Task 2 Job Roles

Project Manager:

In the video game industry a project manager is responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of the game, and making sure the project is completed on time along with not allowing the game to go over budget. They control the financial aspect as well as all other resources required for the project. They must also co-ordinate the work of the production team checking the quality of their work. And, maintaining it. Another thing the Project Manager is responsible for is resolving any problems that arise within the development.

This questionably the most important job role in the industry, as he or she has to know everyone’s contribution to the overall project.

Assistant Producer:

Also known as the Junior Producer, this person works with the production team staff to ensure that the time delivery is o the highest possible standard. They typically focus on specific area of the development or they could be involved in handling the communication between the publishers and the developers, or coordinating some of the projects key processes, for example managing some of the outsourcing assets.

External Producer:

These people work externally from the development team and are responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of the game. External Producers are almost always employed by the publishing team, working out the publishers head office they liaise between the publisher’s sales and marketing departments and the game developer. The external producers work 100’s 0of miles away from the main production.

Most external Directors handle multiple projects with more than one studio, for this reason the job can involve travel, plus plans that can change at a moment’s notice.

Creative Director:

This is the key person during the game development process, overseeing any high level decisions that affect how the game looks, plays and sounds. Creative Directors are employed by the development studios. Both publisher owned and independent. However, not all game companies employ Creative Directors. Although, some companies prefer to continue to split the duties between the games lead artists, programmers, designers and producers. This job role holds a lot responsibility, and requires working long hours and dealing with high levels of stress practically during the final stages of production.

Game Designer:

Game Designers decided what a game consist of, looks like and plays like. These people are often the people the original idea, as well as most other ideas. Game design is a complex activity requiring a combination of skills – design, management, scheduling, research etc. Designers require an understanding of every aspect of a game. They also need to be able to document their vision and communicate it to other members of the project team.

Games are usually large projects, so the design process is often shared between a number of different people who each take responsibility for a section of the game, or 'level'. One of the Game Designer's tasks is to specify the levels and to allocate the level design to other members of the team.

Level Design includes the mapping, detailed layout and building of the environment in which the level is played, as well as interactive placement of objects and assets within that environment. Most modern games are based on 3D computer graphics and Level Designers use 3D modelling or world editing tools in order to create and edit the levels.

For very large projects, there may be more than one Game Designer on the team, each one taking responsibility for a group of levels and collaborating on the overall design of the game. In such situations, a Lead Designer or Creative Director takes overall responsibility.

Level Editor:

The Level Editor defines and creates interactive architecture for a segment of a game, including the landscape, buildings, and objects. They must be true to the overall design specification, using the characters and story elements defined by the Game Designer, but they often have considerable scope to vary the specific look and feel of the level for which they are responsible. The Level Editor also develops the game play for the level, which includes the challenges that the characters face and the actions they must take to overcome them. The architecture helps to define those challenges by presenting obstacles, places to hide, tests of skill, and other elements to explore and interact with.

The setting and atmosphere devised by the Level Editor can also give the player clues as to different ways of progressing though the level and the game as a whole.

Level Editors play an important role in game development, creating memorable environments and game play elements to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated and widening games audience.

They need to be inventive, and understand the design factors which contribute to an entertaining and absorbing game play experience.

They should also keep up to date with advancing technologies. Level Editors are employed by development studios, both publisher-owned and independent.

Information for the Level Editor has been sourced from: http://www.creativeskillset.org/games/careers/article_4736_1.asp

Lead Artist:

The lead artist is responsible for the overall look of the game, the work closely with the Game Designers in the first instance; the Lead Artist devises the game’s visual style and directs the production of all the visual material throughout the game’s development.

The lead artist produces most of the initial artwork themselves, setting creative and technical standards and also determining the best tools and techniques to deploy. The lead artist must ensure that the art and animation team works within schedule and within budget. They also work closely with the programming team to make sure that all the art work and animation can be easily imported to the game engine. Lead artists are employed by the development studios, both independent and publisher owned. This is the highest paid position in the art department, reflecting the skills and experience.

