Final Brick, #10: So, how do I start?

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."

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.

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!

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

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. "

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:

• 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.

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!

Brick #3: What is Game Development?

This is not a simple nor a complex question. Everyone has been thinking to themselves "I will become a game developer!" up to this point, but to make things simple let's see the meaning here:

Game Developer = Someone who develops games...! That's about it! It's someone doing something little in the game industry but when combined with stuff everybody else does it's becoming huge.

Everyone can support a game with their work whatever that may be. So, in general game development is the act of developing a game from plain nothing to a fully playable experience! Though, you may be wondering:

"Soooo, I'm a game developer, and i contribute to making the game. Woohooo! Alright! But what exactly do i do?" 

The answer to this needs some thought. We have to see the ways in which someone can contribute. I will NOT cover all the roles in the game development industry here, but i will try and share my lights.

Disclaimer: I am NOT currently working in any way in the game indrustry, thus the information i will provide is purely based on my research and only that!

Career paths in the industry:

• Game Design
• Asset Creation
• Programming
• Quality Assurance

These 4 are the core of game development. Of course, there are higher roles, such as Production, Management and Sales..!

All these are paths in the industry, and of course, can be broken down to bits! For Example you can't apply for a plain "Programming" job. You gotta chose if you are going to be a Game Engine Programmer or a Graphics Programmer.

Let's see more carefully:

Game Design:

Possible Roles:

• Game Designer
• Script Writer
• Map Builder
• Storyboard Artist
• GUI Designer
• Object Planner
• Level Designer

The roles in design are by no means need to be confused with art. Design is creating a game from an idea. It's all about creating a world, its' set of rules, the maths behind it, the background of a character, the story of the game, the plot, the twists, the surprises, the emotional triggers, the educational value. Basically it involves creating a parallel universe in your head and applying it somewhere else. A Game designer is no entry-level job as it requires knowledge of the industry, huge creativity, imagination and storytelling skills. You are practically a God, or in simpler terms, just like a director in a movie.

Asset Creation:

Possible Roles:

Can be broken down to 2 subcategories:

Graphical Assets

• Illustrator
• Graphic Designer
• Artist
• Animator
• 3D modeller
• Environment / Level Artist
• Concept Artist
• Texture Artist
• Pixel Artist
• Spritesheet Animator

Sound Assets

• Musician
• Audio Engineer
• Composer
• SFX Designer

And here comes the asset creation team, responsible of creating all the kinds of graphical sounds or assets. They will create all the 2D / 3D graphics for the game, either it is a spritesheet animation of a character through Pixel Art, or a 3D Model rigged in Maya, and Animated by another artist. They integrate the ideas of a game designer and bring them to life. Musicians are also needed in this part, as they compose the scores and official OST of the game, as well as sfx designers need to create all the sound effects for the game such as swords bashing or doors cracking..!

Programming:

Possible Roles:

• Software Engineering
• A.I. Programmer
• Middleware Programmer
• Tools Programmer
• Game Engine Programmer
• Graphics Programmer
• Gameplay Programmer
• Action Programmer
• Platform Programmer
• Database Designer
• Systems Analyst
• Server Architect
• Sockets Programmer
• Physics Programmer
• Sounds Programmer

As you can see there is a ton of jobs for a programmer in the game industry. Their job is to take the ideas of the game designer, meaning the assets of the artists and through lines of code put it all together to create the needed experience of gameplay. Pathfinding, Artificial Intelligence, Colissions, Dialogs, Battle Systems, Maps, Explorations, Quests, everything is being created by them. A Game Engine is their friend, while a custom game engine is their best friend!

Quality Assurance:

Possible Roles:

• Localisation Tester
• QA Technician
• QA Tester
• Alpha Testers (Similar to Beta Testers, though inside the company)

Testers are one of the most entry-level jobs in the industry as most can begin their career in QA. Their responsibility is to test our games written by the programmers and find out bugs, provide feedback to them, in order to make it run correctly. This involves playing levels a lot, going for 100% clearing of the game, in order to find all the possible errors it may have. There can also be bugs in design where an idea may not fit correctly with another concept of the game so that would require redesign, and refactoring in code. Testers need to be game nerds in order to fill out the gaps either in code, story or gameplay in the fastest time possible.

And that sums up the roles of a game developer. All of the above contribute to making a game, and thus are classified as game developers !!! So, game development in general is the contribution of programmers, testers, designers and artists to develop a game. 

You said you were a game developer. What is your path now?

