How to form a game development team is one of the questions that can appear when you want to create an entertainment platform that can be enjoyed by many users.
To solve this question of how to form a game development team, it is necessary to take into account that professionals who are going to be hired for this task must be knowledgeable in the culture and ideology that the program is going to have.
A development team must always be prepared for the unexpected, since creating from scratch any type of video game on any platform is a difficult task that requires a lot of time and dedication.
For a video game to be successful, the entire development team, from the producer to the economic designer to the quality control team must maintain close collaboration and coordination.
Everyone has an important role in the game development process, without which the video game could not be created. Therefore, it is important to have access to a variety of different skills in your team. In small teams, it is often the case that one person has more responsibilities, while in larger organizations, each person tends to specialize.
When you have a great idea for a video game, it’s unlikely that one person will have all the skills needed to complete the project. That’s when it’s time to consider the other people who will be needed in the process of putting the game together.
The different roles in the game development process
The game producer
He/she has a vital role in the game development process as he/she maintains the vision of the video game that was established from the beginning, coordinates the entire team, and ensures that the project is executed as planned and deadlines are met.
Whether the project consists of developing a video game or porting it to another game platform, an experienced game producer should not be missing from your plan. This will be the visionary strategist who will lead the entire project.
Game designer
All parts of the game creation are connected by game designers. From storytelling to concept art, 2D and 3D art, a game designer ensure the quality of all artistic aspects of the game.
Game designers decide the overall design of the game, but it is also often the case that they have a certain specialization, such as in characters, storyline, or design.
For example, lead designers coordinate the design aspects, a game mechanics designer works on the balance of the game and its rules system, while the environmental designer creates the different scenarios and environments of the game.
Technical Artist
This is a team member who connects the game artists with the game developers and helps optimize the integration of the art into the video game itself. Their main area of focus is to integrate artistic assets into a game without taking away from the artistic vision or going beyond the technical limits of the platform.
As such, a technical artist must have both artistic and technical programming skills. This explains the name of the Technical Artist position.
The Game Economy Designer
This one has a very important role in the game development process. It is useless if the artists have drawn spectacular characters, if the game has a story with potential, if everything is functional if the game is not interesting for the player, and if the player is not attracted to continue playing.
The responsibility of a game economy designer is to analyze the game’s performance based on current data and develop solutions to improve its economic model. He/she must have solid knowledge and experience not only in video games but also in real economics.
Very few developers have a game economy designer in their team, while game outsourcing studios such as Starloop Studios have already integrated an experienced game economy designer.
Level designer
If a game like Match-3 did not always offer new content, players would lose interest and stop playing. The responsibility of a level designer is to ensure, by creating new game levels, that users have an interesting experience and maintain their interest in the game.
He/she has to know what makes a game good. A level designer imagines the game experience, putting themself in the player’s shoes, and maps all the possibilities. They have to think about the logic and flow of events and actions, the conditions that must be met for certain things to happen, and the challenges the player will encounter.
Quality Control
Although their main function is to find bugs, the work of a Quality Control team is more than that. They provide preliminary feedback in terms of art, design, and user interface, aimed at improving the video game.
Due to continuous advances in technology, today’s gamers have increasing demands on the quality and professionalism of the game, so they are more critical. Therefore, every action performed by all specialist teams must be carefully tested before releasing the video game.
Early feedback provided by the testing team saves time and makes the project ready for faster delivery.
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