The Evolution of Video Game Development Investigation by Jariel Ortiz ,

1. The Evolution of Video Game Development Investigation by Jariel Ortiz, Academia Bautista de Puerto Nuevo, San Juan, Puerto Rico Research Mentors: Prof. Evelyn Haddock, Prof. Irma G. Álvarez, Dr. Ángel L. Caraballo, Universidad Interamenicana, San Juan, Puerto Rico Results Abstract The investigation provided many sources for the elaboration and evolution of the game development process. This is mostly possible because of advances in technologies, such as more advance computers or the use of game engines, which have led to the advancement of the video game itself. As previously stated in the early 1980’s the video game era wasn’t as complex as it today. In order to create a game today the development process must divided into three major stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. The pre-production phase is the phase in which the concept or basic idea of the game is created. This phase begins with the elaboration of design documents, in this case, being three major documents: the high concept, a few sentences long description of a game, followed by the pitch or concept document, a short summary document that presents the game's selling points and detail why the game would be profitable to develop, and this leads to the next documentation, the concept/game plan, a more detailed document that includes all information that has been produced about the game including the high concept, genre, gameplay description, features, setting, story, target audience,  hardware platforms, estimated schedule, marketing analysis, team requirements, and risk analysis. These three documents lead the writing of the prototype, a document that begins the process of making the game itself, providing knowledge of what the game might be like with specifications on story, gameplay, etc. All of these lead to the production phase which consists of the design and concept of the game being implemented and to begin creation of the game. The phase consists of: the design phase, a collaborative process of designing the content and rules of a game, requiring artistic and technical competence as well as writing skills, which leads to programming, done in the process of designing the game the game designer also has to implement ideas and modify them to reflect the vision of the game that is present at the time of designing. This is mostly done on computer and is the phase in which all technologies are implemented, such as the best game engine that is capable of running the game. This is composed of level creation, where the designer has to develop the ideas presented for the levels of a game, these ideas being subject to change throughout the development process, art production, a process of creating 2D and 3D game art for a video game, and audio production, the process of creating and implementing the diversity of audio that will be heard throughout the game, which can be separated into three main categories; which include sound effects, music, and voice over's. After all of this is done the testing of the game begins in order to locate any problems within the game and also to see whether it meets a gamers standards for whatever the genre of the game may be. All of these lead to the post-production phase, which is basically composed of providing maintenance so that once the game ships out it wont have any problems or bugs that will interfere with the gamers' experience with the game. These three phases are what makes up the present process of game development. Throughout the ages of video games there have been different advances in technology that have led to the further development and elaboration of video games. In this investigation, different factors have been found that have led to the further elaboration of the video game’s design and development process and how these factors have led to the elaboration of the technologies implemented, such as the use of engines and programming to make the game, that is to say, to further elaborate the concept of the video game itself, like its graphics, gameplay, etc. The development process is also carried out by many people, as opposed to the early 1980’s where the process could be carried out by a single person which could be either a lead designer, developer or programmer with rare exception in which all of them collaborated to make the game and would only take a few months to do so. Presently the process could take from up to a few months to a year or more depending on the content of the game. Introduction A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. In the beginning of the video game era, around the early 1970’s, the criteria to make a great game was very limited as opposed to the criteria used nowadays. Gaming industries produce a great variety of games and when the time comes to purchase one of these games it’s very important to know these criteria in order to purchase a worthwhile game. In this case, the most influential and important being the full use of the game development process, with the use of the necessary technologies implemented such as the use of game engines. All the concepts and ideas must be included and elaborated with the process in order to create a game that can appeal to the modern gaming community. Research Question and Hypothesis • Research Question: • How has the gaming industry evolved the efficiency of the game design and development process throughout the years? • Hypothesis • If gaming industries want to fulfill public demand then they must implement new ways to create a better game that can appeal to said gamers, this process, of course , includes the following people in order to create a successful game: Conclusion Through this research, it can be concluded that thanks to the elaboration of technology on worldwide scale gaming industries have seen themselves forced to implement these new advances into the making of their video games. Not only that, but they have also further developed the process of making the game due to rising video game demand the development process must be able to produce games that can satisfy the demand of these gamers and their always evolving expectations of what gaming industries should do, which is why the industries choose to implement the new elaborated process of development with the slight occasion that they change it up in order to meet the fundamental necessities of the video game they’re trying to create. Methods References • This research is based on a quantitative method because it analyzes different factors that provide better results for video game development. It also compares the old methods of development with the new methods. • The steps of the scientific method involve: • Gather and organize information – Thanks to the use of the internet and computers, enough information was found to provide evidence of the evolution of the development process. • Formulate a purpose and hypothesis- Based on the gathered information a hypothesis was able to be formulated based on the attempt to find source of the evolution. • Investigate- Through the use of investigation and statistics new information had appeared. • Results- The information provided a new aspect, technologies have helped advancements in the process. • Conclusion and publish- Review all information and provide a type of feedback via poster presentation to present to others who can review the information themselves. http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/mqp/game-dev-process/final.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_development http://www.buzzle.com/articles/video-game-development-process.html All of which have been proof read with a colleague who works in the gaming industry and the book21st Century Game Design byRichard Boon. Acknowledgements AGMUS, Student Research Development Center – SRDC Prof. Evelyn Haddock, SRDC Co-IP, Universidad Interamericana Prof. Irma G. Álvarez, Universidad Interamericana Dr. Ángel L. Caraballo, Universidad Interamericana