The world of gaming is vast and diverse and, at the same time highly fascinating and absorbing. But have you ever thought what it takes to create these games? Especially, today when the realm of game development services has expanded significantly with technological advancements focused on scaling the gaming experience to a completely new level. From Pong to Firewall Ultra, video games have evolved to a great extent, attracting more and more players worldwide.
Being one of the top game development studios, WebMobril Inc. has been creating games that not only win the hearts of players but also take them to an immersive and fascinating world.
However, the journey of creating a game out of concept to making it recognizable across the world is an extensive and time-consuming effort. Developing a game involves substantial experimentation with ideas, art, and technology in combination.
This article will help you understand how a game is brought to action.
Here you go….
What Is Game Development?
Simply put, game development is the process of building games from the ground up. It includes establishing the production team, moving through each step, and finally releasing the finished game designed for certain platforms such as PCs, mobile apps, and consoles. We will present an in-depth review of all the development stages you should be familiar with the following parts.
If you have a gaming idea, WebMobril Inc. can convert it into a captivating video game for you. But you must be aware of the development process behind it.
What are the Stages of Game Development?
As game creation is a colossal process, it is best to efficiently break it down into smaller, manageable stages. This makes it easy to grasp how the huge idea is churned into an artful and playful element.
- Pre-production
It is the first stage of game development, during which a large amount of preliminary work is completed. The key tasks addressed at this level are as follows:
- Framing the game idea, outlining the plot, distinctive features, and gameplay components that will set it apart from other games.
- Creating a development plan.
- Carrying out preliminary research, acquiring essential resources, and developing a project budget.
- Putting together the team – identifying and hiring essential people like designers, artists, programmers, and sound engineers, as well as charting their tasks.
Next to research and deciding the team, you have to move further to create comprehensive documentation on game design.
The Game Design Document (GDD)
Just like a thoughtfully made film or YouTube video, game creation begins with a Game Design Documentation (GDD) script that includes the following points:
- Concepts and visuals that assist in depicting the game’s main idea.
- Design for gaming characters, how they will interact, and be presented.
- Open World design, which describes the setting and atmosphere of the game.
- Game level design is explained with the framework of various game levels.
- The game engine to be used.
- Development tools and platforms for game development.
It’s vital to remember that your GDD doesn’t have to be a polished product from the start. It might begin as a fundamental concept and then be enhanced and advanced over the course of the development process.
Prototyping
Once your Game Design Documentation (GDD) is ready, you can start with prototyping- which is also a part of the Production Milestone. In this process, a Vertical Slice containing the fundamental game elements is developed to test the sustainability of your entire concept. This method aids in the identification of challenges and preventing costly development delays.
At this point, you will face your first set of problems and have the opportunity to fine-tune your development approach. Unfortunately, prototyping is a rigorous “litmus test,” and not all game concepts survive this stage. If your concept passes the test and shows to be feasible, you can go on to the Production step.
- Production
This is a crucial phase where actual game creation takes center stage. The preliminary work is complete, and the entire team gets actively involved in developing the game’s Minimum Viable Product (MVP1). It is a time-consuming process, with seven critical parts taking place at the same time. The aggregate work of these components determines the development’s speed and quality.
- Game Content Development: In this stage, in-game assets like levels, characters, elements, textures, etc., are designed. During this process, teamwork between artists, designers, and programmers becomes crucial to creating all game elements.
- Programming: Programmers use code to create game functionality, which includes game logic, artificial intelligence, physics, and other gaming elements.
- Sound Design: Sound engineers and designers work meticulously on the game’s sound aspects, such as music, sound effects, and character voice-overs, to make it more interesting.
- Testing and Debugging: Testers thoroughly examine the game for technical issues and bugs, and developers then address and correct the discovered issues.
- Integration and Optimization: After integrating all game pieces into a cohesive project, optimization is performed to ensure compatibility with various gaming platforms and devices.
- Marketing and public relations: During this stage, an active marketing effort is launched, involving the development of trailers, announcements, and promotional content to draw attention to the game.
- Meeting Deadlines and Finances: Project producers and managers make sure the game is produced within the set timelines and agreed budget.
Production milestones
Production Milestones are critical for managing the parallel work of various teams involved in video game development services and reducing a chaotic set of activities into an organized process.
- Alpha Phase: In this phase, Project Managers outline a set of features to be used for testing the overall concept and performance of the game. There could be a possibility of some missing elements and a list of bugs and issues that will be forwarded to the optimization and bug-fixing stage.
- Beta Phase: With the Beta phase, the game’s core functionality should be ready for testing by Quality Assurance (QA) teams and also a small community of players. This step is critical for getting useful input from testers in order to fine-tune specific components.
- Gold Master Phase: This is the game’s penultimate stage before its official release. At this stage, the game is completely functional and ready for a global launch to gamers all over the world.
The production stage is one of the most demanding and time-consuming stages of game development. It concludes with the public release of a finished game, but after that, support and updates commence to ensure the quality of the game and the contentment of the players.
- Post-production
The task of game development does not end with the creation and launch of the game. Post-production is an important stage during which the project is polished, readied, and maintained for the long term. Here are some critical features of game development post-production:
- Testing and Debugging: This stage includes comprehensive functional and regression testing. QA teams and community experts play an important role in finding large and minor bugs that developers must solve.
- Game polishing: It entails fine-tuning visuals, sound, and gameplay. It comprises improving animation, lights, texture, and sound effects to obtain a high degree of quality.
- Optimization: The game is optimized to operate smoothly and well on a variety of platforms and devices, particularly on less powerful hardware.
- Localization: Localization is done for games aimed at international markets. The user interface, subtitles, and conversations are all translated into multiple languages.
- Updates and Patches: The post-production process does not end with the first release of the game. Updates and patches are still being released by developers to fix new bugs, bring new content, and improve the overall gameplay experience.
- Monitoring and Support: Developers continuously monitor the game’s performance and collect user feedback. They offer continuing guidance and technical support to handle any difficulties that emerge.
Read other blog: Unity Game Engine: The Effective Technology for Easy & Quick Game Development
Game Development Services by WebMobril Inc.
WebMobril Inc. is one of the top game development studios that devise captivating games based on the latest technologies. The studio is equipped with all the latest tools and technologies to meet the diverse demands of gamers. We have a team of seasoned developers and designers who ensure developing games with stunning graphics, HD display, high-end processors, and other essential features. Name any genres you want, WebMobril Inc. can create the game for you. We don’t just develop a game but also ensure it earns a large number of players across the world.
Have a game idea in mind? Bring it to WebMobril Inc. today. Learn more at https://www.webmobril.com/.