This game has recently attracted a huge number of players. The number of people who play this game exceeds one hundred million people. We are talking about which consists of many small blocks.

During the gameplay, the hero, controlling his avatar, builds, mines and moves these blocks from place to place. In addition, the player fights mobs that attack his home at night.

This popular game, which has attracted a lot of attention, has its own legendary author, the man who is its creator. Who created Minecraft? This question is asked by many children who play this virtual constructor. From this article you will learn about who created Minecraft. The name of this person is also interesting to some adults.

Creator of the game "Minecraft"

The author's name is Markus Persson. Markus is a programmer from Sweden and also a game designer. He is much better known under his pseudonym Notch. He created his first game at just 9 years old on his home computer. As an adult, he became the owner of Mojang AB. In addition to him, the founders were also Karl Manneh and Jacob Porser. The company was founded in 2009.

Notch's office

The company currently employs more than 35 people. Marcus is one of Sweden's largest taxpayers. His company is valued at two billion dollars. The attitude towards employees in Notch's company is very loyal. Every Friday, Marcus allows the people who work for him to play games and also work on their own projects.

Quite remarkable. It is designed in a "hunting lodge" style. His office has a pool table, a room for showing a variety of films, a jukebox, and a pinball machine. In addition, there is even a wall with portraits of employees. These portraits are quite unusual. They painted in oil, people pose in the clothes of the 19th century aristocracy. If we look at the portrait of Notch, we will see that there he is in an evening suit and fedora sitting on a chair with an arrogant look. A large globe is located next to him as an essential piece of furniture.

Atmosphere at Persson's company

All this became possible thanks to his key project "Minecraft". The author of this game, which became the most unexpected breakthrough in this field in a decade, attracted a lot of attention. It's quite common for him to throw a party with stadium-level DJs. According to rumors, Britain's Prince Harry was also present at one of these parties.

In 2012, Notch even organized a pyrotechnics festival in one of the Parisian establishments. Musical accompaniment This action was provided by Skrillex. Marcus takes his employees and their families to Monaco. The photo album that lies on the conference table in his office contains several photographs of workers being brought in by a fleet of airplanes, also in these photographs of them driving around in Ferraris, having a party on a yacht, and riding in helicopters. Commenting on the photos, company co-owner Porser says, “We wanted to make Mojang a place where we would always want to work.”

The unexpected success of a strange game

Notch is the man who created Minecraft. Although there is no script or levels in this game (there isn't even an obvious goal), players can explore a virtually endless world. They can gather resources and build almost anything. Create entire worlds with your own attractions. This is what the faithful followers of Markus Persson do.

Well, now you know who created Minecraft. We wish you to get acquainted with this magnificent game and discover colorful endless worlds more often in everyday life.

Who Works in the Game Development Industry

Game development in a large company is carried out by a variety of specialists, and now we will try to introduce you to most of the specialties involved in this process. All developers can be divided into groups, each of which has its own area of ​​responsibility. In general this is:

• design (game design)
• programming
• graphic content
• testing

Design

Game design- the process of developing the basic concepts of a future game, its rules, content, game world, mechanics and gameplay. A game designer must have both artistic, technical and writing skills (for drawing up documentation, design documentation).

Lead designer, lead game designer- the leader and coordinator of the rest of the design team, his responsibilities include identifying and developing key elements of the future game, interacting with other heads of other departments (art director, lead programmer, etc.), solving other design tasks that cannot be done for some reason or reasons to entrust to subordinate designers. IN general view It is the leading designer who is the person who determines the final appearance of the game, its “essence” at the gameplay level.

Designer game mechanics - a person whose responsibilities include determining the needs of the program code to implement the ideas and gameplay developed by the design team. A game mechanics designer must have some technical programming skills in order to competently assign tasks to programmers for implementing gameplay through program code.

