TECHNOLOGY
How video games are made
Last Updated: Monday, September 13, 2010 | 8:38 AM ET
By Peter Nowak, CBC News
Video games
CULTURE & HISTORY
- History: The evolution of video games in Canada
- By the numbers: Profiling Canadian gamers
- Photos: Top 10 Canadian-made games
- Video: What's your favourite game and why?
- POV: What's the greatest game series ever?
- Video: How video games are made
- Audio: Video games in Ontario
- Audio: Ubisoft opens in Toronto
- Timeline: How video game music has changed
- The changing state of video game music
- The growing field of video game composition
- Q&A: Author Tom Bissell on his book Extra Lives
- Why can't Hollywood make a good game movie?
- Video games in the Middle East
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
- How video games revitalize cities
- The battle over provincial subsidies heats up
- Businesses using games to train workers
- Virgin rolls the dice on video games
- Ad spending moves into games
- Using games to influence an audience
SOCIAL
- Video: Women in games, with Ubisoft's Jade Raymond
- Games as social networks
- The thorny issue of online anonymity
- Why games aren't yet inclusive of gay people
- Social networking games on the rise
HEALTH & LEARNING
- Schools using games as teaching tools
- Does video game addiction exist?
- Mind games take aim at brain decline
- NASA, Army using games to recruit
- Spongelab's biology video games
FUTURE & TECHNOLOGY
Given the growing similarities between movies and video games, it's easy to think the two are produced in the same way. But, as the attached video shows, that's not the case.
Video game production is, as many people in the industry refer to it, "controlled chaos." Films generally start with pre-production where scripts are written, actors are cast and sets are built, then move to shooting and production, ultimately finishing with the editing, music and effects of post-production.
In video games, all of those steps happen at more or less the same time.
The staffs of Ubisoft Montreal, EA Montreal and sound studio Wave Generation — who have created such games as Assassin's Creed, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, Mass Effect 2 and Army of Two: The 40th Day — explain how.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Senior Pakistani politician shot dead
- Gunmen in Pakistan have killed a senior member of Imran Khan's Movement for Justice (PTI) party outside her home in Karachi. more »
- Search continues for 2 missing New Brunswick fishermen
- A recovery effort has resumed for two missing fishermen off the coast of New Brunswick, after a distress call was issued from their boat early Saturday. more »
- Car drives into crowd at Virginia parade
- About 50 to 60 people were injured after a driver described by witnesses as an elderly man drove his car into a group of hikers marching in a parade in a small Virginia mountain town. more »
- Spectator killed at Edmonton Jeep event
- A 20-year-old woman died Saturday during an event for Jeep enthusiasts held in a parking lot just west of downtown Edmonton. more »
Must Watch
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- High Arctic research station saved by new funding
- Canada's northernmost research lab won't have to shut down after all and will be able to resume year-round operations, with the help of a new grant from the federal government. more »
- 2 earthquakes felt in Ontario and Quebec
- Two earthquakes near the Ontario-Quebec border could be felt across both provinces this morning. more »
- Chris Hadfield's translator: Q&A with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen
- While Chris Hadfield was returning from the International Space Station on Monday night, another Canadian astronaut was offering his own unique play-by-play of the action as the Soyuz capsule plunged to Earth. more »
- Why some Canadians want to die on Mars
- More than 80,000 people have applied for a Dutch non-profit organization's proposed one-way trip to Mars. Anna Maria Tremonti, host of The Current, spoke to four Canadians — two Mars one applicants, a member of the Mars One team, and astronaut Julie Payette — about whether it's a good idea. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Chris Hadfield: The gravity of gravity May. 17, 2013 9:58 AM After five months of being Superman and a media superstar, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is now beginning the challenging task of adapting his mortal body and brain to life back on Earth.
Quirks & Quarks
- May 18: Apps for Apes May. 17, 2013 4:26 PM Scientists at more than 2 dozen zoos around the world, including the Toronto Zoo, have been using computer tablets to stimulate our bright orange primate cousins, the orangutans. And the orangutans have been loving it.
Latest Features
- Spectator killed at Edmonton Jeep event
- Car drives into crowd at Virginia parade
- Rescue attempt over for New Brunswick fishermen
- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford cancels weekly radio show
- Winning ticket sold in Florida for $590M Powerball jackpot
- Email is proof Senate greenlit expenses, Brazeau says
- Senior Pakistani politician shot dead
- Astronaut Chris Hadfield adjusts to 'earthling' life
- Harper chief of staff resigns amid Senate expense scandal

