Game Development

(Video) game development is the process of

creating a video game. Development is
undertaken by a game developer, which may
range from a single person to a large
business. Traditional commercial PC and
console games are normally funded by a
publisher and take several years to develop.
Indie games can take less time and can be
produced cheaply by individuals and small
developers. The indie game industry has seen
a rise in recent years with the growth of new
online distribution systems and the mobile
game market.
The first video games were developed in the
1950s, but required mainframe computers
and were not available to the general public.
Commercial game development began in
1970s with the advent of first generation
video game consoles and home computers.
Due to low costs and low capabilities of
computers, a lone programmer could develop
a full game. However, approaching the 21st
century, ever-increasing computer processing
power and heightened consumer expectations
made it difficult for a single developer to
produce a mainstream console or PC game.
The average price of producing a video game
slowly rose from US$14 million in 2000 to
over $5 million in 2006, then to over $20
million by 2010. However, mobile, web-based
and indie games can cost much less.
[1]

Mainstream PC and console games are
generally developed in phases. First, in pre-
production, pitches, prototypes, and game
design documents are written. If the idea is
approved and the developer receives funding,
a full-scale development begins. This usually
involves a 20100 person team of various
responsibilities, such as designers, artists,
programmers, testers, etc. The games go
through development, alpha, and beta stages
until finally being released. Modern games are
advertised, marketed, and showcased at trade
show demos. Even so, many games do not
turn a profit.
Mobile games are, in general, much quicker
to develop than the mainstream PC and
console games. Usually mobile games are
published as early as possible, often after five
months of development, in order to see how
they perform. Consequently, mobile games
can still be developed by a lone developer.
However, the largest game studios can have
up to 100 people working for a single
project.
[1]
Like PC and console games, many
mobile games do not turn a profit.
Game development is the software
development process by which a video game
is produced.
[2]
Games are developed as a
creative outlet
[3]
and to generate profit.
[4]

Development is normally funded by a
publisher.
[5]
Well-made games bring profit
more readily.
[6]
However, it is important to
estimate a game's financial requirements,
[7]

such as development costs of individual
features.
[8]
Failing to provide clear
implications of game's expectations may
result in exceeding allocated budget.
[7]
In fact,
the majority of commercial games do not
produce profit.
[9][10][11]
Most developers cannot
afford changing development schedule and
require estimating their capabilities with
available resources before production.
[12]

The game industry requires innovations, as
publishers cannot profit from constant
release of repetitive sequels and
imitations.
[13][neutrality is disputed]
Every year new
independent development companies open
and some manage to develop hit titles.
Similarly, many developers close down
because they cannot find a publishing
contract or their production is not
profitable.
[14]
It is difficult to start a new
company due to high initial investment
required.
[15]
Nevertheless, growth of casual
and mobile game market has allowed
developers with smaller teams to enter the
market. Once the companies become
financially stable, they may expand to develop
larger games.
[14]
Most developers start small
and gradually expand their business.
[15]
A
developer receiving profit from a successful
title may store up a capital to expand and re-
factor their company, as well as tolerate more
failed deadlines.
[16]

An average development budget for a
multiplatform game is US$18-28M, with high-
profile games often exceeding more than
$40M.
[17]

In the early era of home computers and video
game consoles in the early 1980s, a single
programmer could handle almost all the tasks
of developing a game programming,
graphical design, sound effects, etc.
[18][19][20]
It
could take as little as six weeks to develop a
game.
[19]
However, the high user expectations
and requirements
[19]
of modern commercial
games far exceed the capabilities of a single
developer and require the splitting of
responsibilities.
[21]
A team of over a hundred
people can be employed full-time for a single
project.
[20]
as genre

History


The XGS PIC 16-Bit game development board,
a game development tool
[41]
similar to those
used in the 1990s.
The history of game making begins with the
development of the first video games,
although which video game is the first
depends on the definition of video game. The
first games created had little entertainment
value, and their development focus was
separate from user experiencein fact, these
games required mainframe computers to play
them.
[42]
OXO, written by Alexander S.
Douglas in 1952, was the first computer game
to use a digital display.
[21]
In 1958, a game
called Tennis for Two, which displayed its
output on an oscilloscope, was made by Willy
Higinbotham, a physicist working at the
Brookhaven National Laboratory.
[43][44]
In 1961,
a mainframe computer game called Spacewar!
was developed by a group of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology students led by Steve
Russell.
[43]

True commercial design and development of
games began in the 1970s, when arcade video
games and first-generation consoles were
marketed. In 1971, Computer Space was the
first commercially sold, coin-operated video
game. It used a black-and-white television for
its display, and the computer system was
made of 74 series TTL chips.
[45]
In 1972, the
first home console system was released called
Magnavox Odyssey, developed by Ralph H.
Baer.
[46]
That same year, Atari released Pong,
an arcade game that increased video game
popularity.
[47]
The commercial success of
Pong led other companies to develop Pong
clones, spawning the video game industry.
[48]

Programmers worked within the big
companies to produce games for these
devices. The industry did not see huge
innovation in game design and a large
number of consoles had very similar
games.
[49]
Many of these early games were
often Pong clones.
[50]
Some games were
different, however, such as Gun Fight, which
was significant for several reasons:
[51]
an early
1975 on-foot, multi-directional shooter,
[52]

which depicted game characters,
[53]
game
violence, and human-to-human combat.
[54]

