Making games is a complex process, with different aspects of Agile Scrum and Waterfall coming together. Game production is not a mathematical formula, each game is different, teams are different, heck, times are different, looking at you 2020!
Introduction
The purpose of this article is to (try) summarize the Game production lifecycle, or, Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC).
Depending on the game you are making, you might follow a different pipeline.
For example, a hyper casual mobile game is different to MMOFPS Game-as-a-Service.
But, applying the same process to small games, will help prepare you for bigger projects.
People
Let’s use the Agile Principles here. People over Process over Tools. The people you have on your team will make the difference between completing the game, or ending up in the landfill of failed projects.
Roles and responsibilities
Producer
Internal Producer - Works for the Developer, manages the development team, schedules, reports progress, hires and assigns staff
External Producer - Works for the Publisher oversees developer progress and budget
Publisher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher
Development Team
Designer
Designs gameplay, conceiving and designing the rules and structure of a game. Writes narrative, dialogue, commentary, cutscene, journals, etc…
Artist
2D Artists - produce concept art, sprites, textures, environmental backdrops and user interface.
3D Artist - produce models/meshes, animations, 3D terrains and cinematics.
Programmer
Physics Programmer - game engine, collisions, object movment, etc
AI Programmer - scripting planning rule-based decisions
Graphics - managing graphical content utilization and memory considerations
Sounds - Integration of music, speech, effects
Gameplay - (Generalist) implement various games rules and features
Scripting - High level command system
UI - user interface elements, menus, HUDs, help and feedback
Input Processing - processing and compatibility of various input devices, keyboard, mouse, gamepag, touch, etc…
Network - data management for local and internet gameplay
Game Tools - production tools for designers and scripters
Level Designer
Creates levels with level editors
Sound Engineer
Sound effects, sound positioning and voice
Tester
QA, quality control, highly technical field, requiring computing expertise and analytic competence.
Production Phases
Pre-Production
Define what the game is
Time and Cost Estimations
People and Resources
Process
Concept or Idea
What are you making?
Plan
GDD, vision, contents, Production Plan
Games change, some studies have started using the Macro Design Document
Macro Design Document (Mark Cerny)
1 - 2 Page plan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6feTiNH17ng
https://www.docdroid.net/3rpQnGS/macrodesigndocumentgamejamtemplate-2-docx
A plan should at least include:
Game Concept (Idea)
Core Game Mechanics
Gameplay Features
Gameplay Breakdown
Project Scope Breakdown
Prototypes
Prototypes are meant to test the ideas in the pre-production phase.
Prototyping is creation a rough functional test of your game mechanics
Game and Art assets are unnecessary
The key to success in game development is to prototype a lot and often
Fail-fast-fail-often
Prototyping is extremely important when:
You are new to game development
Testing a new tool/process
Testing a new mechanics or feature
Developing a game/mechanics/feature you are unfamiliar with
The goal of prototyping is to:
Finding limitations in your own abilities or those of the team
Set and establish a realistic planned timeline
Finding the fun in your core gameplay mechanics.
Production
Main and longest phase
Hiring happens here
Creativity vs Time management
Main Categories
Vertical Slice
Pre-Alpha
Alpha
Beta
Gold
Vertical Slice
Pre-Alpha
Main content creation
Alpha
Feature Complete
Main testing
Beta
Content Complete
Fixing Bug
Gold
Publisher test build, if ready, release to public
Post-Production
Maintenance, Patches
DLC
Postmortem
Like Retrospective in Agile Scrum, what worked, and did not work well
Closing Kit
Compilation of:
Design Documents
Code
Final Game Assets
Development Process
Development Process
The development process should be a guide and not a strict policy. Games, teams and projects are all different, for example, creating a 50 page GDD for Flappy Bird is a bit overkill, not having a GDD for something like Destiny, is highly unlikely and planning to fail.
Hyper Casuals games for example, is much more about fun, fun is a hard beast to find, and determining if an interactive game is fun, is something that can only be done with iterations.
Pre-production/Design Phase
High Concept
Few sentences long description of game
Pitch, concept, proposal
Short summary document intended to present the game’s selling points and detail why the game would be profitable to develop.
Concept
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_game_genres
Game Design Document
Prototype
Production
Design
Programming
Level Creation
Art Production
Audio Production
Testing
Milestones
First Playable
Alpha
Code Freeze
Beta
Code Release
Gold Master
Crunch Time
Post Production
Maintenance
Marketing
Alternative cycle:
Idea and Story
Conceptualize and Design
Technical Analysis
Development
Testing
Deployment
Pre-production/Design Phase
- Iterate Fast! Fits with the fail-fast principles
High Concept
Few sentences long description of game
Pitch, concept, proposal
Short summary document intended to present the game’s selling points and detail why the game would be profitable to develop.
Concept
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_game_genres
Game Design Document
Prototype
Production
Design
Programming
Level Creation
Art Production
Depending on the target platform, your art production might be different.
Vector Graphics
SVG -> Automation -> Target Device/DPI/Resolution Atlas
Character Creation
Concept
Character Templates
Animation Template
Integration
Weapon Creation
Prop Creation
Environment Creation
GUI Creation
Audio Production
Testing
Milestones
First Playable
Alpha
Code Freeze
Beta
Code Release
Gold Master
Crunch Time
Post Production
Maintenance
Marketing
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL
https://sites.google.com/site/itilingames/limitations-of-itil-for-games-development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)
http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/13889
Hearthstone: 10 Bits Of Design Wisdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL
https://sites.google.com/site/itilingames/limitations-of-itil-for-games-development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)
http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/13889
AAA Production Pipelines for Indie Teams
How Video Games Are Made Step By Step-Video game production pipeline-Game Dev Republic