You have made it this far, congratulations, you are now ready to fly on the world of game development, whatever your choice may be. You have now learned what you will go for, you know what are your tools, your weapons of mass destruction to use in the war of game creation.
But there is still one question... How do i start?
The good news is, that once you clarify what you want and/or like, getting pretty damn good with it is only a matter of time, practice, effort, talent and skill.
So, you Programmers, go out write some apps! You always start with a "Hello World" program, and keep climbing up to calculators, to desktop apps, to mobile apps, to designing your own database and hosting your website and web services or even on a custom made cloud platform, you could get into your scrap metal and code how it works, and then eventually start writing your own game logic code..!
Go buy books, read them all, study online, view tutorials, write programs, applications, libraries, everything you possibly can until you get familiar with intermediate to advanced programming paradigms and design patterns.
Artists, go and study online for a specific 3D/2D asset creation toolkit, Sound Engineers, do the same with your virtual composition creation software, and become experts with the software itself. Then all you have to do is create, create, create, create and CREATE stuff!
Make models, animate them, texture them, plan out your UV mapping, and keep doing the same, learn from your mistakes, keep getting better, and study design paradigms online. Same principle applies to Sound engineers.
Designers, ought to spend some time thinking about what makes a game fun, what do the players want from it, what's the experience they need to pass through a custom home-made virtual world which is consisted of its' own culture, background, religion, beliefs, characters, villains, sidekicks and pets, animals props and everything you could possibly think of.
Try to get in sync with your brain while you sleep. When you manage to befriend your subconsciousness, you now have divine and infinite inspiration for your games. Try to hear what your players hear, see what they see, feel what they feel, act like them, and keep designing game prototypes, get your ideas straight, keep an archive, always stay on the lookout for new things, try everything, listen to music, play an instrument, see a movie, read a book, study social science, do whatever to broaden your horizons and capture as many feelings and essense as you can!
QA Testers, you must keep doing what you already do, play games, and play a lot, and be skillful at it! When you are able to try out everything in a single game and possibly sum up all possible achievements / trophies you are on your way to becoming a great tester and the ideal person to ask for finding bugs. When someone has done everything in a game he is the ultimate being of discovering everything in a game. It's pros and cons, everything!
Generally, what a game developer must always do at all times, leisure or not is to have a lot of creativity, will to go from one edge to the other, he must experiement, try out new stuff, and keep studying and reading and researching for life! And the most important thing:
"They must never cease to be gamers and should keep playing every possible game they can get on their hands. Without passion for games, the game dev biz is not for you."
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Brick #9: Tools, tools everywhere!
So, you know what you are going to be but you don't know which are the best tools to do the job?
In this short post we will give you a basic outline of the tools available.
Programmers:
Based on the technology you are going to work in your project you would go with something that can be used alongside it..! For instance, if you are an XNA programmer / Monogame user / C++ programmer you would go with Visual Studio. If you are going the strict C# way without some DirectX wrappers, you could also use Visual Studio along with Expression Blend. Then again if you are a flash programmer, Adobe Flash CS5 and newer would do just the job for you, whilist if you code in java, eclipse or netbeans is the way to go!
Then again, there are game engines in which you can make games quick and rough. Some industry-based engines you could use are the Unity 3D game engine and the Unreal engine. There are also many commercial engines that can produce AAA quality games such as Cryengine, gamebryo. That would solve your problem.
Artists:
Photoshop and illustrator are your best friends on this journey if you plan on creating 2D graphical assets, or even pixel art, textures, spritesheets, UV maps and such.
If you are on the 3D edge however, there are programs such as 3DsMax, Maya, Blender, Houdini, Cinema 4D and ZBrush that will make your modelling, rigging and animating lives easier.
for the musicians and the sfx experts, there are plenty of software out there, that can help you compose your very own music, such as flstudio, adobe audition, magix music maker, and other.
Designers:
You can use anything, since there is no specific tool for the job, you can either start prototyping in photoshop, write down some ideas in MS Word or even in that post-it note besides your pc monitor, you can check out other illustrations and pixel art of other users and get inspired, play games and write everything you can on notepad, as well as grabbing game engines that write the code for you, or are just event based.
We are talking about GameMaker, Multimedia Fusion 2 developer , Construct 2, Torque, RPGMaker, anything that you can tinker with, try out your ideas and have a game prototype ready in less than an hour or so if you know what has to be done and how it gets done right.
QA Testers:
The absolute tool for a tester would be a notepad, and his gaming system. The tester needs to be proficient with Word / Excel and other similar programs as he will need to point out all the possible bugs of the game and give a detailed report to the programmers about it.
In this short post we will give you a basic outline of the tools available.
Programmers:
Based on the technology you are going to work in your project you would go with something that can be used alongside it..! For instance, if you are an XNA programmer / Monogame user / C++ programmer you would go with Visual Studio. If you are going the strict C# way without some DirectX wrappers, you could also use Visual Studio along with Expression Blend. Then again if you are a flash programmer, Adobe Flash CS5 and newer would do just the job for you, whilist if you code in java, eclipse or netbeans is the way to go!
Then again, there are game engines in which you can make games quick and rough. Some industry-based engines you could use are the Unity 3D game engine and the Unreal engine. There are also many commercial engines that can produce AAA quality games such as Cryengine, gamebryo. That would solve your problem.
Artists:
Photoshop and illustrator are your best friends on this journey if you plan on creating 2D graphical assets, or even pixel art, textures, spritesheets, UV maps and such.
If you are on the 3D edge however, there are programs such as 3DsMax, Maya, Blender, Houdini, Cinema 4D and ZBrush that will make your modelling, rigging and animating lives easier.
for the musicians and the sfx experts, there are plenty of software out there, that can help you compose your very own music, such as flstudio, adobe audition, magix music maker, and other.
Designers:
You can use anything, since there is no specific tool for the job, you can either start prototyping in photoshop, write down some ideas in MS Word or even in that post-it note besides your pc monitor, you can check out other illustrations and pixel art of other users and get inspired, play games and write everything you can on notepad, as well as grabbing game engines that write the code for you, or are just event based.
We are talking about GameMaker, Multimedia Fusion 2 developer , Construct 2, Torque, RPGMaker, anything that you can tinker with, try out your ideas and have a game prototype ready in less than an hour or so if you know what has to be done and how it gets done right.
QA Testers:
The absolute tool for a tester would be a notepad, and his gaming system. The tester needs to be proficient with Word / Excel and other similar programs as he will need to point out all the possible bugs of the game and give a detailed report to the programmers about it.
Brick #8: What's my role in all this?
