What do modern first-person shooters have in common with popular slots or table games presented on GGBet in abundance? Such polar-opposite games are connected by a common thread: they go through the same stages of development. Let’s look behind the scenes of game production, exploring all its nuances in detail.

Planning

This is one of the most important stages in game development, as it ensures that the process starts on solid footing. By investing enough time and effort into careful planning, developers can enhance the likelihood of success and reduce potential problems as their project progresses. The stage consists of two principal phases:

• Game ideation: the backbone and arguably the hardest part of game development, which aims to determine the type of game developers are producing alongside its key features, characters, mechanics, target audience, and supported platforms.
• Proofing a concept: designed for analyzing all the generated ideas and defining how easy they are for a gaming studio to implement. Developers consider what budget and technological capabilities they need, how many people will be involved, what is the estimated timeframe for a launch, and how they will monetize the game. 

Pre-Production

The pre-production stage is about laying the foundations for game production and brainstorming how to give life to the ideas generated during the planning process. This is where developers, artists, writers, designers, engineers, and project leads collaborate on a variety of game-related issues. At this stage, the team also produces game design documentation (GDD), which serves as a reference manual to keep thematic and visual consistency throughout development. The GDD covers:

• project goals
• level designs
• story world
• mechanics and gameplay
• music and audio
• user interface (UI)
• commercialization and marketing

Production

The production stage takes most of the effort, time, and resources. During the process:

• Character and NPC models are designed and animated to ensure they look exactly as intended.
• Sound designers work on in-game effects, from bloops and bleeps of menu navigation to leaky faucets and creaky floorboards under the feet.
• Level designers craft dynamic and immersive environments tailored to different playstyles.
• Writers take care of scripts, dialogues, item descriptions, and different copywriting tasks.
• Voice actors record lines of dialogues and game scripts.
• Developers come up with thousands of lines of code to bring each piece of game content to life and ensure the mechanics are working correctly.
• Team leads set project milestones and establish sprint schedules to keep each department accountable.

Testing

The testing phase is a massive part of game production, where the team checks each aspect of their product to make sure it has no technical glitches, bugs, softlocks, or exploits that may interfere with player experience. It’s important to note that the process is not linear but cyclic, meaning that it’s performed multiple times during the development cycle to detect and eliminate all gaming issues as soon as they appear. At the same time, the percentage of highly polished games varies based on their manufacturing scale. Hence, testing is a mandatory and well-funded step for AAA video games, while smaller projects may allocate fewer resources for this process due to budget constraints.

Pre-Launch

The pre-launch phase involves developing marketing strategies, setting up channels for game distribution, preparing a launch plan, and conducting beta testing. It creates all the buzz and excitement around the game, enhancing the chances for a successful release. Developers can also leverage independent advertising, like sponsored content and YouTube reviews, or showcase their product at global conventions to build a fan base and reach niche audiences.

Launch

Game launch is the most anticipated and nail-biting moment for its developers. Indeed, as soon as the title is released, players start “testing” it on the dedicated platforms, and their first reaction is of paramount importance for the future success of the game. Meanwhile, the marketing campaign continues to draw new players and generate more profits.

Post-Launch

Even when a game is already launched, there is still some work to be done to ensure its proper support. So, gaming companies listen to the players’ feedback, release patches with fixed bugs, and modify and update their titles to make them more appealing. Developers also enrich games with new features and provide downloadable content (DLC) to keep players active.