Assignment - Creating a Game (Shapeman)

Shape-Man Game Sketch
For this assignment, I have been making a game called "Shape-Man," which is a variant of Pac-Man. The aim of the game is to move around a maze like level, collect pills (to get score) and kill enemies. However, there's a slight twist. The enemies move around randomly, and they change shape randomly (they change between circle, cross, triangle, and pentagon.) The player can only kill enemies if they are the same shape. To do this, the player must touch the stationary shapes that are placed in the map, these will turn the player into that shape. There is also a timer in the middle of the map that shows the player which shape will be next, by displaying the number of sides the next shape has. The game is never-ending, which means it cannot be beaten. The player can die, however, and they have 3 lives. 

Here you can see the room for the game. In this sketch I have not included enemies, however they are scattered around the room and begin moving in random directions when the game starts. The shapes that you can see in this picture are the stationary shapes that the player has to touch to become that shape. In the middle you can see the timer that displays which shape will be next, and at the top the score and amount of lives that the player has. In terms of score, the player gets 1 whenever they pick up a pill, and 100 when they kill an enemy. There are 100 pills in total, and I have shown them in this sketch by drawing thin blue lines. 

Shape-Man Sprites
Shape man uses several different sprites, and you can see them on the left. I created these sprites myself with Game Makers built in sprite editor/creator. Some of them, such as the pill and wall, I drew with just the pen tool. To create others however I used things like the circle tool and square tool etc. Below there is also a screenshot of the sprite editor. On the left you can see the various different tools, in the middle you can edit the sprite, and on the right you can change colours. You can see my square sprite in the middle.

































Shape-Man Objects

On the right you can see a list of all my objects. Each object does has a different purpose, and to get some of them to function properly I had to use code.

Obj_Controller

Obj_controller may be last on the list but it is the most important because without it all the other code wouldn't work! This is because the controller contains a piece of code called "Variables." This code contains the global variables, which are things that all of the other objects can use. The controller also draws the score on the screen (makes the score visible for the player) and sets the colour of the score font etc.

Here you can see the global variables. You will see these in the code used for the games other objects too. I will go over some of the main ones.

Number and Countdown = 200 are involved with the game ticks and the random shape changing of the enemies.

Myshape = the players shape.

Spriteto and Spritenext = irandom(4); are for when the enemy shape changes. It makes sure that the enemy changes to any random shape out of the 4 that are available. 

idied = whether the player has died or not.

The next code is in a step event. This code is involved with the countdown. The first line "if irandom(number) > 50" makes the games enemy change countdown random. Line 8 "if countdown < 1" is saying "if the countdown is lower than 1" (it runs out) then the actions on line 10-14 should be performed. When the countdown runs out, the enemies sprite should change and it should change to a random one (spriteto = spritenext; and spritenext = irandom(4);) Lines 17 and 19 are saying that if there are no more enemies in the room (if instance_number(obj_enemy) < 1) a message should be shown that says "ran out of bad guys." This message along with any other debug messages are shown in this section of Game Maker (highlighted with red box,) which is separate from the game window itself:

Obj_fwall & Obj_cwall

Obj_fwall and cwall have the same simple function, they are walls. They stop the players from getting out of the map and they give the map it's maze-like shape (they are named slightly differently because of the sprites used. F stands for front, and c stands for continuing. This just helped me tell them apart properly and made sure I didn't mix them up.) These two objects have no code and the only thing I did to them was make them solid.

Obj_square, circle, triangle, pentagon and cross

These 5 objects are the stationary shapes placed in the room, and if the player touches them they become that shape. I have not used any code for these objects directly, however there is code related to these objects in other areas, which I will get on to later.

Obj_enemy

Obj_enemy is the enemy of the player. The enemy will bounce around the room randomly and change shape. To get the enemy to work as desired, code was needed. I will show the code below.
                    

The first line of this code sets the speed that the enemy will move at. In my game the speed is 0.6. Not all enemies will move at 0.6 however, and the +random(2) allows this. Line 2 allows the enemies to move in a random direction, and this is easy to understand because of the way it's written. It says that the direction should be random, and they objects are free to move 360 degrees. I will not show the next piece of code under the "alarm event" because it is the exact same however it does not use the line 1 code.

