Contracted Brief –
Definition -
A contracted brief is a clear and easy to understand contract given to a production company that must be followed without
any alteration. The contract should be made by someone who understands what they are doing, this is because the people working from the brief have no right to alter or change it if any errors arise.
Advantages-
The work stays true to the original idea and is not altered, it gets finished faster as there is no time wasted on discussions. Less hassle as the client can come back to the project when it's finished instead of having to micromanage each change/suggestion.
The work stays true to the original idea and is not altered, it gets finished faster as there is no time wasted on discussions. Less hassle as the client can come back to the project when it's finished instead of having to micromanage each change/suggestion.
Disadvantages-
Any problems/issues that could arise won't be fixed. A project may end up falling apart because the people working on it just can't create exactly what is detailed in the pitch due to an incompetent client producing an incompetent brief.
Example-
Any problems/issues that could arise won't be fixed. A project may end up falling apart because the people working on it just can't create exactly what is detailed in the pitch due to an incompetent client producing an incompetent brief.
Example-
An example of a "Contracted Brief" can be seen when purchasing games, every time you buy a game from steam you accept a set rules that you must agree on, these are self-explanatory things like don't distribute the game, do not resell the game and other such legal issues.
Negotiated Brief –
Definition -
A negotiated brief means that if the production company has any problems/suggestions towards the brief
they can negotiate to have it changed and/or altered. This is useful to people with lesser experience with the creation of their project who might need a bit of help making their project a reality.
Advantages-
Can improve product in long run as more qualified people get the chance to improve it. People who have worked on projects similar have past work experience and can greatly help by cutting out things they know won't work.
Can improve product in long run as more qualified people get the chance to improve it. People who have worked on projects similar have past work experience and can greatly help by cutting out things they know won't work.
Disadvantages-
The constant communication and changes in plan can lead to delays and an overall slower development, when it comes to AAA productions this could be the difference between a hit and a flop.
Example-
An example of a "Negotiated Brief" could be something like a dispute of ownership rights, for example a contract between a company who wants to buy the rights to a series owned by a different company, they would discuss things like which characters the contract entails, what platforms they can publish on and if they have the rights to produce merchandise.
Comparison Between Contracted & Negotiated Brief -
The constant communication and changes in plan can lead to delays and an overall slower development, when it comes to AAA productions this could be the difference between a hit and a flop.
Example-
An example of a "Negotiated Brief" could be something like a dispute of ownership rights, for example a contract between a company who wants to buy the rights to a series owned by a different company, they would discuss things like which characters the contract entails, what platforms they can publish on and if they have the rights to produce merchandise.
Comparison Between Contracted & Negotiated Brief -
A contracted brief is useful for those who know what they are doing, this gives them full control of the project and how it will be produced meaning they can set up the project however they wish and get it into production quickly, comparatively someone with little experience will benefit from the negotiated brief because they can discuss it with people of higher experience, this means they can make the project into what they have in their mind compared to getting a project that doesn't match up to their imagination.
Formal Brief –
Definition -
A formal brief is given to a production company by a client, it includes a detailed explanation of the product. It tends to not cover legal issues, if the production company was to push outside legal guidelines it could have catastrophic coincidences for both parties.
Advantages-
The contract is written in a formal manner, this means it can be read and understood by both the production team and the client without any problems, it makes it easy to discuss with a large production team. This contract cannot be changed by both client and company, this means both can benefit from the deal and there is a low chance of one ruining the other when compared to other contracts.
The contract is written in a formal manner, this means it can be read and understood by both the production team and the client without any problems, it makes it easy to discuss with a large production team. This contract cannot be changed by both client and company, this means both can benefit from the deal and there is a low chance of one ruining the other when compared to other contracts.
Disadvantages-
It is considered "Strange" and "Shady" by indie production companies, which leads to misunderstandings, arguments and further complications. This is due to the way indie companies work compared to AAA companies and their more relaxed nature.
Example-
Large, well known companies like EA, Atari, Nintendo etc use formal briefs because of their professional appearance and strict rules. They will have many people working on a detailed formal brief that explains every single thing that needs to be done. It works on a strict time limit where people need to get on with their assigned jobs.
Example-
Informal briefs are used in indie games between friends. A group that wants to work on a video game together might write a loose and informal contract between each other, they have no use for a formal brief because of the tiny scale of the project.
Comparison Between Formal & Informal Brief -
It is considered "Strange" and "Shady" by indie production companies, which leads to misunderstandings, arguments and further complications. This is due to the way indie companies work compared to AAA companies and their more relaxed nature.
Example-
Large, well known companies like EA, Atari, Nintendo etc use formal briefs because of their professional appearance and strict rules. They will have many people working on a detailed formal brief that explains every single thing that needs to be done. It works on a strict time limit where people need to get on with their assigned jobs.
