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Do you remember dreaming of game development back in childhood? Coming up with concept art on a piece of paper hidden under the math textbook? Talking with your friends about the amazing gameplay features you want to add, crazy plot twists, remarkable characters? Using toys to recreate the level structure?
Back then, game development must have seemed so easy! In reality, though, making games can be very challenging. How do you even get started and what do you need to do?
There are several stages that we can point out:
Let’s take a closer look at each stage!
Obviously, it all starts with the idea that comes to your head. Inspiration may come from other games or mediums, real-life experiences or daydreams, or even gaming industry trends.
At this stage, game developers choose the genre that is suitable for their ideas, come up with the effective art style and gameplay mechanics, think of the game’s structure and the content, and so on. Changing some things on the go, cutting content, replacing it with something that may suit the game better can be pretty easy in some cases, but some aspects must be decided on the rudimentary stage of game development, otherwise changing it in the future will be really challenging!
If you’re an independent game maker, it’s much easier to be your own boss and choose things freely. The biggest advantage of the indie scene is that you can do exactly what you want, provided you or your team can actually implement it. Nowadays, gaming industry veterans often decide to go indie and work on a new project with a small team, because the creative freedom is incredibly valuable.
Sadly, marketing and budgeting can be a challenge in a case like that. Luckily, you can use a crowdfunding campaign on a platform like Kickstarter, or even release the game as the Early Access title, providing players with the game still in development, allowing you to gather feedback and promote the game in advance. Both of these proved to be a saving grace for a lot of indie developers.
If you’re working under the wings of a big game studio, with a big publisher, they can take care of thinking about marketing and budgeting. Big studios always think about the financial success of a product they’re working on, and in these cases, it’s also important to be sure the budget and time you’re planning to use to develop the game are also decided upon and planned ahead.
Pre-production stage of game development requires artists, writers and designers to come to an agreement and settle on things. Will this work? Is this worthy of developers’ time and effort? Will it be fun to play, nice to look at? Is it going to work properly, or perhaps some technical limitations must be taken into account?
After all these things are decided upon, the production stage of game development starts, and a ship sails away. Code is being written, levels are being designed, game mechanics are being tested and experimented with, models, textures and visual elements start to appear.
Developers spend time building something from scratch, meeting regularly and discussing things, creating stuff, rearranging it, encountering obstacles and overcoming them — the production stage is a story in itself, full of hardships, victories and defeats, ups and lows. It really feels like building a house and requires a lot of dedication and passion.
And one day, the game that previously only existed in other people’s heads becomes playable! It can be either a prototype version or even an actual version of the game, mostly playable, but lacking some of its crucial elements such as graphics, animation, big chunks of code, levels and so on. It’s definitely not ready to be properly launched and released.
This is where the testing stage starts. And let’s just say it can be even harder than planning, developing, budgeting and scheduling! Testing phase can roughly be divided into the alpha and the beta stages of the game development.
Let’s discuss these two development stages in detail.
The alpha version of the game is something that is playable and even has its key aspects, yet it doesn’t feel like a proper game just yet and sometimes is pretty far from completion. The level is a giant empty box, the characters and surroundings are placeholders, there is no music, and yet it can be played, game mechanics are working — that sounds like a typical alpha development stage of the game.
Alpha allows developers to make sure things they are working on can be glued together on the internal level. You can test out the game mechanics, see how well the game loop is working and what things will have to be left on the cutting room floor. Saying «no» to things that were so fun during the planning stage takes a lot of strength and wisdom!
Usually, alpha stage of the game development is used for the internal testing between staff members, which makes it «closed», but in some cases, alpha can be «open», available to dedicated, passionate fans willing to help developers at this stage.
Beta version of the game is definitely closer to a release date than alpha, but it still requires a lot of effort and work. Areas start to look inhabited, characters start to feel like living, breathing things. Yet there are some bugs that have to be squashed, glitches and exploits need to be fixed, performance optimization is still required, some new stuff needs to be added, this game mechanics may not be very fun and need to be tweaked a bit. Usually, no new stuff that is radically big is added at this stage, but the old stuff is often getting changes and fixes.
Betas, too, can be open or closed, and sometimes the «early access» version we mentioned above is basically a beta version of the game: almost there, just needs more work, more polish, more love.
If the game you’re developing is a multiplayer game, beta can be a great opportunity to test out the servers’ stability. In some cases, it can be called «a network test». Open betas may represent a project closer to its release date and provide you with incredibly important feedback, some of which can be positive and inspirational, and some of which — be constructive, allowing you to look at the game from a different perspective.
After testing is done, the polishing stage of the game development comes. This is where you have to double-check everything, play through the game many-many times to make sure everything is working as intended. Publishers start to increase the hype by promoting the game. Players start to count days until the release date. Things are getting pretty intense.
And finally, the launch, the great release. People get acquainted with the game you and your team spent so many nights and days cooking. They play through it, discuss it with other players and form their opinion, once again providing you with the feedback. It can be very useful and can help you with providing post-launch support, if you’re willing to do it. And if the game you made is a huge financial success, chances are they will ask you to double things up in a sequel, which your player base now expects from you!
After the release, you can still support the game by releasing new patches, fixing bugs or even adding new content, either as a free update or in the form of downloadable content players can purchase.
Fans usually appreciate this kind of post-launch support as it increases the longevity of your game. Proper continuation of a successful title allows it to extend its lifespan, providing you with a long-term fanbase and an opportunity to tweak things months and years after the game's release.
Game development is not as easy as some people may think and it requires going through several important stages.
Can you imagine painting a picture, but the brush is gigantic and controlled not by your hand, but by several people holding it and following the instructions you give them from a distance? And just like everything in the world that is immensely difficult, a game development stage demands planning ahead and going through the testing stages, to make sure you will end up with a good, stable product at the end. It requires a team of talented professionals, from game designers to art teams.
But do not be discouraged, and remember that fortune favors the brave! A lot of games are made by passionate people, who are willing to go through complicated development stages and deal with difficulties to share their passionate vision with the world!
If it gets too complicated, an outsourcing company may be an incredibly useful assistance, providing you with great support of professionals and their resources in terms of art, 3D modeling, QA testing, and so on, helping you to focus on other things.
At RocketBrush Studio, we perform different kinds of game outsourcing services to help you make games easier. Feel free to investigate our portfolio, learn more about our workflow and take a look at testimonials
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