Arthur Parssons – Game director at Travellers tales

Arthur Parssons – Game director at Travellers tales
Travellers tales are a games company that focus upon games design for a casual audience usually for families and children, their most recent series of games have been the Lego series of games including Lego Harry potter and Lego batman.
Arthur focused upon the game development cycle but has added a few more points to what other game developers have said, the game development cycle is a standard that most game development studios use.
From Arthur’s experience the average time it takes to develop a game is 18 months, which I can only think is a tough duration to work for, but I’m sure it is worth it, if it sells well.
Planning the game is of vital importance. If the game design is not clear enough or isn’t explained well in plain text then the final result may not be what was desired
Timeframes are also incredibly important once a publisher has set a date in which they need a game to be finished if the game is not finished by the set deadline then the publisher may not want to provide the company with the necessary resources in order to continue running the company and making games.
When working on games for a publisher it is required that you know the audience that the game is meant for and allowing for the licensors and key stakeholders have their voice heard is also a valuable way of gaining extra features which may not have gotten into the game otherwise.
While this has been short but many of the other professionals who have been in have voiced somewhat reasonably similar opinions about the games industry and the way games are made.
Every company makes games their own way but will all follow the game development cycle in which different people from all creative disciplines come together to produce an interactive game.
The legal aspects of a game appear to be a pain since corporate type people may not have the same creative vision i have as a designer. Getting my ideas across in a clear way is one of the main challenges of a game designers role and letting the higher corporate members of the company have their say can be a very good thing to do.
Publishers usually have the final say on whether or not a game will be shipped and sell so making sure that they are happy is the key thing to do... Other than actually having a game that is well made and is fun to play.