Most certainly, a good question, and the answer is a counter-question:
"Which of the jobs already mentioned in the games industry intrigues / excites you the MOST? "
And should you answer the question at once, then you are set! You have found your role and can skip the rest of this post.
If you haven't answered right away, or just said "I am a game developer" as we said earlier, you have no idea what your role will be. We already talked about a game developer, who is just someone involved in the whole game-making project/process and we don't care about his role / specialty.
That's what we want YOU to know for yourself.
So i have a quiz ready for you. Answer the following questions, in a multiple choice pattern, and pick the answers that best fit your personality.
1 - When someone asks you what does your dream job include you think:
A - Programming for games!
B - Drawing Art for games!
C - Create Virtual Worlds in your head!
D - Play games!
2 - When you hear the word programming you think:
A - Solving problems in a creative way!
B - Lines of code that just render stuff on screen.
C - Game Functionality that's based on rules.
D - You still think of video games.
3 - Which of the following terms triggers you emotionally?
A - Artificial Intelligence
B - Official Soundtrack
C - Parallel Universe
D - Beta Testing
4 - While playing a game, you get fascinated by:
A - The functionality
B - The Graphics
C - The Story
D - The Game itself!
5 - You enjoy:
A - Math, Logic, Engineering
B - Arts, Music
C - Creativity, Emotions
D - Fun, Fun, FUN!
6 - Which of the following tasks would be easy for you to do in 2 days:
A - Write a mobile application
B - Create and Animate a 3D model
C - Create a world in your head along with stories and characters
D - Find all possible bugs for a game as well as going for all the achievements.
7 - What's the most important aspect of a game?
A - Mechanics
B - Aesthetics
C - Story
D - Repetitive Value
8 - Which of the following best describes you?
A - Someone who likes solving problems, and wants to discover the world.
B - Someone who appreciates beauty and enjoys music and movies.
C - Someone who likes roleplaying, fantasy, and has a lot of creativity.
D - Someone who would do everything possible in a game just for the thrill of it.
9 - Which of the following is your favorite item?
A - Keyboard
B - Pen & Paper / Musical Instrument
C - A lot of Post-it notes as well as Comic books!
D - Your Gaming System.
10 - When do you function better?
A - Whenever there isn't any noise at the room.
B - Anytime.
C - Whenever I am sleeping.
D - Leisure time!!!
And your results are:
Mostly A: Programmer!
Mostly B: Artist! (Either 2d/3d graphics or sound specialist)
Mostly C: Game Designer!
Mostly D: QA Tester!
"Which of the jobs already mentioned in the games industry intrigues / excites you the MOST? "
And should you answer the question at once, then you are set! You have found your role and can skip the rest of this post.
If you haven't answered right away, or just said "I am a game developer" as we said earlier, you have no idea what your role will be. We already talked about a game developer, who is just someone involved in the whole game-making project/process and we don't care about his role / specialty.
That's what we want YOU to know for yourself.
So i have a quiz ready for you. Answer the following questions, in a multiple choice pattern, and pick the answers that best fit your personality.
1 - When someone asks you what does your dream job include you think:
A - Programming for games!
B - Drawing Art for games!
C - Create Virtual Worlds in your head!
D - Play games!
2 - When you hear the word programming you think:
A - Solving problems in a creative way!
B - Lines of code that just render stuff on screen.
C - Game Functionality that's based on rules.
D - You still think of video games.
3 - Which of the following terms triggers you emotionally?
A - Artificial Intelligence
B - Official Soundtrack
C - Parallel Universe
D - Beta Testing
4 - While playing a game, you get fascinated by:
A - The functionality
B - The Graphics
C - The Story
D - The Game itself!
5 - You enjoy:
A - Math, Logic, Engineering
B - Arts, Music
C - Creativity, Emotions
D - Fun, Fun, FUN!
6 - Which of the following tasks would be easy for you to do in 2 days:
A - Write a mobile application
B - Create and Animate a 3D model
C - Create a world in your head along with stories and characters
D - Find all possible bugs for a game as well as going for all the achievements.
7 - What's the most important aspect of a game?
A - Mechanics
B - Aesthetics
C - Story
D - Repetitive Value
8 - Which of the following best describes you?
A - Someone who likes solving problems, and wants to discover the world.
B - Someone who appreciates beauty and enjoys music and movies.
C - Someone who likes roleplaying, fantasy, and has a lot of creativity.
D - Someone who would do everything possible in a game just for the thrill of it.
9 - Which of the following is your favorite item?
A - Keyboard
B - Pen & Paper / Musical Instrument
C - A lot of Post-it notes as well as Comic books!
D - Your Gaming System.
10 - When do you function better?
A - Whenever there isn't any noise at the room.
B - Anytime.
C - Whenever I am sleeping.
D - Leisure time!!!
And your results are:
Mostly A: Programmer!
Mostly B: Artist! (Either 2d/3d graphics or sound specialist)
Mostly C: Game Designer!
Mostly D: QA Tester!
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Brick #7: Game Genres
On to genres it is!
Besides the already mentioned Serious Games which is an upcoming and hotter by day genre, there are other genres as well, which are much more common and used to.
A genre, for Music could be "Metal" , "Rock" , "Pop" , "Dance" , "Ballad" , "Classic" , "Country" etc.
A genre for Movies, could be "Action" , "Comedy" , "Romance" , "Sci-fi" , "Horror", "Cartoon" etc.
And just like Music and Movie industry, the game industry has its' own genres as well..! Let's peek on some of them!
PLATFORMERS
We are talking retro-style 2D side scroller here where you control your character and usually the term "Platformer" comes from the fact that you have to jump on (or off) of platforms, utilize floating platform movement in order to proceed, or even jump on other enemies' heads to destroy them and also, these games involve a lot of environmental hazards which you have to be careful of, besides monsters. Such hazards include dancing flames, spikes on the walls, or even botomless pits. Mostly known at gaming's earlier days, when combined with action, platformers can blast our day even today!
Examples: Super Mario Bros , Sonic the hedgehog, Metroid Fusion
ADVENTURE
For those seeking to squeeze their brains in order to solve a riddle or for those wanabee detectives, such games most of the time involve controlling an investigator of some sort, or even trasure hunters, individuals who would go to the end of every adventure and just risk it all for the sake of bounty. These games come with tough (or not) riddles and/or story plots that require you to do specific stuff (which is not defined) in order to proceed, and generally require you to think a lot, and consider everything you have in your possession and use it with a specific character or the environment if you feel like continuing with the story.
Such brain games are loved by many gamers and the adventure genre is still one of the best out there..!
