Stages in game development

  Melvin       January 30, 2020

The game development process has various stages. They are combined and classified into main three stages. 

Let's see each stage in detail.

Pre-Production:

Pre-production is the initial phase of game development. This stage is further subdivided into four stages.

IDEA:

The idea is the main source of a game. Each game is unique because of its innovative and creative idea. Game is nothing without an idea. When an idea pops up there are few questions that must be discussed and analyzed.

What is the game is all about?

Why do we want to make such a game?

Who is our player?

Is this game going to fun?

Will we be able to satisfy the players? What surprises are we going to give the player?

If we are going to do a game that is already in stores, then how are we going to make it unique and different from other games?

FORMING A CONCEPT:

This is the brainstorming session where the people involved in the game start discussing the game mechanics, main concept or rules of the game, gameplay, technology, targeted devices, which programming language that suits the platform and time needed to complete the game. Once this is discussed it is documented for a quick game review.

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT(GDD):

It is also known as the Storyboard. It describes the game’s concept and the major gameplay in detail. It includes a detailed description of the design for the game. It also includes sketches about the game like how the game is going to look, what happens in each scene, how the player and enemy are going to look. This document changes each time when the requirement changes.

PROTOTYPE:

It is important to create a playable prototype. The prototype should include most of the important features we wanted in our game. Changes can be made in a prototype according to the design later when the game is in the production stage.

PRODUCTION:

This is the main stage of game development. With the architecture designed and prototype created, the team will start with the actual development in this stage. The designers start designing, the programmers starting coding, the animators start making sprites or 3d models that needed for the game and the sound engineers start finding or start making the best sounds for the game.

Testing:

Once the first playable version of the game is available quality analysts and testers start analyzing and test the game. During the testing stage, the main bugs or errors are found and reported to the developers. Testing includes alpha and beta testing phases. In alpha testing, the game is exposed to a wide range of players to get feedback about the gameplay and the behavior of the game in a wide range of devices. In beta testing, the game is completely free of bugs and the game is already ready for release. This phase is used to test the performance and make final fixes.

POST PRODUCTION:

Once the game is completed it is released. To have continual growth the game updates are very important. If we want live players then we have to prove that the developers of the game are live by giving frequent updates. Each time when a game is updated new and creative things must be included in the game.

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Author : Monisha