The next code is used when obj_enemy collides with obj_me (obj_me is the shape that the player controls.) This code controls whether the enemy is destroyed or not when the player collides with it. In terms of what this code does, let's focus on line 6-9 first. "case 0" is basically saying "if obj_enemy is a circle." We can tell it's about a circle because it uses the number 0, which is the amount of sides a circle has -1. The next line, "if spriteto == 0 then killedit = true;" is saying "if the players sprite is a circle (0) as well, then the enemy will be killed when the player collides with it." The next line "else idied = true;" is basically saying "if the player is anything other than a circle, the player will be killed." At the end of the code, (lines 29-37) it is saying that "if we kill the enemy, it's instance should be destroyed." It will also up the players score by 100 if an enemy is killed.

This next code is in a "draw event" for obj_enemy. This code is telling the enemy which case = what sprite. For example, when the enemy changes to case 0, it is changing to a circle because a 0 is the number of sides a circle has -1.

Obj_enemy is also set to bounce off solid objects e.g. the walls. This stops the enemies from leaving the game map.

Obj_me

Obj_me mainly uses drag and drop features but does include a little bit of code.

Firstly I have obj_me set to stop moving when it hits a wall. This is an easy way of using collision with the drag and drop features

I then have collision events set for when the player collides with a stationary shape. All the shapes work in the same way so for an example I will show you the square. 

Here you can see the drag and drop action that turns the players sprite into the square when the player collides with the square.

The code is quite simple and includes a global variable that tells the game what the value of the shape is. For square it is 3, and as I've said before it's the number of sides the shape has -1.

The rest of the events in obj_me are keyboard controls. Set to the arrow keys. The player moves at a speed of 2.5 when using the controls.

Obj_pill

The last object to talk about is obj_pill, which is what the player picks up to get score. The player is given one point when one pill is collected and there are 100 in total.

All that obj_pill has to do is disappear when the player collides with it, and up the players score by 1.

The Room

The room is the area in which the game takes place. Below you can see a picture of the room for Shape-Man.

Gameplay video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NCHqv1fjy8

What could be done to improve the game?

My friend Tom played Shape-Man and from his feedback I know what I could do to make the game more interesting. Firstly I could animate the sprites. By animating the sprites it makes the game look more interesting and visually appealing. Secondly, I could have used a wider range of sounds. Maybe sounds of the enemies pinging off walls, or my character exploding when I die. Thirdly, I could try harder to fix major issues with the game, for example the countdown in the middle. The countdown is an important feature and like me my friend struggled kill the enemies sometimes because he didn't know what they were going to turn into next. And even though the player can easily be told in a manual, the number of remaining lives should be displayed on the screen.

Game Manual

Assignment - Understanding The Video Game Industry

Unit 13: Understanding the Video Games Industry

Top 5 Current Trends in Gaming

1. The Oculus Rift (Virtual Reality Gaming)

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality device that people can wear over their eyes while they play games. The Oculus is designed for first person games, and allows the player to see the first person view of the game through their own eyes, as if they were really there. The Oculus has one screen per eye, each one running at a 1080x1200 resolution, 90hz refresh rate and a wide field of view. The headset also comes with built in 3D sound.

Financial Information

The creator of the Rift, Palmer Luckey, came up with the idea for the Oculus Rift himself, and made his first prototype in his parents garage at the age of 18. When it came to making a proper version of the device, and not a shoddy one that had been duct taped together, a Kickstarter campaign was put up. The Kickstarter raised $2.5 million. The first version of the Rift, the Development Kit 1 (DK1) was available for backers who pledged at least $300 on Kickstarter. Later on the general public were able to purchase the device for $300 from the Rift site.