Examples: Sam & Max , Monkey Island, The Longest Journey, Myst
BEATEMUP
All time classic beat up your friend in the same room with a second controller. Your objective mainly in these games is...what else? BEAT UP your friend or the computer using a series of combos that gather up massive amounts of damage and knock out your opponent. One of the best genres if you are the mindless, button-mashing freak that likes facerolling on the gamepad. So, either test your combo-gathering skills versus the AI by using your fists or some crazy double edged bastard swords or against your other button-mashing friend..!
Examples: Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur
PUZZLE
This genre is favored by the casual player, usually following the old design pattern, which is a linear sequence of progress featuring endless levels , which are either following the same pattern but with higher difficulty, or is adding new features to the game every X levels or so. Games designed to be puzzled usually require features that are adding addicting value to the game, thus keeping players playing it.
Examples: Tetris, Bejeweled, Dr.Mario
STRATEGY
This genre is getting more and more famous by the years, with more and more titles emerging at the local games store. This genre features a 3rd person camera above the playing field where you usually control your troops and your objective is to destroy the other players (the other civilizations involved in the game). You pick a race/civilization, then gather up resources using your village people and with these resources, build a lot of buildings that either increase productivity or upgrade your defenses / attack / troops. You can also recruit troops and then when you've gathered enough, you can go attack other players if you feel lucky.
Such games can be further categorized into RTS games or even Turn-based games.
Examples: Warcraft , Age of Empires, Civilization, Command & Conquer
RPG
For the most hardcore gamers ever, besides strategies and shooters, RPGs are often of the most addicting genres and tend to transform people from human players to zombies. Such games involve monitoring lots of stuff at the same time, such as your health, your magic, your attacks, will they be timed or not? You have to keep monitoring your stats, how they change according to armor, the number of items you have in your backpack, the skills you are going to use to enemies based on the enemy type or your specific damage type, use flasks or potions to restore your health, mana and energy. RPGs can be categorized into CRPGs (Action RPGs) and JRPGs (Japaneese Style , Turn based RPGs).
Examples: Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy(JRPG), Kingdom Hearts (CRPG), Diablo
SHOOTER
Another genre for those hardcore gamers who like to play online and test their skills against other players (or bots..!) You usually play in 1st person view, holding a gun, and your goal is to aim that crosshair at the middle of the screen towards the heads of your enemies (when you can) and well, shoot the crap out of them, in order to gather kills and actually win some Team Deathmatch / Deathmatch / Capture The Flag games. These games are incredibly addicting, and also require quick reflexes, monitoring skills and well. SKILLS in general.
Examples: Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, Resistance, Medal of Honour
PARTY GAMES
Last but not least, we have party games genre, which features many players playing at the same time, usually games that can be played at the same time by 4 players (usually it rounds at 4) featuring either a lot of minigames, or hot-seat games. Such games could be either Karaoke games, meaning games that can be played in parties in general, by many players at once, bringing a lot of fun to anyone attending!!
Examples: Mario Party, Little Big Planet, Worms, Super Smash Bros
Besides the already mentioned Serious Games which is an upcoming and hotter by day genre, there are other genres as well, which are much more common and used to.
A genre, for Music could be "Metal" , "Rock" , "Pop" , "Dance" , "Ballad" , "Classic" , "Country" etc.
A genre for Movies, could be "Action" , "Comedy" , "Romance" , "Sci-fi" , "Horror", "Cartoon" etc.
And just like Music and Movie industry, the game industry has its' own genres as well..! Let's peek on some of them!
PLATFORMERS
We are talking retro-style 2D side scroller here where you control your character and usually the term "Platformer" comes from the fact that you have to jump on (or off) of platforms, utilize floating platform movement in order to proceed, or even jump on other enemies' heads to destroy them and also, these games involve a lot of environmental hazards which you have to be careful of, besides monsters. Such hazards include dancing flames, spikes on the walls, or even botomless pits. Mostly known at gaming's earlier days, when combined with action, platformers can blast our day even today!
Examples: Super Mario Bros , Sonic the hedgehog, Metroid Fusion
ADVENTURE
For those seeking to squeeze their brains in order to solve a riddle or for those wanabee detectives, such games most of the time involve controlling an investigator of some sort, or even trasure hunters, individuals who would go to the end of every adventure and just risk it all for the sake of bounty. These games come with tough (or not) riddles and/or story plots that require you to do specific stuff (which is not defined) in order to proceed, and generally require you to think a lot, and consider everything you have in your possession and use it with a specific character or the environment if you feel like continuing with the story.
Such brain games are loved by many gamers and the adventure genre is still one of the best out there..!
Examples: Sam & Max , Monkey Island, The Longest Journey, Myst
BEATEMUP
All time classic beat up your friend in the same room with a second controller. Your objective mainly in these games is...what else? BEAT UP your friend or the computer using a series of combos that gather up massive amounts of damage and knock out your opponent. One of the best genres if you are the mindless, button-mashing freak that likes facerolling on the gamepad. So, either test your combo-gathering skills versus the AI by using your fists or some crazy double edged bastard swords or against your other button-mashing friend..!
Examples: Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur
PUZZLE
This genre is favored by the casual player, usually following the old design pattern, which is a linear sequence of progress featuring endless levels , which are either following the same pattern but with higher difficulty, or is adding new features to the game every X levels or so. Games designed to be puzzled usually require features that are adding addicting value to the game, thus keeping players playing it.
Examples: Tetris, Bejeweled, Dr.Mario
STRATEGY
This genre is getting more and more famous by the years, with more and more titles emerging at the local games store. This genre features a 3rd person camera above the playing field where you usually control your troops and your objective is to destroy the other players (the other civilizations involved in the game). You pick a race/civilization, then gather up resources using your village people and with these resources, build a lot of buildings that either increase productivity or upgrade your defenses / attack / troops. You can also recruit troops and then when you've gathered enough, you can go attack other players if you feel lucky.
Such games can be further categorized into RTS games or even Turn-based games.
Examples: Warcraft , Age of Empires, Civilization, Command & Conquer
RPG
For the most hardcore gamers ever, besides strategies and shooters, RPGs are often of the most addicting genres and tend to transform people from human players to zombies. Such games involve monitoring lots of stuff at the same time, such as your health, your magic, your attacks, will they be timed or not? You have to keep monitoring your stats, how they change according to armor, the number of items you have in your backpack, the skills you are going to use to enemies based on the enemy type or your specific damage type, use flasks or potions to restore your health, mana and energy. RPGs can be categorized into CRPGs (Action RPGs) and JRPGs (Japaneese Style , Turn based RPGs).
