The 7 Stages Of Game Development

Most people who work in the video game industry will tell you that game development is never as smooth as it appears.

The few courageous people who enter the video game development industry are familiar with the culture and its tendency of putting one’s strength and determination to the test. It is the desire to create video games that look, feel, and play brilliantly is what keeps them going.

There’s a lot that goes behind the curtains for developing the tiniest of video game that you enjoy playing in your leisure time. Many people are unaware about the various stages that have to be completed while a game is being developed. Therefore, we’re here to shed some light on the topic.

Stages Of Game Development

Despite the fact that video game production is chaotic by nature, there are still rules and frameworks in place so that the work runs smoothly. Following are the stages of game development:

1. Planning The Game

A concept for a video game must exist before the writers begin writing, the designers begin designing, and the developers begin developing the video game. This is the very first step of the planning process, and it is from these foundations that every video game will grow.

The most basic questions will need to be answered at the planning stage, such as:

• What kind of video game are we putting out?
• Is it going to be 2D or 3D?
• What are some of the essential characteristics?
• Who are the characters?
• When and where will it happen?
• Who do we want to reach out to?
• On what platform are we constructing this?

It may not appear so, but conceptualizing a video game is one of the most difficult aspects of game development.

Whatever path you choose, a concept is critical to a game’s success since it puts ideas into context with what is possible.

2. Pre-Production

Pre-production, the next step of game development, brainstorms how to bring the various concepts put forth in the planning phase to reality.

This is where writers, artists, designers, developers, engineers, project leads, and other key departments work on the game’s scope and where each puzzle piece fits. Here are a few ideas of how this cooperation may look:

• Writers meet with project leaders to build the narrative. Who are the protagonists in this plot? What is the backstory of each of them? What is the relationship between each character? Are there any loose ends that need to be addressed later?
• Artists and designers meet to verify that visuals, colour palettes, and art styles are consistent and aligned with what was planned.
• Developers and engineers meet to finalise all in-game mechanics, physics, and how things will appear on the player’s screen.
• Project managers meet with representatives from several departments to determine the “entertainment factor,” which is difficult to identify until the testing stage.

Players, locations, interfaces, control strategies, and other in-game components are commonly prototyped from here to see how they appear, feel, and interact with one another. Before going on to the bread-and-butter of development- production — this is effectively the “let’s see what we’ve got” moment.

3. Production

The production stage involves the majority of the time, effort, and resources spent on video game development. This is also one of the most difficult stages of the video game production process. During this time:

• Character models are created, rendered, and refined to ensure that they seem exactly as they should in the story.
• Every time your character steps across sand, gravel, or cement, audio design works diligently to ensure that everything sounds realistic.
• Level designers create dynamic, immersive settings that are appropriate for a variety of playstyles.
• Take after take, voice actors read huge volumes of scripts to achieve the correct emotion, timing, and tone.
• To bring each piece of in-game content to life, developers write thousands of lines of source code.

These and many other events may take years to get it right, and that’s assuming only minor changes are made along the way, which is far from the reality.

4. Testing

For quality control, every feature and mechanic in the game must be tested. This may be called Game-testing. A game that hasn’t been fully tested isn’t even ready to be released as an Alpha. During this stage, a play-tester may point out the following:

• Are there any locations or levels that have bugs?
• Is it possible for me to pass through this barrier or a closed environment?
• Are there any features that can be utilised to gain an advantage in the game?
• Is it possible for my character to become locked in this location indefinitely?
• Is the dialogue between the characters old and boring?

There are different types of play-testers. In an attempt to “break” the game, some play-testers conduct stress testing by running into walls hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Other play-testers run “fun factor” tests to check if the game is too difficult or easy, or finish the game to see if it is fulfilling enough. The game will not sell many copies if it lacks a “fun element.”

The game should be ready for a late-Alpha or even Beta release after numerous hours of testing and modification, depending on how polished the in-game elements are. This is the first time the game will be available to the general public.

5. Pre-Launch

For game developers, the pre-launch phase is a difficult time. Self-doubt may creep in when you consider how the general public will react to your first working product.

“Will they find our game entertaining?” Will they discover new bugs? What kind of media attention are we going to get as a result of this?”

However, before an official Beta copy is available, the game will need to be promoted. After all, how else are people going to find out about it?

To get people’s attention, publishers nearly always use a hype trailer that combines cinematic and sample game play.

Independent studios do not usually have access to large marketing expenditures to promote their games. Fortunately, crowdsourcing and advertising have the potential to be equally productive. Independent companies frequently send early-access Beta copies to prominent internet gaming personalities so that they may live stream to their followers.

6. Launch

The months prior to a game’s expected release date are mostly devoted to squashing enormous backlogs of problems- some old, some new- discovered during the testing stage. A studio will construct a hierarchy of bugs to squash for games with a lot of problems. The “game-crashing” problems will be at the top of the hierarchy, while minor bugs will be at the bottom.

Developers would generally polish the game as much as possible before it launches, in addition to fixing bugs. Perhaps that mountain range can be made deeper. The character’s leather straps might be textured a little more. Let’s finally do something about those trees swaying in the wind. Even if the modifications are modest, they can help make a video game more enjoyable.

7. Post-Launch

For every game studio, post-launch is one of the most exciting moments. Years of dedication have paid off, and video game sales are (hopefully) on the rise. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.

It’s not unusual for video games to launch with minor flaws. During the post-launch period, the first several months are usually dedicated to finding and solving problems. Players are also expected to submit bug reports or speak up about issues on online forums, which gaming studios rely on. All of this is part of the post-launch support.

In today’s gaming industry, releasing fresh material is frequent since it enhances a game’s replay value and attractiveness. New levels, stories, and multiplayer modes are just a handful of the possibilities available to a game developer.

Even for the most experienced gaming studios with hundreds of people, video game creation is a whirlwind of a process. However, knowing the ups and downs of each stage is vital to developing a complete and polished game.

It’s also important to remember that no two games, even from the same company, are made equal. Roadblocks are unavoidable in game development; deadlines will be missed, and tools will have their limits. But game developers go on, for the sake of the public who is forever excited for new games.