How do you create games on your computer? Computer games

The computer games industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the IT industry. How difficult is it to learn how to create games or even some of their elements? Can a user handle these tasks alone? How to create games for computer professionals?

What do you need to start creating games?

First of all, you need to be involved in the industry as a player. Without knowledge of the device of games from within and the psychology of gamers, observations of how computer graphics work in real mode, and not in theory, success in the release of their own games is very difficult to achieve. If the game is created with an eye to commercial sales (or at least to promote the personal brand of its developer), then it must be competitive, reflect the current needs of the gaming community. To release a product without guessing with a "trend" is to waste time. Therefore, it is important to be not just an amateur gamer, but also to study the market, be able to put new games on a computer, and test them. And this means that the developer will also need a very powerful PC. And here we turn to the second basic condition for success in the sphere of game industry. It's about hardware components - hardware.

It is known that the most powerful computers (from among PCs, of course, we are not talking about industrial computers) are gaming. They include hardware components (processor, video card, memory, chipset), much more technological than PC for office and home needs. Externally, of course, computers of different classes can hardly differ, but from the point of view of electronic "filling" the difference is significant. A gaming PC can cost 5-10 times more expensive than an office or home PC. It is possible that even a single component of it (for example, the same processor) will have a price higher than the entire finished office PC. By the way, powerful hardware will be needed not only to test gaming products. High-performance components also require specialized programs for games on the computer. Those with the help of which the masterpieces of the industry will be created.

The third component of success in the release of class games is, as the experts of the "gaming shop" say, - a special kind of thinking. It must combine two seemingly completely different origins: logic and creativity. The first is necessary in order to be well-versed in the construction of scripts, scripts and various kinds of dependencies embedded in the concept of the product, to determine how to write the game in a structure that future users will understand and accept. The second - to give your product unique features that distinguish it from similar or competing solutions.

Methods of creating games

How to create games on the computer? Experts identify three main ways to develop gaming products: the use of designers, the use of game engines, as well as writing from scratch. The first is the simplest, the third is the most complicated. Therefore, if we are new players in the field of creating games, then it makes sense to pay attention to the possibility of using constructors. However, it will be useful to consider the features of each of the tools.

Game Designers

A constructor is a set of templates that have a programmed behavior pattern. The closest analogy that can be given, explaining how, with the help of such a decision, to create a game - "lego" -the details. Just as children construct, read the manual or improvise, houses, cars and other interesting masterpieces of plastic.

The user has a relatively large freedom in managing templates, setting scripts for their work. It is unlikely, of course, that with the help of the designer even an experienced game developer will be able to produce a product that will make a sensation in the world market. Such programs are, rather, a learning character that allows novice enthusiasts of the gaming industry to understand how to create games on a computer. However, even this kind of task, assigned to designers, is important from the point of view of the development of the industry.

Game engines

Creating games with the help of engines is a process in which the user gets an incomparably wider set of tools than in the case of designers. It is quite possible to say that through the interfaces supplied by manufacturers of such solutions, it is possible to create competitive solutions at the world level - arcades, 3D-action games, simulators. On the computer, the engines are set up without problems and are almost always accompanied by a convenient interface for using them. As a rule, also high-quality reference and training systems.

What is the engine? This, in fact, just a set of commands (albeit very complex, consisting of hundreds of thousands of algorithms) that allow you to run individual game processes. The number of templates, such as those found in designers, is usually minimized. And those that are, are very easily amenable to modification or substitution for those that the user himself will develop. Engaging the engines requires, of course, more skill than working with designers. If it is a question of creating a serious game, then the user will most likely have to recruit someone else (the structure of a typical development team we'll look at below). But once mastered in the interface of the engine, later a person will be able to adapt the existing knowledge and skills to create almost any game products.

Game from scratch

In the event that the user has outgrown the capabilities of game engines, not to mention the designers, learned several programming languages, studied in detail the principles of creating 3D graphics, then it's time to master the most complex game creation tool - writing a gaming masterpiece from scratch. The stages of the release of a new product will most likely include the development of your own engine - rarely any game without it costs, the more claiming to be recognized in the community.