Level designer, level designer- a person whose tasks include creating and assembling game levels, maps, locations, etc. A level designer can be either a highly specialized person who is only involved in assembling locations from ready-made elements (models), or he can combine this position with another - for example, a level designer can also be a 3D artist.

Interface designer, UI designer— develops the user interface, all kinds of menus, HUDs, windows, etc. He doesn’t have to draw them himself, but in general it would be a plus.

Screenwriter- a person who is responsible for the text component of the game. His responsibilities include composing dialogues, developing the plot, describing all kinds of scenes, events, possible options their development, filling in-game literature, if any, etc. - in general, everything that will make the gameplay organically fit into the game world. There is a fashion among newcomers to call themselves “scriptwriters,” but the real content of this word is much more voluminous than simply writing the plot for the game. A much more difficult task can be creating consistent, logical missions and tasks, writing realistic lines for different characters - all this requires high artistic skill, language proficiency and a certain amount of talent.

Programming

Game programming- the process of creating program code for the purpose of visualizing the game world, the player’s interaction with this world and movement around it. Video game programming is divided into a large number of specialized areas, each of which is responsible for some functional part of the future game (artificial intelligence, physics, visualization, etc.).

Lead coder- the most experienced and technically savvy specialist, whose task is to combine all subsections of the game engine in the broadest sense of the word into a single working system. The lead programmer can spend less of his time programming, because his main responsibility is still the coordination and connection of all systems into a single whole. Also, the lead programmer can write the “skeleton” of the game engine for all the subsystems that other people will already be working on.

Game mechanics programmer- a person responsible for the software implementation of all gameplay elements. For example, if a game designer has provided the ability to use boxes as projectiles, the game mechanics programmer's task will be to make sure that the player can pick up these boxes and throw them.

3D engine programmer, graphics engine programmer- a specialist responsible for displaying the game world on the player’s screen, shaders, graphic effects, etc.

AI programmer(artificial intelligence) - its tasks include the software implementation of various models of enemy behavior, a system of triggers, conditions and other elements that control the behavior of in-game objects from the computer.

UI Programmer- responsible for user interaction with the game world through the user interface (UI), various HUDs, menus, etc.

Toolkit programmer- his tasks include creating all kinds of utilities, editors and other tools that are designed to help artists and designers complete their tasks faster, more conveniently and with better quality. Convenient tools can significantly reduce the time it takes to create individual game elements.

Network code programmer- is responsible for the interaction of the game via the Internet (or local network) with update servers, other players (multiplayer), etc.

Graphic content

Graphic content, assets- a set of game world objects that the player sees on the screen. This includes character models, environmental items, terrain, etc.

Art Director- the head of the art department, usually the most experienced employee of the art department, is responsible for coordinating the work of subordinate 2D and 3D artists, controls quality, and ensures that the general style is maintained in all works.

2D artist- a generalized name for a number of narrower specialties. The task of a 2D artist is usually to create graphic content in 2D editors (usually Photoshop) in the form of sketches, textures for 3D models, various kinds of screensavers, background images, etc. More narrow specialties of 2D artists are: concept artist, texture artist, background artist.

Concept artist- responsible for creating various types of sketches, sketches of characters, buildings, scenery, locations, etc. - in other words, in visual form it represents images and ideas of the future game. The work of the concept artist serves as a source of coordination for the actions of other members of the art department, serves to demonstrate ideas to management, investors, etc.

Texture artist- his responsibilities include creating various textures for 3D models created by 3D artists in accordance with concept drawings.

3D artist- a generalized name for a number of narrower specialties. The task of a 3D artist in general is to create 3D content in the form of models of characters, equipment, architecture and other game objects. Narrower specializations of 3D artists are: character modeler, environment modeler (environment artist), animator.

Character modeler- is engaged in creating models of game characters, their clothes, weapons, armor, etc. in a 3D package. However, characters can be both organic (humanoids) and inorganic (various types of equipment), so many modelers consider themselves organic modelers or inorganic surface modelers, depending on their skills and preferences.

