Game Development Terms and Glossary

Like any massive industry, the game industry has more than its share of acronyms, abbreviations, and jargon. Industry jargon helps people on the inside communicate more easily, but makes it hard for outsiders or newbies to understand what’s going on. How can you search for the information you need, if you don’t even know which terms to use?

If you’re new to the game industry, the glossary below will get you up to speed fast. It avoids “power user” jargon, instead focusing on the key terms you’ll need during your job search, or your first year on the job.

Anything missing? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll add a definition right away. Thanks!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

AAA – also Triple-A – Big games with big budgets; AAA games can require hundreds or even thousands of developers, working for several years, with a development budget of millions of dollars.

Accessibility – Designing a game to be playable and fun for a wide range of players, including people with disabilities.

Agile Development – A way of organizing how the game team works together on a project, which emphasizes flexibility, communication, and making iterative improvements to the game.

AI – Artificial Intelligence – In-game characters that are controlled by the game software instead of by players. Also called NPCs (non-player characters).

Alpha – A build of a game that’s still early in development. At this stage, the game has many placeholder assets and a lot of bugs, but is far enough along to be play tested.

Analytics – Player behavior data that the game collects and sends to the developers, to help them make decisions on how to improve the game play, performance, or monetization.

Animator – Artist responsible for working in 3D animation software to design and create the motion that is used by the game’s character models, such as running, jumping, talking, and more.

ARPG – Action Role-playing Game – Game genre where players take on the role of a fictional character, and develop the character using “action movie” mechanics such as shooting, running, fighting, etc.

Asset – Term for any bit of content that the development team creates and puts into the game, including art, sound effects, music, models, animations, game levels, etc.

Audio Engineer – Person responsible for creating and/or implementing a game’s sound effects.

Audio Implementer – Person who works inside a game engine or other audio tools, in order to connect music and sound assets so they work as expected inside the game.

Augmented Reality – AR – A gaming technology that overlays game elements onto a view of the real world, usually using a smart phone camera or specialized glasses.

B

Balance – The process of tuning a game’s mechanics to be not too hard, and not too easy, resulting in a “just right” level of difficulty to be fun for players.

Beta – A build of a game that’s not finished yet, but is fairly bug-free and has all of the pieces in place and is ready to be play tested with a large number of players.

Bug – Any error or glitch in a game that causes it to work incorrectly. The development team strives to find and fix most bugs before releasing the game to the public.

Build – A specific version of a game, either during development or after it has been released; usually stamped with a unique version number that is incremented each time the game is built during production.

C

Career Paths – The various jobs and specialities in the game industry such as artist, designer, programmer, audio engineer, producer, marketer, tester, and many more.

Character Modeler – Artist responsible for using 3D modeling software to create the game’s characters and creatures.

Cloud Gaming – A gaming technology that lets a player stream games directly from a remote server, rather than running it on local hardware.

Community Manager – Person at a game company responsible for engaging with the game’s player community, answering questions, communicating updates, and fostering productive discussions.

Composer – Person responsible for creating the game’s musical score, musical cues, and stingers.

Concept Artist – Artist responsible for developing the initial visual designs of the game’s characters or environments during pre-production, often by creating sketches or paintings and iterating with input from the game team.

Contractor – also Freelancer – Person who is not employed by a game company, but works under a temporary agreement to create game code or assets and deliver to the game company on a pre-arranged payment schedule.

Code – Also Source Code – The collection of computer instructions that has been written to make the game function. Code is written using a programming language, usually by game programmers but sometimes also by technical artists or other team members.

Creative Director – Person responsible for developing and guiding the game’s high-level creative vision in terms of art, design, theme, and overall aesthetic.

Cross-platform Development – Creating a game that can be played on multiple kinds of devices and operating systems, such as PC, Mac, game consoles, and mobile phones.

Crunch – A period of intense development work in order to hit an important development date. Often involves long hours, and relatively high stress, sometimes contributing to developer burnout.