It should be noted, however, that it is very difficult to cope with the release of the product from scratch (although the history of the gaming industry knows such precedents). But to go through some stages of game development (such as, for example, creating characters, drawing graphic elements) in order to then connect other people by assembling a command, it is quite real for one user.

Professional Developers

If we are talking about developing games as a separate market segment, then the main role is played by professional studios with financial and human resources for the production of commercially competitive products.

The creation of top-level games costs hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars, and dozens of specialists of various profiles join their release. There are, of course, small and medium-sized development companies, whose budgets for the release of gaming products can fit in the amount of 8-10 thousand "green", but this is a very specific segment.

Structure of a professional game studio

Continuing the conversation about the professional gaming industry, it will be useful to study the structure of the average statistical firm-developer. Who should work for a company that claims to create a world-wide gaming bestseller? How to create games on a computer those people who are engaged in this on a professional basis?

The development team must necessarily include designers and artists. Without their talent, computer graphics will not impress users. Graphics - is, according to many experts, a key factor in the success of the game. In some cases, posts of this type are divided by function. For example, in the team of game creators, there may be 2-D, 3D-designers, as well as so-called concept artists, who offer their colleagues and company management for approval sketches of future graphic elements.

The next group of specialists is the "modelers". They, under the name of their post, create the prototypes of the characters of the game, as well as surrounding artifacts, equipment, buildings, "model" the future virtual world. In some cases, experts of this category are assisted by animators (in those cases when it is necessary to model particularly complex character movements).

In most cases, the actual developers are involved in creating games. This happens most often when the company-developer uses its own engine, but you need to periodically coordinate the scripts prescribed in it with the features of the game animation laid by the artists. If the engine is supplied by a third-party developer, then, as a rule, changes in the program code are not required.

A serious gamer product can not be done without an art director. This person is called to consolidate the efforts of artists and designers within the framework of a single concept. He, moreover, will be responsible for the effectiveness of the work, organizing the processes so that the game was released on time.

Create games yourself: review programs

How to create a game, having only a general knowledge of the work of programs to develop gaming products? There are so many tools that even an amateur can create his own game. Let us give examples from the number of solutions of those types, of which we spoke above.

Game Maker

This program makes it possible to create a game even for those users who do not speak programming languages. Speech, however, does not go about the development of three-dimensional masterpieces. The program allows you to create only 2D games, but in a wide variety of genres. You can make very simple games on the computer: "shooters", "rpg". The menu available to the user contains a large number of ready-made templates. All that, in fact, remains to be done is to invent your own scenario of the game.

The program contains quite detailed instructions, good quality reference system. Having mastered the possibilities of Game Maker at a basic level, the user can proceed to learn the built-in language of this program - Game Maker Language. Using its capabilities, you can go beyond the limits of the embedded in the software templates and create games from scratch.

Construct-2

The Construct-2 product is recognized by experts as one of the most functional in-class solutions for creating games by users who do not speak programming languages. A huge plus of this solution is that with its help you can release games under most platforms used today - Windows, iOS, Android, create them in HTML5 and applications for Facebook (after understanding how to make programs to run on this social network, the user will learn The way in "VC" create a game, show it to friends). Construct-2 users note the simplicity and clarity of its interface. You can work mostly on templates, but there are a lot of them, and therefore there is almost anyone that fits into the scenario invented by the user. Pleasant aspect - with the help of Conustruct-2 you can create your game for free.

Unity 3D

The two above programs are designed to create games in 2D mode. Unity allows you to work using the possibilities of 3D graphics. The possibilities provided by the program are a huge amount. As well as in the case of Construct 2, there is multiplatform (there is even support for consoles - Xbox, PlayStation, Wii).

As part of the program - one of the best in the world, according to experts, game engines (it is also called Unity). Therefore, this decision, without any exaggeration, allows us to create world-class gaming masterpieces (if, of course, we manage to assemble a team comparable in personnel, at least with the average statistical development studio). It will be possible to release very serious games on the computer. Shooters - definitely, the strategy - is also quite real, racing, simulators - it's easy.