So What Is Game Dev Really? Three Misconceptions on Game Development.

#GameDevelopment #PersonalJourney #LearningExperience

Screenshot of the Unity Editor in my Game Networking course activity. The character on screen is "Unity-chan," NOT my own original character.

Ok first things first, I need to give full disclosure. This article is mostly based on my experience so far (as of 2021-2024) as a game development student in the University of the East. My experiences and opinions will be different from other people in the same course/career path. So take everything in this article with a GIANT grain of salt.

Firstly, for those who have little to no understanding of what game development is...

GAMES ARE NOT CREATED PURELY BY THE COMPUTER

We do not just press a button on a computer and make it fart out a triple-A game. We press several (just kidding).

Games are the product of the developers' love, sweat, and tears. I cannot emphasize how much work it takes to even make a simple escape game. You plan out every part of the game, create the assets necessary for each room in the level, fix the colliders on every single object existing in the game, think and code the functions of the game without breaking dependency rules, optimize everything so it doesn't make the player's PC crash and burn, and so much more.

It takes a little bit of everything to make a game. You need to know programming, animation, physics, sound design, and may other facets to make a good game.

This is why most game projects are collaborated on and made in teams. Even the best of the best game developers need other people to work with to make games. You need people who are knowledgeable in certain areas to bring your game to its best.

Good games are really hard to make. It takes an immense amount of effort to create a good quality game. So the next time you get jump-scared on your phone by Freddy Fazbear while playing Five Nights at Freddy's, scream in terror, throw your phone across the room, and thank the game developers for making such a frightening game (For legal purposes, I am kidding; please don't throw your phones).

Now that that is out of the way, let's be clear with another thing...

GAME DEVELOPMENT IS NOT PURE CODING.

There is a reason why Game Development and Digital Animation are related to each other. Game Development cannot - I repeat - CANNOT be done without understanding animation. Actually, scratch that; it is more accurate to say that it is extremely beneficial to know animation while in game development.

I know there are colleges and courses out there that offer Game Development separately from Digital Animation. Don't fall for the same misconception that they will be separate from one another (like I did). When I first enrolled for the course, I thought that I'd have no problem with arts all throughout my college life. BOY, WAS I WRONG. The very first semester, we were quite literally thrown into two art-related subjects alongside the digital animation students. Since, then we had around four more semesters with art/animation subjects as well.

Look, I'm not saying that I hated making art/animation or that I hated those subjects. If anything, I wanted more of those subjects in our course to learn more about animation. Those subjects inspired me to learn more about animation and improve my own skills in that field.

Game development, in most cases, requires graphics - which will inevitably have to be animated to be appealing to the players. Can you imagine playing a Mario game where literally everything slides around like paper cutouts on a piece of cardboard? I sure can't.

Note: I realized I just described Paper Mario. Still, it is not excluded from the statement. It also has tons of animation despite being themed around cutouts and cardboard

Animation is, quite literally, the butter to the bread that is game development. It gives flavor to games; makes it more appealing and attractive to the players. It gives fluidity, power, and accuracy to the movements of everything found inside the game. It gives emotion, drama, and weight to every cut-scene.

Finally...

GAME PROJECT TAKE TIME. A LOT OF TIME.

Depending on the complexity of the game, game projects can take days to even years. The process of game development passes through different stages: conceptualization, asset development, programming, quality assurance, and release. No step in this process can be skipped. Take asset development as an example. Without the conceptualization and planning out of the game, making assets would be extremely hard to do and would be constantly subjected to revision.

This is why game development also requires a lot of self-discipline and motivation. Without either, you will not be able to make the internal deadlines set for each task. Personally, as a completionist Genshin player, it takes a lot of self-discipline to avoid wasting all my time farming in the game and make progress on the task I am assigned to. Seriously, game projects can rarely be crammed in a single night.

I hope this article helped clear up some common misconceptions on game development and helped you understand a bit more about what it truly is. If you have any feedbacks or things you want to debate about from my takes, don't be afraid to post it below.