How to become a game developer?

“I want to become a developer of computer games, but I can't do anything. Well, I have no talent, it is not given to me. And I don’t have so much money, so it’s impossible to hire specialists. And if you take in the team the same lovers like me - what's the point? Nothing will come of it. Get a job in some already ready-made company of developers - it is even more difficult. Everything turns out - no options. ”

In such excuses come up with players who dream of becoming developers of computer games. Is everything so difficult in practice? To begin, let us analyze what personal qualities are needed in order to become a good game creator.

Personal qualities of a game developer

Average game maker

In the first, human qualities (begin to bend your fingers if you have the following): perseverance, perseverance, openness to new knowledge, good sense of taste, rich imagination. Perhaps enough to start.
This is so ... the general background of the developer’s personality. The most important thing: you want to create games - then you should have an appropriate TALANT ... Now, probably, there was a vociferous question: “What ??? Talent? And without him really nothing? Where can I get it, this talent? ”
With peace of mind, only calm. Everything is not as hopeless as it seems.

What is talent? This is not a gift from above, given from birth. Not at all. Do not be misled by this common, but false formulation.

T alant is a strong, burning and irresistible desire to do a certain business.

Without this desire, any activity becomes either a duty or an interesting fun. And things created in such a working mood, without desire, do not differ in their quality. In creative professions, the lack of talent of the creators is felt immediately.

The development process in the game studio

A computer game created from under the stick of a powerful publishing house or even worse - pile on the knee by inexperienced creators of mods, begins to look dim against the background of the brilliant work of a team of talented developers who enjoy their work.

In this case, it is worth learning to distinguish between the concepts of "dream", "passion" and "desire." When you are just planning to become a developer, without doing anything, you are dreaming. When you start to do something, learn to create, study game editors, stumbling about everything you can - you are passionate about this activity. When you have clearly decided to bring this case to the end, when all the bridges behind you are burned and you can no longer abandon this idea, when you yourself decided so, and not someone forced you, when no longer any obstacles stop sooner or later you are destroyed by perseverance - then you really "desire." Anyone who has been in love at least once knows what it is to truly desire.

Problem of lack of experience

About a huge number of players, having made several attempts to create their own games, abandon this crazy idea. After all, nothing happens right away, due to the lack of necessary experience. This is the wrong approach.
The presence of proper skills and knowledge is not a reason to cast your dream.
The main thing is to feel the talent in oneself - the unquenchable and burning desire to create something of your own, set your own rules of the game, devote all your life to this activity.
Thanks to talent, sooner or later the necessary skills will improve, the required level of experience will accumulate, artistic taste will appear, an intuitive feeling of what and how to do. It takes only time and perseverance. Only thanks to a rich practical experience it will be possible to create a true masterpiece. It really is possible.

As a result, to become a game developer, you need:
in the beginning - a talent that can be ignited in yourself independently;
In the process - patience, perseverance and openness to new knowledge.

Developer Categories

Even if you cannot develop talent, even then you can develop game development. Experience is also not a prerequisite, because in addition to professional developers, there are also no less numerous amateur developers.
In general, developers of all levels can be divided into five types:

Types of developers	Qualities
Masters	experience	dedication	desire (talent)
Artisans	experience	dedication	-
Stampers	experience	-	-
The fans	-	dedication	desire (talent)
Lovers	-	dedication	-

M Aster are professional, experienced, enthusiastic developers who have a strong desire to create games that give their life to this activity. That is what the ideal creators of games should be, they are the ones who create masterpieces worthy of the title of a work of art. They are in Russia, but they are very few. They do not teach young people, do not recruit new specialists, do not rush to their releases. They are too passionate about their core business to develop the industry as a whole. Such masters can only be real fans of computer games.

Artists are experienced game developers who are also enthusiastic, but only during working hours, without too much enthusiasm. This is the so-called "middle layer" of game creators. They produce interesting, high-quality games that are a bit short of masterpieces. They use in their games other people's work, skillfully transforming and masking to their own. But sometimes their experience allows you to grind old ideas to such brilliance, which ultimately overshadows the source.
In Russia, such developers are slightly more than the creators of masterpieces. But in fact, they should be ten times more. If we compare with other countries - average developers, we are sorely lacking.

