video game development game development redirects here it is not to be confused with board game development part of a series on thevideo game industry activitiesjobs video game design game design game art design game development game developer game modification game producer game programming game programmer game publisher game studies game testing game journalism level design development game ai game design interaction design game programming level design video game art video game design video game graphics video game music types adult game casual game indie game nongame interactive art interactive movie nonviolent video game serious game advergame art game edugame exergame topics digital rights management drm outsourcing software license enduser license agreement eula video game preservation related video game history of video games lists list of indie game developers list of video game developers list of video game industry people list of video game publishers list of video game websites vte video game development is the process of creating a video game the effort is undertaken by a game developer who may range from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe traditional commercial pc and console games are normally funded by a publisher and can take several years to reach completion indie games can take less time and can be produced at a lower cost by individuals and smaller developers the independent game industry has seen a substantial rise in recent years with the growth of new online distribution systems such as steam and uplay as well as the mobile game market such as for android and ios devices the first video games were noncommercial and were developed in the 1960s they required mainframe computers to run and were not available to the general public commercial game development began in the 1970s with the advent of firstgeneration video game consoles and early home computers like the apple i due to low costs and low capabilities of computers a lone programmer could develop a full game however approaching the 21st century everincreasing computer processing power and heightened consumer expectations made it difficult for a single person to produce a mainstream console or pc game the average cost of producing a triplea video game slowly rose from us14 million in 2000 to over 5 million in 2006 then to over 20 million by 2010 mainstream pc and console games are generally developed in phases first in preproduction pitches prototypes and game design documents are written if the idea is approved and the developer receives funding a fullscale development begins this usually involves a team of 20100 individuals with various responsibilities including designers artists programmers and testers overview games are produced through the software development process the game industry requires innovations as publishers cannot profit from constant release of repetitive sequels and imitations an average development budget for a multiplatform game is us1828m with highprofile games often exceeding 40m in the early era of home computers and video game consoles in the early 1980s a single programmer could handle almost all the tasks of developing a game programming graphical design sound effects etc game development production or design is a process that starts from an idea or concept a game developer may range from a single individual to a large multinational company there are both independent and publisherowned studios all but the smallest developer companies work on several titles at once this is necessary because of the time taken between shipping a game and receiving royalty payments which may be between 6 and 18 months small companies may structure contracts ask for advances on royalties use shareware distribution employ parttime workers and use other methods to meet payroll demands console manufacturers such as microsoft nintendo or sony have a standard set of technical requirements that a game must conform to in order to be approved additionally the game concept must be approved by the manufacturer who may refuse to approve certain titles most modern pc or console games take from one to three years to complete some games can take much longer than the average time frame to complete an infamous example is 3d realms duke nukem forever announced to be in production in april 1997 and released fourteen years later in june 2011 the game revenue from retails is divided among the parties along the distribution chain such as developer publisher retail manufacturer and console royalty many developers fail to profit from this and go bankrupt and through an online distribution channel almost 100 history the xgs pic 16bit game development board a game development tool similar to those used in the 1990s the history of game making begins with the development of the first video games although which video game is the first depends on the definition of video game the first games created had little entertainment value and their development focus was separate from user experiencein fact these games required mainframe computers to play them true commercial design and development of games began in the 1970s when arcade video games and firstgeneration consoles were marketed in 1971 computer space was the first commercially sold coinoperated video game it used a blackandwhite television for its display and the computer system was made of 74 series ttl chips programmers worked within the big companies to produce games for these devices the industry did not see huge innovation in game design and a large number of consoles had very similar games and ran on microprocessors marking the beginning of secondgeneration consoles beginning with the release of the fairchild channel f in 1976 the flood of pong clones led to the video game crash of 1977 which eventually came to an end with the mainstream success of taitos 1978 arcade shooter game space invaders i wouldnt recommend for someone with a weak heart or a large appetite jon freeman 1984 the industry expanded significantly at the time with the arcade video game sector alone representing the largest share of the gaming industry generating higher revenues than both pop music and hollywood films combined in 1984 