Video Game Design: Components: An Open Learning Guide

Game creators are by definition artists since they produce creative works. To say games have no utilitarian use is a misconception of the art. Video games go above art and have a particularity: most components are modular by design or by characteristics. Games may have music, a story and visuals – each an artistic creation but which aggregate into a functional whole.

Most video games share characteristics with other video creations like cinema (film art), in a similar way as that relates to theater. The camera angles and story-telling concepts can literally be transposed to the video game medium with the added benefit of interactivity. In fact it is defended by many that these two mediums are converging into one. As an example we could point to how movie sound or 3D has evolved and even to tests of interactive movies or TV, where the audience selects the outcome of actions.

Often the video game "creator" label is not restricted only to the one that creates the game concept, but also to those that implement that vision. Most of the time there are technical constraints that must be dealt with or haphazard improvements that are made to the original creator's plan. Most video games today are collaborative works involving not only a large number of people but a large number of resources and technical know-how. There are people involved with composing music, working with sound, programming, testing, art, graphics, and much, much more.

Bullfrog Productions, the creators of many revolutionary games, for instance Populous or Syndicate.

Psygnosis (now SCE Studio Liverpool part of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios), the creators of many innovative games like Shadow of the Beast, Lemmings and Wipeout.

A video game is a collaboration of many different types of media and art, and more often than not requires as many skilled people to put it together as to make it commercially viable. There are of course games that do not pursue a profitable goal and then there are other mechanics outside of game creation to increase the popularity, visibility and profits around the game. For example, marketing has historically been able to eclipse the real quality of products which at times do not even merit the label on game. Then there is the gravitas of the intellectual property (IP) related to the game. For instance it is common for game studios to license other media's IP for their games. Often this reduces the necessity for creativity and the title will surf the popularity of the original product.

But before going on it is important to note that there is a difference between the people who are involved in creating a game: game creators and game designers. A game designer is the person who works with a game's core concepts, its level design, and various other aspects of the overall ideas of the game. Sometimes the functions are mixed and there are benefits to that but in the video game field the game designer can get reputation and recognition for the game, while the game creator will at best be recognized by the specific aspects of the game he directly worked on. More often creators get joint recognition as a software house for the work on a specific game.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the designer, creator and producer of the Nintendo's Zelda and Mario franchises among other works.

Sid Meier, the designer, creator of several popular computer strategy games, most notably Civilization.

Peter Molyneux, created the god games Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White, among others, as well as business simulation games such as Theme Park and the RPG series Fable.

Source and licence

Text adapted from Video Game Design/Components by Wikibooks contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. This adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.