Informal Brief –
Definition -
Informal brief is not documented and tends to be verbal between friends. This kind of brief can be seen with many indie games developed by small teams, everyone does the job they've agreed to but is under no obligation to work on it.
Advantages-
Small groups can produce their own products without the need of contracts and documents cutting down on the production time.
Small groups can produce their own products without the need of contracts and documents cutting down on the production time.
Disadvantages-
An informal brief tends to fall apart quickly when/if the project becomes larger than expected, people get emotional and bitter, out to ruin it for everyone involved. Because this brief lacks any documentation its really easy to see a project crumble in seconds this way.Example-
Informal briefs are used in indie games between friends. A group that wants to work on a video game together might write a loose and informal contract between each other, they have no use for a formal brief because of the tiny scale of the project.
Comparison Between Formal & Informal Brief -
Both briefs have their benefits, you have to know who you're going to contract before writing the brief. If you attempt to give an informal brief to a AAA production company it would most likely be rejected and if not then the project has a high chance of falling apart anyways. The same would happen with an indie production company and a formal brief.
Tender Brief –
Definition -
Client advertises a vague brief which is taken and
transformed into something grander by several production companies, they can then choose which they like. The client can salvage the ideas they were given and apply them to the production company of choice.
Advantages-
Free ideas and work which you can take into consideration when choosing the production company that seems best. Allows the client to choose which team understands their idea the best and which team has the best potential.
Free ideas and work which you can take into consideration when choosing the production company that seems best. Allows the client to choose which team understands their idea the best and which team has the best potential.
Disadvantages-
Lost cause for many production companies, the client can waste the time of many people by going with this type of brief. It also means the client has to wait for people to develop and present their ideas, sometimes nobody does and you've wasted days, weeks and sometimes even months.
Example-Lost cause for many production companies, the client can waste the time of many people by going with this type of brief. It also means the client has to wait for people to develop and present their ideas, sometimes nobody does and you've wasted days, weeks and sometimes even months.
A great example of this concept in action is the "Game Jam", this event consists of several game developers/designers working with a specific brief/theme, this could be a genre of game such as "RPG", "Sidescroller" or "Shooter" or perhaps an interpretable concept like "Forgiveness", "Rebirth" or "Discovery".
Commission Brief-
Definition -
Commision Brief is defined by a large media company employing a small independent media
company to develop and create a product in their place. A large company may want to outsource small projects and focus all their efforts on a larger, more pressing one.
Advantages-
Not only does the production company get paid more money than standard, they also have their product on show, their name placed alongside the large media company that hired them, this can lead to a exposure for the company and perhaps even another Commision Brief by a competitor media company.
Not only does the production company get paid more money than standard, they also have their product on show, their name placed alongside the large media company that hired them, this can lead to a exposure for the company and perhaps even another Commision Brief by a competitor media company.
Disadvantages-
All this depends on the media company however, at any time they could ruin the small company with accusations, low pay and bad rep, depending on the people responsible. Alot has to be put on faith as such a move could result in the small business closing down all together.
Example-
A good visualization of this would be if the BBC employed a small business to produce a short movie/advert which they would then broadcast, this saves them the trouble of filming and editing it while also drawing the good graces of people by presenting themselves as approachable and "giving back to the industry".
Example-
A good visualization of this would be if the BBC employed a small business to produce a short movie/advert which they would then broadcast, this saves them the trouble of filming and editing it while also drawing the good graces of people by presenting themselves as approachable and "giving back to the industry".
Co-Operative Brief-
Definition -
The Co-Operative Brief is simple, its where a group of production companies (mostly 2 but can sometimes be more) come together and work on a singular brief. This tends to be used for "teamwork skill building" and is mainly used to encourage workers to communicate and develop together.
Advantages-
Not only does this build the communication skills of workers but it improves relations with the other production companies, meaning that another Co-Operative Brief could be worked on in the future. This also means
Not only does this build the communication skills of workers but it improves relations with the other production companies, meaning that another Co-Operative Brief could be worked on in the future. This also means
Disadvantages-
When putting people who have never worked with each other and forcing them to work you must expect a chaotic couple of weeks, even an eternity. Some people are bad at adapting to new work environments meaning a once productive member of staff is reduced to nothing.
Example-
A famous example of this would be Sonic Mania, a game created by a group of indie/rom hack developers working with SEGA staff and directors to produce a sonic game with similar style to those seen on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.
Example-
A famous example of this would be Sonic Mania, a game created by a group of indie/rom hack developers working with SEGA staff and directors to produce a sonic game with similar style to those seen on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.
Competition Brief-
Definition -
A "Competition Brief" follows multiple production companies competing against each other to perfect and produce a final product
for the given brief, the production company whose product is selected by the client gets it published. It is generally considered the polar opposite of the "Co-Operative Brief".