Environment modeler- its tasks include modeling objects of the surrounding world, landscape, buildings, etc.

Animator- animators can be classified as a separate category of specialties; are engaged in animation (revival) of 3D models, most often characters. The animator's job is to create walking, running, jumping, attacking, and similar movements depending on the gameplay requirements.

Testing

Testing, quality control (QA, Quality Assurance)- the process of identifying various types of errors and defects in the game content. Testing must be carried out to avoid partial or complete inoperability of the game for the end user.

Testing can be carried out by the game publisher's testing department, the developer's testers, independent testers, as well as during public beta testing by ordinary users. The testing process boils down to running and checking a number of standard scenarios (for example, whether the game freezes when exiting to the desktop), testing gameplay, various situations etc.

Sound

Sound- The sound department provides the game with sound effects, music, and voices the game characters.

Composer- His tasks include writing music (soundtrack) for the game.

Sound engineer- is searching for ready-made sound effects for the game either by creating new ones by synthesizing several sounds or by recording original ones.

Voice Actors- Voice the game characters.

These are the main jobs in the game development industry. Of course, there are many more professions that were not mentioned (such as producers or special effects artists), but the main people involved in game development were listed.

| 12.09.2013
Many gamers are surprised that the world-famous shooters “Metro: 2033” and “Metro: Ray of Hope” were created in the CIS. They can be understood: foreign projects “Crysis”, “Call of Duty”, “Halo”, “Battlefield” and the like have multi-million dollar budgets, attract the most modern technical means, and the home-grown ideas of post-Soviet developers, who have found life almost in the garage, to such heights, they are sure, as to the moon. Is it so? For an answer, I went to Kyiv, to the 4A Games studio. My interlocutors were game designers Evgeniy “LIN” Fedorets, Alexander “ALGAR” Kostyuk and Ruslan “RUSIK” Vladimirenko.

You can often hear that game development, namely big projects, died in the CIS and many local studios moved to browser-based social networks. Do you agree with this?
E.F.: I don’t agree - we’re alive! And colleagues from Belarus and Russia refute this opinion. But seriously, our development did not die, but retreated. Many studios, in my opinion, began to develop small games because it is easier to start with. Less everything: development time, costs, risk. It's easier and faster to assemble a team. And the recipe is simple: take an already popular game as a basis, slightly modify it and sell it for half a dollar. Moreover, take in quantity - there are more attempts to make something that sells. After all, in the gaming industry, like in any other, they want to generate income as quickly as possible and with a minimum of investment. True, the result of most of these startups is predictable - dozens, if not hundreds, of them die every month. The bread of a game developer is bitter and hard, you have to work without days off or vacations, and you have to compete with very serious and established players.

Thoughts about developing in a garage evaporate as soon as you enter the 4A Games office: there is no smell of handicraft here. Each department - programmers, designers, artists, sound engineers - has its own premises, with serious equipment and excellent conditions. The company also has its own recording studio, albeit small, but decently equipped.

So, this is where soundtracks and other voiceovers are recorded?
E.F.: Most of what you hear in the game was recorded here. However, a lot was created on the side: our composers often prefer to create in their own studios, providing a ready-made result. And we do not oppose this. In the end, quality is important to us, and any limits and restrictions can have a detrimental effect on the product.

Besides programmers, artists and scriptwriters, who else is working on creating the game?

E. F.: There are many outsourced performers, mainly working on sound and animation. And, of course, a large group of testers – both ours, domestic and foreign. Essentially, this is a huge quality department that checks the game for bugs.

Of course, I didn’t calm down - I wonder what else developers use? It turned out that the technical park is huge: the studio cooperates with both video card manufacturers and console manufacturers - and all of them end up in the 4A Games office long before the official release.

