Video Game Design Introduction
Video game design has been a rapidly evolving career. Since the inception of video games, designers have been challenged to push the limits of technology and come up with new and exciting games through strong plot lines and innovative graphics. Today the video game industry grosses billions of dollars a year and jobs are being created to meet the demand. Many schools are now offering a video game design degree or some sort of video game design program or certificate to help students get a foot in the door in this exciting field.
A Brief History of Video Game Design
When video games started to become popular in the 1970s, they were much more simplistic than they are today. During this time, classic games like Space Invaders and Pac-man were the video game standard. These types of games were so simple that the most video games were designed, programmed and animated by only one person or at most a very small group of people. Therefore, being a video game designer during this time required a broad set of skills in both programming and graphic design. However, as video games became more and more complex, companies were forced to re-think the format of having small teams build a video game.
With the advance of technology and the growing demand for deeper plot lines and better graphics, designing video games became more than a one man job. Over the years design teams have grown to from just a few people, to dozens of people working on just one game. Of course some of the simpler games of today do not require so many people, but all the big name companies who produce large scale computer and console games can have teams of up to 100 people designing a game.
What is a Video Game Designer?
Today, being a video game designer means being one of the people responsible for a video game, from start to finish. Designers come up with the idea for the game, create the characters, the plot, and the entire premise of the game. From there they oversee the construction of the code and the artwork for the game. Finally the code side and art side together and putting out the finished product of the game.
Does that sound like a lot of work? It is, but do not lose hope, this is why companies have created larger teams of people for designing video games.
It’s All About Teamwork
A video game design degree from a video game design school covers the full life cycle of creating a video game, but in practice, the various tasks involved are handled by specialized teams of workers who are all working with the design team. Depending on how involved the game is, it is not uncommon to have a team of video game designers working together on one game. When designers work together they each tend to take over one part of the design.
There are many different sub groups or “disciplines” within video game design that are common within the industry. There is world design, which involves creating the overall story and premise of the game. Content design places more emphasis on creating the characters and the story line of the game. Game writing design is responsible for writing the actual text dialogue for characters and the overall story. There is also level design, which focuses on creating the layout of the various levels of the game. And finally user-interface design which is responsible for creating the system that allows the user to interact with the game.
After coming up with the basics of the game, designers employ the help of other specialized teams to help them realize their dream-game. There is the art team who is responsible for the graphics that the end user sees. The art team is also responsible for designing any movies that go along with the game. There is also the programming team, who is responsible for writing the code that makes the graphics respond to the end-user’s input. These teams are usually broken down even further depending on the needs of the game. Some common sub teams for include the sound team and the testing team.
The Future of Video Game Design
Video games design is growing into new fields everyday. Video games today are now being played by the young and the old alike. Adults who grew up playing Atari and Nintendo are now passing the controller over to their children. Video games are now available on consoles, computers, cell phones, mp3 players, and just about anything that has an operating system. Video games are even getting re-purposed for educational, therapeutic and even military needs.
This high demand for video games from all corners of the market means that video game designers will need to be able to adapt to the needs of the industry. Anyone serious about joining the field should strongly consider a video game design program from a reputable video game design school. A good design school will help keep students up to date with the newest technologies available to designers and give innovative minds the leg up they need to get into this highly rewarding field.