jon freeman warned in computer gaming world mwparseroutput templatequoteoverflowhiddenmargin1em 0padding0 40pxmwparseroutput templatequote templatequotecitelineheight15emtextalignleftpaddingleft16emmargintop0q are computer games the way to fame and fortune a no not unless your idea of fame is having your name recognized by one or two astute individuals at origins ive been making a living after a fashion designing games for most of the last six years i wouldnt recommend it for someone with a weak heart or a large appetite though chris crawford and don daglow in 1987 similarly advised prospective designers to write games as a hobby first and to not quit their existing jobs early by 1987 a video game required 12 months to develop and another six to plan marketing projects remained usually solo efforts with single developers delivering finished games to their publishers in 2000 a 12 to 36 month development project was funded by a publisher for us1m3m in the early 2000s also mobile games started to gain popularity however mobile games distributed by mobile operators remained a marginal form of gaming until the apple app store was launched in 2008 in 2005 a mainstream console video game cost from us3m to 6m to develop some games cost as much as 20m to develop since the third generation of consoles the home video game industry has constantly increased and expanded the industry revenue has increased at least fivefold since the 1990s in 2007 the software portion of video game revenue was 95 billion exceeding that of the movie industry the apple app store introduced in 2008 was the first mobile application store operated directly by the mobile platform holder it significantly changed the consumer behaviour more favourable for downloading mobile content and quickly broadened the markets of mobile games in 2009 games market annual value was estimated between 730 billion depending on which sales figures are included this is on par with films box office market in the past several years many developers opened and many closed down each year a number of developers are acquired by larger companies or merge with existing companies for example in 2007 blizzard entertainments parent company vivendi games merged with activision in 2008 electronic arts nearly acquired taketwo interactive in 2009 midway games was acquired by timewarner and eidos interactive merged with square enix roles producer video game producer development is overseen by internal and external producers publisher video game publisher a video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by an external video game developer as with book publishers or publishers of dvd movies video game publishers are responsible for their products manufacturing and marketing including market research and all aspects of advertising they usually finance the development sometimes by paying a video game developer the publisher calls this external development and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio consequently they also typically own the ip of the game large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies or larger video game publishers to distribute the games they publish other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any license that the game may utilize paying for localization layout printing and possibly the writing of the user manual and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design large publishers may also attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for commonly needed functionality because the publisher usually finances development it usually tries to manage development risk with a staff of producers or project managers to monitor the progress of the developer critique ongoing development and assist as necessary most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties these advances are paid when the developer reaches certain stages of development called milestones independent video game developers create games without a publisher and may choose to digitally distribute their games development team developers can range in size from small groups making casual games to housing hundreds of employees and producing several large titles a development team includes these roles or disciplines designer further information video game design a game designer is a person who designs gameplay conceiving and designing the rules and structure of a game in larger projects there are often separate designers for various parts of the game such as game mechanics user interface characters dialogue etc artist further information game art design a game artist is a visual artist who creates video game art the artists job may be 2d oriented or 3d oriented 2d artists may produce concept art artists sometimes occupy both roles programmer game programmer a game programmer is a software engineer who primarily develops video games or related software such as game development tools the games codebase development is handled by programmers who implement the games starting codebase and overview future development and programmer allocation on individual modules individual programming disciplines roles include physics the programming of the game engine including simulating physics collision object movement etc ai producing computer agents using game ai techniques such as scripting planning rulebased decisions etc graphics the managing of graphical content utilization and memory considerations the production of graphics engine integration of models textures to work along the physics engine sound integration of music speech effect sounds into the proper locations and times gameplay implementation of various games rules and features sometimes called a generalist scripting development and maintenance of highlevel command system for various ingame tasks such as ai level editor triggers etc ui production of user interface elements like option menus huds help and feedback systems etc input processing processing and compatibility correlation of various input devices such as keyboard mouse gamepad etc network communications the managing of data inputs and outputs for local and internet gameplay game tools the production of tools to accompany the development of the game especially