R.V.: Every employee is provided with everything necessary equipment, which will be upgraded in a timely manner. Technologies are constantly improving, and we must keep up with progress. The games we have released meet modern quality requirements - and this is impossible to achieve on outdated equipment. We are not averse to new technologies, for example, we actively use the so-called motion capture - it is simply necessary for projects on the scale of “Metro: A Ray of Hope.” Our company rented this equipment, and most of the scenes in the game were made with its help. The rest of the animations were created with the help of outsourcers and our own animators.

Almost all the nuances of the project are worked out in parallel on several platforms, and any participant can launch the game simultaneously on both PC and console in no time. Is the code highly portable?

E. F.: The game can be easily ported to any platform, including Linux and Android. The latter sounds incredible, but a similar experiment was carried out by one of our programmers - out of pure curiosity, I demonstrated the possibility of transferring the game to a tablet.

E. F.: Only a few manage to get to us, and only by personal invitation. We don’t just recruit people off the street - not only professionalism is important, but also personal qualities. We value every team member and are very reluctant to part ways. Each of the project participants has the right to express their opinion, make a proposal, and it will certainly be discussed.

It is thanks to this approach that a huge number of attractive elements appeared in the game. The main work on the implementation of the project falls on the shoulders of game designers: everything begins with them, and ends with them. Everyone works out their own block (as a rule, this is an entire level), modeling a detail or event in the main tool - the game editor, where any, even the smallest element of the environment can be endowed with its own character, describedscripts and is represented by unique behavior. By the way, numerous debates about the physics of the game world are meaningless: it is not in the game, and the believable behavior of objects is achieved through painstaking work by animators and artists.

Along with a captivating storyline, 4A Games' games are known for their beautiful graphics. How would you describe the capabilities of your graphics engine?

E.F.: The resources of our 4A Engine, I would like to say, are limitless. In many ways this is true, believe me! Our technology allows us to create a world worked out to the smallest detail, which together allows gamers to believe: this world is real, it is imbued with life. By the way, we are not at all against other games being released on our engine. Everything is possible. But first we need to make the technology as simple as possible for the developer.

A. K.: The main feature of creating games on your own engine is the very close cooperation of designers and programmers. Programmers get involved already at the stage of the first tests of using mechanics and gameplay elements that need technology improvement. Although, in general, programmers never “switch off”, accompanying the entire process of creating a game. Technology and time go hand in hand, so there is always room for improvement. Programmers are as open as possible to improving the game engine.

When asked which component of the game is more important - technical or artistic, they answered me: “Both. And nothing else!”

Consoles are increasingly taking over the market. Many are predicting the end of the PC as a gaming platform, especially after the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. What do you think about it?

R.V.: The release of new platforms frees our hands. When developing games, we constantly ran into various limitations of the current generation of consoles - nothing can be done, they are on the last cycle of their lives. The new ones, judging by their characteristics, will make it possible to create even more beautiful, atmospheric and more realistic games. And you will definitely see this.

E.F.: Personally, I prefer PCs and don’t really believe that consoles will be able to overtake them in terms of characteristics. But we must admit that they are really getting better and more powerful. You understand: it is beneficial for developers to include a good reserve in the set-top box for at least three to five years, so as not to force the buyer to update the hardware in six months. So their potential is huge, and our engine will allow you to port the game to any of them without any problems - we will not disappoint our fans.

Technology is technology, but I’m still interested in where game development begins: with an idea, a script, or something else?

E.F.: In our case, from history. From the incredibly vivid and unforgettable story of “Metro: 2033”, meticulously presented by Dmitry Glukhovsky. From a world where humanity hangs by a thread over the abyss and lives in constant fear of final extinction. And by and large, of course, everything starts with an idea. It arises deep inside each of us, and then, discussing it with other team members, we together give birth to that very collective child, which becomes the game.

R.V.: Books by Dmitry Glukhovsky are a huge springboard for creating history and atmosphere in the game. Take “Metro Universe 2033” - it tells about the fate of other people in the post-apocalypse, and not only in Moscow. Or stories about the lives of characters surrounding Artyom both in the Metro 2033 Universe and in fan fiction. We are dealing with a huge library created by both professionals and amateurs. By the way, this saves us from the need to have a special employee on staff (as, for example, in Bioware), whose entire range of responsibilities is tracking “forgotten” storylines and the fates of characters.

