Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game system, such as the Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, or the Sony Playstation 2 or may develop for a variety of systems including PCs.

Types of developers

Video game developers fall into one of three main categories: third-party developers, in-house developers, and the smaller independents. Developers usually employ a staff of programmers, game designers, artists, sound engineers, producers and testers, though some of these roles may be outsourced. To confuse matters, an individual person in any one of these roles may be referred to as a "video game developer".

Related Topics:
Programmer - Game designer - Artist - Producers - Testers - Outsourced

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Third-party developers

Third-party developers are usually called upon by a video game publisher to develop a title for one or more systems. Both the publisher and the developer have a great deal of say as to the design and content of the game. In general, though, the publisher's wishes trump the developer's, as the publisher is paying the developer to create the game.

Related Topics:
Video game publisher - Systems - Design - Content

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The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones, intended to be delivered every four to eight weeks. By receiving updated milestones, the publisher is able to verify that work is progressing quickly enough to meet the publisher's deadline; and to give direction to the developer if the game is turning out other than as expected in some way. When each milestone is completed and accepted, the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties. The developer uses this money to fund its payroll and otherwise fund its operations.

Related Topics:
Contract - Milestone - Royalties - Payroll

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Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. In general, however, third-party developers tend to be small, and comprised of a single, closely-knit team.

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Third-party game development is a volatile business, as small developers may be entirely dependent on money from one publisher. A single cancelled game can be lethal to a small developer. Because of this, many of the smaller development companies last only a few years or sometimes only a few months. The continual struggle to get payment for milestones and to line up the next game contract is a persistent distraction to the management of every game developer.

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A common and desirable "exit strategy" for an extremely successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, and thus become an in-house developer.

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In-house developers

Many video game publishers maintain in-house developers, or studios. The size of the teams vary depending on the games, but they can number from a few people to the dozens. In the case of MMORPGs and the largest console games, the team size may number over 100.

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In-house development teams tend to have more freedom as to the design and content of a game, compared to the teams third-party developers. Part of the reason for this is that since the developers are employees of the publisher, their interests are as exactly aligned with those of the publisher as is possible. The publisher can therefore spend much less effort making sure that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the ultimate expense of the publisher.

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In recent years the larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house" they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner, each with its own culture and work practices. For example: Activision acquired Raven (1997), Neversoft (1999), Z-Axis (2001), Treyarch (2001), Luxoflux (2002), Shaba (2002), Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2004). All these developers continue to operate much as they did before acquisition, with the primary differences being in exclusivity and the financial details.

Related Topics:
Activision - Raven - Neversoft - Z-Axis - Treyarch - Luxoflux - Shaba - Infinity Ward - Vicarious Visions

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History has shown that publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget and missing deadlines than third-party developers.

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An in-house development team that works for a console hardware manufacturer is also known as a first-party developer. A company that is closely tied to a console manufacturer (or occasionally a publisher) is known as a second-party developer. Rather confusingly the publishers themselves are sometimes referred to as third-party developers in the context of their relationships with the console manufacturers (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo). This particular distinction of first, second and third party developers does not generally apply to PC games development.

Related Topics:
First-party developer - Second-party developer - Third-party developers

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Independent developers

Independents are typically small software developers that self-publish their games, often relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the huge marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products never get as much recognition or popular acclaim as those of larger publishers. However, they are free to explore experimental themes and styles of gameplay that mainstream publishers would not risk their money on. Independent developers are almost exclusively developers of PC games, as publishing a console game currently requires a large capital investment in the physical manufacturing of units of the game. PC games can be published with very low costs thanks to the advent of internet distribution.

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