Okay, Some of you know me some of you don’t, I am a experienced game developer with knowledge and hands on experience in game production, The sole purpose of this post is to help educate people on these forums so they stop posting threads where they have no idea what they are talking about.
About me…
In short I am a environment artist and make games. In long I am an experienced programmer and artist and have experience producing games using and producing game engines, I have experience with Unreal, Unity, Source and the CryEngine 3.
Got a question ask me?
On a new post here I have started taking any question you have like will there be a beta and will Halo 4 look like Halo: Reach check it out.
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/general/f/14/p/15075/119684.aspx#119684
The typical under educated post…
Okay so the main reason I posted this is because of a thread titled “Do you think Halo 4 will have a new engine?”, To start off my post I am going to explain why this is a really poor question.
Game engine’s 101, So a game engine what is it and what does it do? Well its a software package made up of several core parts, The core functionality of modern game engines is to produce a 3D environment and that’s the level you play oh and create a user control system that lets you interact with it.
As the game engine is made up of parts the components can be removed, replaced or upgraded with ease. Saving money, time and resources.
I read somewhere recently that by 2015 the cost to produce a video game will rise from today’s $40 Million USD to around $75 Million. Making games is by no stretch cheap. So studio have to keep costs down to keep their company afloat. Not to mention the time it take to properly build and test a new engine that would end up setting the company back years and more money. Not anyone can create a game engine it takes very skilled programmers that a very small number of studios can afford to employ. 343 are luckily supported by MS so they would have the funding but its never ever worth creating a entire new engine.
The reason game studios rebuild and upgrade engine’s is due to bugs and testing. If you were to print out the source code behind a game engine take the Unreal engine that produced Gears of War for example on a normal printer you’d probably be printing for at least a year. There is so so much advanced code just one letter out of place in all of that could cause a single bug or security flaw.
Lets look at Halo now for a second, Halo: Reach is using the same engine as the original Combat Evolved its just been upgraded so the current Halo engine has been under test for over ten years (The engine was built two years before CE’s release). So therefore all the major bugs and security flaws have been found.
Hopefully your starting to understand what I’m getting at, Why start from scratch when you have a more than perfect base to build from. Very basically “NO GAME STUDIO EVER RESTARTS FROM SCRATCH!” Even new engines such as Frostbite 2 (Battlefield) is a upgraded version of the Frostbite 2 engine. The same with the CRYENGINE 3, Unreal 3, Unity 3D and nearly every other AAA rated game’s game engine out there. Yes there is exceptions but the general rule is to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade.
How a game is built.
Phase 1: Pre production
What happens
- Creating a storyline
- Creating concept art
- Mapping out ideas
- Collecting resources such as textures for use in the game engine.
Phase 2: Production
As there is no real set way for production of a game basically during production the game engine is upgraded, Level designers make levels, maps or scenes out of blocks and test them to ensure a great gameplay experience then environment artists come along to turn a block out map into a real engaging environment, The audio guys make pretty music. Animators make everything including your player move, Script monkeys (Programmers) come in and script out interactive parts of the game such as objectives, buttons, navigation and a tonne more. UI artists make the menu’s and HUD. Network developers make the game so you can play with your friends and try to prefect it so you can do so without interference such as LAG.
I cannot express how sorry I am to all the people I missed off but the list who contribute in game production. (SORRY)
Phase 3: Testing
Once a game is in the testing phase very little is changed all that really happens is everyone plays the game and searches for bugs and imperfections that can be changed without risk of damaging more of the the game. Bugs are listed in order of severity and crushed as soon as possible.
Phase 4: Publishing and Release.
Ahh the final stage when the developers can take a rest, We finish our job and send the game off to be compiled and printed to disk from there into the case’s and off to ESRB and rating boards. Then the marketing team start throwing up ads across the world to hype people up to go and buy the game another really expensive part. Last week EA started a $60 million dollar campaign for Battlefield 3 and it is predicted by Xmas it will have doubled. Lastly the game is release people, buy it love it or loath it but complain either way.
Phase 5: Post production
A evaluation period where the company works out what was a success, What people liked, They may make more DLC and consider a sequel. Then the cycle starts again.
Let’s talk money (Speculation using know numbers and poor estimates)
So how much money do games make?
- 40 Million (Adverage production cost)
- 100 Million (Advertising)
At this point the game needs to make atleast 140 million to cover cost of production yet to cut off publishing costs and publishers cut.
So lets say the game sold 10 Million copy’s for example at an price of $18 at the time a game actually hits that many sales its gone down and with the cost to print and after the publishers cut $18 USD is a fairly good bet for what the studio will earn.
The game would make $180,000,000 take off the production and advertising that leaves $40,000,000 to split between all the staff and to make the next game.
Hopefully this has been educational, Please comment and support. Thanks
