Phase 1: Concept

The genesis of all games that you see available on store shelves at your local
Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys R Us or Electronics Boutique is a simple concept or
idea. If it's an original concept, it's typically derived from a source within the
company, albeit there are times that ideas from individuals outside the company
will be used.
In either case, the original concept is just a simple idea for what the game can be
about. For instance, a simple game concept could be to make a futuristic 3D
street racing game with hovercrafts with a setting akin to the current import tuner
street racing scene of today's world. It can also be something as simple as
making an action/adventure game where you're controlling a ninja.
The game's conception can also start as simply wanting to make a follow-up or
sequel to an existing title, a game based on an existing non-gaming characters,
stories or franchises - from other mediums such as television, comic books,
board games, movies, folklore, or history - or a game that's meant to simulate
some real world experience, such as the case with sports, flight, or driving
simulations. In these cases, the genesis of the game's development can simply
be the company deciding that it wants to make a game that simulates the real-life
sport of professional baseball or one that's based on the television series The
Sopranos.
Phase 2: Pre-Production
The next step that needs to be done in the game development process is
commonly referred to as the pre-production phase. This is where a preproduction team, which typically includes a varied number of producers, assistant
producers, designers, programmers, artists and writers, will work on things such
as writing the storyline, creating storyboards, and putting together a
comprehensive design document detailing the game's goals, level designs,
gameplay mechanics and overall blueprint.

The freedom that the pre-production team has in each of these areas is often
limited to the type of game being made. When a game's being created on a
completely original concept, the story writers, artists and designers have free
reign to craft whatever their imaginative minds desire with the sky being the limit
within the realm of the technological limitations of the hardware the game's being
developed on. The story and characters are only limited by the imaginations of
the people on the pre-production team.
In instances where the game being developed is based on a licensed franchise
or a simulation of a real world event, the creative freedom is often limited to
what's acceptable within the realm of the franchise or real world event in
question. If a company is working on a game based on a Disney license, there'll
often be restrictions with what the characters can do or say or what the storyline
can encompass. There'll also typically be guidelines that stipulate precisely what
the characters in the game must look like.
Likewise, if a simulation of professional hockey is being developed the designers
are obliged to mimic the real-life rules and regulations of the sport. While new
characters, teams, and rules may be added, if it's an NHL-licensed hockey
simulation being developed it will have to have a foundation based on the real-life
players, teams, rules, regulations and look of the National Hockey League.
Regardless of the creative freedom allowed by the game concept, if game being
developed is of a genre that necessitates a storyline, creating one is the first
step. The storyline is a vastly important process as it defines the main
characters, plot, setting and overall theme. It can be as simple as coming up with
the names of a cast of characters that are entering some fighting tournament or it
can be a much most substantial undertaking that can include a full screenplay
and tens of thousands words of dialog. Of course, if what's being worked on is a
simple simulation of backgammon and use of characters or a plot isn't being
planned, then this step and the next is typically omitted.

Once the storyline is completed, the next step a company will execute is to
attempt to piece together a storyboard for the game. This is more or less a visual
representation of storyline that includes sketches, concept art, and text to explain
what happens in each section or scene of the game. The storyboards may be
done for scripted elements within the action portions of the gameplay and more
often for the cinematic CG rendered or realtime cut-scenes that are often used to
further along the story of the game in question.
The third prominent aspect of the pre-production phase, which generally is done
alongside the writing of the story and the crafting of the storyboards, is the
piecing together of a comprehensive design document for the game. In addition
to including the storyline and storyboards, the design document will also
incorporate the designers overall blue print for exactly how the game will be
played, what each menu or screen in the game will look like, what the controls for
the character or characters are, what the game's goal is, and the rules for how
you win/lose in the game, and maps of the different worlds or levels within the
game.
This is where the designers, as well as the software engineers in many cases,
must decide things such as what exactly happens on screen when a specific
button or key or direction on an input device is pressed. Moreover, things such as
what exactly is in each world, what can and cannot be interacted with, what
scripted events occurs, and how the NPC (non-player controlled) characters
react to what the player-controlled character does in the game must also be
mapped out in enough detail for the programmers and artists to be able to know
what needs to be coded and created.
The parties involved must also take into consideration the technical limitations of
the platform that the game is being created on and, in the case of consoles, what
standards that the hardware manufacturer may require to be followed in order to
be approved for release on the system.

