Team Composition for Game Development

We know a single developer built Flappy Bird that became over-night success. However can a single developer build every game? We don’t agree with this, intact we believe, a complete game requires a team compromising of various team members. Though few genre’s of games may be simpler then building complex, however a typical team will require at least 4 different team members with various skills. To illustrate the point, a 3D Game requires more variety of artists compared to a 2D Games, similarly a multiplayer or social game requires more variants of developers then a simple simulation game. Hence, its preferred to work with a team providing various expertise as oppose to hiring individual developer. Typical roles in a game development team comprises of;

1. Table of Contents

   Game Producer (Manager)

He is the project owner and is responsible for coordinating among-st various team members. He maintains game design document and approves all artifacts. He is basically the main person managing a game.

2. Designers

We require designers with various skills. Few roles involves

1. 1. Concept Artist – the process begins with the concept artist, defining the  look and feel of characters and environments. He translates the characteristics of objects into visual images. E.g. a design document may describe skinny, funny looking zombie that concept artist translates into visual design.
      
   2. Designer – the sketches made by the concept artist are then forwarded to the designer. A designer basically puts life into those colorless sketches by digitizing them and coloring them.
      
   3. Modeler, Texture Artist – in case of 3D, this person takes the concept art and then models a 3D character and colors it accordingly.
   4. Animator – He is responsible for defining movements and actions. His job involves rigging, skinning and drawing various animations. Each animation has to be mapped and drawn.

3. Game Developers

there are different skills set and expertise within game developers as well

1. 1. Game Programmer (Client side) – This person takes art work and writes a code so as the game can function, responding to various actions and situations. Game programmer has command over programming language and usually uses a game engine to write game logic.
   2. Server / Cloud Engineer (Server side) – this is only required for multiplayer games or player vs. player. In simpler terms online games or games that require internet to be played. This person programs using Php, Java or any sever side-scripting language.
   3. Game economy and currency designers – This may be a developer, or a game producer, responsible for designing game economy. The person works with marketing team to define matrices to measure game progression. The goal is to maximize game quality and improves conversions.
   4. Level Designer – Different levels are built with great expertise and skills in order to keep the users engaged and interested. They build various level designs based on analytic or smooth progress.

4. Quality Assurance

Games are thoroughly tested before shipping to client on variety of devices & platforms. A group of responsible Quality Assurance Officers is dedicated to monitor all the aspects of value of the project. A set of trials is first run by these officers to ensure maximum safety of the quality of the projects. Any errors or technical issues if found, are highlighted and rectified respectively.

5. Community Support

Its extremely important to build gamers’ community, especially for Role Playing game. This usually requires a dedicated person that responds to questions regarding the game. Effective communication with community can help you understand featured desired by gamers.

Other game development team members

Sound Engineer – This person is responsible for creating sounds for the games. You can also buy pre-produced sounds as well.

Analytics – Though often overlooked, you need experience analytic person to evaluate user progression and engagement within game. This can provide great feedback on next features, updates and ability to optimize revenues from games.

Marketing – Every game needs a marketing plan and an experienced resource to help optimise marketing spent. This person is responsible for maximizing return on investment on marketing. Some game developers, initially, prefer consultants to perform the job as oppose to hiring a full time resource to their team, others consider working with Game Publishers that specialize in marketing games.

Thought game development is complex, however it requires a team effort to produce a quality game. You can either build your own in-house team or work with a professional game development studio like GenITeam , to help you build great game.