1. Pre-production
The pre-production phase of making a game such as Gears of War is the same as the pre-
production of making any game. This is simply the planning stage and what takes place
before anything is actually created.
The pre-production stage consists of things such as planning concept development and the
initial design documents. The initial aim of the concept development is to create a clear and
easy understanding document which describes the tasks, schedules and estimates for the
development team.
During the pre-production stage the developers will looks at what the main selling points of
the game will be, this is called the pitch. They will also look at concept, this is everything
from game's genre, game play description, features, setting, story, target
audience, hardware platforms, estimated schedule, marketing analysis, team
requirements, and risk analysis.
At the end of the pre-production stage the developers will have game design document this
contains the major game play elements in detail and sometimes sketches of what some
elements of the game will look like.
2. Production
The production of a game is when the main stage of development takes place. This means
the artistic design of the game assets will be made, as well as the sound engineer will work
on the music and sound elements for the game, the level designers create the individual
levels and the writers will start writing for the characters and the cut scenes in the game.
One of the main parts of the production is level creation. Usually the first level takes the
longest to create as this is when the designers are experimenting with different
tools, however as the designers progress into the later levels the designs they made for the
earlier levels may not look as good and therefore may be altered or even scrapped
completely.
The audio production often separates the sound into three categories: sound
effects, music, and voice-over. This is when the game has background sounds such as bangs
and crashes, music is often music in one of the cut scenes or on the radio in the game and
voice over is the voice acting which goes into the characters.
Testing is a very important in the production of a game. As soon as any levels in the game are
playable testers will start and test the quality and assurance of the game. This is similar to the
alpha stage. This is when the game is playable and contains most of the major
features, during alpha small changes will be made to improve the game.
3. Code freeze is when there are no more codes being added to the game and the bugs in the
game start getting corrected. This is similar to the beta stage. This is when there is a full
complete version of the game and only bugs will get fixed. However unlike the code freeze
stage non of the bugs which get through to the beta stage can stop the game from being
shippable and no changes to the main features in the game get altered.
After these stages there is a code release. This is when all the bugs in the game are fixed
and the game is ready to be reviewed by the console manufacturer.
Post-production
Once the game is released there is a lot of maintenance, this consists of fixing bugs which
were not originally found in the game and creating patches for the game which can fix this.
The marketing of the game is very similar to that of films or music. The publisher marketing
team will look at the best places to advertise the game and promote it. This can be through
various things such as magazines and TV advertisements.
Demos of the game will be released, this could be a simple and short advert or could be a
long game play demo depending on the target audience. Games may also be announced at
events such as E3.