Cutscene – Animated sequence inside a game, where player input is temporarily disabled; cutscenes are often highly cinematic and emphasize key points in the game’s storyline.

Cover Letter – A one-page letter included with a job application. Job applicants use a cover letter to convey personality and interest, and set context for the applicant’s resume.

D

Debugging – The process of troubleshooting and then fixing errors (bugs) in the game’s code or game play.

Director – Person responsible for overseeing a department in a game studio (art director, engineering director, etc.). Is usually also a hiring manager.

DLC – Downloadable Content – New content that can be downloaded and added to a game after the game has been released.

E

Economy – The virtual economics of a game, such as the price and distribution of digital goods, and the rate at which players can earn in-game currencies.

Environment Artist – Artist responsible for using 3D modeling software to create the game world’s terrain, structures, and many other environmental elements other than characters.

Executive Producer – Person responsible for managing other producers, often over multiple in-development game projects.

F

First-party – also 1P – Refers to a game being made by the company that owns the IP and will be publishing the game once it’s complete. Compare to third-party.

FMV – Full-motion Video – Video clip shown to advance the game’s storyline during gameplay, often depicting scenes or events that would be difficult or impossible to create using the game engine.

Freemium – also Free To Play – Game that can be played without an up-front purchase, but may contain optional in-game purchases (compare to Premium).

G

Game Artist – Person on a game team who creates 2D or 3D art assets for the game such as characters, environments, visual effects, animations, and more.

Game Designer – Person on a game team who has a vision of how the game (or part of a game) will work and what makes it fun, and then guides the game team toward that goal.

Game Design Document – GDD – A detailed document that outlines all aspects of the game’s intended design. Can include information such as story, characters, key game mechanics, monetization, and more.

Game Developer – Depending on context, can mean 1) any person who is working on a game team, 2) a game programmer, or 3) a team or company that builds games.

Game Development Team – Cross-functional group of game developers (programmers, artists, designers, etc.) working together to create a game.

Game Engine – A software package or collection of tools that can be used to create a video game. Most game engines have tools that are used by multiple job roles including programmers, artists, designers, and others.

Game Genre – A way to classify similar video games into groups based on gameplay mechanics and other important differentiating qualities.

Game Tester – Also QA Tester – Person responsible for analyzing an in-development game to find bugs, and then reporting the bugs to the development team to be fixed.

Gamification – The use of game industry techniques to make non-game experiences more fun or engaging, for example adding achievements to a social media app, or adding a level-up system to a retail store’s loyalty program.

H

Hiring Manager – Manager at a game company, often a department head, responsible for growing the team by hiring new people into the company.

Hitbox – An invisible shape (2D or 3D), usually placed around a game character or object, and used by the collision-detection system to determine collisions between game objects.

I

Indie – Short for “independent,” can refer to: 1) An individual game developer who does not work for a larger company, 2) a relatively small game company not owned by a larger company.

IP – Intellectual Property – Legal term for intangible ideas in the game that are valuable because they could be protected by copyright or used in other games, movies, books, etc. Examples might include the game’s world, main characters, or story.

J

Job Interview – Special meeting between a job applicant and employees of a game company, where the company asks detailed questions with the purpose of deciding whether the applicant would be a good fit for the job and should receive a job offer.

Journalist – Person responsible for writing online articles about games and the game industry; can include investigation and analysis, interviews with game developers, reviews of video games, gaming culture, etc.

K

Keyframe – A specific frame in an animation where a change takes place to the animated object’s position, rotation, scale, or other attribute. Animators can create just the keyframes, and let the game software create the “in between” frames.

L

Launch Day – Date on which the completed game is released (“launched”) to be played by the general public.

Lead – Person responsible for guiding a related group of content creators on a game team (art lead, engineering lead, etc.), but typically is not their direct manager.