Market Trends

The idea behind the Oculus Rift was to create a great VR headset that would be inexpensive for gamers, so the plan was to make something suitable for gaming. This is why the Oculus supports a high resolution, refresh rate and field of view, because these are all big selling points for gamers. Especially the wide field of view, because low field of view can cause sickness for some individuals. The Oculus Rift has many competitors, the main ones being the HTC Vive that is being made by HTC and Valve corporation, and the Microsoft HoloLens, a headset that allows the user to see and interact with holograms.

2. Esports

Esports has been around for a while, but with more people getting into competitive games such as Counter-Strike and League of Legends, it has grown even more over the past few years. If you are unaware, Esports is when professional players who have mastered there chosen game, compete against other major professional players/teams. With games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends, big tournaments are sometimes held, with the grand prize usually being a lot of money. I think the reason that Esports has grown so much is because people can play the same games at home and become good at them too. These games also offer competitive modes for normal players, so they can play properly as a team and use tactics.

Financial Information

Professional players don’t just make money by winning tournaments and they are usually offered a salary. Some players prefer to live stream on sites like Twitch because this is a safer/more reliable way of earning money. This is because you can have lots of people watching you play daily and viewers are able to donate to the streamer or subscribe to them. Expensive in game items are also donated sometimes. This year SuperData Research said that globally the esports industry generated about $748.8 million in revenue. In terms of countries, Asia is currently in the lead with over $321 million, North America $224 million and Europe has $172 million. They have also estimated that by 2018, global revenue should reach $1.9 billion.

Market Trends

Esports has moved out of the arena and into stores too. Companies such as Razer and Steelseries (companies that make gaming peripherals) sell products that are licensed by big esports teams and include logos etc. In game stickers and player skins related to certain players and teams can also be purchased in games like CS and LoL, with some of the money going to the players.

3. Free-to-Play Gaming

Free-to-play games have been around for over 10 years and are still popular today. They are games that are completely free to install and play however optional things (known as microtransactions) can be purchased in game. Some popular free-to-play games are Team Fortress 2, League of Legends and Dirty Bomb.

Market Trends and Finance

As I mentioned before, there are things known as microtransactions and these allow players to purchase items in game. Usually the items players can purchase are purely cosmetic, e.g. weapon camos in Counter-Strike (some of which cost hundreds of pounds on the Steam community market, seriously), and some in some games you can buy boosters that boost the amount of in-game currency you earn per match. Some unbalanced games are classed as “pay-to-win” because the players that pay for in game items are at an advantage when compared to players that don’t pay. Free-to-play games aren’t just on PC and you can find them on all kinds of devices. Big games like Candy Crush can be found on the app store and the developers make lots of money from in-game purchases.

4. Video Game Modding

Video game mods are things created by the community that add things to a certain game, or change features for the better. An example of a game series that has a big modding community is Fallout. For the Fallout games (New Vegas, 3 and 4) people create optimization mods, mods that improve visuals or reduce them for older PC’s, new storylines, NPC’s, weapons etc. These mods are mainly uploaded to a site called Nexus Mods, the site has a huge community and there are a variety of mods to choose from. For the PC in particular, free mods have grown in popularity with the introduction of the Steam workshop, a massive addition to Steam where players can upload game add-ons and mods and other players can download them easily with a click of a button. Valve introduced paid mods on Steam earlier this year, but they were met with massive amounts of negativity from users. There were big problems with copyright (mods being sold by people that didn’t even make it) and bad prices. Not long after the introduction of this feature, Valve listened to the community and removed it.

Below is a Fallout: New Vegas graphics enhancement mod.

5. Counter-Strike’s in game items

I have previously spoken about microtransactions however I feel that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) deserves it’s own spot. A few years ago, Valve introduced the community market and workshop as features on Steam, and microtransactions within CS:GO. The workshop allowed players to be creative and upload their own weapon camo designs. If they gained enough votes they would be put into CS:GO with the next weapon case update. Weapon case updates add a new case to the game, which contains several weapon skins, each varying in rarity and price. The rarest item you can get is a knife. Cases are earned by playing the game and they can also be bought off the community market for a cheap price. To open the cases however, you need keys which cost about £1.69 each. This is how Valve make money off the game. When cases are opened you are given a random item from the case. Sometimes people open up items that can be worth hundreds of pounds, and they can be sold for real money on the market and can be bought by other players. (Valve take some of the money away from the seller.) Websites such as CSGOJackpot exist and these are gambling sites but you lose or gain weapon camos. There are websites such as CSGOLounge where players can trade items and make profit. I have had experience with CS:GOLounge and managed to get up to an item worth £150! The in game items on Counter-Strike are so popular and people put so much money into it it’s almost like it’s become Valves own mini industry. Players can make money and Valve can make money off the players making money…if that makes any sense…

