How to Develop a Game

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: Determine the skills that will most likely be needed for your game development project.

   Due to the cost factor, many startup game studios make a common critical mistake – they hire few specialists to fulfill several roles.
   
   As a rule, these specialists are pretty junior and are managed by a single senior guy.
   
   Such team structures often fail to deliver quality products on time because of occupational burnout (having to work overtime to meet the deadlines, multi-tasking, etc) and lack of professional expertise. ,, Since timing and cost efficiency are really two most important factors in gaining a competitive advantage and winning a certain market or a niche, you should consider alternative ways to staff your game development project (e.g., offshore IT staffing, Dedicated Development Team, etc.).
   
   For your game development project you'll need these skills and roles (as a minimum):
   Concept artist:
   Preparation of all creative materials including sketches, drafts, creation of characters, objects (e.g., vehicles, weapons) and map layouts, 2D / 3D artwork creation, Basic design Level designer:
   Knowledge of 3d party design tools such as UnrealEd and 3D art packages (Max/Maya) 2D / 3D modeling Game mapping Modeler:
   Conversion of 2D artwork into 3D assets to be imported into your game Polygonal modeling Animator:
   Creation of control systems to turn your character models into the digital puppets to manipulate with, Creation of the entire game’s motion system Software developer:
   Coding and integrating the whole functionality into the game, Front-end and back-end programming Project Manager (or Team Lead):
   Oversees the project and makes sure each project element is completed on time and on budget, Helps unite the team, solve internal problems, increase team morale, Acts as an intermediary between client and game development service provider Web designer:
   Creation of game’s webpages, online communities and other online media outlets used to promote your game, Keeping all web properties’ design up to date QA Engineer:
   Oversees the project from the quality’s perspective, Checks the game for bugs and errors, Conducts full quality assurance control ,, After production has officially kicked off, make sure:
   Your PM / team lead follows both the team as a whole and each individual team member’s progress and keeps everyone on schedule, Your PM / team lead only uses constructive rather than destructive criticism to maintain a healthy team morale, Your PM / team lead is able to minimize (inevitable) delays in the delivery Game development stages:
   Integrating all completed project assets into a functional game (level designers and developers are mostly involved here), Alpha and Beta testing and feedback collection, Remodeling and finalizing, Releasing your game to the app stores and game centers
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   Step 2: Hire mid and senior IT and creative guys for the most complex tasks within your game development project and have one person do his own work.

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   Step 3: Consider your hiring options.

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   Step 4: Schedule your game production Create an individual schedule for each team member stating specific details and timeframes for each task assigned to the person Compile all of the individual schedules into a Master Schedule and build your Agile Scrum practice around it.

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   Step 5: Work on the Game production.

Detailed Guide

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