The authors of the game do not believe that a shooter is just a “run and gun” game; in their opinion, this approach completely kills the idea. Good action based on deep history, must be unique, because it is the story that gives the game world that unique charm that allows it to win over the audience.

E. F.: Games in the Metro series stand out primarily for their unique atmosphere, interesting and varied gameplay, as well as attention to detail and an original storyline with a choice of actions. All this in order to come to the appropriate ending. For projects like Metro, the plot is one of the main factors, since this is a real story based shooter - a game based on great history. And the plot is the very thread that stitches the entire fabric of the game, making it a luxurious outfit. Of course, any shooter can be given a plot and declared story based, but this is completely uninteresting to us and, I believe, to our fans.

After getting acquainted with the process of working on updates - and it goes on continuously - I got the impression that, despite the release of the add-on and the summer,non-game season, employees do not rest. Evgeny confirmed my guess: for the studio there is no concept of “collective vacation” or “off season” - work does not stop for a minute. And even the change of publisher did not have an effect - on the contrary, the bankruptcy of THQ led to the fact that the game came out better tested.

A.K.: “Metro” was already completed and was in the testing stage, so no one had any doubts that there would be a new publisher and the project would be released on time. On the one hand, THQ's bankruptcy delayed the release - the game launched several months later than planned, and on the other hand, we got additional time to test and fix minor bugs.

Of course, I couldn’t resist the temptation to inquire about the plans - is the next part of “Metro” being prepared? Moreover, in a recent interview the new4A Games publisher Klemens Kandratits was clear about his expectations in this regard. Alas, the developers are in no hurry to share their forecasts.

A.K.: Options are being considered. But we prefer not to make any official statements for now.

However, I understand them: there must be some kind of intrigue! And fans of the Metro universe who are in agonizing anticipation, I think, will be warmed by the knowledge that the 4A Games team has all the capabilities for this: technology, connections, and a wonderful team.

Observer, analyst, systems engineer. Full member of the Intel Experts Club, certified specialist (Munich) in network and server technologies since 1993. He has been involved in computers and related solutions since 1985, has participated in numerous exhibitions, and has won awards for original circuit design and software developments. He received his first diploma in 1984 from the Patent Bureau of the Young Technician magazine. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and water-motor sports. “Tired of the bustle of civilization, I prefer a solitary life away from it. All free time I give it to my family and children.”

1952

The first logical computer game “OXO” was created - a computer implementation of “tic-tac-toe” (a field of three by three cells, the user made his move, after which the computer made a counter move). The game was created by A.S. Douglas during his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge (UK). Douglas wrote his dissertation on the topic of human-computer interaction, and used the game as a visual illustration. The game existed in a single copy on a large computer - the EDSAC mainframe.

1958

The first tennis simulator has been created. The creator is William Higinbotham, one of the scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (New York, USA). The game was called "Tennis for Two". In this game, two people controlled moving platforms to hit a ball. The computer did not participate in the game, but only displayed the results of the players’ actions on an oscilloscope in real time. This game existed in one single copy.

1962.

The computer game “SpaceWar!” was created. The creators are Steve Russell and a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MTI) (Cambridge, USA). The game was as follows: two small spaceships flew across the screen, shot at each other and dodged the only moving obstacle in the form of a star. Controllers were created specifically for the game, vaguely similar to modern joysticks. "SpaceWar!" became the first truly computer game, because the two previous games were only computer implementations of already existing board games. This game for a long time existed in one single copy.

