Hey there! Have you ever wondered how video games are made? Let’s dive into the exciting world of video game creation!
When I was little, I watched my sisters play a simple video game called Pong. It was one of the first video games you could play at home. The game was just two sticks hitting a dot back and forth on the screen. Even though it was simple, it was amazing to us back then!
Someone named Zenon asked a great question: “How are video games made?” It might seem easy to play a video game, but making one is a lot of work and takes a long time. For example, the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons took over 100 people eight years to create!
Creating a video game starts with an idea, just like writing a story. Meet Shigeru Miyamoto. When he was young, he loved exploring forests in Japan. One day, he found a mysterious cave and imagined what could be inside. This idea inspired him to create a famous video game called The Legend of Zelda.
Once there’s an idea, game designers think about many things, like how many levels there will be and what the enemies will look like. They write all their ideas in a big book and give it to special artists called concept artists. These artists draw the characters and worlds for the game.
Next, computer artists called 3D modelers turn the drawings into 3D characters and worlds. But the game isn’t ready to play yet. The characters need instructions, and that’s where programmers come in. They write code to tell the game what to do when you press buttons or move the joystick.
With so much code, there are bound to be mistakes, called bugs or glitches. Testers play the game to find these bugs and report them to programmers, who fix them. This makes sure the game works perfectly when you play it.
After fixing the bugs, designers create cool-looking boxes and ads to tell everyone about the new game. Finally, the video game is ready for you to play!
That’s how video games are made! Thanks for the great question, Zenon. Remember, there are mysteries all around us, so stay curious and keep exploring!
Create Your Own Game Idea: Think about a place you love to explore, just like Shigeru Miyamoto did with the forests in Japan. Draw a picture of a world you would like to create for a video game. What kind of characters would live there? What adventures could happen? Share your drawing and ideas with a friend or family member and explain why you chose this setting.
Design a Character: Imagine you are a concept artist. Choose one character from your game idea and draw them. Think about what makes them special. What do they wear? Do they have any special powers or tools? Once you have your drawing, write a short story about a day in the life of your character.
Bug Hunt Game: To understand how testers find bugs, play a simple game with a friend. One person draws a simple maze on paper, and the other person has to find their way through it with a pencil. The maze creator can add “bugs” or obstacles that the other person has to avoid or fix by erasing and redrawing the path. Discuss how finding and fixing these “bugs” is similar to what happens in video game testing.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(cellphone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. When I was really little, I used to watch my sisters play a video game called Pong on our TV. Pong was one of the first video games you could play at home. It was pretty simple, just a couple of sticks hitting a dot back and forth on a screen. (Pong beeping) Now, Pong may not seem that exciting, but when video games were new, it seemed amazing to us. Someone named Zenon has a question about video games; let’s give Zenon a call now. (cellphone ringing) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Zenon. – I have a question for you. How are video games made? – Ooh, that’s a great question. When it comes to playing video games, it all seems so easy. You buy your favorite game, crash down on the couch, and boom, you’re ready to play. In fact, it’s so easy to download a game that it can be tempting to think that video games are easy to make too, but nothing could be further from the truth. Making a video game is a lot of work, and it takes a really long time. Check out this game; it took over 100 people eight years to create Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now, not all games take as long as Animal Crossing, but making a game definitely isn’t easy. Before I say anything more, I’m curious, why do you think video games are so hard to make? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss. Okay, you ready? Well, I don’t know how you answered, but you might’ve said that video games are hard to make because of all the different parts, and you would be right. Think about it; there are power-ups to collect, bosses to beat, entire new worlds to explore, and that’s only on the first level. It makes you wonder, “How do game designers do it?” I mean, where do they even start? Well, believe it or not, they start the same way you start when you write a story at home or at school, with an idea. Meet Shigeru Miyamoto. When Shigeru was little, he loved exploring the forests surrounding his village in Japan. One day, he discovered something: a cave. It was dark and mysterious, and he wondered what was inside. (upbeat digital music) Were there imaginary creatures, like elves or fairies? Were they guarding treasure? Did they have dungeons? When he grew up, Shigeru had an idea: what if he made a video game about that cave and a treasure that was hidden inside? And what if that game had a hero who wanted to find it? Shigeru’s idea became one of the most popular video games ever created, a game called The Legend of Zelda. Now, thinking up ideas for characters and places is only the beginning; there’s a lot more to think about before a game is made, like how many levels will there be, and will there be enemies? What will they look like? Game designers write all of their ideas in a huge book, which they give to special designers called concept artists. Concept artists love to draw, so they take all the game designers’ ideas and decide what they’re going to look like. Some are in charge of drawing the characters, while others are in charge of drawing the worlds where the characters will live. Now, you may have noticed that these drawn characters and worlds aren’t quite the same as the characters and worlds you’re used to seeing in a video game; that’s because they’re not done yet. They need to be put into the game, and that’s the job of computer artists, called 3D modelers. These artists spend weeks turning the pictures into finished worlds and 3D characters that we see in games. But just because the characters are in a game doesn’t mean the game is ready to play. Characters need to be told what to do, and that’s where computer experts, called programmers, come in. Check out what this programmer is up to. It may look like she’s typing a bunch of random letters and numbers, but she’s actually giving the computer directions with something called code. Her code will tell the characters in the game what to do when a player presses a button, moves the joystick, picks something up, or tries to beat a boss. There are millions of possibilities, and that means programmers have to write millions of lines of code. And when you write that much, there are bound to be mistakes, and those mistakes can turn into what programmers call bugs or glitches. Though bugs can be funny, they can also ruin a game, so game makers have to fix them before we get to play. This is where testers come in. If you like video games, you’re going to love this: testers get to play video games all day and get paid for it. But they’re not playing video games to see how many Super Mario levels they can pass or to keep Minecraft monsters from attacking their forts; they’re playing games to fix them. You see, a tester’s job is to find all the bugs and parts of the game that aren’t working right. They take notes on what they found and share those notes with the programmers so they can fix the parts that are broken. After things are fixed, there are just a few pieces of the puzzle left, like designing cool-looking boxes to put the games in and making ads to tell the world that the game is coming out. Once that’s done, the time has arrived: from an idea in a designer’s head, to artists’ drawings, to code on a computer, the video game is finally ready for you to play. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Zenon, for asking it. Now, for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent into me that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video’s done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from, “How does a post office work?” “Why does poison ivy make us itchy?” or “Are mermaids real?” So submit your vote when the video’s over; I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us, stay curious, and see you next week.
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