Having a good working relationship with the licensor is one of the most important things in creating a movie based game. While in development, the game is reviewed at major milestones with DreamWorks to ensure that they are frequently updated with how the game is coming together.
The team works closely with DreamWorks so that any changes are identified as early as possible and the best effort is put in to accommodate the changes. Often times, the movie story will change while the game is in development. This becomes the foundation for the game. The developer creates a Game Design Document that outlines their game idea, which is reviewed by Activision and DreamWorks and reworked if necessary to create a plan that everyone is happy with. This gives the team a starting point for coming up with ideas on what kind of game to make. The process usually begins when there is a script or story synopsis available from the movie licensor. Through the years, I’ve worked up the ranks and have been in Production for about two and a half years now.Ĭan you walk us through the process of creating a game based on a movie? Do you start with the script or are you brought in later in the creative process? I started in the game industry 7 years ago in QA. Daily tasks include milestone reviews, submitting the game to ESRB for a rating, licensing fonts for in-game use, payment processing, and managing the game script voice over recording, sound effects creation, and music creation and licensing. In general, the Associate Producer is the point person for the developer, the licensor (in this case DreamWorks), outside vendors (such as writers, composers, etc) and internal departments such as Marketing, Public Relations, Legal, Quality Assurance, and Localization. Hi, I’m Donna Woo, Associate Producer on Shrek Forever After with Activision.Īs an Associate Producer, I have a variety of responsibilities that change from project to project. Please introduce yourself and talk about your role on the project? What kinds of things do you do on a daily basis? How did you get into the game industry? Ever wanted to know what goes into making a movie tie-in game? Well we did and here's the result.