Five Main Stages of Game Development

Games development is a complex process, and thus it takes a lot of effort to create a masterpiece. Every Game Development Company claims to offer imperative results, remember not all of them can offer the game production processes with a proper workflow and management.

Therefore, it is important to know about the entire stages of game creation, enabling you to organize and optimize your workflow.

So here, learn about game development stages and how to find a reliable partner for custom game development.

Stages of Game Development

A game development process typically consists of 5 main stages: pre-production, production, quality assurance, launch, and post-production maintenance.

Stage 1. Pre-production

The game development process should always start with proper planning, often ignored by many companies. It is essential to gather complete information about the requirements for upcoming products, such as technical aspects, specific features, etc. Managers and product owners define the goals and business of the project and create the roadmap out the core concept behind it.  

This phase includes analysis of market, competitor and target audience, choosing a platform, resource allocation, strategies and risk calculation. Once requirement gathering completes, a comprehensive Game Design Document is created to proceed further with the production stage.

Stage 2. Production

This is the major and most-labor intensive phase of video game production divided further into several internal stages.  

Prototyping

Prototyping is the initial stage of production wherein playtests of the main mechanics is built to use in the game. It requires artisans and huge investment to come up with a colossal product.  

Visual content creation

The visual content is about everything a game is packed with — characters, props, environment, and game assets. This stage has a great impact on the time spent on creating a game and depends largely on the required format of the game, either 2D or 3D.

A 2d and 3d Game Development Company though put both formats in the same pipeline, but 2D visuals require less complex technology and time for flat visual content sketching, coloring, and animation. 3D games development, on the other hand, puts a lot of challenges and typically require going through stages that include polygonal modeling (creating a basic model using polygonal figures), sculpting, texturing, rigging, and animation.

This means the process is relatively faster and more straightforward in 2D games (however, it also depends on the detailing of the content). 3D games use advanced software and tools in addition to specialized skills and knowledge.

Game level design development

This is the crucial stage where the development of the logic of the game levels takes place, which differs for each genre. For example, increasing the difficulty levels on completing a linear quest.

In this level design stage, designers also develop game mechanics, game economy design, plot and handy details such as hints labelling new mechanics and leading a player through a game, along with building transitions between levels.

Audio design and voice acting

Audio is a vital part of captivating game design. In this stage, sound specialists create soundtracks and audio effects for different play situations. It includes special sound effects to signal danger, victory, defeat, etc.  

Based on the concept of the game, some natural sounds are also added, like character steps, explosion, water or wind sound, etc. In case the characters need to be voiced, dialogue, monologue, and individual lines are recorded with the help of voice artists and integrated into the software.

Coding

Once all the elements in a game are ready, developers write numerous lines of code to combine all the content together, for which they often use game engines. The difficulty in this stage is in developing a game like a puzzle, not including mutually exclusive mechanics and running without errors and failures. Developers strive to consider all possible technical factors and create a positive user experience.

Stage 3. Quality assurance

After the production job finishes, and the game comes in its full shape, it needs to be tested to ensure it is bug-free and will function without error. No matter how complex a game is, testing for quality assurance is an inevitable process in line with successful game development. Even a minor bug can negatively impact the user experience and overall game experience. Mobile game development studios typically perform functional testing, non-functional testing, as well as Alpha and Beta testing.

Functional game testing types:

• Interoperability testing
• Regression testing
• Localization testing
• Smoke testing
• User acceptance testing
• Security access control testing

Non-functional game testing types:

• Load testing
• Performance testing
• Stability testing
• Stress testing
• Volume testing
• Usability testing
• Installation testing
• Configuration testing
• Compliance testing
• Disaster recovery testing

Alpha Testing: This is the final testing stage of a finalized game that is carried out when functionality, performance, compatibility, and other features are tested, and all the bugs are fixed.

Beta Testing: At times, Alpha testing is followed by Beta testing that does not include any technical or software tool. It is done by simulating players to find issues that end users may face while playing the game.

Stage 4. Launch

The most awaited stage of game development is the launch. Launching a game means to handover it to stores for players to buy or download. However, the process needs to be done precisely, taking into account the important terms & conditions of the particular app store.

Also, even when the game is ready, some errors still exists. Hence, the game development team continues to make improvements in the game in parallel to the launch.

Stage 5. Post-production

The story of a game production doesn’t end with the launch, it requires constant monitoring for the fixes and improvements to enrich the user experience. Professionals keep a check on the stability and performance and come with the regular release of updates. A game development company, usually update the content of the gameplay or add some exciting features and mechanics to keep users engaged.

Get a Flawless Game Development Services

Now when we are aware of the efforts it takes to create a game, you must understand that not all companies can bring effective results to the table. WebMobril Technologies is a leading unity and 2d and 3d Game Development Company that offers stunning and stress-free game development services. We have a team of experts who carries out every stage of building a game with utmost accuracy and industry knowledge.

If you have a concept for a game in any genre, WebMobril Technologies can effectively put it into action.