The Design and Development of Computer Games

Abstract

The design of modern computer games is as much an art as painting, sculpting, music, or writing. Albeit relatively young and still evolving, game design is highly complex and requires a broad spectrum of artistic and technical skills. The following contribution reviews the process of designing and developing modern computer games. We will acquaint the reader with the most important fundamentals of game design, walk through the various stages of the design process, and highlight the specifics of each stage. We will analyze and elucidate the domain-independent principles underlying game design, such as iteration, evolution, consistency, and others. Our findings are illustrated by three case studies on computer games developed within the scope of the ETH Game Programming Laboratory class.