W tampers - experienced developers involved in the creation of games for the sake of earnings. There is a majority in the gaming industry. Those who create niche projects, from the very beginning aimed at a specific audience. The main thing for them is that the game has elements that players like who have repeatedly proved their relevance. The creative process is minimized. At the same time bets are made on good advertising, on beautiful graphics and on standard gameplay. For the most part, they release simplified clones of popular games. In a nutshell, their work can be called "dummy games."
Now the "punchers" are actively creating online, browser games, applications for social networks, gradually leaving alone single-player games.

Faths are non-professional creators who have no proper experience, but compensate for this lack with their strong desire to create computer games. They don’t have enough money to develop full-fledged games, and most often they only produce fan add-ons, sometimes very high-quality ones (this was how Counter Strike, DotA, Portal were created).
Although recently gained popularity a new format - indie games, which are small, unusual, innovative games that do not require a lot of money to develop. As a result of the emergence of indie movement, fans got another serious opportunity to realize their bold projects.

The players are ordinary players who decide to try their hand at game development. The lack of experience in this case is not compensated by anything, and the result of their activity leaves much to be desired. Do not confuse fan and amateur add-ons. The work of the fans is much better, but less common. The work of amateurs is littered with the entire Internet.

Article author: D_ED_2 Date of creation: 04/12/2011

Practical advice for novice developers

X vatit theory, now a little practical advice. Most often this information is needed by novice game developers. There are several main areas leading to the gaming industry.

Game development alone (indie games)

First of all, you can start developing games alone. In this case, you will need general knowledge of all stages of the game creation process: programming, graphics, design, level design, voice acting, music, texts, bug fixes, release. If you decide to take all this load only on yourself, then the development of a medium-sized game can drag on for a few years at best, and at worst for a lifetime.
The ready game engine can reliably ease the load on the game author. A game engine is a program that contains general algorithms for building games. Most often, the game engine has a system of levels ready, there are models of game characters, physical laws governing the behavior of game objects, modules for connecting various media files to the game: images, sounds, music. The author can only substitute his characters in the finished engine, create your own levels, events, texts and media files. Programming is minimized, the design and internal content of the game comes to the fore.
Some game engines are free, but better quality. well-developed and modern - naturally sold for money.
Free game engines (programs for creating games):
2D: GameMaker 8, other;
3D: GameMaker 3D, 3D Rad, Unity 3D;
Flash: ---, ---, ---.
Mobile: ---, ---, ---.
More details about this on the page “Programs for creating games”.

Creating a game studio

Secondly, you can build your own development team. People who are interested in the creation of games, not so much as it seems. It does not work out just to walk through your apartment building and record all the playing buddies to the team. Maybe many of them will catch fire with the idea of ​​becoming famous developers all over the world, but, most likely, none of them will be ready to sacrifice their working and even personal time for this. It is best to look for like-minded people on sites that specialize specifically in game development. There are people there who are at least something already able. Moreover, revolving in circles of the same amateur developers, you will, willy-nilly, gain experience and gain new knowledge.
From the amateur developer community:
GcUp.ru, GameDev.ru, dogames.ru, game-maker.ru, gmakers.ru.
More detail about this on the page " Sites about creating computer games ."

Applying to a professional company

Thirdly, with some highly specialized skills and talents, you can try to get a job in an existing professional gaming company. There are a lot of the most diverse creative professions whose specialists are needed in the development of computer games.
Professionals of game developers:
programmer, artist, game designer, card designer, tester.
But , having settled in a big company, you will not invent and create games, you will only participate in their development, will help the realization of other game ideas. Despite this, communication with professional developers can bring you a unique, invaluable experience that can later be used for your own projects.
We decided to get a job in a gaming company, but you do not know which one, how to declare yourself, and how to contact potential employers? The best option for finding a job in this case can be a visit to the site dtf.ru. On this site you can easily find out which gaming companies are in your city, where their offices are located, what vacancies they have at the moment.
In the action in existing gaming companies:
DTF.ru, nival.com, Mail.Ru, alawar.ru, playrix.ru, awem.ru.

But I hope these tips will help young potential game developers move from dreams and words to real actions. Good luck! Looking forward to your games!