Every year, many millions of video games are sold- but what work goes into making these video games? There are many different game companies and even individual developers such as Nintendo, Re-Logic, Mojang, and Toby Fox, each of whom worked for years on their games. There are coders, artists, and directors, all of which are necessary for the game’s success.
Coders:
The coders of a game are the ones I have the most experience with, as that is exactly what I do when coding games. They will take the art and models the artists make and bring them to life via computer languages, such as C#, Java, C++, and Python.
Fun fact: Minecraft was originally coded in Java by Mojang, but when Microsoft bought it, they made a version that was made of C#, their own coding language.
Artists/spriters:
In addition to coders, there have to be many spriters- in fact, far more than there need to be coders. Artists will design concepts for what the characters will look like, and also make the models that you see in-game. In addition to characters, artists will often also have to design the textures of objects such as the floors, walls, and even the tiniest rocks. In many games, you might notice the graphics are in pixel art. This is because there are likely not enough spriters to efficiently make higher-quality graphics. Games like this are usually indie games- games with a single or small team of people making them.
Fun fact: In the game Terraria, it took them multiple months to sprite their final boss; the Moon Lord.
Directors:
The final--and smallest--major group of developers to be talked about is the directors. Like in a movie, the directors create most of the game’s concepts and push it in a general good direction where they think it would be the most fun/successful. In what we call “indie games,” games made by one person or a small group of people, directors will often code/sprite in addition to directing.
Fun fact: the original directors of both Minecraft and Terraria, as well as other games, did a large amount of the code.
In Conclusion:
If you want to become a developer of your own game, go ahead, it’s possible at any age. If you have trouble with coding or art, you could simply be the director of your game, and meet other people in the community who can help you out. I have proof that this is possible; I started my Terraria mod with no skills but learned how to code, and I met people online who were able to help me with spriting, and now it’s close to being finished!