for designers and scripters level designer further information level design a level designer is a person who creates levels challenges or missions for computer andor video games using a specific set of programs these programs may be commonly available commercial 3d or 2d design programs or specially designed and tailored level editors made for a specific game level designers work with both incomplete and complete versions of the game game programmers usually produce level editors and design tools for the designers to use this eliminates the need for designers to access or modify game code level editors may involve custom highlevel scripting languages for interactive environments or ais as opposed to the level editing tools sometimes available to the community level designers often work with placeholders and prototypes aiming for consistency and clear layout before required artwork is completed sound engineer sound engineers are technical professionals responsible for sound effects and sound positioning they sometimes oversee voice acting and other sound asset creation composers who create a games musical score also comprise a games sound team though often this work is outsourced tester further information game testing the quality assurance is carried out by game testers a game tester analyzes video games to document software defects as part of a quality control testing is a highly technical field requiring computing expertise and analytic competence the testers ensure that the game falls within the proposed design it both works and is entertainingthis involves testing of all features compatibility localization etc although necessary throughout the whole development process testing is expensive and is often actively utilized only towards the completion of the project development process game development is a software development process as a video game is software with art audio and gameplay formal software development methods are often overlooked overall game development is not suited for typical software life cycle methods such as the waterfall model one method employed for game development is agile development another successful method is personal software process psp requiring additional training for staff to increase awareness of projects planning game development usually involves an overlap of these methods development of a commercial game usually includes the following stages preproduction preproduction the concept documentation can be separated into three stages or documentshigh concept pitch and concept the late stage of preproduction may also be referred to as proof of concept when more detailed game documents are produced publishers have started to expect broader game proposals even featuring playable prototypes high concept high concept is a brief description of a game the high concept is the oneor twosentence response to the question what is your game about pitch a pitch verbal pitches may be made to management within the developer company and then presented to publishers if the developer acts as its own publisher or both companies are subsidiaries of a single company then only the upper management needs to give approval concept concept document before an approved design is completed a skeleton crew of programmers and artists usually begins work game design document game design document before a fullscale production can begin the development team produces the first version of a game design document incorporating all or most of the material from the initial pitch compiling a list of games needs is called requirement capture prototype placeholder graphics are characteristic of early game prototypes writing prototypes of gameplay ideas and features is an important activity that allows programmers and game designers to experiment with different algorithms and usability scenarios for a game a great deal of prototyping may take place during preproduction before the design document is complete and may in fact help determine what features the design specifies prototyping at this stage is often done manually paper prototyping not digitally as this is often easier and faster to test and make changes before wasting time and resources into what could be a canceled idea or project prototyping may also take place during active development to test new ideas as the game emerges prototypes are often meant only to act as a proof of concept or to test ideas by adding modifying or removing some of the features most algorithms and features debuted in a prototype may be ported to the game once they have been completed often prototypes need to be developed quickly with very little time for upfront design around 15 to 20 minutes of testing therefore usually very prolific programmers are called upon to quickly code these testbed tools rad tools may be used to aid in the quick development of these programs in case the prototype is in a physical form programmers and designers alike will make the game with paper dice and other easy to access tools in order to make the prototype faster a successful development model is iterative prototyping where design is refined based on current progress there are various technology available for video game development production production is the main stage of development when assets and source code for the game are produced mainstream production is usually defined as the period of time when the project is fully staffed game designers continue to develop the games design throughout production design game design game design is an essential and collaborative creativity and an open mind is vital for the completion of a successful video game during development the game designer implements and modifies the game design to reflect the current vision of the game features and levels are often removed or added the art treatment may evolve and the backstory may change a new platform may be targeted as well as a new demographic all these changes need to be documented and disseminated to the rest of the team most changes occur as updates to the design document programming game programming the programming of the game is handled by one or more game programmers they develop prototypes to test ideas many of which may never make