Game Development Process
Game development process has some stages that need to be followed in order to successfully complete a game project. First you need to come up with an idea. Then you need to prepare all technicalities and a prototype to make sure it will work. Then comes the production phase, which might differ a little bit from game to game. Here is ours – Catie in MeowmeowLand – production process:
Level design
First phase of our game production is level design. At the very beginning we need to come up with an idea of how the level will work. In other words we need to figure out what tasks the player needs to complete in order to move Catie from point A to point B, and thus pass the level. We write up a scenario which we follow through out the whole development process of each level.
Illustration & Preparation for Animation
Once the logic of the level is designed, illustrator needs to illustrate all visual materials (that means the environments, characters and active objects). As it is said – there are no limits to creativity, hence the more absurd visual, the better for the bizarre world of MeowmeowLand.
After the illustration is done, illustrator has to prepare all visual materials for animator.
Animation & Preparation for Coder
Animation is the longest part of the development process. To bestir all characters and objects takes a time and skill. And a lot of communication with illustrator and coder. Animator also needs to be quite creative to come up with all the moves, funny little animations and responses of clickable characters and objects.
When animator finishes her part, she also, like illustrator before, has to prepare all animations for coder, who will “put it together” to make it work.
Code
Coding is a critical part, that makes the game work as a whole. Our coder always makes sure that everything works and runs smoothly.
Sound & Music implementation
In the end, our music & sound designer takes the finished screen (level) and creates the sounds to support humor and mystery of each level and its characters. Again, coder incorporate all sounds into the game.
After all of these little parts of production are done, you need to test your game, identify bugs, polish it (as much as possible), advertise it and then launch and distribute the finished game.
P. S.: Do not forget this is not a manual or guide how to produce a game, but just an insight on how it may work and how is our game development process done 🙂
If you are interested to learn more about game development in general, we recommend you to read The 7 Stages of Game Development (this article is for those who want to start the development process) or The Video Game Development Process (for absolute beginners).