Game Design and Development: Roles, Theories, and Process

This article explores the roles and responsibilities of game design and development, game design theories and practices, and the game development process. It also discusses how to present a game development plan and produce a functioning video game prototype. Additionally, it provides insights into industry-standard tools for managing the game development life cycle.

Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................1
Roles of design and development of video games.................................................................1
Game design theories and practices to engage player and play time.....................................2
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................3
Principles of story, character and gameplay in the development...........................................3
Concept and features of a proposed video game....................................................................3
Task 3..........................................................................................................................................4
Game development process....................................................................................................4
Present a game development plan to a defined audience.......................................................5
Task 4..........................................................................................................................................5
Produce a functioning video game prototype.........................................................................5
Industry-standard tools to manage the game development life cycle.....................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
References:.......................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Game development can be defined as the designing of a game digitally by developing the
programming codes and software in order to function and operate the game successfully. There
are various types of games available for gamers to play such as sport games. Action games,
adventure games, arcade games, shooting games, puzzle games and many more (Dimitriadou,
Djafarova, Turetken and Ferworn, 2020). The following discussion is based on the designing and
development of the games which includes several other tasks to study about in order to
successful development of the game such as roles and responsibilities of design and development
of the video game, game design theories and practices to engage player and play time, principles
of story, character and game play in the development, concept and features of the proposed video
game, game development process, presentation of the game development plan to the audiences,
producing the functioning video game prototype and industry related tools to manage the game
development life cycle with proper findings and conclusion.
MAIN BODY
Task 1
Roles of design and development of video games
Design
It is an important role to develop the game that is it's designing, many specialist are
involved in this process such as 3D artist, texture artist, animators and many more as per the
needs and requirements of the game specifications, functioning and features.
Programming
It is an essential role to develop the game that is it's programming and coding, many
specialist are involved in this process such as artificial intelligence programmers, user interface
programmers, network programmers and many more as per the needs and requirements of the
game development process.
Audio (sound effects, voice overs, music)
It is a necessary role to develop the game that is it's audio and sounds, many specialist are
involved in this process such as sound effects people, voice overs people, music people and
many more as per the needs and requirements of the game characteristics.
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Testing
It is a significant role to develop the game that is it's testing process, many specialist and
non specialist are involved in this process such as features testing people, compatibility testing
features and many more as per the needs and requirements of the game evolution.
Maintenance
It is a crucial role to develop the game that is it's maintenance process, many specialist
are involved in this process such as people who are responsible for the regular updates in the
game as per the new and advanced technology and security according to the game requirements
(Spieler and Slany, 2018).
Game design theories and practices to engage player and play time
Frequent updates for new features
It is one of the most important point to engage player and play time towards the game
that is the frequent updates for new features so that the players could be excited and willing to
wait for the new functions in the game and this helps the company to gain more engagement of
the players.
Mechanics
It is also an essential point to engage player and the play time towards the game that is
the mechanics and animation of the game so that players would love the experience while
playing the game in a more enhanced manner with good animation and graphics in the game
betters the whole mechanism of the game.
Challenges
It is an another necessary point to engage player and play time towards the game that is
challenges in the game which means that game must not be very easy and not be very hard, it
must specify the different levels so that challenges can come accordingly for more fun and
entertainment in the game.
Rewards
It is a significant point to engage player and play time towards the game that is the
reward system which means no player will ever take interest in the game if no rewards or return
policy is framed for them. This practice is crucial to engage the player with the game for a long
term (Pramuditya, Noto and Syaefullah, 2018).
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Task 2
Principles of story, character and gameplay in the development
Genre - Action adventure games
Target audience
Target audience are the youngsters and adults from the age group from 13 – 25. Main
target is for boys because girls prefer action – adventure games less as compared to boys.
Youngsters are the ones who can take more interest as compared to the children and old age
people. That is why defined audience is Youngsters and adults specifically males.
Art theme
Art theme of action – adventure video game is the shooting and fighting theme in the
space designing with night and day mode both. There will be the aliens and human beings with
the costume as per the needs of the gamer and fighting equipment as well.
Story
Aliens and human beings who are in the space will fight against each other with a motive
to adventure the box which is hidden in the space and who so ever will get first will get more
powers to fight and will win at the end. They will be provided with the shooting gun for fighting
and various other tools of space to survive there (Li and Wang, 2020).
Concept and features of a proposed video game
Assets needed
There are various things which are required in the game to make it more attractive such
as level of art such as space theme with lightnings and electricity, environment such as fighting
and adventurous culture, characters such as aliens and human beings, props such as items they
are using for surviving and the power box, destructible objects like guns and bombs, transport
elements such as space ships, safety components such as how to safeguard the themselves from
being attacked and clothing such as hats, upper wear and lower wear.
Functionalities needed
There are various functions involved in the game such as three level of pricing structure
to gain different levels of clothing and powers like low level, middle level and premium level.
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Sound effects of guns, bombs and powers are involved with horror effects due to the space
theme.
Aim and objectives of game
Objectives of the game is that the who so ever either the aliens team or the human beings
team will reach to the power box first will gain more powers and then fight after receiving the
power and then who so ever will win will get the rewards in the form of coins or powers
(Kalmpourtzis, 2019).
Task 3
Game development process
Planning
This is the first phase which states that what is to be build, what can be the budget, who
can be the audience and on what platform it can work.
Pre-production
This is the second phase which states the storyboarding, storytelling, technological
capabilities, early prototyping and milestone scheduling. This comes before the production phase
and is necessary for the accuracy in development process.