Top 5 Future Trends in Gaming

1. Virtual Reality Gaming

I included virtual reality gaming in my top 5 current trends, but it is also classed as a future trend because lots of big virtual reality devices haven’t actually been released yet. The big one, the Oculus Rift hasn’t been experienced by as many people as it would have over the next few years because it isn’t being officially released until 2016. The only people that have their hands on Oculus Rift development kits are people who backed over $300 on Kickstarter and reviewers. The final version/near final version has not been given out to the public yet. The Microsoft HoloLens, that allows the user to interact with holograms has also not been realised yet, and this is one that will most likely be very popular because it can be used with Minecraft, one of the most popular games at this point in time. In the future, VR will continue to become better and better and it will become more affordable, easier to develop and easier to access, and it will be used by both gamers and non-gamers.

2. Indie Gaming

Indie gaming is already a thing, however I believe the industry will grow bigger and bigger in the future. If you are a bit clueless, Indie games are made by small independent teams and sometimes by single individuals. Some Indie games can often be just as or more successful as big triple A titles, because they boast their brilliant story-telling, art styles and innovative gameplay. It is also easier for indie developers to get their games out there. Websites such as IndieGoGo, Indie Fund can be used to gain funds for the game and make it a reality, and Steam has it’s own built in publishing system known as “Greenlight.” Developers can post their games, get support and feedback from the community and get their game onto the Steam store. Steam Greenlight is also quite affordable, and you pay £70 once and are able to post and update whatever you want.

3&4. Portable Gaming and Game Streaming

I've put portable gaming and game streaming in the same category because in some ways they are similar.

Portable gaming has been around for a while, with Nintendo leading with their Gameboy and DS consoles, however with the release of the 3DS and the New 3DS (yes they are different,) portable gaming has become more enjoyable with improved graphics running on more powerful hardware. Hardware is only going to get better and better and in the future we could be seeing console-like graphics on portable devices. The console-like graphics could not just be achieved through great hardware, and could also be done with streaming. An example of a current streaming device is the Nvidia SHIELD, which is a portable device that allows you to stream games from your PC directly to the Shield, which means you can play anywhere in your house. If streaming becomes more powerful people could move out of their house and play big games on the go!

5. Video Game Graphics and Realism

Games with stunning graphics already exist, and while some people may think that graphics can't possibly become more realistic, that is not the case. In the not so distant future, hardware will be so good that graphics will look extremely realistic, and virtual reality may not even feel that virtual anymore...

Believe it or not, the image below is a computer render! Some visual effect artists have said that by 2022 we will be unable to tell real life film and video game graphics apart. 

Assignment - Creating Concept Art Ideas for Computer Game Graphics

Noel Pells
Level 3 Games Design
Unit 78: Digital Graphics for Computer Games

Assignment: Game Design Brief & Concept Art

Wayne’s Brief

Wayne wants us to create a 2D platform game with 5 levels. It must include at least one protagonist and several different enemies to avoid.

My Brief

What is my game/what is it about?

My game is called “Riley the Chav: Quest for The Snapback.” The game is about a chav called Riley, who is going to different "Hatz4U" shops as he tries to steal a snapback. However he can’t get his hands on one because the evil managers keep moving them to different shops. In the game you will have to go through 5 levels as you avoid security guards and CCTV cameras, and you will have to reach the shops at the end of the level.

