Games Designer Vs Games Programmer

19 Apr 2020

Tags:

Game Designer,

Game Programmer,

Gaming Industry

In this blog we explore what the difference is between a Games Designer and Games Programmer.

Firstly, what is a Games Designer?

A games designer is at the heart of any game, their job is to create the basic idea and the mechanics of the game ensuring the flow from start to finish. Games can be from the designer’s own ideas and inspiration or from a pre-approved idea, such as a game based upon a film.

What are the responsibilities of a game designer?

Use your creativity to design games for lots of different platforms that grab the attention and capture the imagination of the player
Research into your target audience
Think about, plan and detail every element of a new game, such as story, characters, setting rules, and modes of play
Create concept documents and use these to convince the development team that the game is worth developing
Work alone or within a larger team overseen by a lead designer.
Write stories and scripts
Work collaboratively with others, including games developers, artists, animators and programmers, to produce a prototype

What is a Programmer?

A game programmers job is to bring the design of a game to life, using computer software to create codes that allow the game to function and enable the software to carry out the players instructions.

What are the responsibilities of a Games Programmer?

•Developing and implementing game software

•Ensuring that the game design is fully implemented and runs smoothly without complications

•Creating unit tests and validation procedures, and documenting technical specifications

•Working closely with a lead game developer to create task/project deliverables

•Interface with Quality Assurance, Game Producers, Game Designers, Artists, Mathematicians, and Sound Designers

Conclusion

To conclude the main differences of a games designer and programmer are as follows:

Designer creates initial idea of a game and the programmer will then take that design and make it a reality.
Designer will decide how the game will flow, with story, characters and props, and the programmer will create the software to bring the story, characters and props together and make them function.
The programmer will ensure the game software runs smoothly from start to finish, without any complications, this allows the designers ideas and story to play out perfectly as planned in the initial design.

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