Game Development!

[svampobbe]

I'm going to write a project work about game development and have a few questions I would like to ask.

What does the graphic artist do?


What does the programmer do?


What does a game designer do?


What is the sequence of events from the time you have an idea of how a game should be until it’s the final product?


When the production is in full swing what is happening then?


Who is involved in the production and what do they do?


How can a timetable/time plan for a game look like?


How do you approach to showcase their product and get people to buy just that game?


How do you get players to continue playing the game?


How to finance the game?


Which parts in the game development are most economically?

Thanks in advance!
Regards
Tobias

[alphadog]

Wow.

The answer to any ONE question would take many many pages, much less 11 such questions. :blink:

Go get a book on the overall concepts in game development, such as Game Development Essentials by Novak. Or, try Sloper's website (http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html). Better yet, read both. And, read articles on Gamasutra.

Come back with more specific questions, one at a time please!

[svampobbe]

okay, thanks for a quick answer, and ill try to do my questions better.
The thing is that I'm going to report my work in total 2-4 articles, about game development.
In 2 weeks should at least one of the articles be done, so ill better hurry do get this done :P

[karligula]

The typical game programmer's day goes something like this:

1) Drag self to office.
2) Spend an hour checking email.
3) Get coffee
4) Argue with artists
5) Have lunch
6) Argue with designers
7) Get ten minutes coding done
8) Argue with producers
9) Go home

[svampobbe]

Thanks for the info about programmers!

[TheNut]

What does the graphic artist do?
He draws, models, and textures. They produce exceedingly better art when working with the opposite sex.

What does the programmer do?
Spends most of their time correcting people online. They occasionally work, but prefer to wait until the last minute since it's tradition.

What does a game designer do?
They take credit for all the hard work everyone else has put in.

What is the sequence of events from the time you have an idea of how a game should be until it’s the final product?
1. Idea + Brainstorm
2. Scope the project, project timelines, argue, revise estimates, argue some more just for the hell of it.
3a. Design
3b. Implement
3c. Test

Section 3 varies on the software lifecycle you chose. Waterfall = a, b, c. Iterative = a,b,c,a,b,c,... Agile = b, a, c, back to b (wtf?), then a, c, c

When the production is in full swing what is happening then?
When production is in full swing something went terribly wrong.

Who is involved in the production and what do they do?
Usually a couple thousand guys stand in front of an assembly line boxing everything. For security, guards armed with 7.62mm assault riffles watch over them.

How can a timetable/time plan for a game look like?
Usually someone you don't know comes up to your desk and convinces you that you said you would finish the task in a couple days. Arguing is futile. This continues for the remainder of the project.

How do you approach to showcase their product and get people to buy just that game?
Collect the best moments in your game. Photoshop the hell out of it and hype it up online. You will have worshipers waiting in line for your game.

How do you get players to continue playing the game?
Usually mods + SDKs for the community do the trick.

How to finance the game?
1. Rough it out in your parent's basement (cheap, but effective)
2. Beg a producer to hook you up with millions (EA, Activision, Vivendi, ...)

Which parts in the game development are most economically?
That would be QA.

[Vilem Otte]

What does the graphic artist do?
As Nutty said, they make art ... they're given design papers from designers (often, sometimes they're forced to work from scratch ... just from idea, without drawings). There are 3 phases for every piece of graphics art - Modelling, Texturing and Animating (or 2 phases for static objects -> just modelling and texturing).
As soon as graphics artist finishes the model, he shows it to designer (then it can begin anew, if designer wants some upgrades), otherwise it is then just put into engine, often by programmers.

What does the programmer do?
Game programmers are used to get engine (by licensing or creating from scratch, but nowadays the most common way in game development is by licensing some good existing engine ... F.e. the one I'm working on right now xD).
Then they write with help of engines DLLs the game logic (or use just engine editors to script game logic), then they modify engine's editors (or write new editors, or use them without modifications - if they already has everything game needs) and then they put art into the engine and the game, script the game (set everything up) and then the game is ready to go to testers (they will return it back with several things to repair, things get repaired and game moves to testers again, etc. until there are no bugs (ideally) ... or bugs are very well hidden (reality)).
Also note that programmers in the end will optimize over dead bodies of artists and designers.

What does a game designer do?
He writes what game will be about, he draws how the game should look (and not just draws), and then he needs to talk to everyone and babble, babble and babble ... one would like to kill 'em sometimes xD

What is the sequence of events from the time you have an idea of how a game should be until it’s the final product?
The ideal case would be (but ideal is ideal ... and as an ideal woman it DOESN'T exist):
Recruit people, design project, make art, buy engine, make game, test and then sell.

When the production is in full swing what is happening then?
Heavy wizardy....

Who is involved in the production and what do they do?
Tons of people and all take lots of money.

How can a timetable/time plan for a game look like?
How big game, it can differ a lot. F.e. you can design game for 1 year, or 2 weeks. You can make whole game in 2 weeks, or in 5 years.
Although often it is like: "It had to be implemented yesterday! So lets get to work"

How do you approach to showcase their product and get people to buy just that game?
Everything is about advertistment. You need to make good trailer, visit some actions for gamers (Games Convention, etc.), make good making-of videos, make good-looking version of games, do advertisting on internet, etc. etc. ... you need to catch your target group of people.

How do you get players to continue playing the game?
Releasing SDK for game is a good way -> they will make mods (as long as SDK is useable), you can also release some extending packs (like Bethesda did with Fallout 3), or datadisc (like Blizzard did with Starcraft 1), or make episodes (like Valve and Half Life 2 series).

How to finance the game?
With money of course. You can use your own money (if you have some), parents money, or whatever will give you money. You can also borrow from a bank ... or get a huge hook by EA, Ubisoft or such companies.

Which parts in the game development are most economically?
After finising product, just sitting in eternal glory xD ... and doing some support of course.

BTW. I'm about to launch my UFEC game project (UFEC is Unofficial Four Elements Contest) in few weeks (after I finish debugging of my current project = game (and not just game) engine), don't know when you need to finish the work ... but if you would like to look into game development process a little, I could provide all information during the development - e.g. videos, images, design papers, of course some exe file, etc.
Just note that this won't be real commercial project (because it is a contest, so no one can give us sureness of returning money we could put into project and also we do this for fun, not for money ... and also it might do a good advertistment of our work) - but me and my collegue are working as professionals in software development (now also related to games), and few my friends are hobbyist 2d/3d graphics and musicans - so it won't be full newbie project after all also.

[alphadog]

3c. Test


You had me up to here. Now I know you are lying... :lol:

[poita]

Yeah, seems to be more like:

3a. Design
3b. Implement
3c. Ship
3d. Test
3e. Day one patch

:)

(3d and 3e are optional).

[starstutter]

What does a game designer do?
They take credit for all the hard work everyone else has put in.

Amen.

[svampobbe]

Thanks for all the good answers. I'm going to report my work in 2-4 articles, and the first article have to be done 2 December.

[svampobbe]

If anyone has anything else to add, anything that you think that the previously persons didn't mentioned or brought up please do so.

[onyxthedog]

If anyone has anything else to add, anything that you think that the previously persons didn't mentioned or brought up please do so.
Although I am not a professional programmer, if game programming is like any other programming and correct me if I am wrong, it is driven about 90% by caffeine (it's your choice of poison).:lol: