Jaeson M.

Enumerabellon
 Game Development Life Cycle
Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC)
Øcan also be referred to as the SDLC or Software Development Life Cycle
ØSDLC is defined as a structured process that enables the production of
high-quality, low-cost software, in the shortest possible production
time.
 Game Development Life Cycle (Cont.)
Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC)
ØSome of the common SDLC are
• Waterfall Model
• Agile Model
 Game Development Life Cycle (Cont.)
Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC)
ØAlthough SDLC and GDLC are technically the same, it is important to note that
compared to software development life cycle, developers face many
challenges while developing games hence they follow a different approach
for developing games.
ØDifferent gaming companies or video game publishers also follow different
GDLC.
Game Development Life Cycle
Pre-production

Production Post-production

Testing Launch

Pre-launch
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre Production
Pre-production

ØIdea & Story

• Ideas represents just bits and pieces of your game. They are just a spark for your fire in
your product.
• An idea, story, concept, strategy in a game will evolve, therefore critical thinking and
analysis of the game has to be drafted right at the beginning.
ØTarget Audience
• It is important to determine who will be interested in your product to advance the
game’s development according to their preferences.
ØChoosing a platform
• The choice of a platform is usually based on the popularity of use, as well as the
company’s coding capabilities.
ØConcept art
• Concept artists design characters, environments, props, and other game assets.
• This is usually where your mood boards are gathered together.
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre Production
Pre-production (Cont.)
ØAllocation of resources
• It is necessary to establish the number of required specialists, equipment, as well as the
video game development process timeline that will be required for the execution of a
project.
ØType of monetization
• Make money from ads, in-game purchases, or sell a product at a fixed cost?
ØRisk analysis
• It involves calculating all possible risks in advance and determining the methods of
damage mitigation.
ØMarketing strategy*
• This is the stage where you are going to decide how you will sell or market your game.
• You have to identify the what will be the selling points of your game.
Game Development Life Cycle - Production
Production

ØPrototyping
• Is the simplest possible execution of a design concept.
• It’s the process by which a game designer builds an example of their game in order to test the
gameplay—for instance, coding a simple version of the mechanics.
ØVisual Content Creation
• The concept of visual content includes everything that a game is filled with — characters, props,
environment, game assets.
• This is also where your Game Design Document (GDD) is fully established.
ØGame Level Design Development
• At the level design stage, specialists develop the logic of the game levels, which is different for each
genre. For example, this can increase difficulty levels after completing a linear quest or exploring
an open game world.
• In addition, the level designer develops game mechanics, plot, game economy design, as well as
useful details such as hints describing new mechanics and leading a player through a game, as well
as creating transitions between levels.
Game Development Life Cycle - Production
Production