it into the final game the programmers incorporate new features demanded by the game design and fix any bugs introduced during the development process even if an offtheshelf game engine is used a great deal of programming is required to customize almost every game level creation level design from a time standpoint the games first level takes the longest to develop as level designers and artists use the tools for level building they request features and changes to the inhouse tools that allow for quicker and higher quality development newly introduced features may cause old levels to become obsolete so the levels developed early on may be repeatedly developed and discarded because of the dynamic environment of game development the design of early levels may also change over time it is not uncommon to spend upwards of twelve months on one level of a game developed over the course of three years later levels can be developed much more quickly as the feature set is more complete and the game vision is clearer and more stable art production game art design this section needs expansion you can help by adding to it april 2010 audio production game audio may be separated into three categoriessound effects music and voiceover sound effect production is the production of sounds by either tweaking a sample to a desired effect or replicating it with real objects music may be synthesized or performed live there are several ways in which music is presented in a game music may be ambient especially for slow periods of game where the music aims to reinforce the aesthetic mood and game setting music may be triggered by ingame events for example in such games as pacman or mario player picking up powerups triggered respective musical scores action music such as chase battle or hunting sequences is fastpaced hardchanging score menu music similar to credits music creates aural impact while relatively little action is taking place a game title with 20 hours of singleplayer gameplay may feature around 60 minutes of music voiceovers and voice acting creates character gameplay interactivity testing game testing at the end of the project quality assurance plays a significant role testers start work once anything is playable this may be one level or subset of the game software that can be used to any reasonable extent early on testing a game occupies a relatively small amount of time testers may work on several games at once as development draws to a close a single game usually employs many testers fulltime and often with overtime they strive to test new features and regression test existing ones testing is vital for modern complex games as single changes may lead to catastrophic consequences at this time features and levels are being finished at the highest rate and there is more new material to be tested than during any other time in the project testers need to carry out regression testing to make sure that features that have been in place for months still operate correctly regression testing is one of the vital tasks required for effective software development as new features are added subtle changes to the codebase can produce unexpected changes in different portions of the game this task is often overlooked for several reasons sometimes when a feature is implemented and tested it is considered working for the rest of the project and little attention is given to repeated testing also features that are added late in development are prioritized and existing features often receive insufficient testing time proper regression testing is also increasingly expensive as the number of features increases and is often not scheduled correctly despite the dangers of overlooking regression testing some game developers and publishers fail to test the full feature suite of the game and ship a game with bugs this can result in customers dissatisfaction and failure to meet sales goals when this does happen most developers and publishers quickly release patches that fix the bugs and make the game fully playable again milestones commercial game development projects may be required to meet milestones set by publisher milestones mark major events during game development and are used to track games progress milestones are usually based on multiple short descriptions for functionality examples may be player roaming around in game environment or physics working collisions vehicle etc numerous descriptions are possible these milestones are usually how the developer gets paid sometimes as an advance against royalty these milestones are listed anywhere from three to twenty depending on developer and publisher the milestone list is usually a collaborative agreement between the publisher and developer the developer usually advocates for making the milestone descriptions as simple as possible depending on the specific publisher the milestone agreements may get very detailed for a specific game when working with a good publisher the spirit of the law is usually adhered to regarding milestone completion in other words if the milestone is 90 complete the milestone is usually paid with the understanding that it will be 100 complete by the next due milestone it is a collaborative agreement between publisher and developer and usually but not always the developer is constrained by heavy monthly development expenses that need to be met also sometimes milestones are swapped the developer or publisher may mutually agree to amend the agreement and rearrange milestone goals depending on changing requirements and development resources available milestone agreements are usually included as part of the legal development contracts after each milestone there is usually a payment arrangement some very established developers may simply have a milestone agreement based on the amount of time the game is in development monthly quarterly and not specific game functionality this is not as common as detailed functionality milestone lists there is no industry standard for defining milestones and such vary depending on publisher year or project first playable the first playable is the game version containing representative gameplay and assets alpha see also alpha release alpha is the stage when key gameplay