How to Make a Video Game: A Step-by-Step
Video games are an excellent medium for impactful storytelling. Through an interactive world, the audience is able to engage with a narrative that is personal and powerful. Because of these intricate sagas, and the abilities need to make them realities, a lot of work goes into creating them. In today’s blog, we’ll go through the steps of how to make a video game including generating the content, picking the genre, and coding.
Different Types
Video games aren’t a one-size-fits all kind of thing. Instead, many choices need to be made before a game is even coded!
Platform
Video games require specific computer hardware in order to operate. Programming games to certain platforms allow them to have a competitive edge in the video game market.
- Computer Games. For the most part, games are coded for PCs. This is because they can be altered to have better video graphics and specifications.
- Home Console. A console game is a specialised electronic device that connects to a television set. Major console competitors include Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.
- Handheld. These devices are small self-contained electronics that feature a small screen, speakers and game controllers. They are easily portable.
- Browser Games. A big staple of 00s internet, browser games are played directly on a website. They often require Javascript or a Flash player to run.
- Mobile Games. These are the games that can be played directly on your phone. They have to be coded for either iOS or Android devices.
Genre
When learning how to make a video game, genre plays a key role in determining the game mechanics and storytelling. In fact, choosing the genre is often the first step.
- Action. Having good hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes are the key to winning these games. Think Mortal Combat and Fortnite.
- Adventure. Unlike Action games, these aptly-named adventures focus on narrative and puzzle-solving. Text-based games and interactive novels are considered adventure games.
- Strategy. Similar to adventure games, players must use strategic thinking in order to progress. They are sometimes turn-based like Civilisation or multi-player like League of Legends.
- Simulation. Mimicking or simulating real-life has proven to be very profitable in the video games market. Such pioneers include The Sims, Animal Crossing, and Rollercoaster Tycoon.
- Idle. These games require minimal activity for the player. It is the genre of most mobile platforms.
How to Make a Video Game
Follow these steps for an insight on how to make a video game.
- Pick a Concept. This includes deciding the genre and the main feature or mechanics of the game.
- Create a Game Design Document. This is a brief for the entire project and outlines details such as world building, story, and marketing strategy. Deciding what platform and programming language to use is also a key part of this step. As well as deciding the size of the development team and desired resources.
- Get building. Using your document as a guide, you can begin to develop the framework of your game. Time to start scripting code!
- Test your prototypes. Creating and trying-out different aspects of the game allows you to find discrepancies and other early game issues.
- Implement your findings. Use bug reports and user-feedback to improve your game.
- Marketing! Time to solidify the main draw of your game — the most important thing is to get it into as many people’s screens as possible.
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