ØAudio Design and Voice Acting

• Sound specialists create game soundtracks and sound effects for different situations.
• In addition, sound effects give a player specific signals about danger, victory, defeat, etc.
• Natural sounds are also often included — character steps, the sound of a shot or explosion, water
or wind, etc. In addition to the music and sounds, the characters need to be voiced.
• Each dialogue, monologue, and individual line of characters are recorded with the help of voice
actors and imported into the software.
ØCoding
• When all the game elements are ready, developers write thousands of lines of code to bring all the
content together, and often use game engines to do it.
• The difficulty of this task lies in the fact that a game should develop like a puzzle, not include
mutually exclusive mechanics, and also function without errors and failures.
• Game developers try to take into account all possible technical factors and create a positive user
experience.
Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance/Testing
There are two types of game testing:
1. Functional game testing
Ø in this game testing stage, game testers ensures that the game will run well and will meet all
user expectations providing a seamless experience.
Ø Through functional testing, testers aim to identify performance issues, freezes, crashes, and
progression blockers that hinder seamless gameplay.
Ø Additionally, they look for audio-visual problems and graphic issues in the entire game,
testing all areas for false triggers or any in-game events that don't react as they're supposed
to.
2. Non-functional game testing
Ø is a type of software testing that verifies non functional aspects of the product, such as
performance, stability, and usability.
Ø ensure the game runs well and meets all user expectations providing a seamless experience in
a real-world scenarios.
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Functional game testing types:
1. Smoke game testing
Ø is an approach which is usually carried out during the initial development stages of the GDLC to make sure that the core
functionalities of a program are working fine without any issues.
Ø It is executed before any detailed functional tests are done on the software.
Ø The main intent of smoke testing is not to perform deep testing but to verify that the core or main functionalities of the
program or the software are working fine.
2. Interoperability game testing
Ø a type of software testing that verifies the compatibility and communication of different systems, applications, or devices.
Ø It ensures that the data exchange and functionality are consistent and reliable across various platforms and environments.
3. Localization game testing
Ø also known as localisation quality assurance (LQA) is the process of testing and analysing the quality of a game's localisation.
Ø It runs a series of tests to review the linguistic and translation quality while also assessing other gaming factors affected by
translation and the multilingual experience.
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Functional game testing types (Cont):
4. Security access control game testing
Ø uses policies that verify users are who they claim to be and ensures appropriate control access levels are granted to users.
5. User acceptance game testing
Ø User acceptance testing (UAT) is an important phase of the software development process that verifies whether a product or
software is fit for the purpose it was built for in the first place—namely, that it: Fulfills business requirements.
6. Regression Testing
Ø This method of game testing can be called a retest of the functionality of the game feature.
Ø By regression testing it is checked if after the new modifications of the game bugs or errors appeared.
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Non-Functional game testing types:
1. Performance testing
Ø checks how well software components work. These tests can find issues in software design and architecture performance.
This is typically done by:
• Measuring response times
• Identifying bottlenecks
• Locating failure points
Ø Performance tests ensure several elements of software quality. They validate that it is fast, scalable, stable, and reliable.
2. Load testing
Ø Load testing checks how the software behaves under both normal and peak conditions. This is done to determine how much
work load the software can handle before performance is negatively affected.
Ø You can perform load tests by running multiple applications simultaneously, subjecting a server to a high amount of traffic, or
downloading a large quantity of files.
Ø Load tests are used to ensure fast and scalable software.
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Non-Functional game testing types:
3. Stress testing
Ø checks how the software behaves under abnormal conditions. This determines the limit at which the software will break.
Ø It’s important to find out what happens when the system is under stress. Does the right error message display? Does the
system fail? How will it recover?
Ø Stress tests help testers analyze what happens when a system fails. This ensures that software is recoverable, stable, and
reliable.
4. Volume testing
Ø serves to verify what happens to system performance when a huge volume of data is added to the database. This is done to
identify what problems may occur with increasing volumes of data. It’s also known as flood testing.
Ø You can use volume tests to check if there’s any data loss, warning or error messages, or data storage issues when massive
amounts of data are added to the product.
Ø Volume tests verify that systems respond as expected to certain volumes of data. This is important for ensuring performance
and stability
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Non-Functional game testing types (cont):
5. Security testing
Ø checks software to find flaws or vulnerabilities that may compromise data. The goal of security testing is to identify any
potential security risks or threats and to ensure that the product is not vulnerable to hacking, data breaches, or other types of
security issues.
Common security tests include:
• Vulnerability scans
• Security scans
• Penetration testing
• Risk assessment
• Security audits
• Posture assessment
• Ethical hacking
 Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Non-Functional game testing types (cont):
6. Upgrade and Installation Tests
Ø Upgrade testing and installation testing verify that software will work properly on everyone’s machines. So, upgrade testing is
done for existing users. And installation testing is done for new users.
Ø Both of these types of functional tests are important for user satisfaction. After all, no matter how great your product is, if a
user runs into problems installing or upgrading it, they'll never know how good it is!
7. Recovery testing
Ø determine how quickly software can rebound after a crash or failure. This is done by forcing the system to fail.
This type of testing is done to see what happens to the software:
• If you unplug the hardware.
• If you disconnect from the network during a data transfer.
• When you restart the system unexpectedly.
Game Development Life Cycle - Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance/Testing Summary
1. Functional game testing types: 2. Non-functional game testing types:
• Interoperability game testing • Performance game testing
• Regression game testing • Load game testing
• Smoke game testing • Stress game testing
• Localization game testing • Stability game testing
• Security access control game • Volume game testing
testing • Usability game testing
• User acceptance game testing • Compliance game testing
• Installation game testing
• Configuration game testing
• Disaster recovery game testing
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Pre-launch

