The Game Development Process for Dummies

This is by no means set in stone and is open for anyone's input.

I guess the purpose of this is to set a standard to those who post in the Collaboration Section.

Video game development is the process of creating a video game. Development can be undertaken by a single personal to a large business. There are three major roles:

The Producer(s)
- The producer(s) oversee the development of the game and process. There are internal and external publishers but if you just going to collaborate more than anything then most of the time a producer will be an internal producer. Basically see and overseeing the progress of the product in development.

The Publisher(s)
- The publisher(s) publish and publicize the game. They could as well fund the development and other expenses of promotion/marketing but could consequently own the IP.

Development Team
- The development team can consists of one person or many other people. These people can be assigned many tasked but there are commonly noted to be Designers, Artists, Programmers, Level Designers, Sound Engineers, and Testers.

+ Designers
> Designers conceive the gameplay, design rules, and the major aspects of the game. There can be multiple deisngers in a team but if there is there has to be a lead designer. It is recommended that before you post in the Collaboration Section that you have a full concept and idea and know where you want to go.

+ Artists
> Artists create the game art. If there are multiple artist usually there can be an art director or an art lead, making sure that the vision is being followed and unified. There are 2D artists and 3D artists and even some that can occupy both roles.

+ Programmers
> Programmers engineer the video game or related software to the game, ie engine modifactions and other developmental tools. A programmer's job can include Physics, AI, Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Scripting, UI, Input Processing , Network Communications and Game Tools.

+ Level Designers
> Level Designers design the physical levels and designs the missions/challenges/task the player may face.

+ Sound Engineers
> Sound Engineers place sounds where they are to be put and deal with sound effects and can also oversee voice acting. Composers are included in this as they create the music/soundtrack(s) in the game.

+Testers
> Testers test the product and also do regressive testing and QA (quality assurance).


Again this isn't a solid must but I guess it's a place to start.

*Source most information was from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_development