Whether you want art or not depends on what field you are entering. As for English, it is basically necessary to reach CET-4 (entry level). If you are interested, I suggest you forget it. If you are a professional, you are well prepared. This road will be difficult at first! ! Because there are not many professional game development institutions in China, many designers and developers are hired from outside, and few people in China do it themselves. You are lucky when you meet, but you are confused when you don't meet. It is good to have capital and perseverance, but giving up halfway is a waste of life. In addition, there are many private game production and training companies outside, many of which exist in name only. They all learn a few modeling and simple C+S. If you have an amateur interest, you can still do it. . . .
This is a detailed introduction to the development and production process of online games (similar to other games)-taking Diablo as an example:
First, the project planning stage.
1. Creative management: The first step is to hold a meeting, and the most common method in the meeting is to use "brainstorming method". Everyone must put forward their own suggestions and ideas, and then we will discuss them together. In addition, in the venue, there will be a special person to take minutes of the meeting. In the early stage of project development, there will be market research.
2. Write a draft: Step 2: Write a draft plan, also called a letter of intent. The purpose of writing the draft plan is to let each member of the team have a general understanding of the project to be developed and define the objectives.
3. Market analysis: The third step is market analysis to determine whether this game needs to be developed.
1), target customers: The most important thing is to determine the target customers. That is, whether the game is for core players or ordinary people. If it is a game developed for core players, it is more difficult to play the game; On the contrary, if it is a game developed for mass players, the difficulty of the game needs to be simpler. The best way is to allow players to customize the difficulty of the game.
2) Cost estimation: Take online games as an example, including the following aspects:
Server: the hardware cost required to run online games. Most of the expenses account for about 40% of the total expenses.
Customer service: it belongs to the category of human cost. The difference between online games and stand-alone games is that it is different from the "after-sales" sales model of stand-alone games. After users play this game, operators need to constantly provide updates and various online services.
Community Relations Commissioner: Same as above, it belongs to the category of labor cost. Compared with other expenses, this aspect is almost negligible.
Development team: Labor cost, a large part of which is the salary of core members and talented producers.
Management: the cost of management, which is less.
User account management: part of the distribution cost, but it also belongs to the scope of operation. As for the cost, it is almost negligible.
Office, computer, furniture: This is a big expense, but after this expense, it is basically unnecessary or rarely spent when developing the next game.
Bandwidth: It is part of the distribution cost, but it also belongs to the scope of operation. The cost is also extremely high, and of course it may vary from place to place.
Network management: Some distribution costs also belong to the category of operating costs.
Miscellaneous expenses: Miscellaneous expenses, including utilities, gas, and possibly coffee and tea.
Publicity, advertising and promotion expenses: belonging to operating costs. It should be said that the best way of publicity is advertising, but the cost of various advertisements is different, so I won't elaborate on this.
Client: the cost of making game clients, point cards, recharge cards, printing game manuals, game packages and game gifts.
4. Demand analysis
The fourth step is to write a demand analysis book. This includes the following three aspects:
1), artist demand: write an artist demand analysis book, including demand map, workload, etc. The workload needs to be measured in days. Details are as follows:
Scenes: including game maps, small scenes, etc.
People: including player characters, important NPCs (player teammates, NPCs providing tasks, NPCs in the main story, etc.). ), minor NPC (passers-by, villagers, etc. ), monsters, BOSS, etc.
Animation: It is estimated that the demand of each company is different in animation. If the company's capacity is limited, animation production can be considered outsourcing.
Props: mainly consider whether to use paper doll system.
Full-length portrait: A full-length portrait of a character.
Still life painting and CG: the demand for still life pictures and CG that may appear in the game. If not, don't write.
Portrait: the demand for making portraits of people, including the expressions of people, including joy, anger, sadness, joy and sadness.
Interface: Interface requirements, including main interface, sub-interface, screen interface, opening interface, ending interface, saving and loading interface, etc.
Dynamic objects: including torches, light and shadow that may appear in the game.
Scroll bar: Also called scroll bar. According to the situation of the game to determine the specific needs.