Brick #2: What are the game types?

Games are an exhausting thing after all! They are so many things together! So let's build some games in my computer together! You may think that games = video games. That's a wrong assumption my friend. You see games have many types and can be found in many places and situations.

Some things that need to be clarified before we continue. When we refer to Game Bits, we refer to those small physical parts of a game set that are used in the game. ie Cards are Game Bits of Card Games, Pawns are Game Bits of a Chess Game, so on and so forth.

There are Video Games, that are actually a digital / virtual representation of a real game or just a mere simulation in a virtual life, creating specifically in a computer and are distributed to many platforms, such as the PlayStation , XBox , Wii which are consoles, iPhones, Android, and Windows Phones, considered a mobile game, then there are the classic PC games, all considered video games, ranging from the Atari to MegaDrive, NES , SNES to the high end PS3 , or X360 with Kinect. These are just one type of games.
Also, don't forget the handheld version of these games, you may consider me a console guy if i don't refer to these as well: GameBoy , Nintendo DS , Sony PSP, all belong to the Video Game game type.

There are also Card Games, mostly a deck of physical cards, some company, drinks and let the games commence! You know, games like Poker , Blackjack and UNO are all considered Card games. They can stand on their feet alone as a type of game.

Another variation of a game would be a Playground Game. The imagination and creativity in these games are great! Born from pure childrens' minds and hearts, these games are surprisingly fun and you can see here, that children are game designers at heart! Games like these are played in playgrounds of course, on the street, at school, at home, practically everywhere and most don't require any physical tools to play with!
Classic examples are Red Hands, Hide and Seek, and Tag!

There is more to it, the well know to all, Board Games! Such games require Game Bits on the table, a couple of friends and others have mini avatars, tokens, gems, cards, all kinds of crazy stuff going on!
The age range is wide. You can find such games for 3 year old children as well as 100 year old... ladies and gentlemen! Some examples of a board game you say? Try looking around your room, if you still can't find any, Trivia Pursuit, Monopoly, even Chess, can be considered a board game!

An honourable mention right after Board Games would be Pen'n'Paper Games! Mostly fans of the RPG genre will recognise such games immidiately, such as "Dungeons and Dragons", "World of Darkness" and many many more! All you need is imagination, paper, pen and you can practically live the most epic adventures ever!

Similar to playground games, there are also Party Games. Such games can be ultimately games played by a lot of people together and often don't require any game bits. Simply enough, these games can be "Truth or Dare", "Spin the bottle", "Slap the guy to your right", and of course "Beer Pong"..!

Are we forgetting anything? Why of course, there is a HUUUUGE category of games left untouched until now, try and guess people! Sports! They are a category standing on their own! To support this consider something that takes place every 4 years! That's right! The Olympic Games! Notice the "Games" part? It just clarifies that sports are a type of game all by themselves! Teams, Scoring, Rules, Game Bits! You don't need examples of that now do you? ;)

How many types did we actually cover?

1. Video Games (Console, PC and handheld)
2. Card Games
3. Playground Games
4. Board Games
5. Pen'n'Paper Games
6. Party Games
7. Sports Games

Can you think of more types? As said before, games are no science, they are ART. You are considered an artist if you plan on creating games. Rest your brain for now, and let's see more bricks tomorrow.

Brick #1: What is a game?

So, you are a game developer, but where are you supposed to start? Let's begin the destruction of the wall by taking out the first brick: " What is a game? "

Let's try to find a common term of what a game is... Hmmm...

"We could say that a game is practically an experience you go through willingfully, in order to have fun, by solving a series of problems, alone or with teamates/enemies in order to achieve a specific goal by utilizing creativity or not, under a specific set of rules that can either speed up or slow down your progress by triggering you emotionally and can be also classified as a form of passive training."

Would that suffice? Maybe not, since, really, games are not rocket science, they are rather a kind of art. Trying to interpret this we can get some facts straight:

"a game is practically an experience" : Intrestingly put, a game is trying to grab the essense of memories or experiences from real-life and try to make you go through the very same. It's an experience we are trying to create here. And that comes through memories, dreams, nightmares, important life events.

"you go through willingfully" : Meaning freedom. You are not forced to play a game! Else you can't see that as a game! It would be rather a job, or something that you do to get paid whatsoever! When you do it without having any second thoughts or just because someone else wanted you to, you are NOT having fun and thus, not feeling the experience of a game.

