From afar, the Game Development process seems really simple. You just have to decide on a game concept, develop the game, and then launch it. After the game’s launch, it will earn you money and prove a profitable asset.
However, when it comes to the Eagle View of Game Development, it is a complex and rigid process comprised of endless tasks. In reality, the game development process is continuous and does not end even after the game is launched.
This article will examine the detailed Game Development Process and its steps.
Let’s get started.
What is Game Development?
Game development is the act of creating, designing, and programming games. A game is a program in which the users can control and interact with various elements meaningfully. The game will have a starting and end point, and the actions/decisions the user takes will impact the storyline.
Multiple steps are involved in developing a game. There are also multiple platforms that one can target. If you create and launch your game for multiple platforms, it will increase your game’s reach, and you will be able to earn more out of your game.
One of the best platforms you should target is the Mobile platform.
Let’s look at why you should invest in mobile game development.
Why Invest in Mobile Game Development?
Mobile is one of the most used devices, so the mobile game market is highly lucrative, extensive, and diverse. Mobile gaming has become popular with the latest technologies and advancements in gaming. The latest Statista report shows that 3.24 billion people play mobile games worldwide. And these figures are expected to increase in the coming years.
The Covid Virus and Lockdown situation greatly affected users being more familiarized with their devices and creating mobile gaming habits. According to GameAnalytics, the number of mobile gamers skyrocketed by 46% during the first quarter of 2020.
According to a recent report by Newzoo, the mobile game industry will develop at a compound yearly growth rate of 11% and expect to reach $116.4 billion in revenue by 2024.
Source: Newzoo
These figures indicate that the mobile gaming industry is highly profitable and is growing at astonishing rates. Whatever platform you plan on targeting, make sure you target the mobile platform too, and get the best results and a wider audience for your game.
Game Development Stages – 8 Steps Process Guide
A typical game development process as an overview is the planning stage, where the game idea is planned and how to turn this idea into an actual playable game. Then comes the development stage, in which the game will be developed using coding, programming, game development engines, and other technologies, and then comes the pre-production, where the game is polished and updated.
However, the game development process involves much more than meets the eyes. We will now expand the game development process and consider everything to showcase the game development stages with the greatest details.
1. Evaluation
The first step to game development is the evaluation of your idea and your requirements. It is important to check the idea’s viability before developing a game based on the same. The best way to do an evaluation is by searching for similar games. See how those games are performing and what makes them special.
Find the audience market of your game, and see if the market is feasible or not. Does your game idea belong to a dying market? What are the genre and subgenre of your game?
Evaluate the game with utmost sincerity, and you will get the answer whether your idea can be transformed into a profitable game or not?
2. Pre-production
This is the planning stage and a clearance stage. Do you have to be clear about what you want? How do you want it?
This will help create the foundation of the upcoming game development process and help set clear goals and objectives. The tree’s roots are always too deep; likewise, this process is very deep, and you will have to figure out multiple things.
The more detailed you keep everything in this stage, the smoother and problem-free all the other steps will be.
In this step, let’s look at the most important things you will have to decide.
— Budget
A limited budget does not mean that your game will be of poor quality or will not be able to deliver a good gameplay experience. Lower budgets can also create amazing games, however, you may have to sacrifice the number of levels or features, but they can add later. Once the game is a hit, the budget can be increased on the updates.
Decide the estimated budget that you can use, and then proceed accordingly.
— Game Type
There is N number of types for the games. Here, you must choose the genre and the dimension of the game (2D or 3D). Nowadays, 2D games also rival 3D graphics and experience so you can choose any of the above.
The genre will depend on your game’s idea, targeted audience, or future scaling. With sports games, you cannot add more levels or functionality. You can add as many levels and new features with RPG, shooting, or casual games as possible.
— Platforms
How can the production start without deciding on the platforms? There are multiple platforms to choose from, and each platform has its dedicated users. To target more users, you should opt for multiplatform game development. If the budget is less, start with one platform and scale up as the game succeeds.
The mobile platform is one of the preferred platforms as mobile game-playing players are growing rapidly.
— Target Audience
The targeted audience will depend on the type of your game. If it is a casual game, you will have a wider audience as young and older people are attracted to casual games. If it is a cricket game, you must target the male audience as the main audience; if you opt for a candy-matching game, the female audience is mainly homemakers.
Decide your target audience based on the game’s genre and platform.
All these should be answered and documented. This will give the development team a clear idea of what needs to be done or added. Once you have answered all the above points, now is the time for some other details.
— Gameplay
What experience should the game offer? How should the controls be, and what will be the game’s story? What is the goal of the game?
Provide detailed answers to all these questions. Take the help and suggestions of the game development team to form the perfect gameplay experience.
— Game Mechanics
The game’s rules define the way the player interacts with it, accounting for its limitations and specifics. The following factors are considered: goals, constraints, modifiers, rewards, achievements, special powers, etc.
— Characters
Characters will connect your game with the audience. Decide the protagonist and antagonist of your game and how their personality and behavior should be. You will also have to decide the side characters, their personalities, and their contribution to the game and the storyline.
— Plot
The game’s plot will decide the game’s situation and the characters. Usually, if it is a sports game or a casual game, they can suffice without any plot. If the game is big, the plot will be necessary to support and hold the game’s events together.
— Monetization Strategy
After you have decided on the gameplay experience, genre, and targeted audience, now is the time to decide on the monetization strategy. You can earn from the game by making it a paid game, by using ads, or with in-game purchases. There are various ways, and the development team can be proved very helpful in formulating the monetization strategy.
3. Production
This stage can start after you have decided what type of game you want and all the pre-production details are documented.
