Are you curious about what happens during game development? In this episode of Straight from the Expert, game developers Carl Bartolome and Jim Aquino of Neun Farben will give a tour of their office and share how they develop games.
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00:00Hi, Karl here, I'm a game developer and I'd like to show you how we make games.
00:30When we talk about game development, the first thing that comes to the mind of people is
00:44programmers.
00:45Actually, it turns out, especially for AAA production, 20%-30% is actual game development.
00:53A lot of it is actually asset production, so that's where the majority of the budget goes
00:58into as well.
01:00Usually, it's our programmers, technical artists, those who integrate, that works within Unity
01:07or Unreal.
01:09Then we would have our artists, they're the ones who make the assets for these game developers.
01:14So they make characters, creatures, our modelers, they make the assets, the trees, the walls,
01:20the environment, and then the characters, and then we would have animators that bring
01:24the life to those characters, so we animate the layout.
01:38So the studio has different departments, modeling, art, animation, 2D art, game design, game
01:44development.
01:45Right now, we're in the production area, so this is where everything starts, from what
01:49the client requires, planning, baseline production, this is where we all meet and collaborate.
01:54To start a new project, or to work on projects.
02:02In pre-production, this is when you essentially start planning what the look and feel of the
02:07game is.
02:08We call it concept art, storyboarding, start creating the 2D concept, this is the key art.
02:14So when you start game development, you first need to have game design.
02:18So we have here our designer, essentially he's in charge of creating the wireframes,
02:23all of the prototypes, all of the documentation related to the game.
02:28Mechanics as well, core mechanics.
02:30So you see here all of the references that we have, that we would essentially, mechanics,
02:36different art aesthetics.
02:37Finally, in the last leg of game design, you would need proof of concept.
02:42Proof of concept, or POC, is you would create a rough of the design, or how you would essentially
02:48assemble it in a mind map.
02:50Then you have storyboarding and animation.
02:53So essentially, these guys are in charge of creating a 2D concept first.
02:57So when you create a 2D concept, this is when you essentially create the previz, the character
03:03design.
03:06So this is essentially illustration.
03:08So rough illustrations of different enemies, different characters.
03:13Then upon from there, we decide from what the final look would be for the character.
03:19Another example of previz visualization is like animation, just illustration of different
03:26characters, character design, yet again.
03:33So right now we're going to take a look at modeling, animation, and rigging.
03:38So we have here an environment, essentially, checking all of the models with relation to
03:44props, different shaders as well, different textures.
03:48So that's what's involved in terms of environment.
03:51And then we have here modeling for characters specifically.
03:55So there are a few tools that we use.
03:57We use ZBrush, Maya, Blender for the modeling of the characters.
04:02In terms of detailing, we use ZBrush, but it's also could be done in Blender and Maya.
04:13When you're creating games in production, and then from there you start modeling the
04:18characters, you start designing based on the 2D concept.
04:22And then from there, you start creating the code.
04:25So depending on the system architecture that you have decided, depending on the game design
04:30that you've decided, during pre-prod, you would start creating that in production.
04:34So that's when you start coding different behaviors, different mechanics inside of the
04:38game.
04:39So if we go over here in the production area, so these guys are essentially responsible
04:44for applying all of the art assets and animation into the game engine.
04:48So this is also where we start doing the programming for the game.
04:52In game development, you have a team of programmers and you have a team of people, game developers
04:57as well, that essentially implements the art into the engine.
05:00They check for any issues, they check for any errors, that's the sort of stuff that
05:04we do.
05:05So here, you'll see how the process is for VFX.
05:09So you see here the animation, the character swinging a sword, and the effects that happen
05:15on top of that inside of the game engine.
05:18You start integrating the art, the animation, and then the programming all together into
05:22one specific product, or a first vertical slice.
05:26So you have your programming, your 3D modeling, your animation, and then everything else in
05:32one layered cake.
05:37You would need to taste test your cake, meaning you would need to QA if it actually tastes
05:42good in the first place.
05:44So this is one example of how game developers would test their game inside of the game engine.
05:49So you see here, this is essentially a portrait, it's a mobile app.
05:54So meaning, you would need to have a group of people, or a section in your company, or
06:01a group of fans, just to test your game.
06:04If there's any bugs, let's say there's any visual glitches in the app, if it's a mobile
06:10game, if there's any game breaking issues, like for example, exploits, like you can press
06:15a button, or you do certain combinations in the game, and it can break the game.
06:22Then lastly, the fourth section is publishing your game, shipping it.
06:26In my job, there's a lot of technicalities that you would need to know.
06:31So specifically, as the Chief of Game Development, I need to dabble a bit in terms of how modeling
06:37takes that into account into game development, how I should test it, that sort of stuff.
06:43The job is very difficult, because you would need to explore different areas as well, aside
06:49from game development.
06:50I have a heavy programming background, but I need to dabble to R&D.
06:56Game Development Jargons
06:57Beta.
07:00Build of a game that's not finished yet.
07:03Mostly playtested with a large number of players.
07:06RPG.
07:07Role-playing game.
07:08A game genre where players take on the role of a fictional character and develop the character
07:13throughout the story and entirety of the game.
07:15AAA games made with big budgets, usually made by big companies with hundreds to thousands
07:21of developers.
07:23Pretty short for independent individual game developer or small group of game developers.
07:29Prototype.
07:30A small, limited early version of a game or part of a game.
07:34From start to finish, it really depends on the scope.
07:39Actually, heavily depends on what type of game we're working on.
07:44Typically if we're talking about AAA productions, the blockbuster hits, the games, that typically
07:51takes years.
07:53Give or take it's three to five years in terms of production.
07:57So for a more similar or smaller scale like AA's, typically around two to three years,
08:04I think it's a safe estimate for a production.
08:08So for AAA projects, it takes three to five years.
08:11Game Development Jargons
08:15In the next part of this episode, we will learn more about game development in the Philippines
08:20and why Filipinos are great game developers.