Examples: Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy(JRPG), Kingdom Hearts (CRPG), Diablo
SHOOTER
Another genre for those hardcore gamers who like to play online and test their skills against other players (or bots..!) You usually play in 1st person view, holding a gun, and your goal is to aim that crosshair at the middle of the screen towards the heads of your enemies (when you can) and well, shoot the crap out of them, in order to gather kills and actually win some Team Deathmatch / Deathmatch / Capture The Flag games. These games are incredibly addicting, and also require quick reflexes, monitoring skills and well. SKILLS in general.
Examples: Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty, Resistance, Medal of Honour
PARTY GAMES
Last but not least, we have party games genre, which features many players playing at the same time, usually games that can be played at the same time by 4 players (usually it rounds at 4) featuring either a lot of minigames, or hot-seat games. Such games could be either Karaoke games, meaning games that can be played in parties in general, by many players at once, bringing a lot of fun to anyone attending!!
Examples: Mario Party, Little Big Planet, Worms, Super Smash Bros
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Brick #6: Something different - Serious Games
My first reaction when i hear about Serious games i thought : "Well, i guess there are pointless and serious games, meaning there is a backend story supporting the game?" I was wrong of course.
A serious game serves more purposes than plain entertainment. And that's the primary aspect that differentiates it from the usual "games" . A Serious game is a game of course, though it just doesn't belong to the field of entertainment only. It has other applications to other fields such as E-Government, E-Health, E-Learning and even E-Commerce.
Its' purpose is to aid in scientific research, help solve specific problems that could be training someone to learn something specific, healing a patient, advertising a product, or even pass political and/or religious/evangelical messages to the player!
Trully, their purpose is not only to entertain the player but also do all of the above. The target audience of such games usually is outside the scope of primary or secondary school and has specific uses.
Let's see some examples of such games:
Example 1 : Application in E-Learning
" A game where you take control of a man who lives in America and is jobless. You are given a specific budget and you have to survive for one month without running out of money. The game is simply a turn-based game, for one player though. Every turn is a day, and each day you have some possible choices to make such as A) Which job position would you apply for? B) How far from work would you live? C) How much rent are you willing to pay? D) Would you buy your child a gift for his birthday? E) How would you spend your money to fill the fridge for the rest of the month? The player besides being entertained and all is clearly subsequently learning about the harsh life the Americans without a job live. That's a combination of Entertainment and Education , or in simple terms, Edutainment, an application of gaming in E-Learning. "
Example 2 : Application in E-Health
" A game which is built for Microsoft's X-Box 360 platform, and more specifically for Kinect. Doctors and Game Developers could co-operate to create a game that's working purely with motion-sensors and is used to help patients with movement disorders (such as Dyskinesia) heal by performing specific excersises aiding in their faster recovery. The game would have a funny GUI, scoring systems and of course a medical tracking system that tracks / records the daily performance of the patients and automatically diagnoses their state and recovery acceleration. Such means of gaming is known as Excergaming , an application of gaming in E-Health. "
Example 3 : Simulations
" A game which has direct applications to E-Commerce or E-Government is a simulation game that's simulating the management of an industry which reflects upon the real-life situations such as the tycoon series or a game where you take control of a film making studio and produce movies and you keep track of everything at the same, such as "The Movies" game. Such games, other than advertising certain brands or just aid the player to know more and more about a specific industry are also fun, and as such many simulation games can also be Serious Games, as they serve more purposes than just fun. "
A serious game serves more purposes than plain entertainment. And that's the primary aspect that differentiates it from the usual "games" . A Serious game is a game of course, though it just doesn't belong to the field of entertainment only. It has other applications to other fields such as E-Government, E-Health, E-Learning and even E-Commerce.
Its' purpose is to aid in scientific research, help solve specific problems that could be training someone to learn something specific, healing a patient, advertising a product, or even pass political and/or religious/evangelical messages to the player!
Trully, their purpose is not only to entertain the player but also do all of the above. The target audience of such games usually is outside the scope of primary or secondary school and has specific uses.
Let's see some examples of such games:
Example 1 : Application in E-Learning
" A game where you take control of a man who lives in America and is jobless. You are given a specific budget and you have to survive for one month without running out of money. The game is simply a turn-based game, for one player though. Every turn is a day, and each day you have some possible choices to make such as A) Which job position would you apply for? B) How far from work would you live? C) How much rent are you willing to pay? D) Would you buy your child a gift for his birthday? E) How would you spend your money to fill the fridge for the rest of the month? The player besides being entertained and all is clearly subsequently learning about the harsh life the Americans without a job live. That's a combination of Entertainment and Education , or in simple terms, Edutainment, an application of gaming in E-Learning. "
Example 2 : Application in E-Health
" A game which is built for Microsoft's X-Box 360 platform, and more specifically for Kinect. Doctors and Game Developers could co-operate to create a game that's working purely with motion-sensors and is used to help patients with movement disorders (such as Dyskinesia) heal by performing specific excersises aiding in their faster recovery. The game would have a funny GUI, scoring systems and of course a medical tracking system that tracks / records the daily performance of the patients and automatically diagnoses their state and recovery acceleration. Such means of gaming is known as Excergaming , an application of gaming in E-Health. "
Example 3 : Simulations
" A game which has direct applications to E-Commerce or E-Government is a simulation game that's simulating the management of an industry which reflects upon the real-life situations such as the tycoon series or a game where you take control of a film making studio and produce movies and you keep track of everything at the same, such as "The Movies" game. Such games, other than advertising certain brands or just aid the player to know more and more about a specific industry are also fun, and as such many simulation games can also be Serious Games, as they serve more purposes than just fun. "
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Brick #5: What's a game's anatomy?
Back for more, huh?
Alright, now we'll become game doctors and put down a game, cut it open, and learn what's inside that!
Anatomy of a game 101 lecture commencing!
If you've been reading books on Games , game design etcetera, you probably have seen many many "game anatomy" sections, and more likely, different from each other. So, supporting the fact that i said before, that games are not science, they are rather "art", it's pretty logical seeing so many interpretations of what are the base components of a game. You may as well create your own "report" of what a game is like and what are its' components.
That said, now we can move on to mine interpretation / "medical report" / body analysis of what are the core components of a game. Let's see...
I will at first list them out here:
Alright, now we'll become game doctors and put down a game, cut it open, and learn what's inside that!
Anatomy of a game 101 lecture commencing!
If you've been reading books on Games , game design etcetera, you probably have seen many many "game anatomy" sections, and more likely, different from each other. So, supporting the fact that i said before, that games are not science, they are rather "art", it's pretty logical seeing so many interpretations of what are the base components of a game. You may as well create your own "report" of what a game is like and what are its' components.
That said, now we can move on to mine interpretation / "medical report" / body analysis of what are the core components of a game. Let's see...