(In fact, MTI started making games a little earlier. From 1959 to 1961, three games were created on the TX-0 computer, even before “SpaceWar!”. “Mouse in the Maze”: the player himself placed the walls of the maze (sticks) and a piece of cheese (a dot), and a computer in the form of a mouse (another dot) was trying to go through the maze to the cheese. -toe". Unfortunately, these games were not captured in the photo; the fact of their existence was confirmed only in words).

Start of distribution of games

1962.

In April 1962, DEC began selling the relatively small PDP-1 computers. The basic package of these computers included the game “SpaceWar!” as a test program. Thus "SpaceWar!" became the first game to be released into circulation.

1966.

Ralph Baer, ​​having learned that his idea about interactive television, voiced in 1951, is already being implemented in the form of computer games, and began developing new game prototypes. He created 7 experimental games.

1968.

Ralph Baer is developing his experimental console called "Box Brown". It was possible to play all the games he invented on it. There were also simple arcade games - “Chase Game”: two squares chasing each other on the screen; and a completely new type of “Target Shooting games”: you had to shoot at the screen with a light gun.

1969.

Programmer Ken Thompson created a video game called "Space Travel" for the Multics operating system (OS). In this game, the movement of all the planets of the solar system was simulated; the player controlled a spaceship and had to carefully land the ship on one of the planets. The remarkable thing about this game is that when it was ported to assembler, the author began writing a new UNIX OS.

1970

The computer mouse was invented. Douglas Engelbart received a patent for “display system X-Y positions on the monitor." This system looked like a square wooden mouse with large wheels. But the mouse began to be used in computer games much later.

1971.

Release of the first arcade machines. In September 1971, the first experimental arcade machine with the game “Galaxy” (version of “Spacewar”, redesigned for the PDP-11 computer) was installed at Stanford University (California, USA).

In November 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created the game Computer Space (a modification of Spacewar for arcade machines). The Nutting Associates company buys the rights to the game and produces 1,500 arcade machines with this game (but managed to sell a little more than a third of all machines). Computer Space was the first computer game in the world to be released to the general public.

A baseball simulator game “Computer Baseball” has been created for the PDP-10 computer. Creator: Don Daglow. The computer processed the player's actions and output the results to the printer.

Created text game « Star Trek" for the Sigma 7 minicomputer. Creator - Mike Mayfield. In the game, the computer described the game environment with text, and the player also answered with the help of text what actions he wanted to perform.

The game "The Oregon Trail" was created for teletype machines. The creators are Don Ravitsch and two other Carleton College students.

1972

The first home gaming console was created. On May 24, Magnavox began producing and selling its first console, the Magnavox Odyssey. All the developments of Ralph Baer, ​​created by him in 1968, were used as games for the console.

First successful sales. Due to the poor returns on the game Computer Space, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney left Nutting Associates and together founded their own company, Atari. (The name of the company comes from one of the moves in the board game Go). That same year, on November 29, Atari released its first game, Pong (a much improved version of Tennis for Two). 19,000 slot machines were sold. The game was a resounding success and worldwide fame. Pong was the first commercially successful game.

The game "Hunt The Wumpus" was created for mainframes. Creator: Gregory Job. It was a text-based adventure game.

Formation of gaming companies

1973.

The emergence of gaming companies in Japan. March 19 Kagemasa Kozuki, the owner of the Konami company, which produces and repairs jukeboxes, simultaneously begins production of arcade machines.

In May, the Hudson Soft company was founded (Sapporo, Japan). The founders are the Kudo brothers. At first, the company sold telecommunications devices, but quickly switched to developing video games. (Thus, Atari and Magnavox had their first overseas competitors).

Atari creates Gotcha, an arcade maze game.

First created online game- "Empire" on "PLATO" computers. Creator: John Daleske. It was a turn-based strategy game for up to 8 players. Players controlled spaceships, developed industry, produced goods, bought new ships.
1974.

The first civilian computer network, Telenet, was opened (a commercial version of the experimental ARPANET network of the US Department of Defense).

The network game "MazeWar" was created on Imlac PDS-1 computers. Also, this is the first game with a first-person view. In MazeWar, several players walked through a pseudo-3D maze and fought with each other.
The game "SpaSim" was created. The ideas are the same as in “MazeWar”: up to 32 players simultaneously fought among themselves online, but now not in a maze, but against the backdrop of space.

The game "Tank" from the company "Kee Games" was created. This was the first game to use a program ROM. (Immediately after this release, Atari bought Kee Games).

The first magazine dedicated to arcade machines is published. The title of the magazine is “Play Meter”.

Sales of the Magnavox Odyssey console begin around the world, and not just in the USA.

Namco acquires the Japanese division of Atari and formally enters the arcade video game market.

1975

By 1975, the initial market for consoles and arcade machines in the United States was taking shape. The market was occupied by four large companies: Atari, Sears, Coleco, Magnavox.

The first text message was created role-playing game(RPG) "Dungeon".

The first game in the "interactive fiction" genre was created, called "Colossal Cave Adventure" for PDP-10 computers. Creator - William Crowther. This game set the main direction for the development of the “adventure” genre.

First created Japanese game. An employee of Taito, Tomihiro Nishikado, produces the game Western Gun. There were silhouettes of people on the screen that you had to hit using two levers on the controller. A little later, this game was redesigned for the Intel 8080 microprocessor (the first game on a microprocessor) and released by Midway in the USA under the name “Gun Fight”.

Atari and Tele-Games release the Pong home video game console.

1976

In April Atari releases slot machine with the game "Breakout". In the game you had to hit the ball with a board so as to break all the blocks in front of you. The game was developed by Apple. It is quite possible that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had a hand in the development of the game. (A little later, the Japanese company Taito released its version of this game called Arkanoid).

First released cruel game"Death Race" based on the movie "Death Race 2000". The game sparked public outcry over violence in video games and was banned.

The Coleco company creates its own analogue of the Pong console called TelStar.

A set-top box with removable storage media has been created. In August, Fairchild Semiconductor released the Video Entertainment System (later known as Channel F). This console was the first to use replaceable cartridges. Before this, consoles had only standard, unchangeable sets of games included during production.

The console boom.

Second generation of game consoles

1977

The Atari 2600 game console goes on sale. It was thanks to this console that the popularization of computer and video games moved to a completely new level. The Atari 2600 was sold from 1977 to 1983, and during this time more than 40,000,000 copies of this console were sold!

On July 5, the first home computer, the Apple II, goes on sale. Along with computers intended for the masses, computer games are also spreading significantly.

Created text quest"Zork" (also known as "Dungeon"). This game existed on a mainframe computer network, and contained a huge number of game locations. (A little later in 1980 this huge game was released on home computers, but for this it was divided into several independent parts).
1978.

The game “Space Invaders” has been created for slot machines. The author of the game is Tomihiro Nishikado from the Japanese company Taito. With the advent of this game, the arcade industry entered its golden age: arcade machines in the USA and Japan stood on literally every corner, they began to write about games in magazines, talk about it on television, and make films about it. More than 360,000 Space Invaders arcade machines have been sold.

1979.

Activision was founded. The company was founded by several people from Atari.

The first multiplayer text game "Multi-User Dungeon" (MUD) was created. The creators were two students from the University of Essex - Roy Trubshow and Richard Bartle. Interaction with the game world took place using text commands entered manually by players. All subsequent online games with a text interface began to be classified as a separate genre - MUD.

A slot machine with the game “Asteroids” was created. Atari company. 70,000 of these arcade machines were sold.

The first pocket game console "Microvison" was released. The authorship belongs to the American company Milton Bradley, which previously developed board games. The console looked like a small rectangle with a 16x16 pixel monochrome LCD screen.

1980.

The first game in the Rogue-like genre was created. The game was called "Rogue", which gave the name to the whole genre of games. Creators: Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman and Ken Arnol. The game had full-screen graphics with a top-down view, the player navigated through a maze and destroyed monsters.

