Probably each of you has had contact with computer games at some point. Starting with connecting diamonds into threes on the phone screen, through suspenseful races with a gamepad in hand, to riding a rollercoaster with a VR headset on your head. The value of the computer games market grew rapidly in 2025, reaching $335 billion, an improvement of about 11 percentage points compared to the previous year. The modern world is slowly adopting computer games as a new “provider” of entertainment. We can find more and more articles on the Internet about games, streaming sites that allow us to watch other people play our favorite games or e-sports galas. Computer games are no longer just a luxury product, designed for a handful of enthusiasts with an Atari console in the living room. They became a new entertainment, designed for a mass audience, and their creation began to be treated as show business.
Creating a game differs from creating utility applications in several aspects. Looking at it from a simple point of view, both the game and the application have their own logic described by code, the representation of which appears on the user’s screen. Games, however, also have emotions in their message. Will it be a feeling of triumph over a defeated opponent, or satisfaction from the solved puzzle, or maybe sadness after the loss of a companion who has been with us from the beginning of the plot? The game does not take place inside the processor, or even on the screen; The real game can only be experienced in the head of the person holding the controller.
Computer games are works that combine many elements of aesthetics. In addition to the obvious ones, such as the code, soundtrack or graphic design, there are also mechanics, level designs or character animations. Creating the game experience requires the combined work of many people, often very different from each other. In the teams, we will meet both people with scientific and humanistic minds, who must be able to communicate with each other, convey their visions and insights in order to create a good product. Many developers start their careers alone, trying to create all the necessary elements themselves. It is perfectly feasible and we know astronomical cases of titles such as “Stardew Valley”, which were extremely successful despite being created as a result of the work of a single person. Here, however, we will focus on working in a larger team to better understand the processes in professional game dev companies. Before setting off, you need to gather a team.
Game Designer – the one through whom you remember the game forever
Let’s start with the game designer. At the very beginning, we need to get rid of the most common misconception about this role, i.e. the “man for ideas”. Everyone on the team has ideas. If you were to come up with an idea for a game now, it would probably take a maximum of 60 seconds for it to come to your mind. Ideas are only a multiplier of the value of the project. The designer’s goal is to evaluate and implement the idea as quickly as possible.
To know the value of a product, you need to multiply the value of the idea with the value of execution. For example, a great idea but no execution will be worth $20, while a great idea with great execution will be worth $20,000,000. Therefore, ideas are worth nothing in themselves until we can see the quality of their implementation.
Since we already know that a designer is not for coming up with ideas, then what does he do? The task of such a person is to prototype the mechanics that appear in the game. This usually involves quick implementation of the new functionality and tests on other team members to collect feedback. The designer himself is the last person who should test his idea. He knows how the tested mechanics should work, so he does not see errors that may occur in it. Another task of such a person is to create levels (Level Design) – so that the player can learn new mechanics in a natural way or test the skills he has learned before. The designer is also responsible for the balance of the game. We’re not just talking about making sure the numbers in Excel match, but also about ensuring the correct pace of the game (Pacing). The player should feel moments of high stimulation, but also moments of respite and rest. Sometimes designers are also responsible for the balance of game monetization. This applies mainly to mobile or free games, where designers control the prices of items, simulate players’ spending and adjust the prices of in-app purchases, also known as microtransactions.
A graphic designer, or rather a whole army of graphic designers
Now let’s talk about graphic designers who participate in the production of computer games. The easiest way to discuss their role is to divide them into the tasks they deal with, and contrary to appearances, it is not just creating graphics. Work on game elements begins on the desk of the Concept Artist, who, based on information prepared by the designers, sketches a vision of a given object or character. Thanks to this procedure, it is easy to visually assess whether a given object will fit into the game world or not. After approval by the chief graphic designer (Art Director), the concepts go to the modeller (ang. 3D artist or illustrator (2D artist), depending on what type of object we want to make. The modeler’s job is to create a three-dimensional model. For this purpose, the sculpting technique is used, which is partly similar to sculpting with clay. Such an artist must be mindful of the complexity of their model, as games must be displayed on the screen in real time, preferably at 60 frames per second. The more complex the model is (it consists of more triangles), the longer it will take the graphics card to draw it. An illustrator, on the other hand, has no such limitations, his job is to prepare two-dimensional elements, e.g. fragments of the user interface or drawings of characters appearing in the game. The work of such a graphic designer can be compared to physical painting with a brush on canvas.
The next graphic designer we will meet on the path to the finished model is the rigger. Its task is to prepare a three-dimensional model for animation. This involves placing the skeleton inside the model and assigning surface elements to individual bones. Thanks to this, when we move the bone, the triangles assigned to it will also move. The model prepared in this way goes to the animator, who sets it in motion. The animator moves the limbs and records their position in keyframes. After placing all the keys along the entire length of the animation, we will see the finished effect (e.g. a moving character) ready to be placed in the game. We must also not forget about technical artists, who are responsible for creating special effects. If our character were to wield a flaming blade, this graphic designer would prepare the particle effects of the flames and smoke that this weapon leaves.