I will at first list them out here:
- Emotional value
- Technology
- Educational value
- Aesthetics
- Challenge
Aaaaaaaaand that's about it! Really, not a great list nor a teeny tiny one. It can get the message straight though, once we get into depth with each one.
**** Emotional Value ****
The first core component we are discussing here, is all about emotions. In order to understand this one we are going to ask the following questions to us when we design the game:
" Is the user feeling surprised after that plot twist? " , or
" is the player terrified ? If so, is he going to keep playing or stop the game? ".
As you can see the emotional value in a game is just how good the game itself is at triggering these emotions in the player while he is playing! If he is playing a horror-survival game without screaming or without having his face covered in sweat and his heart keeps pumping faster, that means that the game has Excellent Emotional Value. We can say the exact same thing for an RPG game when the player is on the verge of defeat while suddenly he gains a superpower out of nowhere and his avatar becomes cooler and cooler and the player is having goosebumps and when his avatar is performing some super-crazy move that instantly defeats his opponents, the player pukes rainbows! Perfect Emotional value. Other examples of feelings would be A) Crying out of sorrow / Happiness , B) Laughter , C) Terror , D) Surprise , so on and so forth.
A game that is supposed to do such things and leaves the player out in the cold emotionless has no emotional value. To achieve that, concepts such as the game story, the character's background, the plot, or the whole feel of the game itself can aid you for that purpose.
**** Technology ****
The rest can not co-exist without the help of this little core component of a game. It's basically all the building blocks that bind them together. Programmers are feeling like home when talking about technology and basically on which platforms is the game built, or which tools they used to do so. Example questions:
" Which Game Engine was used to build this game? Was it a 2D/3D, pseudo3D (isometric)? Are we using Unity3D , Unreal Engine, Gamebryo, Cryengine, or are we going for a custom built one?" ,
"Which programming language are we going to build this game with? Is it going to be cross-platform or platform-specific? ",
" Will the game have multiplayer? If so, which socket implementation would suffice? What are the server requirements? ",
" Is my game an online game? So, do we need to build an online platform for registration? ",
many questions arrise, when it comes to technology. If you can overcome these, your only limitation would be your imagination.
**** Educational Value ****
That's my personal favorite on games. As said before, every game can subsequently train you. Other games enhance your memory. Others your imagination or your creativity. Others test your intellect. Others want to put your problem-solving skills on a rampage. Others just want to increase your reflexes. Others teach you English, basic calculus, physics, biology, chemistry, and history! So, games are not just here to substitute the Teaching and Learning experience. They ARE a learning experience of beyond-your-imagination educational value. Some examples that would fit here:
"Pokemon games : The ability to recall 350 names and images along with 1500 special abilites at the same time!"
"Dungeons and Dragons games : Insane mathematical skills, theory of probability, statistics and imagination!"
"Call of Duty games : Extraordinary enhancement in reflexes , and visual skills!"
"Role Playing Games with a deep story : These are THE English teachers, rich vocabulary through dialogs, feelings and build up your imagination!"
"Total War Games : Better, spherical perspective of historical events through playing. Are these games strategical or just another VLE and we just don't know that yet?"
"Spore : The core of biology and human evolution (Darwin Theory) and management."
"Strategy games : Teach the basics of time management, organisational skills and economics, spending policies and risk analysis, isn't that insane?"
"Chess : Improves logic and creativity, based on risk analysis and predictions, identification of patterns"
"Adventure Games : Others serious (Heavy Rain) and others funny (Sam & Max) they take your problem-solving skills to the next level... Literally. You either solve this problem in a logical or creative way, or you just rot in the same level forever. Heavy intellectual investment these games, folks."
"World of Warcraft : That's a marvellous learning gem! Communication skills? Check. Teamwork and Collaborative task promotion? Check. Bussiness Thinking? Check. Motivations? Check. Strategic Thinking? Check. Basic Economic and Barter skills? Check. Great promotion of personal effort? Check. Virtual representation of everyday real life? Check. Reflexes? Check. Seriously, this game should be World of Learncraft."
So, any game that would teach stuff to people without them noticing has great educational value.
**** Aesthetics ****
And by that we refer to two things: Design and Experience..!
The binding of assets together would be plain ol' design but if you throw in "interaction" then you have your experience! Aesthetics refer to the feel a player has when he is playing that game and how deeply he is emerged to it. It's a sibling concept of Emotional value, as the more emerged a player is in a game, the more he thinks, speaks and acts as his avatar (could be a character) the more he is certain to have the "experience". Experience refer to that essence that is engulfing the player as he plays. Just stop thinking when you play and enjoy it. Then, try to describe how you felt and what you went through, that's an experience. The overall design of the game improves that, and as such aesthetics are a core concept on their own. For example in a survival game like silent hill, that fog where you can't see much, further, but you CAN hear enemies coming to your way, and the absense of a GUI is really enhancing that experience, making you FEEL the game a bit more, thus emerging you and in the end making you tremble in fear, pausing the game briefly and then after a deep breath, you try to defeat your obscure opponent. Another example would be Little Big Planet, every level is created purely for fun, and for more than one player, surely you will start acting as the sackboy at some time and start yelling like a kid, hopping around your room and even making these weird gestures he can make with his hands. That's experience..! Something strong enough, to be memorized, and recalled thereafter. The essesnce of what you felt.
**** Challenge ****
Allright, so all games can be fun, creative, scary, etc etc, but what's their difficulty? Is it enough for the player? Or maybe is it too much for the player? That's a very tough call, as designers often face this problem:
"Should i make the game easy, the player will fall asleep or even bore to death. Should i make the game tough, his family members, girlfriend, and neighbours are in danger, as well as the game itself. How can i close that gap between easy and difficult, where a player may just call a game "Challenging" , rather than totally unbeatable or a piece of cake?"
The way to overcome the problem is through constant playtesting. Ask around. Think about the opinions of others, they seem pretty important. That's how to describe the concept of challenge in a game though. You don't want it to be either very easy or very hard. The games that can overcome this are games that utilize the DDA technique. (DDA = Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment)
For example:
"Devil May Cry : If you die more than 3 times on the first 3 missions, the player is prompted to reduce the difficulty from NORMAL to EASY."
" Elder Scrolls Games : The enemies' difficulty is scalable along with your character's level. The same difficulty your character will face a rat with his fists when he is lv 1 will be almost the same difficulty when he is lv50 fighting an elder dragon "
Also, Challenge aspect concerns whether a game can give enough challenge to a player or not. For example, when you know that you have to farm X mobs for Y minutes in the Z area, in order to defeat boss W, you can't say that's a challenge. However, when the Z area has X mobs that don't respawn or if they appear at Y time of the day *without the player knowing* , adds some level of challenge. Even worse would be the fact that the boss would scale his damage levels based on your "kills". And also, games that seem to be linear don't encourage challenge, rather they make it even more dull. Having many ways to do somethings, but keeping them hidden from the player can be quite a challenge.
