l04 legal and ethical issues

Here are the legal and ethical considerations that I have wrote for our game. I took into account the audience that we are planning to sell our game to when writing the age ratings consideration, how copyright will affect our game and the ethical side of the characters in the game.


Age Ratings:

The age rating of the game must be applicable to the PEGI age ratings for games.


We have decided to make our game suitable for people of 12 years and older. This is because it will contain mild violence during the situations and will involve online gaming. The examples of mild violence that will be included in our game are injuries and confrontations between the players on the court.

                                                                        Copyright:


The main copyright issue that we will have to deal with is that of using the ‘NBA’ in ourgame.

Another issue that we will have to investigate is the music that we will be using in our game. We are going to use music from the Hip-Hop genre in our game as this is the type of music that is generally associated with basketball. We are planning to contact a record label/artist to ask for permission to use some more wider known songs that users would enjoy listening to.


                                  
                                                                           Ethical:


To make sure we have no ethical issues with our game in terms of the characters, we will give the users the option to either choose a player from the NBA to play as or the option to create their own player.

In this option we will make sure we have no racial issues so the user can choose to be a black, white or brown player. The user will also have the option to select what nationality they would like their player to be, therefore eliminating any ethical issues that could appear in the game. 

LO4: Production Schedule

This is the production schedule for creating out game.

l04 group responsibilities

This is a list of all tasks, each group member is responsible for

a) Treatment or proposal for the final game. - Shayi

b) Competent production schedule for the final game. - Sam

c) Gameplay with associated visuals. - Keenen

d) Target audience - mood-board, description, imaginary entity. - Salik

e) Relevant legal and/or ethical issues - PEGI rating, copyright, music etc. - Sam

f) Platform details and requirements - justification for selection. - Salik

g) Examples of levels - visuals and layouts. (title screen,  characters). - Keenen + Sam

h) Plot synopsis and characters. - Keenen

i) Financial breakdown of development costs. - Shay

l04 financial and budgeting

Financial break down That I did.

According to our financial spreadsheet, our game will cost £42,391,046.82 to produce for the next-gen consoles, PS4 and Xbox One. This includes the actors costs, developers cost, the engine and licensing. We plan to sell 5,000,000 units of our game at a price of £39.99 each, making or overall revenue stand at £10,928,953.18. 

However, as we would be using the NBA brand in our the production of our game, our profits would be severely hampered upon. The NBA company would charge us to use their brand image in our game and would take a final cut in the overall profits of our game.

L04: Analysis of current market trends

The only other main basketball games on the console market are the NBA 2k series and the NBA Live series. The cheapest Xbox One price for NBA 2k16 is £26.70 and the cheapest for PS4 is £29.76. It will be difficult for our game to initially compete as their are two main games that are widely recognised and well played in the current market. As we promoted our game and more people started playing it, we hope that it would grow in the market to compete with the main games like NBA 2k. NBA 2k16's sales hit 4 million within its first week of release. Our game, NBA U, won't be achieving those kind of figures as we will be releasing a brand new game onto the market. But as there are only a couple of basketball games on the market for console, I feel like our game could fit into this market. As the sales of NBA Live are declining too, only selling 8,300 copies in September, I think that there is now room for another basketball game to enter the market.

l04 plot synopsis and character

-The synopsis of our game takes place in a real world environment where you create your own custom character that will have characteristics that suit your ideal self.

-Within the game you, as your character, will be aiming to make a career in the NBA, but this can only be achieved through the high school and college basketball career.

-If you choose to select college or skip straight into the NBA. You will encounter various challenges that can either mean the rise or the fall of your star. 

l04 game visuals

These are the visuals that and Sam designed in Adobe Photoshop to show what the story mode of our game would look like in its different stages; Level 1 - Practising at the local court to show yourself as a prime basketball player, Level 2 - School level basketball to show the teacher and coach your quality as a young basket-baller, Level 3 - Gaining a basketball scholarship to college and playing college level basketball, gaining attention from NBA scouts and Level 4 - Getting drafted into an NBA team and playing in this elite league.

Story Mode: