How many people do you need to make a video game company?

Game companies range in size from being only a few people to having hundreds or even thousands of people.
There are a lot of games, for iPhones and Androids especially, that are made by only a few people, some of them are even made by just one person.

You are right in assuming that the bigger production games such as Halo have a lot of people working on them. There are artist, designers, animators, music and sound effect people, programmer, project managers, marketing, the list goes on. Yet there are many independent games that became very popular only having a few dedicated friends working on them.

The short answer to your question is NO you do not have to be working in a big company to make a video game. You just have to be dedicated and really interested in what you are doing and then you can make a game either just by yourself or with some friends.

Marquis,

To add on to what Iliya said, I agree that companies can be any size at all. One of the great things about a start-up company, like we were before being acquired by Zynga in June, is that you can gather just a small group of people at the beginning and make a lot of great stuff. As someone young and starting out, the more YOU know, the fewer people (in theory) you can start with. For example, I started off doing marketing (making tutorial videos) and launching our customer service department. My role expanded, too, and it helped keep our workforce smaller (and save money that could be put into our game).

In terms of what all the people do and how to do it yourself/with friends, you would need a few basics, like Iliya mentioned. Someone to design the game (what's it going to look like, how is it going work), someone to program the game (write the code, figure out bugs, tell you which design ideas will and will not work), and artists to make your vision come to life. I think those are the basics for MAKING the game. But then you need to test it - on different types of computers, mobile devices, operating systems; then you need to tell the world about it - someone who knows marketing, licensing, PR, etc. Especially if you're designing an app, which could get lost amongst the 1000's in the app store, you need some way to get it attention.

This might seem overwhelming, but it's not. You're living in a great era for technology, media and social networks - you can find the people you need and get something going on a very small scale. And I'm sure some of the more successful games, apps and companies started much like you might envision - just a few people working in a rented space, dedicated to bringing some new, cool and different to the market. Good luck!

Small startups may only have two or three people to make an indie game, and they are often a good place to get your foot in the door of the game industry and get experience. However, working on a team at a bigger studio is going to be a very different experience that teaches you a lot about studio culture, industry dynamics, and crunch time. That kind of knowledge can really help inform how to run your own studio.

I'm probably going to echo what you've heard from the other answers mostly - it doesn't necessarily take a huge team of people to make a game. Before coming to Zynga, I ran a small indie game company, and we started with just 3 people!

You need to cover these bases to make a game (bare bones):
1. Engineer. Someone who can program your game and make it work. Should be a good problem solver.
2. Art. You need original artwork for your game. Depending on the style of your game, the art does not need to be realistic to be fun - look at Angry Birds or Running with Friends for example, cartoons can be really fun to play!
3. Design. Someone needs to have the plan for the game - the recipe. This can be one person's job or a collaboration with the whole team, but one person should be in charge of the games' design and have the final say. There are lots of ways to make a game function correctly, but someone needs to make the final decision and know enough to know which answers are compatible with each other.
4. Producer. This person is in charge of scheduling, budget, and solving problems. The Producer's job is to make sure that everyone has everything they need to do their jobs. This may sound a little silly at first, but in my experience the Producer is one of the most important people on your team! Producers have to know a little bit about what everyone else is doing so they can figure out how to help.

Hope this helps!

Sometimes you just need one! If you are a halfway decent artist and know basic programming, it is entirely possible to make a game by yourself!

I've seen it happen :) However, the people I know that CAN do this, are industry veterans and have learned through experience and picked up different skills while on the job.