Two examples i can remember :
"In final fantasy X, there is a specific boss that has thousands of hit points, can one-shoot your players, based on chance and your party has got to be very strong in order to defeat him. One more thing. He is a zombie. One way to defeat him would be to either hack his health away slowly and trying to keep your team up, OR you could just use the "Resurrection" ability on him, and he dies instantly, something NOT profound to the player, but if he gets the hint that "Death" spells kill "Living" opponents, hopefully, he can figure out that "Bring-me-to-life" spells can kill "Dead" opponents."
"Again, in the same game, this one time you fight a huge robot. You could surely hack his health away, but if you happen to have electricity spells on you, you can finish him off WAY quicker. It's something that you have to find out on your own, that mechanic units just take more damage from electricity than any other kind of damage. There is also a third way to take care of that enemy by doing something that's really hard to notice, but once you do, it becomes pretty obvious : Hit the enviromental obstacles, forcing an explosion, destroying the very bridge he is standing, knocking him out of the battle. "
The aspect of challenge troubles most designers and is really something to be examined much more thoroughly in the games, as most companies often invest in aesthetics, story, experience and such, rather than difficulty or challenge.
That pretty much covers the anatomy of a game. Not all games have all these 5 aspects enhanced or taken care of at a perfect grade, but the better your game fulfils their requirements, the better your game will be.
The first core component we are discussing here, is all about emotions. In order to understand this one we are going to ask the following questions to us when we design the game:
" Is the user feeling surprised after that plot twist? " , or
" is the player terrified ? If so, is he going to keep playing or stop the game? ".
As you can see the emotional value in a game is just how good the game itself is at triggering these emotions in the player while he is playing! If he is playing a horror-survival game without screaming or without having his face covered in sweat and his heart keeps pumping faster, that means that the game has Excellent Emotional Value. We can say the exact same thing for an RPG game when the player is on the verge of defeat while suddenly he gains a superpower out of nowhere and his avatar becomes cooler and cooler and the player is having goosebumps and when his avatar is performing some super-crazy move that instantly defeats his opponents, the player pukes rainbows! Perfect Emotional value. Other examples of feelings would be A) Crying out of sorrow / Happiness , B) Laughter , C) Terror , D) Surprise , so on and so forth.
A game that is supposed to do such things and leaves the player out in the cold emotionless has no emotional value. To achieve that, concepts such as the game story, the character's background, the plot, or the whole feel of the game itself can aid you for that purpose.
**** Technology ****
The rest can not co-exist without the help of this little core component of a game. It's basically all the building blocks that bind them together. Programmers are feeling like home when talking about technology and basically on which platforms is the game built, or which tools they used to do so. Example questions:
" Which Game Engine was used to build this game? Was it a 2D/3D, pseudo3D (isometric)? Are we using Unity3D , Unreal Engine, Gamebryo, Cryengine, or are we going for a custom built one?" ,
"Which programming language are we going to build this game with? Is it going to be cross-platform or platform-specific? ",
" Will the game have multiplayer? If so, which socket implementation would suffice? What are the server requirements? ",
" Is my game an online game? So, do we need to build an online platform for registration? ",
many questions arrise, when it comes to technology. If you can overcome these, your only limitation would be your imagination.
**** Educational Value ****
That's my personal favorite on games. As said before, every game can subsequently train you. Other games enhance your memory. Others your imagination or your creativity. Others test your intellect. Others want to put your problem-solving skills on a rampage. Others just want to increase your reflexes. Others teach you English, basic calculus, physics, biology, chemistry, and history! So, games are not just here to substitute the Teaching and Learning experience. They ARE a learning experience of beyond-your-imagination educational value. Some examples that would fit here:
"Pokemon games : The ability to recall 350 names and images along with 1500 special abilites at the same time!"
"Dungeons and Dragons games : Insane mathematical skills, theory of probability, statistics and imagination!"
"Call of Duty games : Extraordinary enhancement in reflexes , and visual skills!"
"Role Playing Games with a deep story : These are THE English teachers, rich vocabulary through dialogs, feelings and build up your imagination!"
"Total War Games : Better, spherical perspective of historical events through playing. Are these games strategical or just another VLE and we just don't know that yet?"
"Spore : The core of biology and human evolution (Darwin Theory) and management."
"Strategy games : Teach the basics of time management, organisational skills and economics, spending policies and risk analysis, isn't that insane?"
"Chess : Improves logic and creativity, based on risk analysis and predictions, identification of patterns"
"Adventure Games : Others serious (Heavy Rain) and others funny (Sam & Max) they take your problem-solving skills to the next level... Literally. You either solve this problem in a logical or creative way, or you just rot in the same level forever. Heavy intellectual investment these games, folks."
"World of Warcraft : That's a marvellous learning gem! Communication skills? Check. Teamwork and Collaborative task promotion? Check. Bussiness Thinking? Check. Motivations? Check. Strategic Thinking? Check. Basic Economic and Barter skills? Check. Great promotion of personal effort? Check. Virtual representation of everyday real life? Check. Reflexes? Check. Seriously, this game should be World of Learncraft."
So, any game that would teach stuff to people without them noticing has great educational value.
**** Aesthetics ****
And by that we refer to two things: Design and Experience..!
The binding of assets together would be plain ol' design but if you throw in "interaction" then you have your experience! Aesthetics refer to the feel a player has when he is playing that game and how deeply he is emerged to it. It's a sibling concept of Emotional value, as the more emerged a player is in a game, the more he thinks, speaks and acts as his avatar (could be a character) the more he is certain to have the "experience". Experience refer to that essence that is engulfing the player as he plays. Just stop thinking when you play and enjoy it. Then, try to describe how you felt and what you went through, that's an experience. The overall design of the game improves that, and as such aesthetics are a core concept on their own. For example in a survival game like silent hill, that fog where you can't see much, further, but you CAN hear enemies coming to your way, and the absense of a GUI is really enhancing that experience, making you FEEL the game a bit more, thus emerging you and in the end making you tremble in fear, pausing the game briefly and then after a deep breath, you try to defeat your obscure opponent. Another example would be Little Big Planet, every level is created purely for fun, and for more than one player, surely you will start acting as the sackboy at some time and start yelling like a kid, hopping around your room and even making these weird gestures he can make with his hands. That's experience..! Something strong enough, to be memorized, and recalled thereafter. The essesnce of what you felt.