Level Designer – Person responsible for ideating and implementing game levels, including layout and pacing; can also include the work of placing triggers, writing scripts, and other technical tasks.

Localizer – Person responsible for identifying text, dialog, content, and cultural changes that should be made to a game before launching the game in a different language or region. See also translator.

M

Mechanics – The game’s rules and systems that define how players interact with the game. Examples might include jumping, crouching, casting a spell, or swinging a sword.

Metaverse – Concept referring to a game or other interactive 3D software where a large number of people can engage together in real time over the internet, typically as animated 3D representations of themselves.

Middleware – Software and tools that a game development team can use to create games faster with less work. Examples include commercial game engines, networking libraries, audio engines, physics engines, and more.

Milestone – Pre-planned date during a game’s production cycle, where the game team has agreed to deliver a certain amount of work by a certain date. Game productions have multiple milestones, used to track whether the production is on schedule for the planned launch date.

Mod – Moderator – Person who monitors discussions between a game’s players (in-game or on social media), and influences or enforces the players’ behavior and conversation to remain inclusive, respectful, and productive.

Mod – Modification – Player-created content for a game that can change the game’s graphics, game levels, or other elements of the game design.

Monetization – The process of making money from a game, usually through charging an up-front purchase fee, or by including advertisements or selling new game content inside the game (in-app purchases).

Motion Capture – The process of capturing the movements of real actors, and then applying those movements to animate characters in a game. Game animators may use motion capture rather than animating characters by hand, in order to save time and development costs.

Multiplayer – A game mode that allows multiple people to play together on different devices, either locally or over the internet.

N

NPC – Non-player Character – These are in-game characters that are controlled by the game software instead of by players. Also called AI characters.

O

Optimization – The process of making improvements to the game code, with the goal of making the game perform better in terms of frame rate, size, memory usage, battery usage, etc.

Outsource – When a game company pays an external contractors (“outsourcer”) to create some of the game assets. There can be many reasons to outsource, including: lower cost compared to hiring someone full-time, faster than hiring someone full-time, or access to specialized talent the company doesn’t have internally.

P

Physics Engine – A software component inside a game engine, which can make the game more realistic by simulating real-world physics such as gravity, particle motion, and collisions between objects.

Playtesting – The process of playing a game, and then giving feedback to the developers to help them improve the game’s pacing, mechanics, difficulty, and overall level of fun.

Portfolio – Document, often a web site, that showcases a job-seeker’s best work; is reviewed by hiring managers to help decide whether to interview a job applicant.

Porting – The process of modifying an existing game so it can be run on additional devices or operating systems.

Postmortem – A learning process where, after shipping a game, the team meets to introspect and document their experience. The goal of a postmortem document is to identify best practices, and ways to work more successfully on the next project.

Premium – Game that must first be purchased before it can be accessed and played (compare to Fremium).

Pre-production – An early, planning-focused phase of the game development cycle, when the game’s initial designs, production budgets, and team are being prepared. Followed by the production phase.

Procedural Generation – A technology that uses algorithms to create game assets automatically, such as game levels, missions, NPCs, and more.

Producer – Person responsible for organizing the game team, tracking budget and timelines, and fostering a positive and productive team environment.

Production – Main phase of the game development cycle. During production, the game team creates most of the code, art, sound, levels, and all other parts of the game. Follows the pre-production phase, and ends when the game is finished.

Product Manager – Person responsible for improving the monthly income of a live game, most often by optimizing the in-game economy, or by operating special in-game events that attract players.

Programmer – also Coder – Person responsible for using a programming language to tell the computer how the game should function. Programmers often specialize in one or more areas of game technology such as game play, graphics, physics, etc.

Programming Language – A specialized language used to describe how a game should function. Some programming languages commonly used for making games are C++, C#, Lua, and Python.

Prototype – A small, limited, early version of a game or part of a game. Game developers build prototypes in order to quickly test out some aspect of a full game to see if it works as expected and is fun to play.

