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From the Developers Notebook: Game Making—the Largest of the Entertainment Industries

Posted on Apr 18, 2011 in Consoles, Culture, Gadgets by Justin Radeka 0 Comments

Game makers around the world have been trying to entertain us for years. At current the Games industry is somewhere around a $50 billion worldwide industry. Certainly the largest of the entertainment industries. But how are they made? We are familiar with movies and music but so often no one addresses the game development process. We are here to show a high level view of what goes on behind the doors of a game studio.

All games are produced by a team of very smart and talented people:

• Game Designer—The principle person who designs the game from beginning to end, this would include story, characters, goals, and game play.
• Executive Producer—Oversees the development of the game (timelines, resources, planning).
• Producer—Oversees part/s of the game development under instruction from EP  (Engine Programmer).
• Artist—Draws all graphical elements of the game.
• Game Programmer—Responsible for coding the game, there may be one or several coders.
• Engine Programmer—Creates and programs the game engine. If the engine is created by someone else, this person may be used for game engine integration
• Level Programmer—Creates the different levels of a game.

There can be more people involved, but this is the basic crew. Now that we have the team in place, let’s make a game!

Part 1: Game Design Basics

I have been asked several times on how games are made. What are the processes and activities that go into a game? Well to start, games can be very simple or very complex, but there are some overarching rules that most game designers use. Games are made of a set of simple rules that allow the player to advance through the game, but sometimes these rules become complex for the designer. Without getting into too much detail I will go over a few things to keep in mind.

First off, games are not puzzles. They are experiences that take players through an interactive journey. Games are different in that they change with the decisions of the player. Puzzles never change.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Target Audience: Who is the game intended for? I like to think of this as the point at which you can begin the design process. Make a list of who you think will play the game and why? This will become critical in the rest of the design process. It will guide your decisions on how and when certain events will occur and allow you to be able to understand how your player will interact with your game.

Learning Curve: There is some debate over this. For more complex games the learning curve may be steep. When designing that great idea, it is essential that you take into consideration, how much time a person will take in learning how the game is played, the controls and most importantly the goals of the game. Often game developers create great games, but the learning curve is so steep that the gamer ends up not playing because of the complexity of learning all the aspects of the game. I always try to tell developers that the flatter the learning curve the better.

Goals and Rewards: We play games because they are fun. We like being challenged but we also like winning. Rewards help the player define decision making. They are constantly making decisions and the risk/reward is what helps define whether the game is enjoyable or not. Chris Bateman, a game designer veteran goes over several types of rewards:

• Currency Rewards: the acquisition of a game resource that can be spent represents a fairly universal reward system…giving the player shops to spend currency rewards can be effective, provided there is plenty in the shops to choose from. (Note that the shop can be a ‘meta-shop’—it need not be a literal shop in the game world).
• Rank Rewards: like currency rewards, but ratcheted—the player gains benefits from acquiring points towards an eventual step up in rank. The classic example is level in a class and level RPG, although in video games, Elite’s (entirely cosmetic) Rank system demonstrates that a Rank reward can motivate even without mechanical benefits. A draw for Type 1 Conqueror and Type 2 Manager players if expressed in verbal terms, but if the ‘Rank up’ is accompanied by sufficient fanfare its appeal can be more universal.
• Mechanical Rewards: such as increases in stats that the player can feel the effect of. Highly motivating for many players—but the mechanical increases must maintain relevance to the play. Effective for Type 2 Manager and Type 1 Conqueror players in particular.
• Narrative rewards: a little narrative exposition is effective for certain players as a reward. A cut scene can be a bigger reward than dialogue—when used well. But overlong or irrelevant cut scenes quickly become devalued. Effective for Type 3 Wanderer and Type 4 Participant players in particular.
• Emotional rewards: related to the above, but applicable when the player feels they have done something for someone in the game. Animal Crossing’s present giving, for instance. A draw for Type 4 Participant players.
• New Toys: anything new that can be experimented with is a ‘new toy’. Although primarily a mimicry reward, there may be mechanical benefits of well—a new weapon in an FPS is a new toy with mechanical rewards, for instance. Especially of value to Type 3 Wanderer players.
• New Places: like new toys, new places are a mimicry reward for players driven to explore (a common drive!). Especially of value to Type 3 Wanderer and Type 1 Conqueror players.
• Completeness: perhaps only a drive for the Type 1 Conqueror player (or the Rational player), achieving completeness (chasing 100% for instance) can be a reward in itself.
• Victory: defeating a challenging foe (or a boss) is purely agonistic reward, especially appealing to Type 1 Conqueror players.

Decision making—Player decisions are the most complex part of the game, what can they do and why. Sometimes this is critical to the behavior of the game. Each decision the player makes the state of the game change. Not just simply an interactive experience, but true decisions that affect the rest of the game. While designing, it is imperative that you take into consideration all the decisions that a player can make and design the consequences for them. Make sure you understand the philosophies behind good decision-making and what makes the player experience rich.

With these in mind you can start to think of how your game will develop over time. These are not all the things you will need, but they will start you on the right path.

REMEMBER: Games are meant to be fun.

The gaming industry has set some standards and the players have become acquainted with some formulas that most game designers use today. That does not mean you should not look for other ways to entertain your audience, but do not dismiss some of the things that your audience may like. Here is the starting point at which you should be the most creative. Every idea at this point is a good one until you figure out your game. At that point is when you can begin to check things off and/or throw things out.

Next installment (Part 2): Game Development Process—Art to Code.

Justin Radeka Justin Radeka, served as former Head of Fishlabs Entertainment U.S where he worked driving mobile game development and business development in the US, Justin also served as Technology Evangelist for ARM Inc., where he worked closely with mobile game developers around the world in driving 3D graphics and games into the market. Prior to joining ARM, He served as Vice President of Developer Relations for Falanx Microsystems where he helped introduce one of the first fully programmable mobile GPU’s into the smart phone market. He has also served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of EVGA, a PC graphics board manufacturer, and as head of the gaming group at Hewlett Packard where he launched one of HP’s first gaming PC’s. He works closely with standards organizations to drive 3D mobile gaming. Mr. Radeka has spoken at events such as Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Games Developer Conference (GDC), Austin Games Conference (now GDC Online), London Mobile Games Forum, and SIGGRAPH. He has published articles on the state of the mobile game industry. He holds a BA from the University of California.