**** Challenge ****
Allright, so all games can be fun, creative, scary, etc etc, but what's their difficulty? Is it enough for the player? Or maybe is it too much for the player? That's a very tough call, as designers often face this problem:
"Should i make the game easy, the player will fall asleep or even bore to death. Should i make the game tough, his family members, girlfriend, and neighbours are in danger, as well as the game itself. How can i close that gap between easy and difficult, where a player may just call a game "Challenging" , rather than totally unbeatable or a piece of cake?"
The way to overcome the problem is through constant playtesting. Ask around. Think about the opinions of others, they seem pretty important. That's how to describe the concept of challenge in a game though. You don't want it to be either very easy or very hard. The games that can overcome this are games that utilize the DDA technique. (DDA = Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment)
For example:
"Devil May Cry : If you die more than 3 times on the first 3 missions, the player is prompted to reduce the difficulty from NORMAL to EASY."
" Elder Scrolls Games : The enemies' difficulty is scalable along with your character's level. The same difficulty your character will face a rat with his fists when he is lv 1 will be almost the same difficulty when he is lv50 fighting an elder dragon "
Also, Challenge aspect concerns whether a game can give enough challenge to a player or not. For example, when you know that you have to farm X mobs for Y minutes in the Z area, in order to defeat boss W, you can't say that's a challenge. However, when the Z area has X mobs that don't respawn or if they appear at Y time of the day *without the player knowing* , adds some level of challenge. Even worse would be the fact that the boss would scale his damage levels based on your "kills". And also, games that seem to be linear don't encourage challenge, rather they make it even more dull. Having many ways to do somethings, but keeping them hidden from the player can be quite a challenge.
Two examples i can remember :
"In final fantasy X, there is a specific boss that has thousands of hit points, can one-shoot your players, based on chance and your party has got to be very strong in order to defeat him. One more thing. He is a zombie. One way to defeat him would be to either hack his health away slowly and trying to keep your team up, OR you could just use the "Resurrection" ability on him, and he dies instantly, something NOT profound to the player, but if he gets the hint that "Death" spells kill "Living" opponents, hopefully, he can figure out that "Bring-me-to-life" spells can kill "Dead" opponents."
"Again, in the same game, this one time you fight a huge robot. You could surely hack his health away, but if you happen to have electricity spells on you, you can finish him off WAY quicker. It's something that you have to find out on your own, that mechanic units just take more damage from electricity than any other kind of damage. There is also a third way to take care of that enemy by doing something that's really hard to notice, but once you do, it becomes pretty obvious : Hit the enviromental obstacles, forcing an explosion, destroying the very bridge he is standing, knocking him out of the battle. "
The aspect of challenge troubles most designers and is really something to be examined much more thoroughly in the games, as most companies often invest in aesthetics, story, experience and such, rather than difficulty or challenge.
That pretty much covers the anatomy of a game. Not all games have all these 5 aspects enhanced or taken care of at a perfect grade, but the better your game fulfils their requirements, the better your game will be.
Brick #4: What's the game's development workflow?
Since you know the roles in the game industry by now you'll be wondering how the heck everything is being put in a straight line. How is everything working with each other. Are there things that need to be done before programmers start coding or before artists start animating and modelling? Is there a repeated loop inside the industry, and what about the whole workflow? Keep reading, you'll know soon.
Stage 1 : The birth, and evolution of an idea
What gives birth to a game is essentialy, an idea, which is created in the game designer's head. Yes..! World of Warcraft was built inside a head! Fascinating huh? Every huge virtual world out there that we explore for hundreds and hundreds of hours on a daily basis is based on an idea of a game designer! Then, the designer needs to pull these ideas off his head and into something more physical : Concept Documents.
Stage 2 : The Proposal
The Documents are then being changed over time and finally presented to the company. These are the so called "Game Proposal Documents". From here on, things will need to be analysed to the very last bit, and trust me, they are going to be very technical! For example, the genre, the setting, the target audience and even target platforms and budget are explained / estimated here. There is even a risk analysis report describing about every type of profit and loss for developing that game. Really technical if you ask me.
Stage 3 : The Preproduction
After the goals have been set, the deliverables explained, and the idea is accepted, which is the fundamental part of the "proposal" we can move on to stage 3, which involves PreProduction meaning the whole project is being set up, a HUGE list of elementary-level tasks is created, meaning the creation of the Game Design Document, the Art Production Plan and the Technical Design Document. Now i want you to start thinking as this is a factory's pipeline of production.
The designer is responsible for writing the Game Design Document, which clearly states everything the game is about, all its' details, technical or not, the story, the characters, the assets. As i said, everything that can be related to the game even by a little matter. That document will undergo many changes before the game is finished and by "many" changes, i mean really, a LOT of changes, as the document itself has to be up-to-date with the production pipeline.
The Art Production Plan however is the creation of a linear workflow that will be followed by artists, basically more like a path that is responsible of the creation of the game assets. Concept Artists, Modellers, the Designer himself, and the Art Director are all in charge of creating the "look and feel" of the game.
Finally the Technical Design Document is all about defining manpower (programmers) that are scheduled tasks that are code-centered. Game Milestones are also defined at this point, possible revision entries and how the Game Prototype is supposed to be. It is the final phase of stage 3.
Stage 3 : The Development (Game Jam)
After the elementary stuff is out of the way, the main job is now commencing! The long haul in the stages of game development is the development itself..! The assets are being created, meaning composers are studying musical patters and composing soundtracks of the game, while other specialists go "out in the wild" and either "capture" sound effects by recording all the weird sounds they can possibly find that relate to the game, or they either create their own special sound effects.
Storyboard artists create comic-like illustrations that represent the story of a game, Script-Writers are taking care of the narrative side of the game or they either give birth to dialogs between characters of the game. Modellers start rigging characters based on the concept artists' creations and then more and more artists continue the work by either texturing the rigged character and/or animate them!
Others start creating 3D worlds that are then populated by characters and objects rigged/animated by other artists! Then it's the job of the programmers to mash all these together with thousands and thousands lines of code. The lead designer and project manager then have to make sure everything is working just like they imagined it, and make sure the experience they had when they initially thought of the idea is the exact same, when they see their thoughts into newly-created 3d gameplay.
At the same time, testers from the QA department are testing new levels, mechanics, weapons, objects and basically everything a game has to offer, they need to explore everything thoroughly though as the detection of bugs in a game is their primary role when they test a game, so testing battle systems, overusing game items, trying all different kinds of silly combinations is daily bread for them. As the game expands more and more testers are required to test stuff out. You can't imagine how many bugs can be found at this point!
As development is complete, the Alpha-Release milestone is about to be completed.