ØAlpha & Beta Releases

• The alpha stage is when the product is first created and is usually only available to a small
group of people, such as the product's developers and testers. Usually done during the
testing stage.
• The beta stage is when the product is released to a larger group of people, such as the
general public, for testing and feedback.
ØMarketing Hype
• A marketing technique that creates a highly appealing perception of a brand. Through it,
brands can interact with their target customers and impact their behavior.
• The more you are exposed to a brand, the more likely you will develop a connection. The
more it is talked about, the more its value increases.
• The goal is to make audiences or target audience curious about your game.
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Pre-launch

ØGaming Conventions
• a great opportunity for board game, video game and role-playing game enthusiasts to
discover many new and classic games. They also allow players to meet publishers and
engage in conversations with them. It is also a great way to soft launch a game to public.
ØGame advertising
• You release a full blown advertisement to the public. This is the stage where you fully
give your gamers/audience an idea how to play your game.
Below are 7 Ways To Promote A New Game:
1. Reach Out To Trending Influencers
2. Create Video Content
3. Build An Online Presence
4. Join Social Media Blogs
5. Cross-Promote Your Game
6. Make A Simple Website
7. Get Reviews
Assignment
• Difference between minor bug and major bug
• Research the levels of bug priorities
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Launch

ØMajor bug squashing

• Most gaming companies have what they call as the “Bug Squashing Day”.
• This is a day dedicated solely for debugging major bug or high-risk bug that were
identified during the beta release. No new features or functionality must be introduced.
• Usually, each member of the development team has contribute on this debugging stage.
Each member should pick a bug that they want to fix and by the end of the day, the game
will go through regression testing.
ØMinor bug squashing
• Once the high-risk bugs are fixed, members of the development team will fix the
remaining bugs within the game from medium-risk bugs to low-risk bugs.
• No new feautres or functionality must be introduced and regression testing should also
follow after the bugs are fixed.
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Launch (cont)

ØPolishing
• To polish a game is to add those final touches or improvements to ensure your game is as
aesthetically pleasing and error-free as possible.
• The goal is to add consistency all through your game. However, this isn’t just about
appearances. The game’s graphics, theme, UI and controls, and core gameplay mechanics
must all be cohesive. A polished game is also free from any errors and bugs.
• Although considered to be the last step in the game development process, it’s one of the
most important.
• This is also the stage that
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Launch (cont)

ØMaster release
• Once every aspect of the game is polished, developers or game companies should pick a
good date to launch the game.
Below are some of the few things to consider when choosing your release date:
• release date of your competitor
• the amount of noise in the video game industry at the time
• things outside of gaming happening around the time of a release date and other events
happening within the gaming industry
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Post-Production

ØMore Major bug squashing

• Another “Bug Squashing Day”.
• This is intended to fix any identified errors as soon as the final version of the game is
launched to the public.
• In this stage, the bug squashing day strictly fixes all identified bugs in accordance to the
level of bug priority.
ØGame Patching
• Patching is the process of making changes to a game or its supporting data to update, fix
or improve it.
• during patching process, developers target identified vulnerable areas of the
software/game.
• patches does not neccessarily require users to update and install a new version of the
game but is usually downloaded as additional or updated modules once the user reopens
a section of the game or the entire game itself.
Game Development Life Cycle - Pre-launch
Post-Production

ØGame Balancing
• is used to make games far more interesting and adaptable for players, especially games
that have multiple players.
• is a concept where the strengths of a character or a particular strategy are offset by a
proportional drawback in another area to prevent domination of one character or
gaming approach.
• this is also a way to ensure that your game is still relevant and can still compete against
other games, especially the most downloaded games or the new released games.
• after game balancing is conducted, that is usually the time that developers require
gamers to update the entire game before allowing them to play it.

Take note that the main purpose of post production is mainly for maintenance
and ensuring that the game is still relevant to the current times.