Sprites

For my game, I will need:

A player sprite (Riley the chav)

Security guard

CCTV camera

Shop

Coin/Penny

Manager

Snapback

Levels

My game will have 5 levels, and each one will be slightly harder than the previous. They will all use the same enemies however they will do different amounts of damage and or move faster. The layout of each level will also be a lot different and enemy placement will vary. 

Other Elements

The game will be a platform game with big levels where the jumping mechanic is used a lot. Since the levels will be fairly big, checkpoints will be used so if the player gets quite far into the level and dies, they will start about halfway when they respawn. Coins and 1UP’s can also be collected. Coins will increase your score and are an optional part of the game, and 1UP’s will give you an extra life. At the start of the game, the player has 5 lives. If all of the lives are lost, the player will have to go right back to the first level and do everything again.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

My game will be aimed at male teens around the ages of 15-16. This is because the game involves crime. You are trying to shop-lift in the game while you avoid security guards and CCTV cameras.

Also, even though the game concept is supposed to be funny, some could find it offensive. People who play the game would have to be older and more mature to understand it's only a game and it isn't trying to be offensive.

Computer Game Graphics, Concept Art and Mood Boards

My game will use simple 2D graphics. This is because I will be making the game in Game Maker. The sprites/levels will be in a pixel art style. The in game sprites will be 32x32 pixels.

Below you can see the concept art I have created for my game. The big character is the main character Riley, in the bottom left is the shop you need to reach at the end of each level, and in the bottom right there is a coin (what you collect for score. also it was supposed to be a bronze colour but I coloured it in with yellow by mistake.) For the rest of the characters in the game such as the security guards and manager, I will use a similar shape.

Mood Boards

Setting


















The shopping center and street are two settings that I will use in the game. I will use settings like this for the games backgrounds.











Sprites and Textures

A brick wall texture will be used for some most of the walls in the game.






























The aim of the game is to get the snapback. There are many different colours and styles I can use.












Some sprites similar to the one I have made.













                                                                    

Assignment - Pre-Production and Planning for a Computer Game

Student name: Noel Pells

Qualification: BTEC Extended Diploma in Computer Games Design

Unit number and title: Unit 1: Pre-Production Techniques for the Creative Media Industries 

Introduction

Before you can begin developing a game, you need to make sure you have the correct resources e.g. personnel, the correct amount of money, the right amount of time to complete the game etc. Pre-production is important because if you rush into a project, you will most likely experience many hold-ups and bumbs along the way, making development very difficult. If you plan beforehand, you will be able to develop the game efficiently, and everyone working on the game will have a clear idea as to what they're doing. 

Finance

It's very important to find out roughly how much a game is going to cost before development starts. You need to make sure you have PC's with the correct specs and software, console dev kits (if you're designing a console game,) and you need to find out the cost of publishing. 

Software & Hardware

Software is stuff you need on your PC to be able to develop a game.

UDK (Unreal Development Kit)

The latest version of the Unreal Engine (Unreal Engine 4) is now free. So everyone can use it.

UE4 PC specs:

OS: Windows7/8 64 Bit

CPU: Quad Core AMD or Intel, 2.5GHz or higher

GPU: Direct X 11 compatible graphics card

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Unity

Unity is an extremely popular engine. Unity can be downloaded for free, but to access all the features a $75 per month subscription is required. You can also buy assets for your game from the asset store. 

Unity PC specs for development (taken from the unity website):

OS: Windows XP SP2+, 7 SP1+, 8, 10; Mac OS X 10.8+.

GPU: Graphics card with DX9 (shader model 2.0) capabilities. Anything made since 2004 should work.

Additional platform development requirements:

·         iOS: Mac computer running minimum OS X 10.9.4 version and Xcode 6.x.

·         Android: Android SDK and Java Development Kit (JDK).

·         Windows 8/8.1 Store Apps / Windows Phone 8/8.1: 64 bit Windows 8.1 Pro and Visual Studio 2013 Update 2+.

·         WebGL: Mac OS X 10.8+ or Windows 7 SP1+ (64-bit editor only)

Game Maker:

Game Maker can be downloaded for free, however it's features are quite limited. If you're going to be developing a big game with Game Maker, it would be better to buy a different version. A professional version is available for $149.99, and a master version is also available for $799. Game Maker is quite easy to run and most modern PC's should be able to run it. 

