Video Game Design Getting Started with Game Development About Me • Owner of Cloudy Heaven Games LLC • Education and professional experience in Computer Science and Game Development • Lifelong passion for video games How to Get Into Game Development? ● Step 1: Learn about the game industry ● Step 2: Learn the skills for your role ● Step 3: Make a games portfolio Game Development Roles ● Game Designer: Develops the ideas, concepts, layouts, and overall experience for a game. ● Programmer: Writes the code that makes the game run ● Artist: Creates the visual art assets for the game ● Musician/Sound Artist: Creates music and sound effects for the game. ● Voice Actor: Provides voice for character dialogue in the game. Game Development Roles ● Writer: Writes the story, script/dialogue, and other necessary written products for the game. ● Playability and Quality Assurance Tester: Playtests the game for bugs, problems in game quality, and other issues. ● Project Manager: Responsible for the day-to-day operations of the team, coordinating team members, and making sure that the game project stays on track as far as time and budget. ● Marketer/Promoter: Promotes and gains publicity for the game ● Technical Writer: Writes the technical documentation Recommended Education and Skills ● Recommended for all roles: ○ Game design ○ Humanities courses (history, literature, writing, mythology, etc) ○ Writing and communication ○ Basic math skills ● Specific roles: ○ Programmer: Computer science, programming languages, basic physics, at least some algebra ○ Artist: User interface design, basic drawing classes (not necessarily digital), 2D and 3D specific digital art skills, basic scripting ● Schools: https://blog.prepscholar.com/best-video-game-design-schools ● Also, attend local game dev events to learn more about the industry in general Making Games and Portfolios ● Artists and musicians: Put together a portfolio of art and/or music and sound effects ○ Personal websites ○ Youtube ○ Soundcloud ● Programmers: Start by doing tutorials in your language or game engine of choice, then make your own demo games ● General: Find teams that you can join to make games for your portfolio ○ Forums like TIGSource or GameDev.net ○ School classmates or clubs ○ Local (and virtual) game dev events Game Engines ● Good for beginners without a programming background: ○ Stencyl: http://www.stencyl.com ○ Game Salad: https://gamesalad.com ○ GameMaker Studio: https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker ● More advanced/comfortable with programming: ○ Unity: https://unity.com/ ○ JMonkey Game Engine: https://jmonkeyengine.org/ ○ MonoGame: https://www.monogame.net/ What is a Typical Day Like for a Game Developer? • Depends on the role and the development stage • Stages of game development – Beginning: Design ideas/documents, concept art/music, prototypes, team building – Middle: Writing code, fixing bugs and revising, testing, creating art/music, demo feedback, marketing – Release: Final cleanup, marketing, working on updates • Throughout process, each role should be learning – Industry blogs, conferences/events, tutorials • Admin tasks More Info ● Link to an in-progress document with more about getting into game dev: https://bit.ly/GameDevDoc ● Email: [email protected] ● My projects: https://cloudyheavengames.itch.io/ ● Twitter: @CloudyHeavenGms.