Phase 3: Production
After the pre-production phase is complete and the game's overall blueprint has
been finalized, the development of the game enters the production phase and
now larger group of producers, designers, artists and programmers are typically
brought into the mix.
The producer or producers will work with the design, art and programming teams
to make sure everyone is working together as a well-oiled machine and that
everyone's on the same page. The main job for them is to create the schedules
to be followed by the engineers and artists, making sure the schedules are
adhered to, and to ensure that the high-concept goals of the design are followed
throughout the development of the game. Those in production will also work with
dealing with any licenses that the game uses and in making sure the company's
marketing department knows what it needs to know about the title.
Whilst the design document is typically completed by this phase, albeit not
always the case with many less organized developers, the game's designers still
play a big role here as it's their job to make sure that the details of the designs
are being properly implemented by the artists and the programmers. And in
cases where holes in the design are found, whether an omission on the part of
the designer or just something that couldn't be done due to technical limitations
of the hardware that weren't able to be overcome or simply finding out early on
that a designed idea just didn't work, they must be able to come up with solutions
and/or new designs for what comes up.
The artists during the production phase will be working on building all of the
animations and art which you'll see in the game. Programs such as Maya and 3D
Studio Max will often be used to model all of the game's environments, objects,
characters and menus - essentially everything you see in the game. The art team
will take care of creating all of the texture maps that are added to the 3D objects
to give them more life and character and will also take care of animating any
characters or objects that move in the game. In the cases where motion-captured

data is used to help create more life-like movement, there'll be a motion capture
team that works with the artists to collect the data and solve it to work with the
skeletons of the game characters so the movement of the in-game characters
reflect what was motion-captured of the real-life actor.
At this time, the programming gurus are working on coding the game's library,
engine, and artificial intelligence (AI). The library more often than not is
something that has already been created for the company for use with all its
games and is updated and constantly updated and tweaked in order to meet any
new goals or expectations for the development of newer titles. Many times the
library team will be required to write its own custom programming code, often
based in the C programming language, which will be the base of all the
company's games.
There will also be a set of programmers responsible for creating the game's 2D
or 3D engine, which is an application that generates all of the polygons, textures,
lighting, and special effects that you see in the game, often using what's been
delivered by the art staff.
The AI is yet another important element of the game's software code and it's
generally written by an individual AI programmer or a team of AI programmers.
They work on all of the physics, collisions, interactions, and movement of every
single character and object in the game. They write the routines that specifically
define what happens when a character interacts with other characters with
objects and how the controllable characters respond to the game player's input
on the control device. They write the logic that make the characters and objects
all act as per designed in the design document.
Once all of the base elements have been implemented by both the artists and
programmers, the production team will then work on trying to optimize all the
aspects of the game to get it to run well on the hardware being developed for.
Decisions will have to be made as to whether to reduce polygon counts on
objects or characters or eliminate or add new lighting or special effects in order to

get the game running at a frame rate that's deemed acceptable by the
development team. In some cases, a company will do whatever it can in order to
keep the game running at a constant 60 frames per second by sacrificing visual
effects or polygonal counts or just my optimizing the models, textures, and AI
codes to the fullest, while others are willing to sacrifice a consistent frame rate to
throw in as much eye candy as they can muster.
Phase 4: Post-Production
The final stage of a game's development is the post-production stage. This
begins when the game is considered "feature complete" and all of the code has
been written and art has been completed. This is when an alpha version of the
game is created and is supplied to the game's test department to bang away at
and find bugs and major flaws in the game that need to be changed whether by
the artists or programmers.
One all of the bugs and major flaws are identified and addressed, a beta version
of the game is then produced and once again sent to the test department to be
picked through with a fine tooth comb. This is where the hardcore testing is done
and every single bug regardless of how major or minor is documented and
attempted to be fixed, with the major "A" type bugs the top priority with the "B's",
"C's" and less important bugs addressed as time or company policy may dictate.
When developing a title for any of the consoles by companies such as Microsoft,
Nintendo or Sony, this is also the stage where the testers must make sure that
the game abides by all of the "standards" that are determined by the
manufacturer of console that must be followed in order for the game to be
approved for release. It includes things such as the "B" button always having to
be used to back out of menus on games developed for the Microsoft Xbox and
the "A" button always having to be used to advance.
Once all of the bugs have been fixed and all of the standards have been
determined to be met, a final version of the game is made and, in the case of the

consoles, is sent to the console maker to get tested and approved for release on
the system in question. If bugs are found or approval is not met, the production
team will fix all of the problems in question, put it through their own test
department again to ensure that everything was fixed and nothing new was
broken, and then once again submit it for approval.
All that's left to do once the game is approved by the console manufacturer or
just "finished" by the developer in the case of PC games, is for the game to be
manufactured and then distributed to stores where you can go out and buy them.