Who is the most crucial component of game creation?

Please vote and share opinions. Who is the most important, and most crucial part of the creation of a game?

[LOF_INFERNO]

I think they are all the same.

A programmer makes the tools and basic rules of gameplay for the game.

But it is the content creaters who use the tools and basic rules of gameplay to make the actual part of the game a player plays.

The content creaters make the maps, sounds, story, movies, theme, feel etc...

No longer are the days where a programmer can make an entire game, you need an entire development team, each with their own skills. Their is no game made by one singe person, therefore no single person can be better than another.

Inferno has a point definately. The one point he fails to realize, is that the programmer CREATES the ability for all other members of a team to convey their skill to the project!

The simple fact of the matter is, without the programmer, there is no game. PERIOD.

[LOF_INFERNO]

yes but even if the programmer makes the tools, he still needs people to use them.

A programmer would not have the mapping skills required to make the maps needed for a good game, nor the skills for good sound, good models , good story etc...

Man power.

So who did you say was more crucial....

The key here is CRUCIAL! Who is the most NECESSARY COMPONENT OF A GAME. I feel it is extremely obvious but some disagree.


A: Wow thats a great model.
B: Ya I made it.
A: For what?
B: Ummm... I don't know.
C: I'm a programmer, I will make you a new toolset and you make models for my game ok?
B: COOL, I'm in.

[The_Stranger]

What about the game designer?

[ShirleyFT]

Originally posted by The_Stranger
What about the game designer?

He beat me to it. The game designer isn't always a programmer (maybe scripts). He/she writes the storyline(storyboards), designs levels, designs gameplay, characters, gives the art director ideas and generally handles most or all of the creative part of the game. Programmers are hired guns, are great at coding and usually have very little, if nothing, to do with creative decisions.

[Salyavin]

You don't need a single programmer to make a game. Games have been created for years, even centuries, with tiled boards, playing cards, dice, miniatures, you name it. Computers are just another way to represent a game.

You do need a good designer though, someone who has a good idea of what's fun and what isn't. Programmers are just craftsman, at least those who do nothing but write code. The good ones can design too.

Cheers,
Salyavin

[blito3]

you need a good programmer.....with game design and playing knowledge.
knowing when not to overload the program bloated code that lags the game is important.
2k3 has run into this problem.......instituting too many doodads at the cost of game flow and feel.

Originally posted by Salyavin
You don't need a single programmer to make a game. Games have been created for years, even centuries, with tiled boards, playing cards, dice, miniatures, you name it. Computers are just another way to represent a game.

You do need a good designer though, someone who has a good idea of what's fun and what isn't. Programmers are just craftsman, at least those who do nothing but write code. The good ones can design too.

Cheers,
Salyavin

Actually we are talking strictly of computer or console games. Thanks.

Originally posted by ShirleyFT
He beat me to it. The game designer isn't always a programmer (maybe scripts). He/she writes the storyline(storyboards), designs levels, designs gameplay, characters, gives the art director ideas and generally handles most or all of the creative part of the game. Programmers are hired guns, are great at coding and usually have very little, if nothing, to do with creative decisions.

This is not ALWAYS the case. Many times the programmers require the same creative vision and understanding so that programming is more efficient (prorammer knows exactly what a team needs).

The simple fact is. A GAME GOOD OR BAD, CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE PROGRAMMER.

[MortalPlague]

I wholeheartedly agree about game designers... my private little aspiration, actually. Game designers are the most crucial part of the game. Despite the fact that programmers are necessary for a game, I'll go with the assumption that since this game hypothetically exists, it has programmers, and I'd have to go with mappers for the most crucial. Not to promote myself, but mappers create the gameplay and flow of a game. They tell the story, they put people in situations and places, they establish the entire look and feel of the game. Modellers and skinners and programmers all contribute, but mappers tie it all together into a coherent adventure.

This is, of course, assuming that these people are all actually doing their job. A game with a bad programmer/modeller/skinner would still be lousy, despite a mapper's best efforts. Likewise for any of those positions.

To those who voted mapper, I fail to understand your reasoning. Mapping is a game development luxury and concept created by the programmer to assist in facilitating game content creation.

If it were not for the programmer giving a mapper the toolsets to do his job, he would not be able to do anything. The programmer actually makes the game, the mapper feeds it.

[Scourgem]

The investor.