Editing Video game development (section)

=== Production ===

Production is the main stage of development when assets and [[source code]] for the game are produced.{{sfn|Chandler|2009|p=9}}

Mainstream production is usually defined as the period of time when the project is fully staffed.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} Programmers write new [[source code]], artists develop [[game asset]]s, such as, [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]] or [[3D model]]s. Sound engineers develop sound effects and composers develop music for the game. [[Level designer]]s create levels, and writers write dialogue for cutscenes and [[non-player character|NPCs]].{{Original research inline|reason=a bit or'ish if you ask me; need to cite individual tasks or write overview from below section|date=April 2010}}  Game designers continue to develop the game's design throughout production.

==== Design ====
{{Main|Game design}}

Game design is an essential and collaborative{{sfn|Bates|2004|p=xxi}} process of designing the content and rules of a [[game]],{{sfn|Brathwaite|Schreiber|2009|p=2}} requiring artistic and technical competence as well as writing skills.{{sfn|Adams|Rollings|2006|pp=20, 22–23, 24–25}} Creativity and an open mind are vital for the completion of a successful video game.

During development, the game designer implements and modifies the game design to reflect the current vision of the game. Features and levels are often removed or added. The art treatment may evolve and the backstory may change. A new [[computing platform|platform]] may be targeted as well as a new [[demographic]]. All these changes need to be documented and disseminated to the rest of the team. Most changes occur as updates to the design document.

==== Programming ====
{{Main|Game programming}}

The programming of the game is handled by one or more [[game programmer]]s. They develop prototypes to test ideas, many of which may never make it into the final game.  The programmers incorporate new features demanded by the game design and fix any bugs introduced during the development process. Even if an off-the-shelf [[game engine]] is used, a great deal of programming is required to customize almost every game.

==== Level creation ====
{{Main|Level design}}

From a time standpoint, the game's first level takes the longest to develop. As level designers and artists use the tools for level building, they request features and changes to the in-house tools that allow for quicker and higher-quality development. Newly introduced features may cause old levels to become obsolete, so the levels developed early on may be repeatedly developed and discarded. Because of the dynamic environment of game development, the design of early levels may also change over time. It is not uncommon to spend upwards of twelve months on one level of a game developed over the course of three years. Later levels can be developed much more quickly as the feature set is more complete and the game vision is clearer and more stable.

==== Art production ====
{{Main|Game art design}}

During development, artists make art assets according to specifications given by the designers. Early in production, concept artists make concept art to guide the artistic direction of the game, rough art is made for prototypes, and the designers work with artists to design the visual style and visual language of the game. As production goes on, more final art is made, and existing art is edited based on player feedback.

==== Audio production ====
{{Further|Video game music}}

Game audio may be separated into three categories—sound effects, music, and voice-over.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=49}}

Sound effect production is the production of sounds by either tweaking a sample to a desired effect or replicating it with real objects.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=49}} Sound effects include UI sound design, which effectively conveys information both for visible UI elements and as an auditory display. It provides sonic feedback for in-game interfaces, as well as contributing to the overall game aesthetic.<ref>{{cite web|url=
https://www.asoundeffect.com/sci-fi-ui-sound-effects/
|title=How To Design Superb Sci-Fi UI Sound Effects|date=22 March 2017 |access-date=January 6, 2022|archive-date=March 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315164614/https://www.asoundeffect.com/sci-fi-ui-sound-effects/|url-status=live}}</ref> Sound effects are important and impact the game's delivery.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=363}}

Music may be synthesized or performed live.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=50}}

There are four main ways in which music is presented in a game.

* Music may be ambient, especially for slow periods of game, where the music aims to reinforce the aesthetic mood and game setting.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=344}}
* Music may be triggered by in-game events. For example, in such games as [[Pac-Man]] or [[Mario]], player picking up [[power-up]]s triggered respective musical scores.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=344}}
* Action music, such as chase, battle or hunting sequences is fast-paced, hard-changing score.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=345}}
* Menu music, similar to credits music, creates aural impact while relatively little action is taking place.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=345}}

A game title with 20 hours of single-player gameplay may feature around 1 hour.{{sfn|Bethke|2003|p=345}}

==== Testing ====
{{Main|Game testing}}

[[Quality assurance]] of a video game product plays a significant role throughout the development cycle of a game, though comes more significantly into play as the game nears completion. Unlike other software products or productivity applications, video games are fundamentally meant to entertain, and thus the testing of video games is more focused on the end-user experience rather than the accuracy of the software code's performance, which leads to differences in how the game software is developed.<ref name="gamedev survey">{{cite arXiv | last1 = Politowski | first1= Cristiano | first2= Fabio |last2= Petrillo | first3= Yann-Gäel |last3 = Guéhéneuc | title = A Survey of Video Game Testing | eprint=2103.06431  | date = 2021 | class= cs.SE }}</ref>

Because game development is focused on the presentation and gameplay as seen by the player, there often is little rigor in maintaining and testing backend code in the early stages of development since such code may be readily disregarded if there are changes found in gameplay. Some [[Test automation|automated testing]] may be used to ensure the core game engine operates as expected, but most game testing comes via [[game tester]], who enter the testing process once a playable prototype is available. This may be one level or subset of the game software that can be used to any reasonable extent.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> The use of testers may be lightweight at the early stages of development, but the testers' role becomes more predominant as the game nears completion, becoming a full-time role alongside development.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> Early testing is considered a key part of game design; the most common issue raised in several published post-mortems on game development was the failure to start the testing process early.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> 

As code matures and the gameplay features solidify, then development typically includes more rigorous test controls such as [[regression testing]] to make sure new updates to the code base do not change working parts of the game. Games are complex software systems, and changes in one code area may unexpected cause a seemingly unrelated part of the game to fail. Testers are tasked to repeatedly play through updated versions of games in these later stages to look for any issues or bugs not otherwise found from automated testing. Because this can be a monotonous task of playing the same game over and over, this process can lead to games frequently being released with uncaught bugs or glitches.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> 

There are other factors simply inherent to video games that can make testing difficult. This includes the use of randomized gameplay systems, which require more testing for both game balance and bug tracking than more linearized games, the balance of cost and time to devote to testing as part of the development budget, and assuring that the game still remains fun and entertaining to play as changes are made to it.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> 

Despite the dangers of overlooking regression testing, some game developers and publishers fail to test the full feature suite of the game and ship a game with bugs. This can result in customer dissatisfaction and failure to meet sales goals. When this does happen, most developers and publishers quickly release [[Patch (computing)|patches]] that fix the bugs and make the game fully playable again.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> Certain publishing models are designed specifically to accommodate the fact that first releases of games may be bug-ridden but will be fixed post-release. The [[early access]] model invites players to pay into a game before its planned release and helps to provide feedback and bug reports.<ref name="gamedev survey"/> [[Mobile games]] and games with live services are also anticipated to be updated on a frequent basis, offset by pre-release testing with live feedback and bug reports.<ref name="gamedev survey"/>