Production
This is the third phase which states the modelling, designing, audio, visual effects,
physics, mechanics, developing and rendering. This is the proper production phase where all
such activities are important to carry for proper working of the game.
Testing
This is the fourth phase which states the bug identifying, feature exploitation, setting the
levels of the game and game fun. Error detection and rectification is done in this process for an
appropriate functioning of the game.
Pre-launch
This is the fifth phase which states the alpha and beta releases, marketing type, gaming
conventions and independent advertising. This step comes before proper launch step in order to
make awareness of the game using marketing techniques and promotional tools.
Launch
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This is the sixth phase which states the major bug squashing, minor bug squashing,
polishing and master release.
Post-production
This is the seventh phase which states the more bug squashing, game patching, game
balancing and new content development (Ismail, Ibrahim and Yaacob, 2019).
Present a game development plan to a defined audience
Identification of game's hook as part of marketing
This point means that the important part or attractive feature is needed to be identified in
the game which is known as the game hook and after finding out such hook, it can be presented
in front of the target audiences to gain attraction from them by utilising the hook of the game.
Choosing channels carefully
This point means that the channels or mode of communications with the target audiences
must be chosen wisely so that awareness and presentation before the customers could look
attractive and can reach wider and in an expanded manner either nationally or internationally.
Premium pricing
This point means that the game must set their pricing standards at all levels of pricing
from low tom premium pricing in which premium pricing must always be an option so that
customers feel comfortable while purchasing any feature of the game conveniently.
Story telling
This point means that the presentation of the game must be in the form of story so that
audience could take interest while launching the game and can make themselves available for the
game in order to purchase it. Therefore, presenting the game in front of the audiences must be
unique and eye catching (Arnab, Clarke and Morini, 2019).
Task 4
Produce a functioning video game prototype
Paper prototyping
This type of prototype is built physically using pen, paper, pencil, glue, scissors and
many more items. It is drawn on the piece of paper to present the whole structure of the game
with it's functioning.
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Code prototyping
This type of prototype is built digitally using software, application, technical devices,
systems and many more items. It is prepared on the system board using images, graphics and
animations to present the entire framework of the game with it's features (Beça, Aresta, Santos
and Pereira, 2019).
Industry-standard tools to manage the game development life cycle
Waterfall technique
This method involves steps of development step by step without any iteration such as first
is analysis, second is designing, third is coding, fourth is testing, fifth is implementation and
sixth is maintenance.
Spiral technique
This method involves steps of development step by step with iteration such as first is
determining objectives, second is identify and resolve risks, third is development and test and
fourth is plan the next iteration.
Iterative technique
This method also contains the steps of development but not the specific steps, they work
in a loop that whenever whatever is needed will be done as per the needs and requirements of the
game such as analysis, designing, implementation and many more, they are not in order but are
in loop.
Big bang technique
This method does not have a proper process and also not having the initial planning and
designing process as well. They directly start development as per the requirements and search for
the needs at the time of development itself.
Agile technique
This method states that each and every step requires the testing process from the clients,
they suggest to change the features so it is modified at that hand only without taking it further
which means that every step is processed properly before moving to the next step (Andrea and
Kopel, 2018).
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CONCLUSION
It is concluded that game design and development is an entertaining process which highly
needs special skilled people in information technology, programming and coding. Gaming
industry is growing at a very fast pace providing fun to the people while using new and advanced
technology. Therefore in order to study about the game development in depth, it is important to
analyse the roles and responsibilities of design and development of the video game, it is
essential to examine the game design theories and practices to engage player and play time, it is
necessary to determine the principles of story, character and game play in the development, it is
significant to investigate the concept and features of the proposed video game, it is important to
analyse the game development process, it is essential to examine the presentation of the game
development plan to the audiences, it is necessary to determine the functioning video game
prototype and it is significant to investigate the industry related tools to manage the game
development life cycle. Hence, this report covers all such areas in order to better understand the
concepts of game development.
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References:
Books and Journals
Andrea, R. and Kopel, M., 2018, September. Design and development of “battle drone”
computer-based trading card game (CTCG). In International Conference on Multimedia
and Network Information System (pp. 574-585). Springer, Cham.
Arnab, S., Clarke, S. and Morini, L., 2019. Co-Creativity through Play and Game Design
Thinking. Electronic Journal of e-Learning. 17(3). pp.184-198.
Beça, P., Aresta, M., Santos, R. and Pereira, M., 2019, November. Supporting the game
construction process: development of artefacts in the context of a toolkit to game
design. In International Conference on Videogame Sciences and Arts (pp. 99-110).
Springer, Cham.
Dimitriadou, A., Djafarova, N., Turetken, O. and Ferworn, A., 2020. Challenges in Serious
Game Design and Development: Educators’ Experiences. Simulation & Gaming,
p.1046878120944197.
Ismail, R., Ibrahim, R. and Yaacob, S., 2019, March. Participatory Design Method to Unfold
Educational Game Design Issues: A Systematic Review of Trends and Outcome.
In 2019 5th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM) (pp. 134-
138). IEEE.
Kalmpourtzis, G., 2019. Developing kindergarten students’ game design skills by teaching game
design through organized game design interventions. Multimedia Tools and
Applications. 78(14). pp.20485-20510.
Li, R.Y. and Wang, C.H., 2020. Key factors and network model for location‐based cultural
mobile game design. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), pp.2495-2512.
Pramuditya, S.A., Noto, M.S. and Syaefullah, D., 2018, May. The educational game design on
relation and functionmaterials. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1013,
No. 1, p. 012138). IOP Publishing.
Spieler, B. and Slany, W., 2018. Game development-based learning experience: Gender
differences in game design. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.04457.
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