"in order to have fun" : Practically, what the last paragraph said. You play games in order to have fun! But then again, children have fun without playing games, rather with their toys. But toys are objects, they are something you can have fun WITH, and have no rules or whatsoever. Fun is a very important fact when playing games, and it has a different meaning than pleasure...

"by solving a series of problems" : We humans like solving problems. We take pleasure in solving difficult problems, with either creative thinking or with our problem-solving skills. Notice the use of the word "pleasure" now? Things are probably starting to get clearer here. As intellectual creatures as we are, we are fascinated by solving problems that tend to trouble our thoughts from time to time.

"alone or with teamates/enemies" : Ah, so there are others in the "battlefield" with us as well! This can fairly well introduce us to the aspect of multi-player gaming. There are games that can be played solo, by solving clues that the game gives us, or there are games that force us to fit in a team where teamwork and co-operation are required in order to "beat" the opposing team, either it is the AI or just other players. Chemistry of a team is a core aspect. Though that's something for us, human beings to develop. A game is merely a push towards that direction.

"in order to achieve a specific goal" : Yes, all games that respect themselves should have a goal, a primary objective, a main quest, the important mission that will forever stay in our minds as we play and play and play until we fulfil our destiny as players and achieve our goals. A goal can be considered as our "oil" that keeps us going until the very end and try to solve everything that comes in our way. The goal itself, though can't act as a motive.

"by utilizing creativity or not" : Either we like it or not, some puzzles in games or some problems can be too easy to solve if the path we chose is straightforward, so in games we either utilize the element of creativity , meaning something can be solved either by following a split path (Many solutions) or an invisible path (A creative solution), or just don't utilize that element and leave our game linear and straightforward.

"under a specific set of rules" : That's very important. Games have rules, as a matter of fact, rules in a game are one of the most important pieces of a game! For example, we control a hungry creature that is supposed to be herbivore only, so we avoid meat and hunt for bushes, leaves, etc while we avoid other creatures, dead bodies and meat in general. Another example: We are playing in a shooter, and our character cannot shoot a target that's closer than let's say 10 yards! A final example: In a turn-based RPG our character cannot act twice before the enemy, and that's the reason it's being called "turn-based", but then again, by implying special rules like the enemy is terribly slowed by a sickness, while our hero has the blessing of a God , he can act twice for X turns. It's our world here. We can do it all. The rules though, need to exist in every type of game, and must be obeyed by every creature, virtual or not.

"that can either speed up or slow down your progress" : To extend what we said, when being fully obedient of the rules, the game can sometimes reward you, or can punish you, if you aren't. The rewards usually speed you up to achieve your goal or slow you down. It's the game's way of saying "Thank you for listening to me" or "Obey me or else!". Typical examples: The Elder Scroll games. You help a civillian? Extra gold for you, buddy, go buy yourself medicine, or special equipment. You KILL that civillian instead? There is bounty on your head and YOU gotta pay for your vile acts, imbecile!

"by triggering you emotionally" : Oh yes, when you are being called a hero can make YOU (The player) to feel like a god inside a game, when they hunt you however you do feel a bit weird. (Maybe fear of what's about to follow? This applies to games you have not yet fully experienced and you can't tell what will happen.) Emotional triggers can be the element of creativity, as previously discussed, the element of chance, the element of surprise, a steamy romance between you and another character, unexpectable twists in the plot of the game, generally, the art of storytelling can do wonders here, if played right. A game that can manage to strike fear in you, make you scream, laugh, cry, touch your soul, or even frustrate you and make you smash things around you when you play it, it is said that it CAN trigger you emotionally.

"and can be also classified as a form of passive training." : Oh, the final phrase, we have stumbled upon a gem here people. That's one of the most important aspects of a game, and i tend to call it "passive training". Can you think why? Games in general are being critisized by enfeebling your mind, making you dumber and dumber, whilist the exact opposite is trully the fishy story going on in the background.

Tell me, have you played Pokemon? So, how on earth can you manage to recall 350 names, and 1500 attacks? How on earth do you know which one can you encounter where and at which level range? That's passive training to you. You are being taught subsequently about Pokemon, you are memorizing such a huge array of names without even noticing it! That's trully a GEM for me. The ultimate educational value.