Now is the time for the most Dynamic, long, and difficult stage. This will also be the most lengthy stage. All the design, programming, and coding are carried on at this stage. If all the details are documented in the pre-production stage, no serious problem will arise in this stage.
There are three parts to the production stage.
— Graphic and Designing
The artists and designers will start with designing the characters, assets, environment, visual effects, VFX, and other things. They will also work on the different levels and design the main obstacles and difficulties the players will face. All the designed assets will follow the mood of the game. For example, if it is a future game, there will be robots, flying cars, etc.
All the assets and environment will describe the mood and concept of the game and help support the story. A comprehensive description of the game design document provides maximum clarity and conformity with the game style.
— Programming
The game developers will now start their actual work. They will use the game engine that is the most suitable for your game and will start coding to develop teh actual playable game. The game would be based on the prototype if it had been made earlier. The programming part is the longest one.
— Sound Engineering
Emotions are best described with sound. The sound engineers will start their work for all the game parts. They will work on the voice-overs, the effects, the music, etc., to make your game more engaging and captivating. The sound effects will be the key to maximizing the gameplay experience.
The production stage will be the largest one. There will be various trials and errors, multiple changes and adjustments, and thus it will take time. The most important aspect while this stage is communication.
The work is now fully in the hands of the development team, so the team must stay connected with the client to sync with the regular progress of the game development. They should contact the team immediately if any decisions or changes are to be made.
4. Testing
Quality Assurance and Testing is the stage that will check each aspect of the game to ensure that the game results are the same as planned.
If this stage is skipped, then there are chances that the game may have some bugs and errors. If that is the case, the users will not tolerate this, and the game will join the growing list of unsuccessful games.
The testing process is long, as the testers will find bugs, quality issues, gameplay issues, etc. Then they will send the game back to the developers and designers to correct all these errors and make it the perfect version of itself.
4 steps of game testing process:
1). Identification of problems and bugs
2). Reporting it to the developers and designers
3). The developers or the designers will verify the bug/problem and will work to solve it.
4). The testers will verify that the bug has been removed and start finding more bugs.
There will also be various gameplay testers that will check if the game is too easy or too hard. Suppose all the functions and features of the game are working or not if the game can give stable performance in harsh conditions, and so on. They will test the game for various scenarios and will dedicate countless hours to testing and detecting problems in the game.
8 Types of Game Testing:
- Functional Testing
- Gameplay Testing
- Security Testing
- Compatibility Testing
- Endurance Testing
- Regression Testing
- Multiplayer Testing
- Compliance Testing
Consider the testers as your last line of checking for the game. If they give a green signal after countless hours of testing, the game is ready to conquer the gaming market and please the targeted audience.
5. Pre-Launch
This is the stage in which you will let the people know you will launch an amazing game. You have to put effort into attracting the targeted audience to your game. Earlier, the pre-launch was just a stage for PC or Console games, but now even if the game is a small mobile game, pre-launch is necessary.
If you do not market the product and make people excited about it, how else do you think people will know about your game and it will become a hit?
Here are some steps that you can take to create hype for your game in your pre-launch stage:
- You can pre-launch the game for pre-bookings/pre-download to create hype and target users looking for good upcoming games.
- You can publish articles about your game by using the right keywords.
- You can launch commercials with a gameplay experience.
- You can launch your game’s trailer with some cool cinematic shots on popular Youtube channels.
- You can arrange an exclusive preview of the game at game conferences and thematic meetings.
6. Launch
Finally, the day you have been waiting for is here. Launch day is on the horizon!
Until the day of launch, the development team will keep finding bugs, the designers will improve the design and texture of all the assets and characters, and the developers will improve the smoothness of the game. Even the smallest changes in the game will work towards transforming the game into an amazingly fun and immersive game.
The game will be available on launch day in the respective stores for download. The users will be able to download the game for free, or they have to buy it and then download it based on the platforms you target and the monetization strategy you adopt.
Once the game is launched, now is time to focus on the post-production processes.
7. Post Production
This stage is the maintenance stage. It’s time to fixing upcoming unknown bugs. Moreover, the game needs regular maintenance, updates, and upgrades, and this stage will observe all of these.
Fixing patches and bugs
Even after hardcore testing and launching the perfect game, minor hardware-specific bugs will hinder the users. The users will comment on the bugs in the review or the forum, and the developers can push game updates that fix those bugs.
Regular maintenance
Regular maintenance will make sure that the app works at the best levels. It delivers the best experience to the users and does not lag. The maintenance process will include testing the app, improving UI/UX, enhancing usability, prompt response to all queries, and security maintenance.
8. Updates and Upgrades
Your game will need new elements to keep it interesting for the existing players. You can release new levels of the game, upgrades that improve the game’s performance, new features and game modes, new downloadable content, etc.
This is a successive stage, and you will have to keep pushing updates to the game as long as you want the users to stay with your game. The new features and upgrades will enhance the gaming experience and keep the users engaged. This will positively affect the competitiveness of your game.
Choose a Game Development Team to get the Best Results
This sums up the entire game development process. Step by step, we have looked at the game development process and have seen all of its diversity, possible problems, and creative intensity. But technical perfection alone isn’t enough. It is important to make this radiance visible, feel it, and be able to touch it so players can connect to it. This is what we aim for in Capermint.
We work with a defined and clear workflow. The clients gets update with everything that happens around their game. We are experts in handling all game development’s obstacles, challenges, and constraints.
Our approach to each project helps us grasp all the project opportunities and deliver the best results on time. To know more about Capermint’s Game Development, contact us.
Excellent article! Your game development stages look proper. Thanks for sharing, by the way.