Game development Process

1. Pre-Production
Production
Milestones
Post-Production

2.  Pre-production or design phase is a
planning phase of the project focused on
idea and concept development and
production of initial design documents.

3.  High Concept is a brief description of a
game.
 Pitch, proposal document, or game proposal
is a short summary document intended to
present the game's selling points and detail
why the game would be profitable to develop
 Concept game proposal, or game plan is a
more detailed document than the pitch
document.

4.  Game Design Document - The design
document describes the game's concept and
major gameplay elements in detail. It may
also include preliminary sketches of various
aspects of the game.
 Prototype allows programmers and game
designers to experiment with different
algorithms and usability scenarios for a
game.

5.  Production is the main stage of
development, when assets and source code
for the game are produced.
 Design
 Programming
 Level Creation
 Art Production
 Audio Production
 Testing

6.  Milestones mark major events during game
development and are used to track game's
progress.
 First Playable
 Alpha
 Code Freeze
 Beta
 Code Release
 Gold Master
 Crunch Time

7.  First Playable is the game version containing
representative gameplay and assets, this is
the first version with functional major
gameplay elements. It is also called pre-
alpha.
 Alpha is the stage when key gameplay
functionality is implemented, and assets are
partially finished. A game in alpha is feature
complete, that is, game is playable and
contains all the major features. These
features may be further revised based on
testing and feedback.

8.  Code Freeze is the stage when new code is
no longer added to the game and only bugs
are being corrected.
 Beta is feature and asset complete version of
the game, when only bugs are being fixed.
 Code Release is the stage when many bugs
are fixed and game is ready to be shipped or
submitted for console manufacturer review.
 Gold Master is the final game's build that is
used as a master for production of the game.

9.  Crunch Time or crunch mode is unpaid
overtime requested by many companies to
meet project deadlines and milestones that
negatively affects game developers.

10.  After the game’s release, 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