I personally learned all the English i have learned through gaming! No, i have never studied the subject, and it's not my native language! I just played a lot of games! On top of that, think of shooter games. Have your mother play a shooter. Unless your mother is a seasoned gamer who owns a blog about gaming and is writing on a PC Games magazine, you will notice how slow her reflexes will be. See other games playing a shooter. BOOM headshot! Running around, jumping at crypts, changing guns and reloading, then BOOM another headshot with a newly acquired sniper rifle from the corpse of a dead marine! Shooters increase Hand-To-Eye coordination, and thus a gamer who goes for a driver's licence tends to find holding the wheel, changing speeds and looking at the mirror dramatically familiar.

Last, let's discuss about RPG games. How on earth is someone supposed to remember which weapon or which skill is best used against which monster? What about the turns? It's a formula of calculating Speed differences! How about the damage of each skill? It's all about adding your character's strength, multiplying it by a set value, then removing some value based on the opponent's defense, and then throw in a probability for a chance of critical strike, meaning even more multipliers..! That's a simple damage formula for those intrested in RPG games, then again, they have to calculate their health points based on the enemy's level and buy the correct amound of healing and mana potions to replenish their energy while keeping in mind the chances of their character going beserk. To be honest, someone not familiar with this is the one who should worry about going beserk. So many things to keep track of. A minimap, a bag of supplies, a health meter, maybe a thirst meter and some energy meter. How about the enemies circling around you? What about your goal?

To conclude, someone who is into games is forced to THINK, to SOLVE, to CALCULATE before they ACT, and as a result, all this is interpreted into "A great learning experience"..! Let's see what we have learned today:

1. Games offer experiences.
2. Games are played willingfully.
3. Games are a fun hobby.
4. Games enhance our problem-solving abilities.
5. Games can be played alone, cooperative or competitive, for the sake of challenge. 
6. Games enhance our creativity.
7. Games aid us in focusing on single goals.
8. Games have rules.
9. Games can reward or punish us.
10. Games can trigger our feelings and emotions.
11. Games have hidden educational values.

So, games are all that... Yep, and now we trully know what a game consists of...!

The Mindset of a game developer

So, before we start let's first chose a tool to deconstruct the wall ..! How about a strong sledgehammer? Allright let's do this!

....Okay so the guys who agreed on me taking the sledgehammer and take the thing down must read the full post. The rest who either had doubts or just disagreed with me, you have the mindset you need! The rest of you guys, help me put this sledgehammer down and let's take a magnifying glass.

So, what should reside in the mindset of a game developer? Well, he has to know that the job he is about to do, whichever that may be is that he has to do it without ever thinking of stopping. He has to know that this is a tough job without any limitations and has to keep working around the clock in order to achieve a proper game release.

Rule #1: "Never look down, or behind you. Just keep going forward and never stop!"

Moving on to our next rule. A game developer must be fully aware of what he is doing, he can't just ruthlessly do things without thinking first..! Reading the first rule may seem to you something like: "Okay, so let's keep doing things until we tire to death, even if we are out of ideas..!" WRONG! You just keep doing things as long as you have a goal in your mind. Don't just sit, thinking about "Oh, when am i going to achieve that goal, i don't have time etc etc.." Trying to organise stuff that are primary for you will kill you out of boredom! Just DO IT!

Rule #2: "Always have a specific goal in your mind, and always know which path to follow in order to achieve it, be fully knowledgable of all the means you have in your arsenal and use them without being distracted!"

That leaves us with effort. To put it simply, you must be aware of the difficulty of this path. But you have made your choice already by reaching this post. So go and look yourself in the mirror and yell out:
"I am a game developer"
So, feeling any better? Try it again in higher tone.
"I am a game developer"
What? I can't hear you!
"I am a game developer!"
Sorry? I just didn't get your meaning. You are a what?
"I AM A GAME DEVELOPER!"
Oh. A game developer you say? Allright. That means you can truly see what's in the mirror. That's good for you, just getting in the right mindset.

Rule #3: "Be confident about yoursself, and never give up, believe in your powers, and act like you are a game developer already, because, you are!"

Congratulations, you are now officialy a game developer! Just keep it our little secret, as you currently have no projects to promote yourself! BUT, we will work on that part soon!

So, You want to make a game?

A new day has come, where YOU, woke up and just wanted to make a game. Everyone has their starting point! But let's consider some elementary stuff first.

Get yourself a nice notebook. Find some label, and stick it at the front of it. Now write "Game Developer's notepad" on it. Then, before you even begin thinking of creating World of Warcraft II, start asking yourself some questions.

Let's begin :

• What is a game?
• What are the game types?
• What does game development even mean?
• What's the typical workflow of creating a game?
• What's a game's anatomy?
• What's this game's target audience?
• What's the game's genre?
• What's a serious game?
• What are the tools / technology i can utilize to manage this?
• What's my role in all this?
• So, how do i start?!

