An Introduction to the game industry

The game industry has many different roles for people to work in, but this varies a lot depending on the size of the project. Larger games will usually be developed by a developer and published by a publisher. The developers are responsible for actually creating everything which makes the game and the publishers mainly do all the advertising and manufacturing, they also usually fund the development.

Indie games are usually developed and published by the same small company. But as they are most commonly found on a digital format, they don’t need a publisher for manufacturing and will usually advertise for themselves. This is because most indie games are found on things like Itunes , Android market, Steam etc. They also finance their own development.

There are different roles in a development of a game. These include:

Game Designers

A game designer is someone who pretty much designs the core of the game. They will decide what kind of gameplay they want and how it is structured. They will try and make sure the game is engaging and will be enjoyable for the player.  The role of a gamer designer depends on the scale of the project. Bigger companies might have a lead designer who managers the rest of the team, there might also be different people working on specific aspects of the games design.

Artists

Game artists are responsible for how the game looks visually. They are usually overseen by a lead art director who manages the team. There are basically two different types, 2D artists, who will create all of the digital painting in the game, for things like concept art, textures, UI etc. 3D artists will create all the 3D meshes in the game. They might also do animation, or there will be an animators who do all the animation. Larger projects will probably have more specific roles for people, while smaller projects might have people working on multiple things.

Programmers

Programmers are responsible for all the coding in the game. They might be overseen by lead programmers. They will integrate all the coding for things like physics, AI, scripting, network, graphics etc.

Level Designers

Level designers will put together all the different parts of the game people have made. This is where the game actually becomes playable. They will use commercial game engines or ones created by the programmers.

Testers

Testers play through the game usually towards the end of the development. They will analyse the quality and try to find problems and glitches. This is so when the game is finished players should have fewer problems with it and it should feel pretty polished.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is usually used for parts of the development process which don’t take as much time as everything else and don’t need to go through iterations. These include things such as motion capture, voice acting, music and sometimes concept art. Outsourcing is cheaper for companies because they don’t have to pay as many people full time.