How Video Games Are Created

Video games in their 60-year history have changed a lot. The first gaming machine was created in 1940, but the development of video games began in the early seventies with the first home console Odyssey and video game Pong in 1972, which has become one of the famous, first truly successful commercial game of today. Since then computers have become so common that anyone could create their own game. The current video game market has a lot to offer due to the fast-growing technology.

Terms of Reference

Stephen Colbert (Lecturer) has requested Piotr Grzebielski to write a report to examine: Video Game Development. It is a requirement of Communication, Level 6 unit, F3GB 12, and is due to be submitted on 27 October 2017.

Procedures

Research for this report was conducted primarily via the internet, by visiting reputable websites of journals, newspapers, and official reports.

Findings

Nowadays, creating AAA games (highest development budgets and levels of promotion) requires large financial resources and is associated with a high risk of failure. To reduce the risk of low sales of the game, large companies must carefully plan production processes before starting the game development process.

Video games are hardly ever built in a consistent manner instead creative teams of up to 200 people jump back and forth between different stages of the development process and often entirely different companies are tasked with handling certain components like multiplayer in general however the game development process starts and ends with a number of particular phases

Concept

The process of creating games starts with the simple concept or idea. Usually, this is an original concept created inside the company, but it happens that the idea is taken from outside. Often it is a continuation of the existing title, or the plot of the game is based on movies, comics, folklore or history. The team must consider the platform on which the game will operate, its technical capabilities and limitations.

After developing the storyline, the company needs to do a storyboard, which is a visual representation of the plot, including sketches, concepts, and text to explain what is going on in every section or scene of the game. At the same stage, it analyzes how the game will play, what is the game's purpose and rules, and maps of different worlds or levels in the game. Software engineers decide what exactly happens on the screen when a specific button is pressed, which may and may not be the interaction that script events occur, and how the non-controlled characters react to what the player is doing. The first stage is the brainstorming phase in which various creative and design directors decide what kind of game they will make here are some popular game genres which can be blended together developers are limited by the technical specifications of the particular platform their game is being created for the engine is the most important component of the game it compiles code and visual assets

Pitching

Phase two is the pitching phase a couple of documents are presented to the game publishers detailing concepts fleshed out in stage one independent valves usually pitch their game ideas to the public in order to raise money generally through the help of websites like Kickstarter.

The next step is pre-production. After defining a simple concept and choosing a platform, producers, designers, programmers, and artists will work on issues such as storytelling, scripting and creating complete design documents detailing game objectives, design levels, game mechanics. When the game is created on the original concept, the authors of the scripts, artists and designers have the freedom to create. In cases where game development is based on a license or simulation of a real event, creative freedom is often limited to acceptable within the realm of the real world.

Story Development and Concept Art

In this stage visual artists are tasked with gathering reference material and designing the look and feel of the game world within the boundaries set by the scriptwriters it is here that various game designers can see if their ideas will work in practice in stage 4 concept art is translated into the digital space together with professional level designers 2d and 3d artists both everything the player will see motion capture technology is currently being used to create more realistic animations and performances with the help of famous actors characters and settings are often made by multiple people Somers model while others texture rig and light voice acting runs in correlation with the space programmers are given 2d and 3d assets as they are built to make sure they function within the game engine in Phase five writing thousands of lines of code to allow players to interact with them artists animators and programmers work together to ensure their game is responsive as well as visually captivating.

In production, producers will collaborate with teams of designers, artists and programmers to make sure everyone is working together and are at the same stage. Schedules are respected to ensure that the goals of the project are adhered to throughout the development of the game.

Postproduction

When the game is theoretically starting to look like a designer’s vision, testing begins. By performing focus tests, developers see what is difficult for the players, and then improve or fix them. During this production phase, the original vision is likely to change in small ways to correct errors in the design. Continuing to focus on testing and improving the gameplay, the game is polished. Phase six devs privately or publicly share alpha and beta versions of their game gathering feedback and bug reports which can fix before release and use to make sure everything is as engrossing and compelling as possible once completed the games assets and code are sent off to be printed on disks and distributed to retail stores across the globe or release digitally game trailers are featured online along with physical advertisements and marketing campaigns the final stage of game development regards updates and patches to fix more bugs and glitches as well as either paid or free story based or multiplayer downloadable content to key players enjoying the game a couple years after release and that concludes this breakdown of the video game development process.

Technology, especially games are developing at a rapid speed, therefore developers who want to become important competitors must analyze the future of the gaming market. They should be open to new distributions for their games. Creating video games is a complex process but giving developers great satisfaction and chances for personal development and significant financial gains. Covers so many areas, through creating a scenario, music, graphics, drawing and managing, that almost everyone who wants to create games finds something for themselves and can be a co-creator of virtual entertainment history.

Creating a video game is an extremely complex and difficult to manage a process that can last for several years. It’s an incredibly bustling market, one that frequently brings in more than movies, but with a bad managing it can last for many years, absorb a lot of financial resources and end up failing. Therefore, besides it’s a good idea on the game and willingness it is important to choose the necessary number of people, designate and calculate the so-called milestones. Developers also need to determine on what platform the game will be displayed and what technologies may appear in the near future to move the title to the newly created devices.