This brings us to the present as the package that you will be soon downloading and running, is the freely available CryENGINE 3 SDK, initially released in August 2011. It gives anyone with an Internet connection access to the CryENGINE 3 game engine. It continues to be updated to keep it in line with the same features and tools Crytek uses internally, bringing a huge advantage to anyone wanting to make high quality games and simulations.
The following screenshot is a depiction of a CryENGINE 3 creation:
Having seen some of the games that have been released on CryENGINE, you may have dreams and visions of creating huge open world online role-playing games, or AAA first-person shooters. This is quite normal, as the most aspiring and even veteran game developer's bite off more than they can chew in their initial designs. Creative and passionate people typically have big ideas, and this is great! I say that, with my fingers crossed behind my back, as there is one caveat to this, that it's ok as long as you practice a very important skill, which is, to be able to temper those huge ideas and split them up into smaller, more achievable goals. Achieving smaller victories while approaching such a vast and complex piece of technology will keep you far more motivated and will build confidence so that eventually you will be able to solve creatively just about any problem that you are faced with while creating your game.
As we mentioned before, the previous games we explored were created by huge teams, and you might think it's impossible then to create a game by yourself or even with a small group. I have some good news though! In the examples to come, you will not require an entire team. We will create some customizable elements, which are useable in games through a set of understandable examples. Working as a team, however, is becoming increasingly common even among hobbyist game developers. When working in a team you should recognize that there can be generalists and specialists in every field. Typical teams break down to the following groups. It should be noted that there are a variety of subcategories within each group, and the following breakdown doesn't claim to describe them all:
Programming: The entire gaming industry was created by programmers. Without programmers this industry simply wouldn't exist! They are the specialists who take the expectations and designs of everybody else and are tasked with finding a way to make them a reality. They are tasked with everything from creating and modifying the game engine to developing tools, and implementing game mechanics. If there are bugs or important changes to be made usually it's the programmer who must work late to fix or implement changes. There are a variety of subcategories of programming, which include physics, rendering, shaders, animation, sound, tools, and so on.
Art: Artists have become increasingly important in the production of high-quality games. Having truly talented artists can take a bland game created using teasingly named, programmer art to an AAA photorealistic experience. There are many subdisciplines within art as there are in programming, some of which include concept, environment, character, technical, lighting, and visual effects.
Animation: Animators are the ones that perform the role of providing life to otherwise static games. This is just as essential to a game's immersion as the texture or geometry of any model. There are a few subcategories to animation which include riggers, facial animators, technical animators, cinematic animators, and others.
Design: I really think designers can come from anywhere within all the disciplines and roles! They are typically people who excel at combining mechanics to make fun! Creating fun, as strange as that may sound, is the main goal of the designer within any game production. During my career, I have personally seen a trend in the industry where designers are often undertaking the role of what I would term game compositors. Game compositors take all the different aspects of a game's production, including art, animation, code, cinematics, and so on, and combine them all together in creative ways that challenge and reward the player. For this reason, being a designer can be a demanding, yet rewarding role, as it allows you to generalize in many areas. One thing I have personally found as a designer is that the more you know about each area of the technology with which you are working, the more tools you will have at your disposal while creating interesting puzzles, challenges, and adventures for your players.
Sound: The sound group consists of sound engineers and musicians. Sound engineers are typically skilled at designing sound into games. This may sound abstract, but it's the skill of being able to amplify emotions throughout different areas of the game. For example, if you had a creepy cave with no sound, it would be less realistic. The immersion and believability could be greatly improved by adding ambient wind sounds and the sound of dripping water echoing off the walls. Musicians add unique soundtracks, which have vaulted games to high popularity and are sometimes the most memorable parts of some of your own gaming experiences! This is a difficult role as you must depend on sound engineers to implement your creations into the game and accurately represent the mood and intensity of the piece.
Quality Assurance (play tester): Quality assurance plays a huge role in any production that you wish to release to an audience, especially when the audience is large. Games that go to market with mistakes and bugs in their code, art, or design have potentially disastrous consequences for game development teams and companies. A typical entry-level point into quality assurance is that of a play tester. They will play and replay levels, repeat and document certain circumstances, however obscure they might be, the same with levels that crash or interfere with the game.
Producer (project manager): In game development companies, the producer plays a major role and will most likely have a good deal of experience at varying levels of the gaming industry. The producer is responsible for all sorts of things and can be seen as a shield for the team against the business of a game. One of the other critical roles for a producer is to make sure that the development schedule meets all of its milestones and is finished on time.
With large projects or titles, such as the ones we discussed earlier, it's essential to recruit these specialists to your team or if all else fails become one yourself.
This book is written in a way that will explore each role in a lightweight and exploratory manner. My personal experience comes from being a generalist technical designer. Thus, each example will concentrate on getting game features to function using some tools and techniques from art, design, sound, and code.
If you are already a specialist in one or more of these roles, you will still be able to follow these examples to add additional tools to your repertoire of skills and techniques for creating games.