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I learned this lesson 10 years ago at my first game dev job. The lead artist called himself a game developer and I said "Well I thought developer was a term reserved for engineering." They gave a long passionate explanation about how it devalues the rest of the industry and that game developer is "one who makes a game". To say that engineering is the only person to make the game is completely wrong. As I could not, as an engineer of 15+ years now, 10 of those in games, could not make a game entirely myself with just my engineering skills.
This comic hits home because anyone claiming that game developer is an engineering-only title has never worked on a team project. Anyone who goes in the credits is a game developer. Including random executives to backend developers on the game.
By that same logic, nobody can be a software developer because in order to develop a software project involving 100 people, one needs HR, managers, QA/testing, SREs, sysadmins, architects, finance, ...
Nobody can be a brick layer either because in order to build the Burj Khalifa one needed architects, engineers, glaziers, plumbers, managers, secretaries, fork-lift drivers, truck drivers, etc.
Every team project has is multi-disciplinary. To claim one discipline doesn't exist because in order to complete the project all disciplines are necessary, is willingful misrepresentation of facts.
some electricians who work on office buildings are
kaijusgamedevs(without them, your in-game lamps wouldn't work.)
No, you've reversed my logic. Everyone you named would be a software developer but there is only one team of software engineers. The entire point is that "game developer" isn't a discipline on the team. It's a member of the team. It'd be like arguing the term medical professional only means doctors.
It’d be like arguing the term medical professional only means doctors.
That makes more sense and I agree with it. The way you wrote it (or the way I interpreted it) was like "we're all doctors because a hospital can't run without the rest of its staff". I still disagree that a level designer can be call themselves a game developer. That'd be like a nurse calling themselves a doctor.
A game developer is anyone on the team which creates the game. A level designer is a game developer. A game engineer is the term you are confusing it with. This is common because of the term Software Developer but the developer part of game developer comes from the creation/construction side. Like a property developer or community developer.