functionality is implemented and assets are partially finished but this can vary significantly based on the scope of content and assets any given game has code freeze code freeze is the stage when new code is no longer added to the game and only bugs are being corrected code freeze occurs three to four months before code release beta see also beta release beta is feature and asset complete version of the game when only bugs are being fixed code release code release is the stage when many bugs are fixed and game is ready to be shipped or submitted for console manufacturer review this version is tested against qa test plan first code release candidate is usually ready three to four weeks before code release gold master see also release to manufacturing gold master is the final games build that is used as a master for production of the game crunch time overtime is expected in the games industry many companies offer timeoff called comp time or extra paid time off after product ships to compensate for crunch times negative effects some companies offer bonuses and financial rewards for successful milestone reach the international game developers association igda surveyed nearly 1000 game developers in 2004 and produced a report to highlight the many problems caused by bad practice postproduction after the game goes gold and ships some developers will give team members comp time perhaps up to a week or two to compensate for the overtime put in to complete the game though this compensation is not standard maintenance once a game ships the maintenance phase for the video game begins games developed for video game consoles have had almost no maintenance period in the past the shipped game would forever house as many bugs and features as when released this was common for consoles since all consoles had identical or nearly identical hardware making incompatibility the cause of many bugs a nonissue in this case maintenance would only occur in the case of a port sequel or enhanced remake that reuses a large portion of the engine and assets in recent times popularity of online console games has grown and online capable video game consoles and online services such as xbox live for the xbox have developed developers can maintain their software through downloadable patches these changes would not have been possible in the past without the widespread availability of the internet pc development is different game developers try to account for majority of configurations and hardware however the number of possible configurations of hardware and software inevitably leads to discovery of gamebreaking circumstances that the programmers and testers didnt account for programmers wait for a period to get as many bug reports as possible once the developer thinks theyve obtained enough feedback the programmers start working on a patch the patch may take weeks or months to develop but its intended to fix most accounted bugs and problems with the game that were overlooked past code release or in rare cases fix unintended problems caused by previous patches occasionally a patch may include extra features or content or may even alter gameplay in the case of a massively multiplayer online game mmog such as a mmorpg or mmorts the shipment of the game is the starting phase of maintenance such online games are in continuous maintenance as the gameworld is continuously changed and iterated and new features are added the maintenance staff for a popular mmog can number in the dozens sometimes including members of the original programming team outsourcing several development disciplines such as audio dialogue or motion capture occur for relatively short periods of time efficient employment of these roles requires either large development house with multiple simultaneous title production or outsourcing from thirdparty vendors the music cost ranges based on length of composition method of performance live or synthesized and composer experience voice acting is wellsuited for outsourcing as it requires a set of specialized skills only large publishers employ inhouse voice actors sound effects can also be outsourced programming is generally outsourced less than other disciplines such as art or music however outsourcing for extra programming work or savings in salaries has become more common in recent years marketing the game production has similar distribution methods to those of music and film industries the publishers marketing team targets the game for a specific market and then advertises it the length and purpose of a game demo depends on the purpose of the demo and target audience a games demo may range between a few seconds such as clips or screenshots to hours of gameplay the demo is usually intended for journalists buyers trade shows general public or internal employees who for example may need to familiarize with the game to promote it demos are produced with public relations marketing and sales in mind maximizing the presentation effectiveness trade show demo as a game nears completion the publisher will want to showcase a demo of the title at trade shows many games have a trade show demo scheduled the major annual trade shows are for example electronic entertainment expo e3 or penny arcade expo pax localization video game localization a game created in one language may also be published in other countries which speak a different language for that region the game needs to be translated for the game to be playable for example some games created for playstation vita were initially published in japanese language like soul sacrifice nonnative speakers of the games original language may have to wait for translation of the game to their language but most modern bigbudget games take localization into account during the development process and the games are released for several different languages simultaneously localization is the actual process of translating the language assets in a game into other languages by localizing games they increase their level of accessibility where games could help to expend the international markets effectively game localization is generally known as language translations yet a full localization of a game is a complex project different levels of translation