Information Fromhttp://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/inside/how/03.html

Before a video game is designed and has started production the producers need to know what the game is about. Usually a game follows a storyline that may or may not be continued over a series of games. Once the main plot is decided the Writers and Artists work on a storyboard. These are used in film productions, however a video game can have thousands of different outcomes which means that many different “worlds” or “levels” must be sketched out.

In this case Grand Theft Auto 4, in a nutshell, is about a Russian immigrant who is looking to make lots of money in “Liberty City”. However he encounters various dangerous people that prevent him from doing so.

Through the production of storyboards the designers begin to create the actual characters. First rough sketches of the main plot characters are drawn, and then edited and modified until the designers feel they are perfect. It is important for the artists to refine the characters as much as they can, as if changes were to be made later whilst in their creation process it would be costly for the company.

Once the designs of the character is complete it then becomes transformed into a controllable 3D character. It takes approximately 5 days to design and program a character. This is done by scanning in the sketches to a computer, then a digital exoskeleton is created to give the character control points necessary to animate the figure. Basically, the more detailed the exoskeleton is, the more realistic the characters physical movements will be. After the exoskeleton and control points layers of “skin” are added to the figure, then colour and texture is added.

At this point the character is like a virtual puppet. The “puppet” can be brought to life using a computer to instruct it to give the character movements. However there is more than one way to do this. One way is, as previously stated, to give the character movement via a computer. However a special suit covered in sensors can be worn by a human in order to capture their specific actions. For example by pressing a certain button your character may jump, so the human would wear the suit, jump and then program that movement into the character for that button. The suit is aligned with the control points of the characters skeleton to make the movements more realistic.

Designing the world in which the characters play their story out is one of the biggest aspects of games, especially even more in modern games that enable the user to free roam just like Grand Theft Auto 4. Technology and computer power is constantly increasing and so is the realism and details of gaming environments. Levels of detail that people could have only dreamed of years ago are now common, and taken for granted in today's gaming.

Firstly the main structure of the games world is created, rough sketches will be drawn to get an idea of what the places/locations would look like as well as a rough idea of what textures they will be. In Grand Theft Auto’s case the game’s map is based around New York City therefore Rock star would have already had a great amount of ideas to base their own map upon. After drafting the initial map it is then taken over into the computers hands in which people will then begin to design and build upon the games map. First the main things are put in and then the smaller details such as hot dog vendors, cars, signs etc. Once everything is in place textures and details would be placed throughout the map to make it more realistic. This includes sign writing, reflections, water from rain etc.

This is one of the most important parts to making the game work yet is still forgotten about by the user, the code. Code is the language in which the computer uses to control every aspect of the game. Rock star use a program called RAGE (Rock star Advanced Game Engine) generate their games. The code is nearly always used to generate the complicated code necessary for everything the user see’s on the screen.

The physics of the game world is the important artificial intelligence component. This creates the logic of the game and establishes the physics of the world. It also detects the interactions and collisions between objects and controls their movement.

Now the game has been coded it is nearly complete. One of the last phases of mass production is the testing phase. This includes testing, reviewing, marketing and distribution. Testers play the games repeatedly finding all the bugs which must be corrected. These “bugs” are prioritized into an order of most fatal to unnoticeable. For example there may be a bug that prevents the user from progressing the narrative or just generally glitches the game, this would have to be removed before distribution. A more minor problem such as a small jump/glitch that would not affect the games release would be a lower priority. These problems are then filed into a detailed report and sent back to the developers to be corrected.

Usually during the testing phase a copy of the game is sent to VSC to be given a rating.

The final stage is marketing. The games are distributed all over the world and then sold by gaming shops. Because creating a game is so costly to the publishers, the game is usually announced and advertised extremely early, usually whilst the game is still being designed. The game is often hyped and promoted as well as giving people demo’s and sneak peak theatrical trailers. This is to make people willing to spend money on a game that the designers have worked hard on.