In order to design and develop an advert game based on the series of books there are many things that need to be considered.
Pre-production is the start of development where any story, gameplay and art that is needed for the game is worked out and started upon with simple sketches and rough ideas. A core idea on what the books are about needs to be established at the start of development in order to make an experience based around them. This includes creating storyboards of the events that will take place in the game. Furthermore, as this series of books is aimed at children, the target market for this advert would also be children, meaning the game needs to be of a genre and design that is easily understood by a young player base and simple in concept to serve as a free demo that advertises these books. A playboard will also need to be worked on at the start of development to help show gameplay elements in levels.
After a core idea is established and outlined, development can begin on the product in the production stage. This includes making any assets, creating a story and creating all gameplay elements. Storyboards and playboards will also be more defined here.
After the game has been designed and developed, the development will enter post-production. This is where QA testing is done, marketing is created and localisation of languages is done, something which will be needed as this demo is aimed to be released in both europe and asia.
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Pre-production and Post-production are at separate ends of the development process.
Pre-production is the start of development, consisting of the rough outline of a story, Storyboards, gameplay mechanics, playboards, progression and sketches/early designs of art work or assets. This is also where project management is started, with the making of trello boards and Gantt charts to keep the team focused throughout all stages of development.
Post-production is near the end of development, this is where bugs are ironed out and the marketing of your product can be created and started. Additionally, QA testing is started in force here to make sure by the time development ends there are next to no problems with the product. Localisation is also a part of post-production, this is needed to make sure the product can be released in area that speak a different language to the one the game was made in.
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The primary source that would be used to create this world is the series of books, as well as any references the author used when creating their stories. In addition, any sources that have similar worlds or stories to that of the books could be looked to for reference.
Locations around the world can be looked to when creating locations in the imagined world. For example, there could be a location that is based off of eastern culture, this means images of eastern architecture, landscape and other real world elements can be used to help form ideas for art assets. This idea also applies to story aspects. If you are trying to create a emperor character you could look in history books for stories about roman emperors or other emperors from the past.
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There are many ethical and legal considerations that need to be taken into account when creating an advert that will release in multiple continents. Ethical considerations is a big part of this advert as it not only releases in Europe, but Asia as well. It's possible that there will be some events or story elements that occur that need to be edited slightly between regional versions. Most changes that will need to made will have already been considered when translating the source material, the books, for all the different countries.
In terms of legal considerations, the biggest is that the advert needs to portray the books. Advertisement law states that if the advert doesn't represent the product then it is not legally allowed to be shown to the public.
Other laws that need to be followed are copyright laws as well as regulatory bodies, such as PEGI and CERO. Copyright law needs to be followed when creating any form of media. The advert needs to be made using only assets and other elements that are either original and made by the company or are free to use. You also can't take the story of another IP and pass it off as your own. For regulatory, you have to follow the guidelines of the governing body that covers the region you are publishing in. For Europe and Asia you will be going through PEGI, CERO and any other bodies that are for these regions.
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Firstly, any story inside the advert game demo should be taken from the books, as that is what is being advertised. However, there may need to be some slight edits made to how events happen. There could be some events that occur in the books that don't translate well into a game format. Furthermore, the story could be written within the world of the books and not follow the actual events of the books. This leaves more control open to do a short series of events for a demo than having to stop mid way in a story from the books or doing an entire book.
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Diegetic sounds, those found within the environment like ambiance sounds and voice lines, and non diegetic sounds, this would be music that is placed into the game. Diegetic sounds can help make a player be immersed into the world of the game as well as into the story. For example, rain ambiance can help create a sad mood and make a sad moment in a story more impactful. Non diegetic sounds can also help to create a mood during moments of a story as well as a zone in a world.
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Software:
Trello, Mindmeister, Google Drive, Photoshop, Unity, Unreal
Jobs:
Product Lead, Artists, 3D Modeller, Texture Artist, Level designer
In order to produce the advert there will need to be a team that is designed around what the demo is. If the demo is a 3D game then there may need to be more people on the project than if it's a 2D game. There will be a director/project lead on the project that will oversee everything and will be where a lot of the initial ideas come from, they will also be who makes sure the initial brief conceived with help from the author of the books is followed. The director will set up a Trello board, Gantt chart, Mindmap and online storage to keep the team organised. The mindmap could be done on a site like mindmeister and storage can be on google drive.
There will need to be artists for all level art, character art and UI art and possibly texture art and a 3D modeller if the game is 3D. These members are responsible for the art assets that will be put into the game. The artists will use software like photoshop to draw assets, Maya to make 3D models and substance painter to make assets and textures for 3D models. These assets will be imported into an engine where they will be used to make the games world. The game engine will most likely be Unity or Unreal.