Brief Article on Game Design.

Article on Game Design:
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Heading a game development team, or going solo on a project has been the
dream of gamers since the arrival of Pong. This has become such a focus
that even some major universities and community colleges offer Game
Design courses. In this article I will outline what is needed for game
development, along with some tips and hints on getting a foot in the
door. I am going to make the assumption that viewers of this article
have no knowledge of programming languages, modeling or animation. I
will begin start with the solo venture. While this is often a more
difficult route, the designer is only limited by his knowledge and
imagination.


Unlike working with a team of developers, the designer of the solo
project needs to have the ability to not only program the game engine
but also draw the art, animate, model, texture, compose music and sound
effects. Once he has completed the game he also needs to market it and
distribute it. Here is a list of steps for building a great game.

*Buy a notebook and designate it as an idea book. Spend a good length of
time working out what you want to do. Do you want it to be a space
trading sim with 3d graphics, A side scrolling platformer or even a
first person shooter? Who is the main character, what does he look like
and why is he driven to a goal? Who are the protagonists? This is not a
design document, this is just a book of ideas for games. Feel free to
play around with different ideas.

*Now that you have a general idea of the type of game you want to make
look at what kind of controls you want, how you want the game to
look,the sound and a general feeling for the game. Think about the world
your character lives in. It could be a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a
government controlled Orwellian world or even a Victorian era steam punk
setting. Flesh out your world.

*By now, you have a good idea on the type of game you want, who is in it
and what kind of setting. Now you need to think about how you will
create your world. This requires you to study. You need to learn a
programming language, even the game maker program require some
programming knowledge. You do have some options. Look into the strengths
and weaknesses of the various programming languages. For example C++ is
a very popular language, it is very fast and is has many programs to
help in the use of it. However it is prone to memory leaks.Java is easy
to use but can be slow. There are many others, research. Buy a book on
the language or check one out from the library.

*Figure out if there is a pre-programmed engine for your game, there are
a lot of free engines out there. This takes much of the programming work
out of creating a game but it means you are limited to what that engine
is capable of.

*Practice, make little scripts till you have a working understanding of
the language. Start with Hello World scripts then work your way up to
more complex scripts.

*Get to work, Check your code often and remember to test the game often.

There are many tools that take some of the grunt work out of game design
but are limited in capabilities. Here is a list of some of these tools.

*Game Maker: Easy to use, comes with some sprites and sounds, good
community. Better yet there are easy to read tutorials for it, you can
find it at http://www.yoyogames.com/make.

*Rpg Maker: Similar to game maker but with a focus on 2d rpg's. Very
limited in capabilities but is also extremely easy to use. It is
available at http://www.rpgmaker.net/.

But your best bet is to get with a team. A team allows you to focus on
an specific strength. If you are already a programmer you do not need to
worry about the soundtrack or art. If you are a writer or a artist you
do not need to learn a programming language. There are many groups out
there seeking volunteers and for all positions. One community is
Http://www.gamedev.org, look in the forums for a team that needs your
particular area of knowledge. If you are a newcomer to game design,
admit this when applying. If you are dedicated and trust worthy it often
does not matter.

A team will give a game a much more polished look, and often more
complex games. The time for development is often reduced with more
people working on it. One of the problems with non professional teams is
that there is often a fluctuation in the group. It is in my opinion
attributed to the fact this is volunteer work and real life
responsibilities take precedence. Another problem is that you do not
have sole creative control. You must allow for others to give their
input and work as a team. Be able to accept criticism on ideas and to
not take it personal.

Hopefully this helps you realize that designing a game, while not easy
is possible for anyone. It simply takes work and dedication. Do not
expect your first few games to be polished and worthy of mass marketing.
Just remember to accept your failures and learn from them and you will
go far.