Stages of Development

While the particulars vary wildly based on differences in types of titles, platforms, size of project, etc., all game projects go through the same stages in one form or another. The bigger the project, the more pronounced these stages usually become. 

More and more games are created as services that are expanded and updated over a long period of time. Yet when viewed from a project point of view, even those go through similar stages before initial launch. And in fact, post-launch updates follow the same structure; each stage just might take hours or days instead of weeks and months. 

It all starts with Concepting Stage. Concepting takes very different forms depending on the size and type of the project. It can range from a single brainstorming meeting to months of work by a small core team. Focus is on developing an idea for a game far enough that we are comfortable with investing time and money to the project. 

In Pre-production stage, costs start to rise. Focus is to prepare for full production. That takes many forms; from prototyping key areas to creating budgets and schedules, from agreeing on processes and ways of working to building and validating production pipelines. In ideal case, we would also get our tools and key technologies ready. All of this is focusing on reducing uncertainty before entering production, which is usually the most expensive part of the project.

Production stage is where the bulk of the game is created. Focus is on producing features, assets, content, etc. cost-/time-effectively and to quality. 

Post-production focuses on making sure everything created before comes together nicely. Flow of new content and features slows down, as polishing and bug fixing become primary focus.

Once the game is live, the work does not end there, even for packaged goods. There's still plenty of work that needs to be done, even more so for game services.

In real-life, the transition from one stage to another can often be fuzzy, as different areas of the project are ready to move on to the next stage at different times. But it is still very helpful to think of the project in terms of these stages and concentrate on the right things at each stage.

Below are examples of different kind of services I provide at each stage of the project lifecycle.