Maya

Maya is used for animation, and is very expensive. For a monthly subscription its £145, quarterly is £365 and annually is £1,160.

Maya PC specs (taken from the Maya website):

Software
Operating System	·         Microsoft® Windows® 7 (SP1) and Windows® 8.1 Professional operating system ·         Apple® Mac OS® X 10.9.5 and 10.10.x operating system ·         Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 6.5 WS operating system ·         CentOS 6.5 Linux operating system
Browser	Autodesk recommends the latest version of the following web browsers for access to online supplemental content: ·         Apple® Safari® web browser ·         Google Chrome™ web browser ·         Microsoft® Internet Explorer® web browser ·         Mozilla® Firefox® web browser

Hardware
CPU	64-bit Intel® or AMD® multi-core processor
Graphics Hardware	Refer to the recommended hardware wizard for a detailed list of recommended systems and graphics cards
RAM	4 GB of RAM (8GB recommended)
Disk Space	4 GB of free disk space for install
Pointing Device	Three-button mouse

For Shape Man I will not need to manage finances. I have a good PC that can run all the software that I need, and I am able to access the software I need.

Publishing

Games can be published via a variety of services, some of these are Steam Greenlight, ID@Xbox, PSN, IOS and Android. 

Steam Greenlight

To post games on Steam Greenlight, you have to pay a fee of £70.

ID@Xbox

The developer of the game “Sixty Second Shooter Prime” revealed the how much is cost to make the game.

• ·         Maintaining the Sixty Second Shooter URL: $19
• ·         Sending the second dev kit to Brett Douville: $63
• ·         Hardware (usb and video cables and the like): $72
• ·         Video capture device (for making trailer): $181
• ·         Localization (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese): $729
• ·         E&O (Error & Omissions) Insurance: $2,037
• ·         Foreign ratings boards (PEGI, USK): $2,042
• The total cost of the project was $5,143

Info from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/136523-How-Much-Does-an-ID-Xbox-Game-Cost-to-Make-5-000

 PS4

A PS4 dev kit is about $2,500, but some developers have said that Sony give them out to developers for a free for a period of one year.

Funding

Funding is how you pay for your game. You can pay for the development of the game yourself (self-financing) but there are also different ways where other people can contribute.

Indie Funding

Indie funding is when a developer (or developers) pay for a game themselves and continue working their daily job and develop a game in their spare time. If their game is successful they can quit their job and develop games full time, however if the game is unsuccessful, they will continue to work their normal job while developing a new game.

There are different types of indie funding, and example is the Indie Fund. This helps developers with their financing/funding for the development of their game.

Crowd Funding
Crowd funding takes place on websites such as IndieGoGo, and allows people to post their ideas/start a campaign, and anyone that is interested can give money that goes towards to development of the product. Crowd funding is good for projects with a big budget, as millions of pounds can be donated.

Grants
A grant is a certain amount of money that a company gives you to help develop something. And example of a grant is the Unreal Dev Grant. The makers of the Unreal Engine give money to people who have innovative ideas for games/anything made in UE4.

Time Constraints 
When developing a game it is very important to keep track of your deadlines and manage you time wisely and efficiently.

Deadlines
A deadline is a date when the product you are developing needs to be completed or has reached a certain milestone. If you're developing smaller indie games, it's a good idea to set yourself strict deadlines and stick to them because it will help prepare you for the deadlines you may be issued when working in a proper development company. If deadlines aren't met the development of the game could go on for much longer or stop completely.

Availability of Equipment & Personnel 
When developing a game you need to make sure your schedule fits with everyone else's (if you're working in a team.) And if you're renting equipment you need to make sure you've finished with it before you have to return it. If you can't get the equipment back and need it to develop a certain part of the game, the development of the game is going to slow down. This may also interfere with deadlines.

Timescales for Clearances 
When the development for the game is done, if will need to be checked by other people (for example the ESRB.) So it can be given an age rating etc.

