How is a video game made? Game development is the process of designing, prototyping, building, testing and refining a game, and game studios rely on teams of people, such as designers, programmers and artists, to make video games. Making a modern video game is a job for people working together. Video games are played on many kinds of machines, such as computers, game consoles and phones. Let's follow the steps a team takes, and meet the tools that help them along the way.

The first step is design. Game designers plan how a game is played, and level designers build the places and levels that players play through. Writers help make a game's story and characters, and a game has sound effects and music that people on the team work on. Game studios rely on teams of people to make video games, and designers, writers and sound people are some of the people on a team.

The second step is a prototype. A prototype is a simple early version of a game that a team builds to see if an idea works. In an early prototype, a player character might be a floating capsule and a level an empty room. A floating capsule is not much to look at, but a team can use it to see if an idea works. Designers also have people play a game and use what they learn to change it.

Art and design jobs in real-time projects such as games create the look, sound and feel, with modeling, animation, lighting and audio. Artists make the pictures in a game, such as its characters, and animators make the characters and objects in a game move. Artists use programs such as Blender to make 3D models and other art for games. The look, sound and feel of a game come from art and design jobs like these.

A pixel is one of the picture elements on a screen, and it is the smallest single-color element of a display. Some art is made one pixel at a time. Pixel art is made by hand, one pixel at a time, in small pictures called sprites that games use. An artist makes a sprite by hand, and a game uses the sprite as a small picture on the screen.

Programming jobs in real-time projects such as games create the functionality, including gameplay, networking and artificial intelligence. Programmers do the technical work that makes a game's ideas work, and game designers plan how a game is played. Gameplay, networking and artificial intelligence are three of the things that programming jobs create, and these jobs make the game function.

Testing is the next step. Game testers check a game for bugs and other problems while it is being made, and designers have people play a game and use what they learn to change it. Game development is the process of designing, prototyping, building, testing and refining a game. Testing and refining are two of the steps in that process, and both of them happen while the game is being made.

A game engine is a software platform with the tools a team uses to build a video game. Games are made of smaller pieces such as 3D models, scripts and audio files, and a game engine is where all the parts of making a game come together. Unity is a game engine used to make both 2D and 3D games. Unreal Engine is best known for its detailed 3D graphics. Godot can make both 2D and 3D games.

Beginners can start too. Easy coding tools let kids and other beginners make their own games. Scratch has a block-based coding interface whose blocks kids drag and snap together. Scratch lets kids start with pre-drawn characters, backdrops and sounds, upload their own, or draw their own. GameMaker is a game engine for 2D games that has beginner-friendly tools. Construct 3 runs in a web browser and lets beginners make 2D games without programming.

Games are made for many players. Video games are played on many kinds of machines, such as computers, game consoles and phones. An ESRB rating of E means the content is generally suitable for all ages. This is true as of November 2026. A game with a rating of E is a game whose content is generally suitable for all ages, and it is a rating that a game can have.

Now look back at the first years of video games. Magnavox released the Odyssey in 1972, shortly before arcade Pong, after six years of work by its creator Ralph Baer. Atari released the arcade game Pong in 1972, and Pong was a game with two paddles and a ball. Go back to 1970. In 1970 there was no video game industry, and video games were mostly on university and research lab computers that the public could not use.

Words to know

• prototype: early version
• engine: building platform
• pixel: screen dot
• sprites: pixel pictures
• animators: movement makers