How does all the code, art and sound effects come together?
All the bits and pieces that make up a game - code, art, sound effects and the levels themselves - come together in what we call a pipeline. We have a process by which there's a sensible order in which things sort of come online. Initially, a game level will just be literally a paper design and that will be put together by the designer so that they'll get a basic idea of how they want their level to work. At that point, you'll probably talk with the artists and the coders and say: "This is how I want my game level to work. This is sort of the specific functionality I might require from it." You'll talk to the artists and say: "This is my idea for this game level. It's set on a beach (for example) so this is the art that I'll need for it." Once you get the basic building blocks of the level working, the game designer will just use placeholder assets, assets that are just thrown away but might be in the form of grey boxes, whatever it takes to get the level working. Once it is working, that's the point where you'll actually start involving the artists, and say: "Its time for you to make the game level look great." We don't want to do it the other way around if I start changing it around. Artists will get involved at that point. Sound and the other elements, I think, are something that is constantly ongoing. You require sound for so many elements of a game that you need to get started on that from the get go. There's no sort of obvious point where it is too early to put the sound in. You can start putting placeholders in, at least initially, and then start polishing those over the course of a game. For code, it's in response to the core features of the game, so you get those right at the start and then respond to any specific requests that might be happening along the way.
