Game Development - An Introduction

This article is a side track series from most of my other articles, which are purely coding-centric. In this article, I will mainly focus on the questions which usually haunt most of the gaming enthusiastic minds while they jump into this domain as a career choice i.e. what is the purpose of games? Why do people develop games? What are some common types of games? What is Indie game development? What are the risks in this profession? The answers to these questions could be different from individual to individual, so I am sharing here my side of the story only. 



Prerequisites

1. GamingEnthusiasm.

So, let’s begin now.

What is the purpose of games?

The purpose of the game serves different meaning from different perspectives, which is mainly based on individual perception about it, but, some common meaning can be as follows.

1. People play games to kill time
   This is the most common purpose for many people especially when they are alone and have nothing else better to do. Minion Rush, Bubble Trouble etc. are some examples.
   
   
   
   
2. People play games for challenge
   In order to forget their daily life problems and to challenge a friend or to their own self in some competition. This scenario is practiced commonly. Candy Crush, Mortal Kombat etc. are some examples.
   
   
   
   
3. People play games for adventure
   In order to stay motivated in their lives, this scenario is also common. Tomb Raider, Assassin Creed etc. are such examples.
   
   
   
   
4. People play games for education
   It has often been observed that many people's brains stimulate learning through observation i.e. by seeing, observing, touching etc. This is because they have the tendency of having visual or auditory based learning styles. Thus, they prefer learning by playing games e.g. keyboard typing tutor based games, puzzle solving based games etc.
   
   
   
   
5. People play games for simulating reality with fantasy
   This is the rare scenario in playing games. Usually, this scenario is applied to large organizations that can be government based organizations or to a group of people who want to simulate reality with fantasy. It is more difficult to achieve many things in reality than to achieve them in virtual simulations. A very interesting study I would recommend on this topic is Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal. Sims, Farmville etc. are examples of simulation based games.
   
    

Why do people develop games?

Game development also has its various reasons depending on an individual's perspective. Some reasons are listed below.

1. Game Development is Fun & Artistic
   Just like players, the developers also find game development fun to do because it allows them to create a world, set rules and then play. For a developer, programming a visual object is more fun to develop than simply developing a program which is textual based or belongs to a product that acts as the end users which will never be used. Game development is artistic and creative.
   
   
2. Game Development is Practical Application of Mathematics
   When we study Mathematics equations like Projectile motion, Newton's laws, gravity, differential equations in classrooms 1 out of 50 students actually understands what the teacher is actually talking about, the rest of the bunch is just struggling to pass the subject due to which Mathematics has become the subject of least interest during student life. The game development is mainly about Mathematics, all those scary equations in classroom finally seems to have meaning, as in why we study Mathematics with weird equations? Since, we only use addition, subtraction, multiplication & division in our daily lives but with game development, all those weird equations seem like blessings to us, otherwise, we will not be able to develop complex games, which are very demanding in the current century. 
   
    

What are some common types of games?

Games are categorized into many categories, which are as follows.

1. Arcade Games
   
   
   
   
2. Adventure Games
   
   
   
   
3. Strategy Games
   
    

What is Indie game development?

Indie game development basically means Independent game development. A small group of people form teams to start their game development career instead of waiting to be hired by large well known organizations. This also leads to entrepreneurship ventures.

What are the risks in this profession?

Despite all the  fun in developing and playing games, game development as a career choice is very risky. It depends entirely on the business model of the company. If a company follow only product based game ventures then revenue generation is a lot riskier because revenue generation will be entirely dependent on how well the game has done in the market with all other competitors in mind. If the business model is only services based then developing games will eventually get boring because of the monotony it creates. Usually, a combination of product & service based architecture is followed by many organizations. Apart from the risk of collapsing of the company, game development as individuals is also a risky career choice mainly because it requires too much time and effort to develop a game and output in terms of revenue might be very low also there are very few colleges and universities which offer practical development study of game development to students. So, if you opt to venture for game development as a career then trust me you are on your own so, be prepared about it.

Conclusion

This article is all about answering common questions that need to be addressed before jumping into the starry domain of game development. What is game development all about in a nutshell? Why do people develop games? What common categories of games are to be looked for? What risks will you have as a professional game engineer?

Disclaimer

I do not own any of the images.