Job roles
Game designers
Game designers are responsible for the idea behind a game, how it plays and what the game consists of. Everything in the game will be thought up by the game designers and they often come up with the concept or premise of the game. They will design the characters, story, items in the game and what the play style is for the game. In larger projects there will often be a group of game designers with a lead designer, usually the person who originally thought up the game itself.
Game designers are responsible for the vision of the games world, setting, story and all the games elements, for example what vehicles and weapons would be in a first person shooter or what items can be placed in a building game and then communicate these ideas over to the development team. In groups we have designed a simple flash game based on internet memes and re skinned a game. While pitching ideas for the first Halo they orgininally made it a strategy game until they decided to make it an FPS (first person shooter) and make the story of master chief. After the game designers had thought up what game they wanted to make they pitched the idea to the development team to make it.
Programmers
Programmers are often confused with scripters but programmers are a step above them. Programmers create the game engines and tools for scripters to create the game. Programmers are the centre point for any game. They design and write the code that runs the game writing custom code and pre-set code to create the games engine. They often create the physics, AI (artificial intelligence), 3D engine development, interface and control systems. They may work with code other programmers have made and work in groups under the supervision of a lead programmer. They may create many builds of the game to work with the testers so they can identify any bugs within the game and coding so the programmers may fix it. The team of programmers will create custom tools for art and level designers. There are separate titles for programmers; Games, Graphics, Tools, AI and Middleware programmers. How everything works together, character control and how the AI works within the game is all created by the Programmers. We have created a game in GL BASIC where you must avoid and collect falling objects by writing in code. When programming Mario the programmers gave each 'panel' or 'block' their own properties and variables such as if Mario could break the block, use it, what enemies do and how they affect Mario when touched and so on. They create each item and the artists make the texture for them, then after the programmers had made level designing software, the scripters go ahead and make all the Mario levels.
Scripters
The scripters are the part of the team who uses the game engine and tools created by the Programmers to create the game. Modern scripters use a game editor made by the programmers to save time with coding and for easier editing. The game editor is also developed by the scripter/game developer. The scripters are responsible for level and map design for multiplayer and the story of the game. Level design includes mapping, detailed layout and building of the environment in which the level is played. With the use of a mega Mario editor we were able to easily place blocks, enemies, coins and objectives to create several Mario levels. The animators are responsible for how each AI, vehicle, object, weapon and character moves. The scripters will design how the AI act to situations around them and what characters and objects will do when something else happens in the game. For example when a grenade lands near an AI in the game 'Halo' they roll or jump away from it and in Hitman if someone catches you acting suspicious they will alert other AI companions to help hunt you down.
Artists
Game artists create the images in the game, all the objects, buildings, landscapes, characters and textures which make up the game world. In more modern games the style is a very important feature. Borderlands is a cartoon style first person shooter that originally had a realistic art style but they changed it in the last months of production which ultimately lead to their success and went on to make a sequel. Game artists often work with 3D design and modelling. Animators and Artists use 3D modelling and animation packages to create 3D models to be placed in the game and complete their animation with such software as 3DStudioMax. There often different groups assigned to design and make different parts of the game such as player models, buildings, skyboxes and texture artists however they usually take on multiple tasks, for example one person could be doing building and vehicle design. The work is usually watched by a lead artist or art director who takes overall responsibility. In Bungie who made Halo 1-3 there were lead art designers for vehicles, weapons, characters and levels who each lead a team of artists.
Sound designers
Those working in audio and sound design are responsible for all the sounds in the game from explosions and vehicle sounds to dialog. There are usually many sound designers working on large projects who work together to create all the sounds effects needed for the game. Many of them will go out and record their own audio like cars driving, people shooting weapons, running sound effects and combat noises. They will also record dialog from voice actors to place into the game. The sound designers will usually get a composer or musicians to create the music for the game. The Audio engineer creates the soundtrack for the game which is music and sound effects. For battlefield 3 sound designers went out to a fireing range and recorded actual gunfire, while Citeron games go out and record every vehicle they use in their games such as the Burnout games.
QA / Testing
The QA (quality assurance) are the game testers who play the game to test for bugs in game builds made by the programmers and they will be communicating these bugs in the game to the development team in clear ways after hours of playing the game. It is up to the testers to find anything wrong with the game and in later stages find anything that may exploit the game such as uneven maps/race tracks and weapons. Sometimes glitches are missed in testing like Crackdown 2 which had a few glitches such as AIs not acting correctly to situations caused by the player.
Producers / Project managers
The project managers are the overseers of the entire project. They are usually there to scare everyone into working hard towards the deadline of the project and make sure everyone is completing their tasks on time. External Producers will be more focused on the marketing and selling of the game. Both the project manager and external producer are responsible for budgets, schedules, milestones and reports.
Marketing
The marketing is controlled by the External producer who is in charge of the marketing for the game and to make sure the maximum amount of people will be reached to in the right places, for example if the target audience is young children they will try to get advertisements on children's television channels or if the target audience is teenage to young adult males the best place would be in magazines and advertisements on online sites such as YouTube. More successful games such as the Call of Duty franchise have a large enough advertising budget to put their adverts on daytime TV on channels such as Sky and BBC.
Information for each job was gathered from the site 'creative skillset':
http://www.creativeskillset.org/games/
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