7 months, 7 people, 7 million units

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7 months, 7 people, 7 million units

• Mobile production in the spotlight

• Ronald Haupt
• Senior Producer, Firemint

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Why Mobile?

• Has unique challenges

• Multitude of handsets spanning various
  capabilities

• Many Providers, some with their own stipulations
  for deliverables

• High QA overhead

• Varying project sizes and timelines

• Ideal for running multiple projects with one
  producer

Options!

• One Word

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case study
Tinker Bell Fly!
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• Platform Game
• 4 environments, 12 levels, gem pickups and bonus
  levels

the brief

• Personnel
• 2 Engineers (one full, one part), 1 artist, 1 QA

• Timeline
• 3 months development

• Publisher
• Disney Mobile

• The challenge
• 3 months development (includes approvals) and an
  interesting game at the end (Brew and JSR184)

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the reality

• Start production using existing engine that
  facilitates side scrolling / parallax scrolling

• One month in randomized level generation
  scrapped in favour of structured design

• Publisher flies out to personally oversee the new
  direction

• We successfully change the core of the level
  engine to accommodate the designed levels - and
  help a Publisher smile!

• The approval process is much quicker than we
  anticipated, facilitating our hard deadline

• Publisher is very happy at our ability to change
  mid stride

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the result
Tinker Bell Fly! is a quick little casual
game... its speedy and tests your reflexes.
Wireless Gaming World
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case study
EA Sports Madden NFL 07 3D
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the brief

• Sports Game
• 32 teams, full season, FVP, motion capture,
  voice, stadiums

• Personnel
• 5 Engineers, 2 Artists, 1 Animator, 1 QA

• Timeline
• 10 months development

• Publisher
• EA Mobile

• The Challenge
• 2D / 3D, Brew, Sprint, JSR184. Most ambitious
  mobile Madden game to date

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the reality

• Main game code survives from former developer,
  creates steep learning curve

• Publisher over-supplies with motion capture and
  commentator voice

• NFL expert required onsite to convey common NFL
  knowledge

• High end 3D versions require skin tones and
  jersey numbers displayed

• Play changes turn out to be a big challenge

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The result
Solid 3D graphics, smart presentation, and
familiar controls... Madden NFL 07 3D is a big
step up from last year's muddy mess of polygons.
- IGN
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case study
Ratatouille
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the brief

• Cooking Game
• Time management speed

• Personnel
• 1 Engineers, 1 Artists, 1 QA,

• Timeline
• 10 months development

• Publisher
• THQ Wireless

• The challenge
• 2D Only. Brew and JSR184. 64kb builds ?

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the reality

• Publisher loves game design, signs off
  immediately. Good for mobile phones.

• Production is not intensive - development stays
  well on track

• Porting team raves about code, CR issues
  non-existent

• Publisher replaces Producer one month before
  Release Candidate is due

• New instructions are that we have to support a
  story and character screens

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the result
The non-threatening, anyone-can-do-it gameplay
is perfect for a mobile phone while the thought
of playing a game on my cell phone usually makes
me cringe, Ratatouille is one I want to go back
to. - GameZone
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case study
The Fast the Furious Fugitive 3D
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• Driving Game
• 4 cities, story, customization, street races,
  evasion

the brief

• Personnel
• 3 Engineers, 3 Artists, 1 QA

• Timeline
• 7 months development

• Publisher
• I-play

• The challenge
• 3D Only. Brew and SR184. Massive content. (Later
  extended SKUs to Mascot and Symbian)

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the reality

• Design we translate 2D game design from Scotland

• Car models were too good - we have to tone back
  because license does not cover the vehicles

• City detail pushed to new limits to cater for the
  variety the Publisher wants

• Publisher is impressed with our first efforts -
  the bar is raised and additional features
  requested

• Turns out Publisher had never done Symbian prior
  to this

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the result
Fugitive will be one of the games I leave on my
personal phone to continue evangelizing the
legitimacy of mobile games to non-believers. -
IGN
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Thank you

• Contact details
• Ronald Haupt
• Senior Producer, Firemint

61 (0)3 9421 2292 ronald.haupt_at_firemint.com