The theoretical basis for creating games?

Question

Game development

Hello!
Where can I find good material about the approach to creating games? As far as I understand the creation of the game starts first on paper. The idea of ​​the game is thought over for a long time, then its mechanics, etc. And only in the middle of the process does programming and other hemorrhoids begin. The literature about the whole process before programming is very interesting.
ps this question does not address programming, only theory

Answer 1

1. First comes up with an idea. With an eye on commercial success, of course, that is, ideally, it should immediately contain USP. The author of the idea, as a rule, becomes the main ideologist of the game and controls its implementation in the future, although he may take some mediocre role in the future.
2. The vision of the game is being written. At this stage, you need to decide on the platform (or platforms), genre, setting, monetization and distribution model, list the main gameplay mechanics or even make a short list of the main features, graphic style, ENT (in general terms), links to similar games and works ( that inspired). And of course, USP - in addition to the main features, you need 1-3 killer features that will make the game successful in your opinion. All this is necessary to show other people and they had an understanding of the idea of ​​​​the game, and not a mess in their heads.
3. A game prototype is made. Maybe not even games, but a key feature. Two options why you need it: a) for yourself, in order to understand that the idea is no good and you need to change or improve it b) to show the investor, let them feel and understand what you want (no one likes to read the text, but to poke buttons always nice and more understandable). This is a minimum of programming, or its absence at all (a prototype made of paper is cheap and cheerful).
The maximum team at the prototype stage consists of 4 people - the author of the idea, the programmer, the game designer, the designer (at least, ubisoft came up with just such a composition by experience). But in general one person can handle it.
4. A so-called feature list is being formed, these are already specific tasks, each of which (if you plan to do Scrum) takes no more than 5 days, otherwise it is divided into smaller tasks.
3 and 4 can be swapped, or done in parallel if you want money from the investor. Although in general this is a separate story, because. the investor is more suitable for a business plan, the preparation of which is beyond the scope of the question.
Further, in fact, it is possible to start development, if there is money, a team, or if everyone agrees on a doshirakenthusiasm to work. I highly do not advise one to undertake the implementation, although this is not prohibited. And what makes you think that development comes down to programming? There is also design, game design, sound, level design, ui, ux, marketing is needed closer to alpha, etc. Some games have almost no programming. And all this zoo also needs to be managed, not forgetting the necessary bureaucracy and legal affairs (and it’s not a fact that one person is enough to manage it). So in theory there is still a lot of things besides programming. I hope I've sobered you up a bit.

Answer 2

There is a huge process.
First, the concept of the game is written:
1) what the game is about
2) target audience
3) monetization
Then we start to promote everything. General things first, then more specific ones. Then to the algorithms that can already be coded.
But many do it differently (wrongly), the thought came to mind, they started coding. Then add some more chips and so on. But the chances are an order of magnitude lower to do something decent.