More info please :D
Author
Hi again, thx for all of your feedback on my previous post. I now am trying to enquire about how a development team runs. There are obviously alot of different technical areas when focusing on a development, but how does the work load get passed around is there a specific order in which a task is carried out ? Also as a programmer, i prejume(probably wrongly) that different tasks are assigned to groups of programmers so not all programmers do the same things. What sort of areas are they split up into.
I may be totally wrong with my assumptions, if so please correct me, i also understand that different companies will have different methods, but if could give me some idea i'd be greatful. Thx
Varies from company to company and team to team. Larger teams tend to have finer defined roles where one person works on or owns a module or a section or even only part of one. Smaller teams will have programmers performing different roles at the same time. The number of different roles will also vary somewhat.
The tasks and order are defined by the leads and development managers.
The tasks and order are defined by the leads and development managers.
Well I don't have to much experience on this subject, but I am aware that allot of people uses something called UML (Unified Modeling Language).
In this way one can tell exactly how every function should work (input and output). Afterwards it is up to the programmer to make the function work. In this way everyone can see how the program structure is designed, and then it is easy to split the program up in small tasks, and develop every task exclusively.
In this way one can tell exactly how every function should work (input and output). Afterwards it is up to the programmer to make the function work. In this way everyone can see how the program structure is designed, and then it is easy to split the program up in small tasks, and develop every task exclusively.
Well depending on team size programming gets broken up in various ways.
- just programmers
- Engine/gameplay
- Graphics/Engine/AI/gameplay
-Graphics/Engine/AI/Physics/gameplay(at this point there may not be an Engine team any more)
where gameplay is usually scripting levels and what not.
Engine covers core technologies/Everything not being covered by a specialty. Physics usually grows out of AI as does character animation.
Note: Info gleaned from reading job descriptions over the years, and is just a personal opinion.
- just programmers
- Engine/gameplay
- Graphics/Engine/AI/gameplay
-Graphics/Engine/AI/Physics/gameplay(at this point there may not be an Engine team any more)
where gameplay is usually scripting levels and what not.
Engine covers core technologies/Everything not being covered by a specialty. Physics usually grows out of AI as does character animation.
Note: Info gleaned from reading job descriptions over the years, and is just a personal opinion.
Some team structures I've seen (or worked in) are (excluding teams that build shared tech or central art teams, or even QA):
"big wig" level
-Executive Producer
-Lead Producer
Small Team:
-Producer/Designer
-Project Manager
-Lead Engineer
-Lead Artist
-Engineers (they do pretty much a bit of everything)
Medium Team:
Pretty much the same as a small team, but might have multiple managers, and multiple producer/designers.
Large Team:
These teams are usually broken down by game area, often there will be a gameplay group (ai, animation, etc.) and a rendering group each with their own engineering lead. There is more often a more sophisticated management and producer structure which is required to manage such a big team.
In my team tasks are divided by feature. So for instance I'd be the owner of a feature and need to do everything related to that feature (often related audio and rendering tasks might be allocated to a seperate engineer though). If the feature is big enough then sometimes multiple engineers will work together. So, for example if some feature requires a special camera and some system to analyze situations and award points based on how "good" you're doing then the two tasks can be split amongst engineers. Essentially it all comes down to the individual team, the team's capacity, and how big each feature is.
Depending on how big the company is they may or may not use centralized art teams (i.e. if your developer only develops one or two titles, then artists would probably be directly placed on a team).
"big wig" level
-Executive Producer
-Lead Producer
Small Team:
-Producer/Designer
-Project Manager
-Lead Engineer
-Lead Artist
-Engineers (they do pretty much a bit of everything)
Medium Team:
Pretty much the same as a small team, but might have multiple managers, and multiple producer/designers.
Large Team:
These teams are usually broken down by game area, often there will be a gameplay group (ai, animation, etc.) and a rendering group each with their own engineering lead. There is more often a more sophisticated management and producer structure which is required to manage such a big team.
In my team tasks are divided by feature. So for instance I'd be the owner of a feature and need to do everything related to that feature (often related audio and rendering tasks might be allocated to a seperate engineer though). If the feature is big enough then sometimes multiple engineers will work together. So, for example if some feature requires a special camera and some system to analyze situations and award points based on how "good" you're doing then the two tasks can be split amongst engineers. Essentially it all comes down to the individual team, the team's capacity, and how big each feature is.
Depending on how big the company is they may or may not use centralized art teams (i.e. if your developer only develops one or two titles, then artists would probably be directly placed on a team).
This topic is closed to new replies.
Advertisement
Popular Topics
Advertisement
