Project Management Lecture for Session 1 of The Los Angeles Film School's Game PreProduction course.

1. Session 1
David Mullich
Concept Workshop - Game PreProduction
The Los Angeles Film School

2. Who Am I?
 David Mullich
 dmullich@lafilm.edu
 @David_Mullich
 davidmullich.wordpress.com
 Instructor at LAFS
 Producer from Activision, Disney, 3DO
 Co-creator of BSA Game Design Merit Badge

3. Who Are You?
1. What is your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. What is your favorite movie?
4. What is your favorite game?
5. What is your career goal?

4. How to Succeed in This Class
Studying game development at college is still
college study.
 Take Notes
 Study
 Do Your Work

5. Take Notes
Game producers
constantly take notes.
So, having one of these
is a minimum
requirement.
At all times.

6. Study
 Review the
Lecture Notes
 Think
 Understand
 Reflect and
Connect

7. On Time
Means 5 minutes early.
Unless the stakes are really high, in which case it
means 24 hours early. Or a week early.
Pssst....Sometimes developers make false internal deadlines
to avoid calamity such as missed milestone payments.
Maybe you could do the same if graduation is at stake?

8. Tests
 Study for your tests! Refer to the slides.
 If you see on a slide, it will probably be
on the test.
 If you don’t know the answer to a test
question, guess!
 There are no points deducted for wrong answers on
multiple-choice questions
 I will award some points for clever or knowledgeable
answers on short-answer questions, even if they weren’t
the answer I was looking for.

9. Do You Have Skillz?
 Gamers are good at digital interfaces
 Gaming professionals are good at both
digital and human interfaces

10. This means communication.
With grammar‐Nazis.
“...the different ways they done it like in the game
play and the scenes ad the props”
...is not communicating and will incur their wrath.
Game development is a team sport
for Geeks.

11. All Business is Communication
 Business to Consumer
 Business to Business
 Boss to Team
 Team to Boss
 Team Member to Team Member

12. Good Communication
 Precise
 Clear
 Brief

13. Written Communication
Informal Communication
“Its cool to werk in gamez.u get too do
anything u want & stuff”
Formal Communication
“It’s cool to work in games. You get to do
anything you want and stuff.”

14. Written Communication
 Capitalize the beginning of sentences,
names, game titles, and the word “I”
 Use proper spelling and punctuation
 Put a space between punctuation mark
ending a sentence and the start of the
next sentence
 Don’t use “u” for “you”, or “&” for “and”
 Don’t confuse “its” and “it’s”

15. Attention to detial
It matters.

16. Emails
 Use a meaningful subject line (e.g.,
“Homework 2”)
 Send attachments as PDF files only
 Put your name on all attachments

17. Assignments
If you can’t be bothered to:
 be creative
 strive for originality even within established
norms or constraints
 look beyond your initial idea
 actually enjoy and actively want to do the
above
Then get used to the phrase
“Would you like fries with that?”

18. Tokenism
The practice or policy of making no more than a
token effort or gesture.
 Token verbal presentations.
 Token game documentation.
 Token effort.
Does NOT belong in game development practice
ANY kind.
Do not aim to do the minimal required. Aim to
exceed expectations.

19. “I just want to pass this”
Classes are not kidney
stones.
If you think about them
in these terms, maybe
you’re on the wrong
career path?

20.  Send an email to dmullich@lafilm.edu from
your school email account.
 Use “Email MiniQuest” as the Subject line.

21. Let’s go to the next topic!