Advantages-
Competition may be show off to the public, becoming an event and giving all involved publicity, it also means smaller, not as well-known production companies have a chance at a brief they don't normally receive. Not only is this good for the production team but the client benefits as well, they can choose any of the production companies depending on their wants and needs.
Disadvantages-Competition may be show off to the public, becoming an event and giving all involved publicity, it also means smaller, not as well-known production companies have a chance at a brief they don't normally receive. Not only is this good for the production team but the client benefits as well, they can choose any of the production companies depending on their wants and needs.
While the client and winning production company succeed and are benefited, all other production companies end up with their wasted time and money, depending on a bad streak this could even put a production company out of business.
Example-
A real-life example of this can be seen in the "Developing Beyond" competition, "a $500,000 year-long development competition created by Epic Games and Wellcome." as quoted from by their official website. After more than 300 production companies had entered, the teams were slowly dwindled down and 3 teams have been given $30,000 to continue their development.
Reading A Brief-
Before beginning work you need to understand what the work is, if a brief is written poorly, hard to understand and needlessly complicated it could severely slow down development time, before even beginning to develop from it you need to make sure the brief is understandable and the people working from it can do so without any complications.
Crucial-
Its important for the production company to know all about briefs so they can deliver the project requested by the client, if there are any complications or inaccuracies between the final product and what has been requested then the client may be left unsatisfied with the company lowering its chances at being hired by that client again.
Negotiating the Brief: Consultation with the Client-
Even the best of briefs require a consultation session, this lets the people working off the brief ask questions they may have or to inform the client of any changes and updates to the plan. Depending on what type of brief was used the conversations will alter, the most obvious would be a formal vs informal brief, a formal brief would require strict planning of legal and ethical issues, an informal brief would probably be casual conversations over Skype of SMS. During this brief changes and alterations will be discussed and sometimes applied, this could lead to a longer development if the client wants too many radical changes to the product.
Discretion in Interpreting the Brief-
Depending on the brief type you may need to do a management plan, deciding on how to handle the brief in the most cost-effective and shortest time while also making sure quality assurance doesn't falter, you would also need to make sure you haven't misinterpreted the brief due to language or regional barriers. A meeting normally takes place to flesh-out any of the issues above and to facilitate the meaning behind the brief.
Constraints: Legal, Ethical, Regulatory-
It goes without saying that anything presented to the public should be not be discriminatory, offencive and/or distasteful (unless commissioned so in the brief.) the product must pass several tests to make sure it has no legal, ethical and regulatory content intentionally and unintentionally. These tests are essential, if they are not performed you risk bad press via articles and by word of mouth due to accidently including offencive and/or shocking material.
Amendments to Proposed Final Product-
As the production company develops its project the client may change their mind on several things, sometimes this means months of hard work scrapped just because of the client, to protect themselves from this, many production companies use "Sign Off Sheets", these documents protect the developers by stopping the client from changing work on a whim. If it wasn't for these documents projects would never get finished, the client would keep tweaking and altering work, slowing down production and wasting money.
Amendments to a Budget-
Turning a brief into reality takes time, depending on the type of project it could take several years, over this time our world changes, prices of things drop or increase, a brief from 2010 would need heavy rewriting to pass today. A production company might need to contact the client and discuss changes in budget due to price alterations.
Amendments to Conditions-
If the client decides to alter the conditions of the brief halfway through production it could have a great effect on the final product, changes in age rating, release date, release locations and other such things could mean content requires updating to match these restrictions/allowances.
Negotiating the Fees-
An important factor in any project is money, without money the production team has no chance to finish the project. Its important to discuss costs of requirements with the client, fleshing out everything and making sure to have back up plans goes a long way to ensure any monetary issues and/or problems don't arise in the future. If the brief is not a "negotiated" brief then this discussion cant be done, this could lead to unexpected problems.
Opportunities for Self-Development-
There are plenty of self-development opportunities when working off a brief, you'll improve your communication skills, teamwork abilities and working at an overall faster speed. Depending on the client it could also be a learning experience for them, if they've gone with a negotiated brief they would learn more about how people handle the brief, which topics need more information/details and the general work-space etiquette.
Opportunities for Multi-Tasking-
Depending on the scale of the project, some people would be required to do two jobs, for example someone who mainly does 3D models might also need to do graphic design, this branching out allows people to improve skills they don't always use. Sometimes a production company would take two briefs at a time and require people to do work on both of them, this unfamiliarity works to build confidence and reinforce the worker's skills.
Contributions to a Project Brief-
When working on a non-contracted brief, you get to discuss the brief and any changes that can occur over production, depending on the client's skills and knowledge a project can be greatly improved with feedback from trained professionals, its important for first-time contractors to take heed of the development teams words as they have much more experience. This tends to slow down the project as several corrections require being made but give the contractor an overall positive view of the company, leading to further work with them and recommendations.
Sources-
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