Did you write all this down? Cool. Now we'll start filling in the gaps... You see, game development is no easy task. It's not just fetching building blocks and mashing them all together to create a unique experience. It requires planning, skill, organization, communication, testing, knowledge, and a lot, a lot, A LOT of time.

Do you still think you have what it takes? Before you kill yourself by smashing your head against a wall going the brute's way of creating games, together, we'll take a much smoother approach to that wall and slowly remove it from our way by taking out all of its' bricks, one at a time, meaning before we take a deep dive in the world of game development there are some key..."terms" you can say, that will require you to be fully knowledgable of them before going for the big catch.

There is plenty of time though if you are still intrested. Let's try and discern each brick and reduce this wall to dust! Operation Deconstruction, commence!

Experimental Learning

Right now I'm mostly into 2D game development.

If you want to learn about game logic, sprites, some event-driven coding, and many wonderful effects, MMF2 is for you and it's a perfect starting place for aspiring game developers that want to go out to the big field, 3D games.

It really helped me make a lot of games , and i will be posting them here eventually. My main goal was to make some remakes of old retro games like pong, oil panic, arkanoid etc, and from such games , grab the techniques i used just to take the next game i will make to the next level.

That's pretty much the most important thing for me. Learning. If you learn to do something, how to utilize it, how to play with it in the future, how to expand it to something more complex and in some cases , much more beautiful , you are bound to become great and evolve your skillset at the same time.

Others learn by viewing tutorials, others by following tutorials, and some others learn by doing, by failing, by experimenting with all these diferent settings MMF has to offer.

For me, it's a really fun way to learn, which only makes you want to learn more. And at least in the early stages of my learning, i just didn't care too much for the graphics of my game, as my main concern/focus was the technique to make the game itself , which was important. Why? Because now i know that technique , and can easily implement it in another game.

Consider yourself in the same spot as me. You will, naturally, go out and do some research, looking at old retro games and you will wonder: "can I make that game? What can I learn from it?". Then , you will try to make the game and if you manage to , you will surely learn more about game mechanics, AI, sprites, animations. That technique can be used in your next project. Or you can also just be in the lookout for more retro games = more techniques. And eventually you will reach that level where you have made 10~15 small remakes of a retro game (just the first level or so.)

You are now in the spot where you can begin your very first FULL GAME, featuring ALL the techniques you learned from ALL other previous games. Imagine yourself as a Dungeons and Dragons' Mind Flyer.
You just learn skills and abilities from your enemies , resulting in you becoming stronger and stronger.
Then you can use these abilities to defeat your foes in a much much MUCH easier way, rather than going heads on with a boss enemy and you don't know any abilities that may help.

It's like going for a Complex 6-man party , time-based RPG with multiple enemies, item system, experience, abilities, status ailments, party swaps and scripted attack animations with special events without ANY previous experience. Will you ever code something like that? Will you ever create such a mechanic from scratch when you don't even know what's being done in the background? NO.

Nothing to worry about though, just go and try figuring out how everything works by working on small games at first and as many as you can. Trust me, you WILL learn and things will go naturally as you make more and more games. And please don't get discouraged if you make crappy games. Everyone does. I currently have made 20 games which are ALL crappy. What have i learned from that though? A LOT.

When I get some time i will start working on my first big project. Some full game perhaps, till then I will just keep learning and learning.

Starting tonight

Hello everyone, my name is Kostas Dokos and this is my first blog post, yay!

Some stuff 'bout me and this blog in general: I am a student and also an indie Game Developer and I will be posting here about game development in general. I am also a Microsoft Student Partner and I spend a lot of time developing Applications for the Windows Phone mobile platform. When I get some time I will usually post here now and then.

I also enjoy Pixel Art, to be honest I just started out, because I wanted to try out my creativity and provide graphic assets to myself just the way I want them , and it's rather cooler, than trying to find out exactly what you want from out there , or from an external source, so from time to time, you may find me posting about my new silly Pixel Art! (An especially useful technique to pickup if you can't find yourself a graphic artist..!)

Game Engine for 2D: Multimedia Fusion 2 developer
Game Engine for 3D: Unity 3D

Coding: C# / javascript (Unity)
Pixel Art: Sometimes PIQ, mostly Photoshop.
Sprite Animation: Either Natively in MMF2Dev or Photoshop.

That's about all the info I can share for now.

Cheers.