes magazines, websites and television, press and media can effect how well the game does.