Aviva Directory » Computers & Internet » Computer & Video Games » Game Design & Creation

The focus of this guide is on computer game design and creation, as well as the resources to bring it about.

As with creating websites, some people may opt to code them from scratch, but most people use a web design editor or tool that facilitates at least a part of the job, so it is with game design and creation. While it is possible to create a computer game using C++, Java, HTML 5, CSS3, JavaScript, SQL, or another programming language, most of the games currently on the market were created using one game creation engine or another.

Carrying the analogy with websites further, while the designer is sometimes involved in the creation, that isn't necessarily the case. The design and creation are different tasks and, in the case of commercial video games, this often accomplished by a team of people working together. This might include mission designers, writers, and narrative designers, concept artists, 3D modelers, audio designers, programmers, AI specialists, and potentially several other professionals.

Video game programmers most often make up the entire game design team, although some publishers, like Coleco, strictly separated the functions of design and programming.

Generally speaking, the more complex the game, the larger the number of people involved in producing it. Larger video game companies may assign a separate producer, lead designer, and several general designers to each aspect of a single game.

A game designer is not necessarily a programmer, visual designer, or project manager, although he may fulfill all of these roles. Strictly speaking, the focus of the game designer is designing gameplay, including the construction of the rules and structures that result in the game experience for players.

Many commercially successful games began with one or two people creating an initial product that was later expanded upon, and a lot of computer games are created to be shared freely and without commercial aspirations.

Indie game design and development refers to games that are made by an individual or by a small team of game designers and creators, particularly those who are working without financial support from a game publisher. While some of these projects receive crowd-sourcing support, it is generally not enough to compete in the same marketplace with larger game development and publishing companies. However, many commercially successful games began with one or two people creating an initial product that was later expanded upon, and a lot of computer games are created to be shared freely and without commercial aspirations.

Indie games are sometimes released for free, or sold independently, many of them hope to attract the attention of a publisher.

While a text adventure game might be hand-coded by a single individual, most graphical video games are created by groups of people using tools. For that matter, authors of text adventures and interactive fiction will frequently use a tool so as to be able to focus on the story rather than the coding. For that matter, someone writing a game in C++ will still require a tool, known as a compiler, to create a playable game.

For the purposes of categorization, we have separated video games from text-based computer games. Although technically graphical when displayed on a computer monitor, games based on text data are significantly different from those using video graphics, both in their creation and in their play.

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Text Game Creation

Video Game Creation

 

 

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