1 post tagged “artists”

I'm going to take a break from the Audio-Visual tutorials and talk a little bit about game development, specifically the teams that make it up. While game development can be a dawning task, I have come up with a few helpful hints on putting together a team that should help keep you on track.

1. Artists - Sketching
   You don't need much if you're just starting out, but it's always good to be able to sketch up a concept, if not at least have someone on the team who can. Sketching can be anywhere detailed as it needs to be. Concepts shouldn't take very long to sketch depending on it's scope. A concept artist should be able to take what the game designer(s) create(s) and sketch that into a visual. Often times a sketch artist will need to go into more detail by using actual rendering tools like Photoshop or something similar.
   
   
2. Artists - Modeling
   If you are going to be working with 3D games it is a necessity to have someone on the team with enough experience in 3d modeling. This artist should be able to take what the sketch artist has come up with into a realistic 3d visual. Unless there is a texture artist available, texturing will often be performed by this artist as well.
   
   
3. Artists - Texturing/Shading
   When resources are available, a game development team may also include texture artists. In this role, the person should be able to combine the efforts of the sketch artists with the modelers in order to create the final visual in the title. Texturing itself is usually done in layers depending on the amount of detail necessary. It is not uncommon for these artists to also perform shading techniques on top of their normal tasks.
   
   
4. Artists/Musicians - Sound
   Sound, because no game is complete without the necessary audio-visual aspects. This artist should be in charge of providing all the necessary sound effects, music and fonts needed for a given game title. This role may be played by a developer but it is usually filled by ones with musical and artistic skills.
   
   
5. Designers - Game Design
   For the most part game design is a collaborative effort, but it is best to have someone who concludes the final design on game concepts. The game designer should be able to explain what to include as well as exclude from a game title. Often times this designer will perform consulting on visual aspects of the gameplay as well as general environmental factors that make up the game.
   
   
6. Developers - Game Development
   The core of the team who's role is to put the pieces of the puzzle together. This role can vary in many scenarios depending on the requirements of the game. The job may include writing networking code, artificial intelligence, camera angling, character movement and interaction among other tasks that the game may require. Be sure to understand the necessities of the game and the availability of tools before choosing this role and the skills.

While it's not entirely necessary to have the above people on your team, you or the people on your team may fill one of the above roles at some point in your game development cycle. As you progress, it will be necessary to also have testers on the team, but I've always approached this issue with test-driven development.

Aside from roles on a game team, there are a few things to keep in mind about creating a game. The first is the concepts included or excluded in a game. When in doubt, prototype your concepts as quickly as possible. Quick designs or sketches for a prototype shouldn't take more than an hour or two and if it does then it needs to be simplified. Building on concepts isn't necessary bad though; the larger and more complex a concept gets, ideally, the more prototypes you should already have. By then end of your game designing phase you should be able to present each aspect of the game with prototypes.

That's all for now :)