Determine the brief for games and interactive media projects
Overview
This standard is about reaching full agreement and shared understanding of the brief for games or interactive media projects. It is an iterative process that may involve many versions. It may involve working from or refining a predefined brief or it may involve creating one. It is an important stage to ensuring that resulting work meets the creative vision and is practicable and achievable within budget and time parameters for games or interactive media projects.
This standard can apply to games or interactive media. Interactive media can involve any type of interactive media content, products or services including, but not restricted to, websites, applications or online marketing campaigns.
Games and interactive media projects can be for multi-platform or multi-channel use and can also involve the use of immersive technology which can include, but is not restricted to, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
This standard is for anyone who designs games or interactive media projects.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- use information from reliable sources to identify vision and wishes of directors, producers, supervisors and creative teams
- identify information which signals particular genres and visual styles
- establish how content will be created and provided to you
- use your experience and judgment of what will be practicable whilst meeting the creative vision
- suggest any amendments, additions or alternatives required to enhance the brief
- consider how the work produced by other people or departments will affect your work
- confirm with relevant people that you have a shared understanding of the brief, using visual representation where it will enhance understanding
- ensure that the brief is technically feasible and identify its implications on the resources and technology available
- ensure that the brief can be achieved within constraints of budget, schedule, location, business model, revenue generation requirements and other parameters
- identify parts of the brief which are vague or likely to change and deal with them in ways that will not disadvantage your organisation
- maintain a positive attitude when confronted by changing requirements and suggest viable alternatives
- identify and communicate the implications of changing requirements on budget, schedule and outputs and act to resolve them
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- favoured techniques and preferences of the people with whom you are working
- how to obtain and interpret the brief, whether written or oral
- how to interpret information from scripts or other format documents
- the creative vision for the work
- where to get information about budget, schedule, business model, revenue generation requirements and likely activities
- relevant standards, conventions and guidelines including guidelines and best practice for user comfort and quality of experience
- the impact of diversity, inclusivity, accessibility, ethics, emotional intelligence and behavioural psychology on projects
- the capabilities, opportunities, limitations and constraints of available technologies and approaches including the applicability of real-time animation
- how to judge the skills, expertise and capabilities of others on your team
- the benefits and disadvantages of the different tools that can be used and when it is appropriate to use them
- the tools that other people may be using to work on shared assets
- how to present your arguments in support of your point of view
- how to identify the cost implications and the practicalities of realising the brief including materials, equipment, locations and budgets
- how to use caveats or notations within agreements to protect your organisation from vague or changing requirements
- what to assess to ensure technical feasibility
- how to assess the impact of different changes including cuts in budget or changing creative vision
- how to assess the relative worth of large scale set up or build costs against shot specific work