Does Game Development Require Coding?

Yes, game development requires coding, it actually requires a lot of coding if you want to make a game that will attract the attention of many users. You can make a very simple game without coding but if you want to make a game that will make a difference in this competitive industry, you need programming.

There is a lot that goes into a successful development of a game. You need animators, UI designers, artists, producers, programmers, etc. This combined effort brings together varying skills that are important for making a great and successful game.

 A game designer, artist, animator, or producer may not need any coding skills but a programmer is still needed to bring a game to life and add all the interactivity, scoring systems, controls, economics, progress, and the mechanics.

A lot of powerful, high-quality games take a very long time to develop, during the development process, bugs are introduced and fixed through programming. There is a lot of testing and programmers have a huge responsibility to make a game functional.

To make it easy, quick, and effective to develop games, game developers use game engines. Game engines do most of the heavy lifting and have many reusable elements to help game developers not to reinvent the wheel.

Some game engines like Game Maker help developers to develop and build for different platforms games without writing code. But there is a limit to what you can build, because of this, Game Maker has a programming language called Gamer Maker Language (GML) to help developers extend the functionality of their game through programming.

Ultimately, even if you use a game engine that has a drag and drop feature for developing a game, you still need programming to extend the functionality of your game. The programming languages that are popularly used by game developers include C++, C#, and Lua.

DRAG AND DROP GAME ENGINES

Many game engines provide an interface for drag and drop to help game developers and beginners to make good games, there is always a limit to what you can do with drag and drop or visual scripting. Here are some of the popular game engines that have drag-and-drop features for game development.

GAME MAKER

Game Maker Studio is an easy-to-use game engine for making 2D games and offers limited use of 3D graphics. It has a drag-and-drop feature that makes game development easy. Because of its easiness of use, Game Maker is one of the most beginner-friendly game engines.

If you want to make a more complex game with a lot of functionality, you can use the Game Maker Language (GML) for all your programming tasks. Game Maker also provides support for other programming languages such as C++ and Javascript for other advanced features.

Game Maker Studio has also a marketplace that has a lot of resources ranging from animations to sounds, backgrounds, fonts, objects, paths, sprites, scripts, shaders, and more. Some of them are free while others can be paid for.

UNREAL ENGINE

Unreal Engine is one of the most advanced, powerful, and popular platforms for making 2D and 3D games. If you are a beginner, you might find using Unreal Engine very challenging, to make it easy for beginners and other developers, Unreal uses Blueprints Visual Scripting.

Blueprints help developers to make good games without writing code, developers can have access to gameplay elements including play input, items and triggers, camera control, and many other useful elements.

If you want to make a complex game with more functionality than what Blueprints provide, you can use the C++ programming language.

Unreal Engine has also a marketplace that has a lot of resources ranging from art assets to models, sounds, environments, code snippets, and more. Some of them are free while others can be paid for.

Some of the popular games made with Unreal Engine include Fortnite, Brothers in Arms, Golden Eye: Rogue Agent, Medal of Honor, Shadow Ops, Shrek 2, Star Wars, Spider-man 2, Batman Arkham City, DC Universe Online, Mortal Kombat, Transformers, Crash Bandicoot, and many others.

Unreal supports many platforms, once you are done developing your games, you can deploy to different platforms such as Android, iOS, tvOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Playstations, Xbox, Nintendo, Stadia, WebGL, Oculus VR, PSVR, ARCore, etc.

Unreal Engine is also used in other industries such as Film & TV, Architecture, Simulations, Automotive & Transportation, Broadcast & Live Events, Engineering, medicine, etc.

UNITY

Unity is one of the most popular platforms for developing 2D and 3D games. It is more beginner friendly than Unreal Engine. Developers can make simple games with Unity without writing any line of code using Unity Visual Scripting.

Unity Visual Scripting helps developers to make gameplay mechanics or interaction logic using a visual-based system. If you want to add more functionality and make a complex game, you can use the C# programming language.

Unity has a marketplace called Asset store, where you can download free and paid game assets and code snippets to quicken your development process. Unity is regarded as a beginner-friendly platform, it is used by big companies as well as indie developers.

Some of the popular games made with Unity include Pokemon Go, Monument Valley 2, Tempo Run, Robocraft, Angry Birds, Sonic Dash, Marvel Strike Force, Iron Man VR, Lara Croft Go, Super Mario Run, and many others.

Unity supports many platforms, once you are done developing your game, you can deploy it to different platforms such as Android, iOS, tvOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Playstations, Xbox, Nintendo, Stadia, WebGL, Oculus VR, PSVR, ARCore, Magic Leap, etc.

Other game engines to consider that has a drag and drop functionality include GameSalad, Amazon Lumberyard, RPG Maker, Godot Engine, etc.

CONCLUSION

It can be seen that it is possible to make simple games with limited functionality using game engines without writing code. But if you want to make any impactful game that attracts the attention of many users, you need programming.

Ultimately, game development requires coding to build good games. Programming is needed to make games super interesting and highly entertaining.