UNDERSTANDING GAME DEVELOPMENT
- ep3g19
- May 6, 2021
- 4 min read
Game Development - where do we begin?
RESEARCH LINK: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/things-to-consider-early-in-game-development/
"Things To Consider Early In Game Development" - Helen Kantilaftis
As this is my first time working on a game development project, it's important to understand any potential obstacles earlier rather than later!
NOTES:
Helen Kantilaftis in her article outlines a way to help make projects go smoother by thinking ahead rather than too late into development.
CONTROLS -"Consider designing the controls early in development so they grow and evolve along with your game".
Taking controls into consideration early on allows us to provide players with a comfortable and intuitive experience, rather than making the controls too complex with no sense of ease. This makes gameplay more enjoyable for players and allows them to focus on the outcome of their interactions rather than how to perform them.
USER INTERFACE AND HUD - "a tedious menu system and HUD is more than enough to discourage players".
This is often due to inconsistent button inputs and overall poor design. Kantilaftis states that most developers leave HUD and UI towards the end of the project. She recommends polishing them up early so the game is easy to navigate and all the information is provided beforehand.
PLAYTESTING - "One of the worst things you can do as a developer is create the perfect game for you"
One of the most important factors of game development is playtesting. This is to consider other people's demands, wants, needs and preferences as well as your own. Unless we are making Anima Mundi for our own personal enjoyment and benefit, playtesting is extremely necessary! Gathering feedback, opinions and suggestions is the way to move forward and a great way to make adjustments and improvements before it's too late.
Prototyping is something I have a lot of experience in, and paper prototyping is especially useful to make before writing any code. This way we can discover any implications beforehand, saving us a lot of frustration during the later stages of the project! Depending on the tasks I have been assigned, we must focus on prototyping the gameplay and each interaction before moving forward with developing assets. We must be clear with our intentions and know the exact structure of our game before we progress.
QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING TESTING:
Is the game too easy/hard?
Is the game fun or does it bore players?
Are there any bugs that need fixing?
Complications?
Are players at ease while playing or are they struggling to use controls?
These are just a few of my own examples that I deem useful when playtesting/prototyping games. We should consider other questions to ask individual playtesters such as the most frustrating aspect of gameplay and suggestions they may have to improve this.
"Step-by-Step Process of Video Game Development (Behind the Scenes)" - Dustin. K
RESEARCH LINK: https://www.gamedesigning.org/video-game-development/
Stages of Game Development:
High Concept - Brief description, distill idas down to a few sentences.
Pitch - Pitch idea in a summarised way to best communicate our goals/intentions.
Concept - Outline and describe all aspects of the game.
GDD - Includes aspects tied to actual gameplay (Josh's GDD)
Prototype - Build prototypes to allow team to develop methods of execution. Allows us to adapt our goals and make adjustments if need be.
Production - Design, Level Creation, Programming
Basic development breakdown example
Game Development Breakdown of Stages
Image from: https://learn.g2.com/stages-of-game-development
PROGRAMMING - "Programming is the language of game development".
Things to consider:
What is the best programming language for game development? (In our case, we will be using C#)
How does coding work in video games?
Before programming our game into Unity, we must find the necessary scripts (if they exist) and have a clear understanding of the expectations of each asset, interaction and gameplay. A clear asset list will assist this, and allow us to find or create the scripts needed to integrate our desired interactions into Unity. The asset list will be split into multiple sections: Asset type, Expectations, Outcome and a Testing section. We can use this to test the assets once they have been implemented into Unity and to ensure everything works the way we expect it to. If not, we can make adjustments during this process.
What Does a Game Developer Do?
- Story
- Audio assets
- Characters
- Levels
- Gameplay mechanics
"The smaller your team, the bigger your role" - We are a team of 5 individuals therefore will be distributing tasks between us, however we must work collaboratively to ensure we agree on the outcome of our development stage by stage.
In our case, the role of both designer and developer will blend. Using Josh's GDD as guidance we have the main structure of our game however will need to design a handful of elements to showcase the game exactly how we desire.
During my Week by Week documentation, I look into ways of testing/designing which are used in the Industry which will assist development during the later stages. Such as using QA testing.
EVALUATION
From my research, I know that teamwork is vital and we must work both individually and collaboratively to achieve our desired results. As we have a deadline being the 20th May, we must distribute tasks efficiently to ensure we get everything done in time. I have also learned the importance of considering elements such as UI sooner rather than later, allowing us to have a clear pathway into developing a functional vertical slice by this deadline. I will consider the requirements for a vertical slice and ensure we have distributed the tasks to complete each one. Our team leader (Kiera) will be assigning tasks and discussing the schedule week by week, however as a Team Member it is still my responsibility to ensure everything is going to plan and we are producing the work as scheduled. Additionally, regular communication is extremely necessary and regular meetings will be held to discuss next steps, queries or implications along the way. A methodology should be put in place to organise the structure of our process, I have recommended an Agile Methodology which I will outline in my Blog.
I will begin a week-by-week plan where I will be documenting everything I do within the 12 weeks, as well as separate blogs where I'll document research into separate topics to assist my development process.
Week by Week can be found here.
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