How Would I Manage My Time?
For the game I am creating with Wayne, "Shape Man," I am not really managing my time in a certain way, I am just doing a bit each lesson. However, if I was to manage my time in a more professional way I would do a little bit each day and set deadlines. For example, I would try to finish all the sprites and animations by this day, and finish putting in the sound effects by that day. Doing this would mean that I am organised and I wouldn't get mixed up with what I am doing. I would also probably have more free time because I would have a clear idea as to when I need to finish certain parts of the game. I will also not be borrowing any equipment as the whole project will be done using Game Maker. And of course it's not a proper game that is going to be published so timescales for clearances doesn't apply to this.

Personnel
There are many different types of roles in the video game industry. A development team needs these roles so the game can be developed faster and more efficiently.

Animator

Animators are the people that animate characters and objects. E.g. they give a character a walking animation.

Assistant Producer

Assistant producers make sure that the game is ready on time.

Audio Engineer

Audio Engineers create the games soundtrack, sound effects etc.

Creative Director

The Creative Director is responsible for how the game looks and feels as a whole.

External Producer

External Producers work externally from the main dev team and make sure that the delivery of the completed game is successful.

Game Designer

The Game Designer manages the way the game plays and its core mechanics/features.

Game Programmer

A Game Programmer types up the code that allows the game to function properly.

Game Artist

A Game Artist draws concept art and designs the look of the characters, world etc.

Lead Artist

A Lead Artist is responsible for the overall look of the game.

Lead Programmer

The Lead Programmer keeps the programming team in check and is responsible for all the games code.

Level Editor

Level Editors design the levels and are responsible for the placement of buildings and scenery etc.

Marketing Executive

A Marketing Executive promotes the game and raises peoples awareness of it.

Marketing Manager

A Marketing Manager also promotes the game and tries to make more people aware of it (use of ads etc.)

Product Manager

Product Managers create marketing campaigns which make more people aware of the game and could potentially boost sales.

Project Manager/Producer

A Project Manager/Producer makes sure that the game is successfully delivered. 

Public Relations Officer

Is in charge of a companies image and reputation.

QA Tester

A QA Tester tests the game and find bugs/glitches. They also make sure the game is as playable as possible and is fit to be released to the public.

Technical Artists

Technical Artists work between the artists and the programmers.

Personnel for Waynes game (Shape Man)

I am making shape man on my own, so there won't really be specific roles assigned for the project. 

Equipment and Facilities

The equipment and facilities needed to make a game depends on the games budget and how big the game is going to be. A small team making a 2D indie game will have a smaller team, and will probably use less demanding software like Game Maker. This means that they wont need to spend as much money on PC's and software.

Big teams making triple A games will need powerful PC's to be able to run animation and rendering software, and things like motion capture/voice recording equipment will be needed also.

To make Shape Man I will only be using Game Maker, which I have access to pretty much all the time. I can access it at school and on my PC at home.

Materials

Materials are things used to make the game, some examples of materials are:

Concept art: Lots of different drawings/ideas that are drawn. The best ones are put into the game.

Assets: Assets are things used in the game world. Assets can be created by the developers themselves or bought from places like the Unity store.

Audio: For big games, original sound effects are usually used. However, there are websites such as Freesound.org that have free sounds for people to use. 

Materials made by other people must be used under creative commons, and credit must be given to the creator in the game.

For Shape Man I will be creating my own assets using Game Maker. I could also use software like Photoshop and MS Paint if I wanted to. For the audio I will probably use sounds from freesound.org or any site that is similar.

Contributors

People outside the development team may be needed. A good example of a contributor would be an actor, and a game that uses actors is Call of Duty. The most recent COD game included the well known actor Kevin Spacey, who played the part of Jonathan Irons.

Codes of Practice 

When a game is finished, it needs to be checked by external companies to make sure it is fit to be sold. An example of a well known company is PEGI (Pan European Game Information.) PEGI give video games age ratings and put labels on the packaging which let people know what is included in the game. E.g. fear, violence etc.