Andrew
What is the difference between video game design and video game development
#video-game-design #game-design #gaming #video-games #computer-games
3 answers
Henry Ryder
Henry’s Answer
My understanding is that Games Development is the general term for making games.
Inside Games Development there are several specialist disciplines. Roughly you could divide it into Code(Engineering ), Art, Design, Audio, Data Science, QA and Production.
A Games Designer is a certain type of Games Developer. Less involved with the visual look of the game ( this would be more the Artist’s area ) but more in charge of how the game might actually work.
Some design roles include Gameplay prototyping and Design, Systems Design, Level Design, Narrative Design ( often working alongside writers to create the story) economy and difficultly balancing.
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Alexis McMullen
Alexis’s Answer
Video Game Development is the overall process from first ideas all the way through to supporting Live Ops, with updates, patches, etc. It takes all kinds of specialists and people to develop a game!
Video Game Design is just one giant bucket within video game development. There are likely more design opportunities than most are aware of! These include, and are just brief summaries:
- Design Director - Makes sure the game meets the look and feel it's going for. Also manages teams of designers.
- Level Design - Design what the gameplay areas are like, and how you progress through them. This is what most people think of when they think "Game Design" even though they are just one piece of the puzzle!
- Art Design - What characters and environments are like. This can even be broken up more for things like 3D, 2D, character skins, backgrounds, props, etc. There's a lot in this one! Sometimes the art team takes on a lot of this!
- UI/UX Design - What the user interface and user experience are like
- Systems/Technical Design - How all those weapons or special moves work, their stats, their upgrades, crit chances, etc. How the game's money making system works, and all the systems you often hear need "balancing" as more of the game is developed and played.
- Narrative Design - Writers, story and dialog
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Davi De Paula
Davi’s Answer
When it comes to video game design, you are creating the game play itself. You are creating the story and how the game is played. You can design an entire game with just pencil and paper because as a game designer you are imagining how the game will be played and how it will look like. When it comes to video game development, you are creating the game itself. As a game developer, you may be creating the game "world" or environment itself like the game graphics or you may be the software developer who is writing the computer code that determines the game rules. You can think of game designers as the people who have the idea about creating the game and the game developers as the people who physically create the game.
Hi Davi. This is really interesting. Thank you for sharing. Do you work in the game development field?
Jared Chung, Admin