>>
Does anyone have any experience of commissioning games for your website?
Do we do all the scoping and write really
tight briefs that we then get freelance Flash developers to build for
us, or do we go to one company with lots of experience and work up the
ideas together....
 >>
I would recommend somewhere in between.
The general process that we worked out at the Science Museum for both 
online and offline games goes something like this:
1) Decide what you want your games to be about and what you want them 
to communicate. Don't fall into the trap of thinking
"They're only games they're not supposed to communicate anything". 
That way you're throwing away your key advantage as a museum
and competing directly with playstation.

2) Decide who you want them to be aimed at. Try and be as specific as 
possible rather than just saying "everyone". This will really help you
when you're making design decisions. If you're target audience is 
over 50 then your game is unlikely to involve explosions. If its twelve year
old boys then it might.

3) Don't fall into the trap of designing the game yourself and 
sending out storyboards. This generally not a good idea because:
a) You're not a professional games designer whereas your contractors are
b) You don't have a feel for what's easy/achievable in the budget or 
with the technology so you'll usually be under or over ambitious
c) It's difficult to make dispassionate decisions about your own 
designs - its much easier to "edit" someone else's.
d) Contractors are much more likely to give you better value for 
money if they've designed the game themselves and so feel ownership

4) Send out the brief to around 3-4 contractors and get creative 
pitches back. Decide which proposals best fit your needs and choose that
contractor.
5) Now is the time to work with the contractor and develop the ideas 
into a detailed storyboard.
6) Make sure you get some prototypes of the game to test during the 
development process. Ideally test them on the target audience.

That's about it. There's more information about writing a creative 
brief for a project like this on my web site at 
http://www.joecutting.com/creativebrief.asp
I'm sure Mike can supply more details about projects like Launchball. 
(http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/)

All the best with your project - sounds like lots of fun!

Cheers

Joe





Joe Cutting
Computer exhibits and installations
www.joecutting.com
35 Hospital Fields Road, York, YO10 4DZ
01904 624681

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