Move the map: decide whether it is necessary according to the specific situation of game development.
Editor pixel: pixel requirements of various editors, such as level editor, map editor and so on.
Particle special effects: the demand of 3D particle special effects.
Poster; Including the production requirements of posters and game posters.
Game packaging: the production of game client cover packaging.
Description and illustration: the requirements for making illustrations in the game description.
CD-ROM picture book: The requirements for making picture books on CD-ROM of game clients.
Official website: The production requirements of the game official website.
2) Program requirements: Write a program requirements analysis, as follows:
Map editor: including the functional requirements of the editor and the requirements of various data.
Particle Editor: Requirements for Particle Editor.
Built-in small games: including the needs of various small games inside the game.
Function: It includes various program functions, technical parameters, data, collision detection, AI and other requirements that may appear in the game.
System requirements: including the requirements of system importers such as upgrade system, prop system and mobile system.
3), planning requirements
Division of planning: including script, value, interface, implementation and so on.
Schedule control: To always pay attention to the control of time and development schedule, it is necessary to write a special project schedule plan.
Regular meeting: The project will be introduced as a milestone. When a milestone is completed or a fixed date arrives, it is necessary to hold a routine meeting. In addition to communicating with each other, we should also discuss the difficulties encountered in development and whether there is any delay in progress.
Second, the project organization stage
1, determine the progress: determine the progress and schedule of game development. Includes the following aspects:
1) demo stage
Pre-planning: pre-planning and project planning.
Level design: Level design stage.
Pre-art: Pre-art works.
Post-art: Post-art production.
Program realization: the realization of the program, including coding, etc.
2)Alpha version stage
Internal testing: mainly testing and improving various functions to see if there are any major bugs.
3) Beta stage
External test: further test and improve various functions to prepare for the release of the game.
4) Release version stage
Game release: At the completion stage of the project, the game will be officially released.
5)GoldRelease version stage
Develop patches: develop patch packages, upgraded versions, and various official plug-ins for games.
2. Determine the personnel: determine the personnel required for each project. Including planning, programming, art design, testing, music, operation and so on.
3. Assign tasks: Assign specific development tasks to everyone.
4. Write a plan book: formally write a game plan book.
Third, the project development stage
As a planner, at this stage, it is mainly necessary to maintain smooth communication with all parties and deal with emergencies in various game production. Among them, we should communicate with colleagues, supervisors, leaders and bosses.
Fourth, the project control stage
1, time
1) cost control: we need to pay attention to the control of development costs, including servers, customer service, rent, labor (community relations specialist, development team, management) and equipment (office, computer, furniture, etc.). ), bandwidth, network management, publicity, advertising and promotion expenses.
2) Market changes: We need to pay attention to market factors.
Release schedule: Pay attention to the release schedule and release it before summer vacation and winter vacation. Piracy factors: We must always pay attention to the influence of piracy, private servers and other factors on the game distribution.
3) Factors of competitors: It is necessary to always pay attention to the situation of competitors. After all, know yourself and know yourself.
2. Quality
Because the level of developers is mostly uneven, the quality of works must be determined according to the overall level of producers. Neither too high nor too low, we need to compromise.
3. Emergency events
For example, the boss's surprise inspection and the sudden withdrawal of project investors should be considered comprehensively.
4. Control costs
Including time, quality and other aspects of cost control
Game post division: five types of talents are indispensable
Many people want to join the game industry and become real game producers. However, they are not familiar with the game production process and the functions of each position. How is the game made? What professionals and other resources do you need to play a game? We might as well use the production talents needed by online games to talk about the resources needed to make a game and the role of producers in these aspects. The core talents needed to be an online game are talents in five aspects: original painting, 2D, 3D, programming and planning. What will these five talents do?
First, the original painting talent
Before writing, for an original painter who is going to set a role, a lot of information about the world view of the game comes from the cases written by the game planner. Their original pictures are full of annotations, such as how tall the characters are and what their personalities are, and other explanations about game ethics. These game theory notes are the initial information brought to them by the planners. Their work is meaningful, and originality is difficult. Although it is only through the simplest pen and paper, it shows the personality of each character well. They are bold and thoughtful.