range from zero translation being that there is no translation to the product and all things are sent raw basic translation where only a few text and subtitles are translated or even added and a full translation where new voice overs and game material changes are added there are various essential elements on localizing a game including translating the language of the game to adjusting ingame assets for different cultures to reach more potential consumers in other geographies or globalization for short translation seems to fall into scope of localization which itself constitutes a substantially broader endeavor these include the different levels of translation to the globalization of the game itself however certain developers seem to be divided on whether globalization falls under localization or not moreover in order to fit into the local markets game production companies often change or redesign the graphic designs or the packaging of the game for marketing purposes for example the popular game assassins creed has two different packaging designs for the japanese and us market by localizing the graphic and packaging designs companies might arouse a better connections and attention from the consumers from various regions indie development independent video game development independent games or indie games game industry video game industry the video game industry formally referred to as interactive entertainment is the economic sector involved with the development marketing and sale of video games the industry sports several unique approaches the examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject you may improve this article discuss the issue on the talk page or create a new article as appropriate september 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message culture game development culture always has been and continues to be very casual by normal business standards many game developers are strongly individualistic and usually tolerant of divergent personalities despite the casual culture game development is taken seriously by its practitioners who may take offense if it is suggested that they dont have a real job locales united states further information list of video game companies in the united states in the early history of video game development the prominent locale for game development was the corridor from san francisco to silicon valley in california at present many large publishers still operate there such as activision blizzard capcom entertainment disney interactive eidos interactive electronic arts foundation 9 lucasarts entertainment namco bandai games sega of america sony computer entertainment america thq however due to the nature of game development many publishers are present in other regions such as big fish games washington garagegames oregon majesco entertainment new jersey microsoft corporation washington nintendo of america washington taketwo interactive new york southpeak games virginia education many universities and design schools are offering classes specifically focused on game development many innovative ideas are presented at conferences such as independent games festival igf or game developers conference gdc indie game development may motivate students who produce a game for their final projects or thesis and may open their own game company universities offer computer science degrees which give you a strong basis of knowledge if you wish to become a programmer stability video game industry employment is fairly volatile similar to other artistic industries including television music etc scores of game development studios crop up work on one game and then quickly go under this may be one reason why game developers tend to congregate geographically if their current studio goes under developers can flock to an adjacent one or start another from the ground up in an industry where only the top 20 of products make a profit its easy to understand this fluctuation numerous games may start development and are cancelled or perhaps even completed but never published experienced game developers may work for years and yet never ship a title such is the nature of the business this volatility is likely inherent to the artistic nature of games game development portal international game developers association independent video game development software development software development process list of video gaming topics video game controversy open source video games bibliography mwparseroutput refbeginfontsize90marginbottom05emmwparseroutput refbeginhangingindentsulliststyletypenonemarginleft0mwparseroutput refbeginhangingindentsullimwparseroutput refbeginhangingindentsdlddmarginleft0paddingleft32emtextindent32emliststylenonemwparseroutput refbegin100fontsize100 adams ernest rollings andrew 2003 andrew rollings and ernest adams on game design new riders publishing isbn1592730019 bates bob 2004 game design 2nd ed thomson course technology isbn1592004938 bethke erik 2003 game development and production texas wordware publishing inc isbn1556229518 brathwaite brenda schreiber ian 2009 challenges for game designers charles river media isbn158450580x chandler heather maxwell 2009 the game production handbook 2nd ed hingham massachusetts infinity science press isbn9781934015407 mcguire morgan jenkins odest chadwicke 2009 creating games mechanics content and technology wellesley massachusetts a k peters isbn9781568813059 mcshaffry mike 2009 game coding complete hingham massachusetts charles river media isbn9781584506805 moore michael e novak jeannie 2010 game industry career guide delmar cengage learning isbn9781428376472 oxland kevin 2004 gameplay and design addison wesley isbn0321204670 salen katie zimmerman eric 2005 the game design reader a rules of play anthology the mit press isbn0262195364 salen katie zimmerman eric 2003 rules of play game design fundamentals mit press isbn0262240459 wikimedia commons has media related to video game development library resources about video game development resources in your library gamedevnet a resource for game development devmasternet game development site gamasutracom articles on game development wikis game development wiki at gamedevnet discontinued and archived 