Technical Artist:

The technical Artist acts as a bridge between the artists and programmers working on a game. They ensure that assets can be easily integrated into a game without sacrificing either the overall artistic vision or exceeding the technical limits of the chosen platform.

The role is a relatively new one for the games industry, but is becoming increasingly important as consoles and PC hardware becomes more complex.

Despite their technical knowledge, the Technical Artist works part of the development team, and coordinates closely with the lead artists and the art director, as well as the lead programmers.

Artist:

Artists work under the supervision of the Lead Artist. They create art assets for the game according to the specification and they are usually responsible for managing those assets.
Some Artists specialise in the design of human figures and characters, others in buildings and landscapes, and some in textures for 3D objects. Artists must be aware of the technical constraints and capabilities of the platform that the game will be played on.
They must also take on board feedback from testers. Artists do a range of jobs which have different responsibilities and techniques.

Animator:

Game production is a collaborative process and Animators work as part of the art department team. Using the objects, models, and most importantly, characters created by 3D Artists, Animators define their movements and behaviours and apply them using the animation tools and techniques provided by the selected 3D animation software package.
Game animation can be a complex combination of many different types of movements, so the Animators must make extensive libraries of re-usable animations for each character.
They are also usually responsible for the technical processes of rigging and skinning of the characters, (which involves creating an underlying structure rather like the bones of a skeleton and attaching appropriate body parts to each bone).
This makes the animation process itself a lot more efficient.
Animation is painstaking work requiring patience and attention to detail. Animation for a game also requires working in a technically efficient manner, taking into account the constraints of the game engine.

Audio Engineer:

Working to a creative brief, the Audio Engineer produces a sound design for the game and, when this has been agreed, realises it. This might involve the composing, scoring and recording of music.
The Audio Engineer will sometimes also audition and record any actors that are needed – in other languages if the game is being re-versioned – and this might involve lip synching to animation.
They are responsible for sourcing any sound effects that are needed, improving or creating them where necessary. These might be real or imaginary sounds, depending on the type of game. The Audio Engineer then edits, mixes, and masters the music and sounds to produce the soundtrack for the finished game.

Lead programmer:

The Lead Programmer manages the software engineering of a game from start to finish. In conjunction with other key team leads (eg the Game Designer, the Lead Artist, etc.) they develop the technical specification for the game, and then delegate the different elements to their team of programmers. The Lead Programmer usually compiles all the technical documentation for the software produced by the programming team and ensures the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness of all the game code. The Lead Programmer manages the production of the different 'builds' of a game (successive versions, each an improvement on the last), ensuring that coding bugs are fixed and appropriate solutions found (or as many as possible within the production time frame) to move the project forward, liaising with the Project Manager to make sure that all this happens on schedule. The Lead Programmer must also resolve any conflicts and provide support and guidance to the programming team, making sure that the programmers understand the specification and have the right skills and training to be able to do their jobs effectively. Lead Programmers will also write a substantial amount of code themselves.

QA Tester:

Playing games all day for a living might sound like an ideal job to some people, but this is in fact a highly disciplined role.
Testers are responsible for assuring quality in the final product and for finding all the flaws in a game before it goes public. They look for programme bugs - spelling mistakes, localisation problems (variations of the game are required for different territories), graphical or audio glitches, and also any copyright issues (such as ‘branded clothing’ etc).

Product Manager:

The tasks carried out by a Product Manager are varied and change as a game's release approaches. In the earliest stages of game development, they may liaise with development staff to provide some input into initial decision such as characters and scenarios.
They will also be involved with any focus testing of the game's concept and, later in the project, how the feedback from playable levels is used.
One key task for the Product Manager is defining the market positioning of their games, especially in terms of showing how they are different to competing products. The most important part of the job occurs prior to release, when the game's launch plan is put into action.