Second, 2D talents
Most of their work is to color the original sketches of the game, and their work is full of color and vitality. To know how to represent the background of a story, you must pay great attention to the color of each scene and each character. If the game wants to show the snow scene, the first consideration is undoubtedly the cool color. They attach great importance to the description of the atmosphere. Therefore, they will spend a lot of time thinking about what the painting is about and what color to use. They don't want people to know what the theme is, so they will constantly understand the essence of the game, and then vividly show it in the game through their own understanding of the game. Their lives are undoubtedly full of color.
Third, 3D talents
Speaking of 3D, people will think of full 3D games. This kind of talents mainly provide beautiful pictures for games in the game industry. Specifically, it is mainly to become a character, monster or NPC on the game screen. Whether it is a moving monster or a static game house, 3D producers have to spend a lot of energy and time to make the whole game more realistic. Although the game is virtual and unreal, 3D animation will make the game more appealing. Nowadays, 3D online games are surging in the game world, and many players are looking forward to 3D game masterpieces. Such people will play a key role in the development of online games for a long time to come.
Fourth, planning talents.
Planning, as the name implies, is the overall grasp and control of the game from the beginning to the end of the game production, from the original painting in the game to 2D coloring to 3D modeling, from the picture to the program design. Mainly to design the specific implementation steps and methods of each step in game production. This kind of personnel plays a key role in the game production, because they need to make overall arrangements for the steps and contents of the whole game production.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) programming talent
I believe many people have heard of programming. The programming in game making is the same as the programming of software in our impression. The difference is that the software is to realize the functions it gives people and help people to handle or complete related things, while the programming in the game is mainly to program the pictures and functions needed in the game according to the meaning of the planner. Therefore, such talents are also indispensable in game production.
5 Game production art division of labor returns to the peak
Let's talk about the division of labor of game making art in detail.
Game art is mysterious to many laymen. If you don't enter this industry, even if you are good at art and proficient in technology, it is difficult to understand the mystery. I hope this article can give you some inspiration.
Game art contains many aspects, so coordination is the primary factor to do a good job in game art, because the game is a highly interactive project, and art should actually reflect various elements of enterprises and procedures, which puts many restrictions on art and requires art to cooperate well with planning and procedures in order to make a good game. In addition, because a game has a lot of content, art also has many divisions, and the coordination between divisions is a very important factor.
Simple classification of game art
From the form of game expression, it can be roughly divided into 3D game art and 2D game art ... The production methods, production processes and performance effects of the two game arts are very different. Nowadays, more and more games in the world are made with 3D technology, while in China, there are mainly more 2D expressions. In fact, both 2D and 3D serve the game, and the final result should be the same, which is to meet the visual needs of players. 2D games include various types of games, such as real-time strategy, RPG, ARPG, fighting games and so on. This paper focuses on the artistic production of 2DARPG games. In fact, there are differences and commonalities in the production methods of different games. You master one of them, and the rest will be solved easily.
Game art department
Anyone who has played the game knows that there are several parts in the game, including maps, people, interfaces and animations. There are also portraits, icons, props and other related factors. Because there are many things, we should do a certain division of labor to ensure that each has its own specialties and improve work efficiency. At the same time, reasonable grouping can maximize everyone's ability. Game working groups are generally divided into map groups, character groups, plane groups, animation groups and special effects groups. There are different numbers in each group. Generally speaking, there will be more people in the map group and the people group. After all, in the production of a game, maps and characters account for the vast majority.
In addition, the plane group is also the most important part, and some smaller game working groups, such as animation group and special effects group, are generally done by people from these three groups. Every team must have a team leader. In addition to good skills, this team leader must also have strong process control and team coordination skills, as well as an understanding of planning ideas. To put it more vividly, he would rather have five 80 points than three 100 points plus two 60 points. Try to make people who play games feel that many people make images.