On May 22, a machine with the game “PacMan” was created. The creator is Namco. One of the first color games (16 various colors). 350,000 PacMan machines were sold. At the time of Pac-Man's creation, video games revolved around two already tired themes: sport games and space shooters. Pac-Man introduced a completely new arcade genre into games, filled with speed and drive. PacMan remains the most recognizable video game character to this day. This game has become synonymous with video games.

The first graphic quest “Mystery House” was created for Apple II computers. Creator: Roberta Williams. Despite the existing graphics in the game, commands still had to be entered in text. (A little later, Roberta Williams and her husband Ken founded the company Sierra On-Line).

The Japanese company Nintendo produces small pocket consoles with batteries and LCD screens called “Game&Watch”. (A little later in the USSR they created their own copies of these consoles under the name “Electronics IM”. The most famous of these games is “Well, wait a minute!”, where a wolf collects chicken eggs).

The “BattleZone” slot machine has been created. The player controls a tank with a first-person cockpit view. The game uses vector graphics (lines only, no polygons or textures).

Game development is afloat, it is promising and gaining popularity. We have prepared a detailed infographic on the path to learning game development.

There are many areas associated with game development, and each stage of training builds on the previous stage. For example, you should not immediately jump to game engines. Start with software development, studying mathematics with a focus on game programming, and only then move on to game development. Each of the stages presented is step by step guide, which includes books and other materials.

0. Development of games for children

Many books focus on working with the legendary and intuitive development environment for children Scratch, including ScratchJr. After the basis comes information about Python Pygame. There is a book for 5-year-olds, but most of the material is suitable for children aged 8 years and older.

1. Computer science

Theoretical knowledge is a mandatory component, without which further study is meaningless. This selection of educational literature includes the basics, information about algorithms and mathematics in the context of studying computer science.

2. Programming languages

Speaking the language of a computer is not easy, but it is possible. And there are a lot of such ways. For example, the C language has significantly influenced the software industry by sharing its syntax with the popular C#, C++ and Java. C++, in turn, is a powerful language for creating effective programs and software systems. Many also write games in C#: the language is fast, convenient and allows you to start development faster.

But Lua adopted something from C++. Script language is good for game logic. It will make it easier to initialize a level, bind tasks to objects, change the behavior of NPCs interactively without having to recompile the project, and much more.

3. Creating applications

And if computer science is a theoretical basis, then there is more practice here. Game development is a bumpy road, and the best place to start is with apps. Books with practical tasks, as well as information about patterns and UML will help you figure out what's what.

4. Mathematics for game development

No, there will not be a school course in algebra and geometry. The selection is divided into the basics of mathematics in the field of game development and a more advanced level.

5. Game programming

Hardware platforms, OS, API sets, algorithms, cross-platform and others important aspects, which will form the basis of the game being developed. The books are supplemented by a number of game development articles that contain useful information on programming.

6. Game engine development

The engine is the heart of the game, which “downloads” the functionality and necessary tools. In the first books you will get acquainted with architecture and design. “Game engines” are further divided into tools, optimization, scripts and Additional materials in the form of articles. During the introduction, patterns, algorithmic tricks, optimization in Unity and other nuances are touched upon.

7. Computer graphics

Yes, content is important, but it is computer graphics that are analogous to the application interface that users will see. Therefore, it should be given special attention.

No wonder this section is the largest. This includes the basics of programming with Real-Time 3D, DirectX and OpenGL. Everything is supplemented with information about rendering and technologies. Direct3D and OpenGL received special attention in the selection.

8. Game audio

Game development also concerns audio: these are sounds made by NPCs, the main character, phenomena or objects, as well as music. Audio programming included only two books, but they provide the necessary information in an accessible way.

9. Game physics and animation

One of the most difficult stages. In addition to the software basis and pictures, there must be laws by which all this interacts. Game physics and animation programming are covered in 17 books. Imitation of liquid is separately affected.