Publisher – Company responsible for launching a game to players; can be responsible for marketing, manufacturing, distribution, customer support, live operations, and more.

Q

QA – Quality Assurance – Sub-team within a game studio, responsible for making sure a game is not released to the public until it meets the company’s quality bar (stability, bug count, etc.).

R

Recruiter – Person responsible for finding qualified people that may want to interview for a job at the company, and then working with a hiring manager to schedule and run the interviews.

Resume – also C.V. – Short document that describes a job applicant’s work history and experience; used by hiring managers to help decide whether to interview an applicant.

Royalty – Money paid to a game developer, usually monthly or quarterly, based on the financial success of the game.

RPG – Role-playing Game – Game genre where players take on the role of a fictional character, and develops the character by interacting with other players or NPCs, and by making decisions that affect the game’s outcome.

RTS – Real-time Strategy Game – Game genre where participants play simultaneously (rather than taking turns) to build bases, gather resources, and command units to defeat opponents.

S

Scripting – Writing code that controls game objects and in-game events. Often uses a simplified type of programming language.

Server – Specialized computer, or network of computers, which remote players can connect to over the internet to play the game with other players located elsewhere in the world.

SFX Artist – Special Effects Artist – Artist responsible for creating the game’s special visual effects such as smoke, fire, explosions, sparks, fog, and more.

Shader – Software, usually included in a game engine, which determines how 3D objects are rendered in terms of lighting, colors, texture, and other visual behavior.

Sound Designer – Person responsible for creating the game’s audio, including most everything (except music and voice over): environment sounds, animal and creature vocalizations, foot steps, weapons, special effects, and more.

Sprite – Term dating back to the 8-bit game era. A two-dimensional bitmap such as a character or object, used in a 2D video game.

Stakeholder – Any person who has a vested interest in the success of a game project. Includes team members, as well as people not on the game team such as investors, publishers, retailers, etc.

T

TDD – Technical Design Document – Written document created by the game programmers, which explains the game’s technical plan in detail; for example, how the game’s code and architecture will be constructed, how servers will be configured, and more.

Third-party Development – also 3P – Process where a game publisher pays an external game team to create a game. After the game is finished and the game team is paid, the game publisher takes ownership of the game and has full responsibility for marketing, manufacturing, and distributing the game to the public. Compare to first-party.

Translator – Person responsible for translating the game’s text and dialogue from one language into one or more additional languages. See also localizer.

U

UI – User Interface – Visual elements of the game that are interactable but exist outside of the game world, such as menus, heads-up display, on-screen buttons, etc.

UX – User Experience – The overall experience of playing a game, including the UI, game design, performance, stability, and playability.

V

Version Control – Software used by a game team to track changes to source code and assets. Popular examples include Git, Perforce, and Subversion.

Virtual Reality – VR – A gaming technology that offers players an immersive experience in a simulated 3D environment, by wearing a headset or glasses and holding specialized motion-tracking controllers.

Visual Scripting – A method of creating game code using a visual tools with a drag-and-drop interface, instead of typing source code directly.

W

Work for Hire – Process where a game company saves time or money by hiring an outside firm or contractor to create assets for the game. The outside company/contractor is paid for doing the work, and does not keep any ownership or royalties from the game.

Writer – Person responsible for creating and developing the game’s overall story, plot, characters, and dialog.

X

XML – eXtensible Markup Language – A human-readable markup language that game developers can use to store game data such as character stats, game level data, item properties, enemy behavior, and more.

Y

Y-axis – The vertical axis in a 2D coordinate system, used to represent the up-and-down directions in a 2D video game. In 3D games, Y-axis can be the up-down direction, or the side-to-side direction, depending on the game engine’s coordinate system.

Z

Z-axis – In 3D games and software, Z-axis can be the up-down direction, or the side-to-side direction, depending on the game engine’s coordinate system.

Image: Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash