ROLES ON THE TEAM 27
to work well with creative types, managers, and other engineers on a project so
the team can realize the vision of the game. The basic engineering roles on each
game project are as follows:
■
Technical Director
■
Lead Engineer
■
Engineer
Technical Director
The technical director is a counterpart to the art director. The technical direc-
tor must be knowledgeable of the latest technology and determine how it can
best be used in the game code. They focus some of their time on research and
development and are ultimately responsible for setting the coding standards,
determining which technologies are used in the game, coding and maintaining
libraries, and so on. Not all projects have a technical director. A technical direc-
tor must be a skilled engineer with at least five to 10 years of experience.
Lead Engineer
The lead engineer is responsible for managing the day-to-day tasks of the team.
The lead also works closely with the technical director to determine what tech-
nologies are needed for the game. The lead may or may not have a chance to
actually create code for the game, as it depends on how busy he is managing
the engineers. If no technical director is part of the team, the lead engineer is
responsible for setting the technical standards of the game. A lead has three to
five years of experience, general knowledge of all areas of game technology, and
good communication skills.
Engineer
“Engineer” is a general title for a role that can have many variations within a
development team. Many game engineers are well-versed in several areas
of programming but will probably choose to focus on one or two specialties.
However, engineers need to be flexible enough to move out of their specialized
areas to work in other areas if needed.
Some basic areas of engineering on a development team are as follows:
Networking Engineer: The networking engineer is responsible for creat-
ing multiplayer code. This person works closely with the multiplayer de-
signer to ensure that all the necessary gameplay functionality is supported.
Sound Engineer: The sound engineer focuses on creating the sound en-
gine for the game. This person works closely with the sound designer to
make sure that the sound engine can support the desired sound features for
the game.
28 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
Graphics Engineer: The graphics engineer is responsible for creating the
graphics code. This person works closely with the technical artist on the art
tools and art production pipeline.
Tools Engineer: The tools engineer is responsible for creating the propri-
etary tools used during game development. These tools include scripting,
lighting, exporters, and localization tools, and any other tools that can be
coded to streamline the game production pipeline. This person will work
with many different people on the team to get an understanding of what
tools are needed.
AI Engineer: The AI engineer focuses on the artificial intelligence (AI)
behaviors in the game. This person works closely with the design team to
identify what behaviors and functionality are needed for the characters in
the game.
Background and Training
Many game engineers have a degree in computer science, although a fair number
of game engineers are self-taught. Whatever path taken, game engineers require
knowledge in programming languages, operating systems, compilers, debuggers,
and application programming interfaces (APIs). After being educated in these
basic areas, engineers must continually educate themselves in the latest technol-
ogy and understand how this technology impacts their work. Game technology is
constantly changing, and new gaming platforms are guaranteed to emerge every
three to four years.
As with artists and production personnel, engineers should also have
knowledge of the game industry and a desire to make and play games. Additionally,
they need to have strong communication skills, the ability to work in a team-
based environment, and get along with a variety of personalities.
ENGINEERING SKILLS
Tobi Saulnier, President
1st Playable
Game software is becoming more complicated and sophisticated in terms
of lines of code and complexity of math. This means that engineers must have a
broader and deeper understanding of it than typically feasible for someone who is
purely self-taught. Two of the most basic areas that game engineers work on are the
ROLES ON THE TEAM 29
core game engine and the game code that runs on top of the core features provided
by the engine.
An engineer working on the core game engine for a console game needs to be
a good assembly coder and comfortable working with hardware and compilers. The
areas they might work on include rendering, effects, physics, and lighting. The focus
is on getting the code to run more quickly and getting more graphics piped through
the memory, on some very idiosyncratic systems. This person should also have an
understanding of CPU and memory usage—specifically for game engines—and be
comfortable crossing the boundary between software and hardware. An engineer in
this position will need to have a high threshold for frustration, because if working
with new hardware (which is often the case in game development), the compilers
and other tools will be buggy and not mature. And by the time the compilers are
mature, the hardware will change.
An engineer working on game-specific code must understand and be able to
implement game state management, character-handling algorithms, AI, and other
behaviors into the game. This area is becoming quite complex as well, especially
with the next-generation platforms with so much processing horsepower available.
An engineer in this position must be able to work with changing specs, because
many of the behaviors they are implementing will be tuned throughout the produc-
tion process. These changes often are identified only after enough of the game is
playable that some play testing can be done and the designers realize that the be-
haviors are not creating a fun experience.
Large games will have niche areas, such as networking and sound program-
ming, that become big enough that an engineer can work just on one of these spe-
cific areas for the entire project. Other engineers are needed to work closely with
design and art, as writers for AI scripts, shaders for artists, or to create tools that
speed up production bottlenecks. These engineers have a technical background but
work largely with the nonsoftware creative people on the team so it is useful if they
have some art or design experience themselves.
Basically, a company is looking for an engineer who is very adaptable with a
strong engineering background as a foundation. It is important that an engineer be
a quick learner to be able to change what he is focused on, either to adapt to what
a particular game needs or to be able to help with an area that becomes the critical
path for a particular project. Depending on the team size, for example, the engineer
may be coding UI for one project and then move on to coding the animation system
on another project. In addition, engineers must be able to work with other people’s
code and, of course, write code that other people can also work on. Games require
modified code from project to project, which means that different engineers will be
working on the code base. With the newest systems, it would be quite unusual to
be able to have the luxury of building the game from ground up.
30 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
2.5 DESIGN
Designers have a broad range of responsibilities on a development team, such as
designing the game’s control scheme, creating the characters’ backgrounds and
personalities, and designing the combat system. Ultimately, they are responsible
for creating a compelling and immersive gameplay experience. To accomplish
this goal, designers must work closely with artists and engineers to determine
how to utilize art and technology to best bring the game to life.
Designers are involved in the game production process from start to fin-
ish. In pre-production, they are brainstorming and prototyping potential game-
play ideas and then documenting the ones that will work best within the game’s
limitations. During production, they are implementing the game design, which
includes scripting missions, writing dialogue, and play testing. Their duties also
include incorporating feedback and redesigning certain aspects of the game
when necessary. In addition, designers must work cooperatively with the other
team members throughout the development process. The basic design positions
on a development team are as follows:
■
Creative Director
■
Lead Designer
■
Designer
■
Writer
Creative Director
Each development team will interpret the role and responsibility of a creative di-
rector differently. Normally the creative director is responsible for communicat-
ing the overall creative vision to the team and ensuring that this vision is carried
through to every aspect of the game.
To be successful at this position, the creative director must interact with
many different team members. Figure 2.3 is a diagram of the types of inter-
actions a creative director might have on a project. The interactions revolve
around the members who are directly responsible for generating creative as-
sets. The creative director ensures that the environments, characters, music,
dialogue, and gameplay all work together to form a cohesive whole. It is im-
portant to note that the creative director does not assume the role of the art
director, but rather works closely with the art director in determining the look
and feel of the game. Not all projects have creative directors. Someone in this
position usually has five to 10 years of work experience and lead design experi-
ence on several shipped titles.
ROLES ON THE TEAM 31
Lead Designer
The lead designer is responsible for managing the day-to-day tasks of the de-
sign team and acting as a go-between for the creative director and designers.
The lead designer directs the design team in documenting the design concepts,
prototyping gameplay, implementing design features, balancing gameplay, and
redesigning features as needed. If the team has no creative director, the lead
designer is responsible for communicating the creative vision. A lead designer
usually has at least three to five years of design experience.
Designer
“Designer” is a general title for a role that has different functions on a team. The
designer is responsible for creating, prototyping, implementing, and balancing
different areas of the game, depending on his expertise. A few types of designers
on a team are as follows:
Systems Designer: This person designs the system components within the
gameplay. Examples include the scoring system, the combat model, the con-
troller scheme, and the character creation system.
UI Designer: This person designs the game’s User Interface (UI) including
how the UI screens will function and fit together in the game.
Level Designer: Also known as a world builder, this person creates the level
layouts for the game. Some developers consider this to be an art position
FIGURE 2.3 Creative director’s main project contacts.
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