Stage 4 : Alpha-Release
This is the very first stage that the game is complete and playable, though it is available only to the whole company and not only to the QA department. So, the company has finished the basics of the game and everybody is required to play through it, test everything you can possibly do. For example build a character of race X and go to place Y and then rotate the camera Z degrees. Do we see Screen Shearing? If not, let's try other combinations... Then get item X while doing the Y thing and then do the Z thing while you have completed the W thing. You never know where a bug is unless you do everything possible to detect it! Then it's the role of the programmers to debug that and make the game better.
Stage 5 : Beta-Release
We are getting close. The Second Milestone a game can "hit" is the Beta-Release. A selected few players around the world or a group of people outside the company will now try to identify bugs by playing the game. These are the so-called beta-testers. They are like angels, will identify all bugs for you, that the alpha-testing phase couldn't identify correctly and the best candidates for that job would be seasoned gamers or even nerds! Trust me! You just don't want to see the customer facing a bug, they are evil and will kick the crap out of your "image" if you let nasty bugs nest in your game. That's why you love beta-testers, they enjoy exploring your game 100% and most of the bugs can be "exterminated" that way.
Stage 6 : RTM & Post-Production
This is the final phase! Congratulations, the game can now be released, so that's up to the producers. The game is found to be acceptable, go to a bar, and drink a couple o' beers matey! Just keep in mind that if your game still has minor/major problems and customers start nuking you, all you can do at this point is fix additional bugs through patching. Patches that do such stuff are called "hotfixes" , while big ones that add content are "game revamps" or "major upgrades". You can also maximize profits judging by the feedback of course and think whether or not you are in a position to publish an expansion pack to the game or even a sequel! But that's up to you!
Hope you enjoyed reading, till next time!
Stage 1 : The birth, and evolution of an idea
What gives birth to a game is essentialy, an idea, which is created in the game designer's head. Yes..! World of Warcraft was built inside a head! Fascinating huh? Every huge virtual world out there that we explore for hundreds and hundreds of hours on a daily basis is based on an idea of a game designer! Then, the designer needs to pull these ideas off his head and into something more physical : Concept Documents.
Stage 2 : The Proposal
The Documents are then being changed over time and finally presented to the company. These are the so called "Game Proposal Documents". From here on, things will need to be analysed to the very last bit, and trust me, they are going to be very technical! For example, the genre, the setting, the target audience and even target platforms and budget are explained / estimated here. There is even a risk analysis report describing about every type of profit and loss for developing that game. Really technical if you ask me.
Stage 3 : The Preproduction
After the goals have been set, the deliverables explained, and the idea is accepted, which is the fundamental part of the "proposal" we can move on to stage 3, which involves PreProduction meaning the whole project is being set up, a HUGE list of elementary-level tasks is created, meaning the creation of the Game Design Document, the Art Production Plan and the Technical Design Document. Now i want you to start thinking as this is a factory's pipeline of production.
The designer is responsible for writing the Game Design Document, which clearly states everything the game is about, all its' details, technical or not, the story, the characters, the assets. As i said, everything that can be related to the game even by a little matter. That document will undergo many changes before the game is finished and by "many" changes, i mean really, a LOT of changes, as the document itself has to be up-to-date with the production pipeline.
The Art Production Plan however is the creation of a linear workflow that will be followed by artists, basically more like a path that is responsible of the creation of the game assets. Concept Artists, Modellers, the Designer himself, and the Art Director are all in charge of creating the "look and feel" of the game.
Finally the Technical Design Document is all about defining manpower (programmers) that are scheduled tasks that are code-centered. Game Milestones are also defined at this point, possible revision entries and how the Game Prototype is supposed to be. It is the final phase of stage 3.
Stage 3 : The Development (Game Jam)
After the elementary stuff is out of the way, the main job is now commencing! The long haul in the stages of game development is the development itself..! The assets are being created, meaning composers are studying musical patters and composing soundtracks of the game, while other specialists go "out in the wild" and either "capture" sound effects by recording all the weird sounds they can possibly find that relate to the game, or they either create their own special sound effects.
Storyboard artists create comic-like illustrations that represent the story of a game, Script-Writers are taking care of the narrative side of the game or they either give birth to dialogs between characters of the game. Modellers start rigging characters based on the concept artists' creations and then more and more artists continue the work by either texturing the rigged character and/or animate them!
Others start creating 3D worlds that are then populated by characters and objects rigged/animated by other artists! Then it's the job of the programmers to mash all these together with thousands and thousands lines of code. The lead designer and project manager then have to make sure everything is working just like they imagined it, and make sure the experience they had when they initially thought of the idea is the exact same, when they see their thoughts into newly-created 3d gameplay.
At the same time, testers from the QA department are testing new levels, mechanics, weapons, objects and basically everything a game has to offer, they need to explore everything thoroughly though as the detection of bugs in a game is their primary role when they test a game, so testing battle systems, overusing game items, trying all different kinds of silly combinations is daily bread for them. As the game expands more and more testers are required to test stuff out. You can't imagine how many bugs can be found at this point!
As development is complete, the Alpha-Release milestone is about to be completed.
Stage 4 : Alpha-Release
This is the very first stage that the game is complete and playable, though it is available only to the whole company and not only to the QA department. So, the company has finished the basics of the game and everybody is required to play through it, test everything you can possibly do. For example build a character of race X and go to place Y and then rotate the camera Z degrees. Do we see Screen Shearing? If not, let's try other combinations... Then get item X while doing the Y thing and then do the Z thing while you have completed the W thing. You never know where a bug is unless you do everything possible to detect it! Then it's the role of the programmers to debug that and make the game better.
Stage 5 : Beta-Release
We are getting close. The Second Milestone a game can "hit" is the Beta-Release. A selected few players around the world or a group of people outside the company will now try to identify bugs by playing the game. These are the so-called beta-testers. They are like angels, will identify all bugs for you, that the alpha-testing phase couldn't identify correctly and the best candidates for that job would be seasoned gamers or even nerds! Trust me! You just don't want to see the customer facing a bug, they are evil and will kick the crap out of your "image" if you let nasty bugs nest in your game. That's why you love beta-testers, they enjoy exploring your game 100% and most of the bugs can be "exterminated" that way.
Stage 6 : RTM & Post-Production
This is the final phase! Congratulations, the game can now be released, so that's up to the producers. The game is found to be acceptable, go to a bar, and drink a couple o' beers matey! Just keep in mind that if your game still has minor/major problems and customers start nuking you, all you can do at this point is fix additional bugs through patching. Patches that do such stuff are called "hotfixes" , while big ones that add content are "game revamps" or "major upgrades". You can also maximize profits judging by the feedback of course and think whether or not you are in a position to publish an expansion pack to the game or even a sequel! But that's up to you!
Hope you enjoyed reading, till next time!
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