Playing video games is enjoyable, stimulating, and sometimes addictive. Whether it’s to unleash our creativity, to extend the experience of a game that has marked us, or to pursue a professional career, video game development can be a very interesting and absorbing hobby. Although, passion for playing games doesn’t necessarily translate into passion for creating them.

Thanks to all the resources we have today (Internet, open source software, and various platforms for publishing games), the time couldn’t be better to start in this world. Just like in the golden age of video games, a few people can perfectly take on the task of creating a game, publishing it, and reaching thousands of people.

Although it would be ridiculous to think that a very small team or a single developer could make a game like Minecraft or Counter Strike: GO without involving a plethora of creators. The reality is that the new graphic engines and development environments make the task much easier for the amateur developer and with just a minimal expenditure, it is possible to launch our childhood dreams with few resources.

Perfect Design

Video game design is confused with just the graphic design portion of development. The design of a game includes the game at a conceptual level: mechanics, UI, UX, story, settings, characters, etc. Most of the decisions that have to be made about a game go through here. Ideally, the design starts from a basic idea of the game, and breaks it down little by little until it reaches the most specific levels.

A good designer has to not only play games, but understand how they work and how all aspects of them are related. He has to be able to do quick research, prototype to test his ideas, and most of all he has to be able to communicate the idea to the rest of the team, usually through so-called design documents.

To start getting into video game design, we just need to start writing and putting down on paper everything we have in our heads, either by hand or in a word processor. This helps to have clear ideas and focus the development.

And if we want to go deeper into the design method, there are many books and many articles on the Internet that can be consulted to learn the basics. We simply have to take into account that almost everything is applicable in design, and that many times it is better to look for an existing formula that works than to try to innovate without needing to, it is usually the need that forces innovation.

TECH

Technology means everything we need to make the game a reality, such as the game logic itself, artificial intelligence, the graphic engine and development tools. Depending on the game, some techniques will be needed, but mainly it is about programming and software development, since a video game is a program that works in a machine. It will probably also require knowledge of mathematics and physics and even other techniques, such as electronics.

**Engines:
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There are many game engines to experiment with, some free, others paid with trial versions… A good option is the Unity engine, which has a free version (the full version is paid), and it is a professional engine used by many companies nowadays. The way of working with Unity is a bit peculiar with respect to other engines, but it can be very educational to learn the basics of video game development, thanks to its editor and its great community with many tutorials and examples.

**Programming:
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If we have never programmed before, Python is a good way to start. It is a modern language, relatively simple and with a syntax similar to the most used programming languages. It can be used to program on Windows, it is used in the Unity engine and it is the basis of the XNA framework (already in the process of extinction but it is still a good platform to learn how to program video games and with which you can do things as impressive as Fez).

ART

Art covers the visual and aesthetic part of the game. I include here aspects like music and sound, which are not visual, but work on the same level. The graphic designers make conceptual illustrations to sketch the visual aspect of characters or scenarios, as well as modeling and animation of characters and levels, logos, or any graphic design task that is required, and the musicians, for example, music and sound composition to set the mood of the game.

The idea is to give the game the look that best suits the design, using tools such as 3D Studio Max, PhotoShop, Flash, even pencil and paper, or Pro Tools and Audacity, for sound.

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