The Video Game Production Pipeline

Because you may not know how the video game industry works, today we’ll talk about the production pipeline of a game like SwapTales: Leon!. Let’s go!

Pre-production and design

First of all, you begin with a game idea, in the shape of a concept document which will lead to the development of  a first prototype in order to demonstrate its feasibility. This document details the principles and mechanical basics of the game, its world/universe, how it works, etc.

During prototyping and in accordance with it, this document will in most cases evolve into a more comprehensive design document. With this first prototype design and this written document, an independent studio can begin to look around for funding, and start selling their idea.

Production

Once the funds are gathered, the project team goes into production. There may be staff changes during this phase.

The various specialities (game designers, programmers, graphic designers, sound designers, project managers and so on) then engage into the full production of the game.

A schedule and tasks are established with regular meetings to see what has been produced, and are adjusted along the way during production, depending on the issues we encountered.

Even with experience, it is hard to foresee all the problems that making a game can generate.

The marketing project can also begin to be thought out from this stage.

Versions and validation

For a game to be shipped, it needs to pass several stages of validation from a publisher (the role of a game publisher is to support a portion or all of the funding of a game, its manufacture, marketing and distribution) or manufacturers and distributors of various media (consoles, online platforms, tablets, smartphones). These stages are generally referred to as version Alpha, Beta and Gold. Alpha is a version after development of the primary functions of the game. Beta is a version with full content, but may still contain bugs. Gold is the definitive version, and ideally without major bugs (preventing the game from running), ready for shipping.

Post-release

Nowadays, a game is often dematerialized. Computer maintenance can be performed on a project with network and online functions, and updates can be added after the release of the game.

As we are at the end of production on SwapTales:Leon!, we hope this article has helped you to better understand our process. If you have more specific questions, feel free to leave us a comment or contact us!