The game industry, which is becoming more popular and developing day by day, attracts the attention of people of all ages. People see playing games as an important need to have fun and get away from the intensity of the real world.
The interest in career opportunities in the field of gaming has also increased. In this article, we talked about the types of video game jobs. In this article, we will talk about one of these job titles, Game Design.
What is game design?
Game design in its broadest sense is the creation, aesthetic design, planning, and management of a game. It is the art arm of a game that is responsible for what a game consists of and how it is played.
If you decide to design a game, there are some elements that you need to determine as follows.
Platform(s) where the game will be published: It is very important to determine the platform on which your game will be published in the first place. Accordingly, both the game engine to be used in the programming phase of the game and the gameplay mechanics of the game are selected and designed. PC, game consoles, and smartphones are among the popular platforms.
Type and Content of the Game: The type (category) and content of your game is one of the biggest factors that will affect the whole process. You have to decide how many dimensions (2D/2.5D/3D) your game will be, the camera's point of view and the type of your game. Some of the popular game genres are FPS (First Person Shooter), RTS (Real Time Strategy), RPG (Role Playing Game), TPS (Third Person Shooter), MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Area). It's good to have an original idea for your game, but it's not a requirement. You can head towards the area that you see as lacking in content in the industry, and you can also think about what can be added or changed differently from the games that exist there.
Audience: You can choose the audience your game will appeal to based on age, occupation, education levels and player types. For example, the type of your game can enable your target audience to be determined according to the types of players, as well as the factors affecting the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) restriction, such as violence elements and slang in the game, also play an active role in determining the target audience according to the age range.
Story: You don't have to develop your game through a story. There are also games that are not story-based but very successful. If you want to go through a story, you can write it using your imagination or inspired by anything. If you can't write or develop your existing idea, you can include a writer on your team or buy stories from writers.
Characters: You should determine the names of the characters that will take place in your game, their roles in the game, their physical appearance and abilities, if any. Types of relationships between characters (friendship, enmity, fraternity...) can make it easier for players to adopt characters.
Environment: If you will develop your game around a story, it is expected that the game will take place in a suitable world. The environment in which the game will take place can exist in real life (Grand Theft Auto Series, Watch Dogs 2, etc.) or it can be an imaginary environment (Minecraft, The Sims, etc.). You should describe the environment you have decided on, the objects in the environment and their appearance in detail.
Team: Teams vary depending on the type of game and the team resources that may be needed in the process. The people who are common to most teams are game designers, episode designers, game artists and audio engineers. Depending on the type of game and future plans, you may need to hire a weapon designer, game engine developer, AI designer, 2D/3D animator, render engineer, game writer, etc. to your team.
Game Monetization Model: You can offer your game to the community for a fee, or you can offer it for free and generate income with in-game purchases and/or ads. You can support your monetization model with in-game purchases in the games you offer for a certain fee.
Budget: The production cost of your game depends on the type of game you want to make and the number of people on the team. In this process, you need to determine your budget to see how much of your needs can be met. If your budget is insufficient, you can go to find funds as well as reducing the cost of the game.
Market Analysis: Although games have an artistic structure, it should not be forgotten that they are also commercial products. In order to understand whether you will make a profit at the end of the production,you need to do market analysis to see whether the game you want to make is original or not, whether it has been done before or not. In addition, you can use app analytics tools to understand the metrics (installs, retention rates, revenue, etc.) of your competitors.