2. Before a video game is designed and has
started production the producers need to
know what the game is about. Usually a
game follows a storyline that may or may
not be continued over a series of games.
Once the main plot is decided the Writers
and Artists work on a storyboard. These
are used in film productions, however a
video game can have thousands of
different outcomes which means that
many different โworldsโ or โlevelsโ must be
sketched out.
In this case Grand Theft Auto 4, in a
nutshell, is about a Russian immigrant
who is looking to make lots of money in
โLiberty Cityโ. However he encounters
various dangerous people that prevent him
from doing so.
3. Through the production of storyboards the designers
begin to create the actual characters. First rough
sketches of the main plot characters are drawn, and
then edited and modified until the designers feel they
are perfect. It is important for the artists to refine the
characters as much as they can, as if changes were
to be made later whilst in their creation process it
would be costly for the company.
Once the designs of the character is complete it then
becomes transformed into a controllable 3D character.
It takes approximately 5 days to design and program
a character. This is done by scanning in the sketches
to a computer, then a digital exoskeleton is created to
give the character control points necessary to animate
the figure. Basically, the more detailed the
exoskeleton is, the more realistic the characters
physical movements will be. After the exoskeleton and
control points layers of โskinโ are added to the figure,
then colour and texture is added.
4. At this point the character is like a virtual puppet. The
โpuppetโ can be brought to life using a computer to instruct it
to give the character movements. However there is more
than one way to do this. One way is, as previously stated, to
give the character movement via a computer. However a
special suit covered in sensors can be worn by a human in
order to capture their specific actions. For example by
pressing a certain button your character may jump, so the
human would wear the suit, jump and then program that
movement into the character for that button. The suit is
aligned with the control points of the characters skeleton to
make the movements more realistic.
5. Designing the world in which the characters play their story out is one of the biggest
aspects of games, especially even more in modern games that enable the user to free
roam just like Grand Theft Auto 4. Technology and computer power is constantly
increasing and so is the realism and details of gaming environments. Levels of detail
that people could have only dreamed of years ago are now common, and taken for
granted in today's gaming.
Firstly the main structure of the games world is created, rough sketches will be drawn to
get an idea of what the places/locations would look like as well as a rough idea of what
textures they will be. In Grand Theft Autoโs case the gameโs map is based around New
York City therefore Rock star would have already had a great amount of ideas to base
their own map upon. After drafting the initial map it is then taken over into the computers
hands in which people will then begin to design and build upon the games map. First the
main things are put in and then the smaller details such as hot dog vendors, cars, signs
etc. Once everything is in place textures and details would be placed throughout the
map to make it more realistic. This includes sign writing, reflections, water from rain etc.
6. This is one of the most important parts to making the game
work yet is still forgotten about by the user, the code. Code is
the language in which the computer uses to control every
aspect of the game. Rock star use a program called RAGE
(Rock star Advanced Game Engine) generate their games.
The code is nearly always used to generate the complicated
code necessary for everything the user seeโs on the screen.
The physics of the game world is the important artificial
intelligence component. This creates the logic of the game
and establishes the physics of the world. It also detects the
interactions and collisions between objects and controls their
movement.
7. Now the game has been coded it is nearly complete. One of the last
phases of mass production is the testing phase. This includes
testing, reviewing, marketing and distribution. Testers play the
games repeatedly finding all the bugs which must be corrected.
These โbugsโ are prioritized into an order of most fatal to
unnoticeable. For example there may be a bug that prevents the
user from progressing the narrative or just generally glitches the
game, this would have to be removed before distribution. A more
minor problem such as a small jump/glitch that would not affect the
games release would be a lower priority. These problems are then
filed into a detailed report and sent back to the developers to be
corrected.
Usually during the testing phase a copy of the game is sent to VSC
to be given a rating.
8. The final stage is marketing. The games are
distributed all over the world and then sold by
gaming shops. Because creating a game is so
costly to the publishers, the game is usually
announced and advertised extremely early,
usually whilst the game is still being designed.
The game is often hyped and promoted as well
as giving people demoโs and sneak peak
theatrical trailers. This is to make people willing
to spend money on a game that the designers
have worked hard on.