Sound engineer – makes decisions about what you will hear
Once we have an image in our game, it’s time to get down to its sound. Creating music and sound effects for games is a little different from working on movies. When editing a film, we know every moment when a given sound will play out and we know in which scene and what the music will be. Games are controlled by the player – they decide what happens at any given moment, and the effects and music should react to it. The sound engineer will therefore have several additional tasks to perform. In addition to preparing sound effects for each interaction and music for situations happening in the game world, he will also be responsible for blending these sounds in the right way.
Sound blending in games involves assigning appropriate priorities to the action so that the sounds that are more important at the moment are played louder, and the less important ones disappear in the noise or are completely turned off. The golden rule is to look at the priority of an action, estimating how much of an impact it will have on the player. The sounds of pedestrians’ footsteps around have little impact on the gameplay, while a bandit pulling a gun out of a holster poses a real threat to the main character, so the sound engineer should be sure that the player will hear him. This effect can be observed in the game “GTA V”. Using the example above – the sound of pulling a weapon out of a holster is almost inaudible in the real world, while in the game it stands out above the honking cars.
The manufacturer makes sure that we are going in the right direction
We already know how many different people take part in the creation of a computer game. So how to control the whole process? We have to look for the answer from the manufacturer. I’d like to get rid of the misconception that many people have about this position: the producer doesn’t manage the team. Team leaders are responsible for management, who know how their team works best, know the technologies they use and know how to distribute people so that tasks are completed on time. The producer is responsible for creating the path that the project follows so that it meets the set assumptions as much as possible. If the game is made for an external client, the producer makes sure that the product complies with the approved vision, and if it is made internally, it is created according to the production plan.
For the organization of game development, as well as utility applications, project management methodologies (e.g. SCRUM) work best. Referring to this methodology, the manufacturer can be compared to a SCRUM Master, whose role is to select tasks so that the project follows the set deadlines, but he no longer cares about how the selected tasks will be completed. This is on the team’s side.
The tester will make sure that the game runs more often than less often
If we were to point out the biggest common part between computer games and utility applications, it would certainly be the bugs that occur in them. The team, which has been working on their production for a long time, has a well-established pattern of how they use it. When we start performing activities in a way unforeseen by the designer or in an unusual order, we can come across a lot of shortcomings. The person who tries to “spoil” the game under development will be the tester (Quality Assurance).
There are several types of tests that are used in games. The most popular of them will be Sanity Tests. They consist of a cursory review of the systems, checking whether they are functioning as expected. More specific tests will be, for example, Compatibility Testing, whose task is, among other things, to check whether the user will not lose their progress after updating the game. Regression Testing involves repeating previous tests on proven functionalities to make sure they don’t stop working as they should. Localization Testing is also very important, during which the texts in the game in all language versions are checked to see if they fit into the designated slots.
A programmer, i.e. the one who looks with horror at what designers have come up with
What a programmer does, each of us is probably able to guess. It creates a part of the game that is not visible at first glance, but makes everything come together into a functional whole. So let’s try to divide the programmers working on games to better understand what exactly is created thanks to them. When we think of a game, we see gameplay in it. Everything that flies, shoots or jumps on the screen was created by a Gameplay Programmer. These programmers spend most of their time with designers in their daily work. They make sure that the mechanics work as intended or can be modified and adapted to the current state of the game and the feedback collected.
As the game becomes more complex, the number of small changes and elements that need to be balanced increases drastically. There is a need for designers to be able to quickly edit the configuration of the game world, preferably without the help of a programmer. A Tool Programmer is responsible for preparing special editors for designers so that they can intuitively test subsequent iterations of the game balance without constantly interfering with the game code.
To speed up production, programmers began to create so-called engines for computer games. We can imagine them as a set of tools that allow us to create a finished product faster and easier. However, many companies that create games professionally decide to work with a proprietary engine. In this case, you need an Engine Programmer. Its task is to maintain and expand the tool so that it can perform the tasks envisaged by the designers, support the latest technologies and operate in an optimal way.
The last role I will mention is the Back-end Developer, who is responsible for the ability to play with friends over the Internet. Its task is also to handle databases, so that the progress of our game is safe and can be easily transferred between devices. To put it simply, the area of his work is very similar to that of programmers responsible for utility applications – in particular websites. A bigger difference appears only when handling real-time gameplay, which must be synchronized between all players all the time.
Is it worth making computer games?
Game development is my favorite career path in IT. It allows you to collaborate with interesting people from different fields, learn about other cultures and fight challenges that vary from day to day. If I were to list the advantages, I would certainly put the variety of tasks we will struggle with in the first place. In addition, the moment when we can watch a video on YouTube in which strangers have fun with our game is irreplaceable.
