Game Design Process Research

My name is Joshua Landis and I am Game Design student, in my second year currently enrolled at Westwood College, where I am taking a Game process course. Recently I tasked with doing research of different ways to go about the game design process and different types of video game engines, after this we were to then decide which of these would fit us best. I am now going to go through some of what I have learned through that research.

According to Mania.com, the game design process begins with an idea. From what I have been taught in class those ideas can come in many forms from which to begin the creative game design process. The game can begin with an idea for a certain style of play, or otherwise none a core mechanic. It can begin with the story or narrative. You might begin with a target audience.

Once the game designers have their idea the game can begin to be developed. This is where the game designers must decide on how they are going to go about creating the game.  

Based on my research of the game design process I feel that the iterative process is best suited for making a high quality game with a great overall player experience. First of all, I think that constant critique and evaluation are necessary to wasting valuable time and recourses on game content that is not even going to make the final cut.

The iterative process gives the best chance of finding problems in any aspect of the game design and development before the game can hit the shelves. The last thing you want is to pour a ton of time and money into what you think is going to be the greatest game ever, just to find that during play testing just prior to the release that one or more of the games mechanics are making a boring player experience.

I believe strongly that play testing should be a constant part of the design process. It should not be done only when that game is almost finished and ready to be released. Small changes will have to be made often using the iterative process, but that is much better in my mind than having to push back a release to redesign major elements or release a subpar game.

I was asked to pick one game engine that I felt like would serve me best in making the kind of game I want. Honestly though I think after researching game engines and seeing how much the same engines are used over and over again, I really like want Lucas Arts did when creating The Force Unleashed.

They used "Ronin", their own engine, for the frame work, "Havok", made by a third party, for rigid body physics, "DMM", another third party engine, for dynamically destructible objects, and "Euphoria" yet another third party engine, used for realistic A.I. What I really like about this how different their approach was than most other game developers.

I think in the end result Lucas Arts got a cool game that was really different than most of the other "God of War" style games created with the "Unreal" engine. So I think even though it may be more expensive and time consuming I would rather build a engine or engines to meet my needs, rather than conforming my ideas to work better with a particular engine.