Tomohiro Nishikado's original version was
based on discrete logic,
[55]
which Dave
Nutting adapted using the Intel 8080, making
it the first video game to use a
microprocessor.
[56]
Console manufacturers
soon started to produce consoles that were
able to play independently developed
games,
[57]
and ran on microprocessors,
marking the beginning of second-generation
consoles, beginning with the release of the
Fairchild Channel F in 1976.
The flood of Pong clones led to the video
game crash of 1977, which eventually came to
an end with the mainstream success of
Taito's 1978 arcade shooter game Space
Invaders,
[50]
marking the beginning of the
golden age of arcade video games and
inspiring dozens of manufacturers to enter
the market.
[50][58]
Its creator Nishikado not
only designed and programmed the game,
but also did the artwork, engineered the
arcade hardware, and put together a
microcomputer from scratch.
[59]
It was soon
ported to the Atari 2600, becoming the first
"killer app" and quadrupling the console's
sales.
[60]
At the same time, home computers
appeared on the market, allowing individual
programmers and hobbyists to develop
games. This allowed hardware manufacturer
and software manufacturers to act separately.
A very large amount of games could be
produced by single individuals, as games were
easy to make because graphical and memory
limitation did not allow for much content.
Larger companies developed, who focused
selected teams to work on a title.
[61]
The
developers of many early home video games,
such as Zork, Baseball, Air Warrior, and
Adventure, later transitioned their work as
products of the early video game
industry.
[citation needed]

The industry expanded significantly at the
time, with the arcade video game sector alone
(representing the largest share of the gaming
industry) generating higher revenues than
both pop music and Hollywood films
combined.
[63]
The home video game industry,
however, suffered major losses following the
North American video game crash of 1983.
[64]

In 1984 Jon Freeman warned in Computer
Gaming World:
A: No. Not unless your idea of fame is having
your name recognized by one or two astute
individuals at Origins ... I've been making a
living (after a fashion) designing games for
most of the last six years. I wouldn't
recommend it for someone with a weak heart
or a large appetite, though.
[62]

Chris Crawford and Don Daglow in 1987
similarly advised prospective designers to
write games as a hobby first, and to not quit
their existing jobs early.
[65][66]
The home video
game industry was revitalized soon after by
the widespread success of the Nintendo
Entertainment System.
[67]

By 1987 a video game required 12 months to
develop and another six to plan marketing.
Projects remained usually solo efforts, with
single developers delivering finished games to
their publishers.
[66]
With the ever-increasing
processing and graphical capabilities of
arcade, console and computer products, along
with an increase in user expectations, game
design moved beyond the scope of a single
developer to produce a marketable game in a
reasonable time.
[citation needed]
This sparked the
beginning of team-based development.
[citation
needed]
In broad terms, during the 1980s, pre-
production involved sketches and test
routines of the only developer. In the 1990s,
pre-production consisted mostly of game art
previews. In the early 2000s, pre-production
usually produced a playable demo.
[68]

In 2000 a 12 to 36 month development
project was funded by a publisher for
US$1M3M.
[69]
Additionally, $250k1.5M were
spent on marketing and sales development.
[70]

In 2001, over 3000 games were released for
PC; and from about 100 games turning profit
only about 50 made significant profit.
[69]
In
the early 2000s it became increasingly
common to use middleware game engines,
such as Quake engine or Unreal engine.
[71]

In the early 2000s, also mobile games started
to gain popularity. However, mobile games
distributed by mobile operators remained a
marginal form of gaming until the Apple App
Store was launched in 2008.
[1]

In 2005, a mainstream console video game
cost from US$3M to $6M to develop. Some
games cost as much as $20M to develop.
[72]
In
2006 the profit from a console game sold at
retail was divided among parties of
distribution chain as follows: developer (13%),
publisher (32%), retail (32%), manufacturer
(5%), console royalty (18%).
[36]
In 2008 a
developer would retain around 17% of retail
price and around 85% if sold online.
[10]

Since the third-generation of consoles, the
home video game industry has constantly
increased and expanded. The industry
revenue has increased at least five-fold since
the 1990s. In 2007, the software portion of
video game revenue was $9.5 billion,
exceeding that of the movie industry.
[73]

Apple App Store, introduces in 2008, was the
first mobile application store operated
directly by the mobile platform holder. It
significantly changed the consumer behaviour
more favourable for downloading mobile
content and quickly broadened the markets
of mobile games.
[1]

In 2009 games market annual value was
estimated between $730 billion, depending
on which sales figures are included. This is
on par with films box office market.
[74]
A
publisher would typically fund an
independent developer for $500k$5M for a
development of a title.
[33]
In 2012, the total
value had already reached $66,3 billion and
by then the video game markets were not
anymore dominated by console games.
According to Newzoo, the share of MMO's
was 19.8%, PC/MAC's 9.8%, tablets' 3.2%,
smartphones 10.6%, handhelds' 9.8%,
consoles' only 36.7% and online casual games
10.2%. The fastest growing market segments
being mobile games with an average annual
writing of the user manual; and the
Development team

Developers can range in size from small
groups making casual games to housing
hundreds of employees and producing several
large titles.
[15]
Companies divide their
subtasks of game's development. Individual
job titles may vary; however, roles are the
same within the industry.
[30]
The development
team consists of several members.
[21]
Some
members of the team may handle more than
one role; similarly more than one task may be
handled by the same member.
[30]
Team size
can vary from 20 to 100 or more members,
depending on the game's scope. The most
represented are artists, followed by
programmers, then designers, and finally,
audio specialists, with two to three producers
in management. These positions are
employed full-time. Other positions, such as
testers, may be employed only part-time.
[82]

Salaries for these positions vary depending on
both the experience and the location of the
employee. An entry-level programmer can
make, on average, around $70,000 annually
and an experienced programmer can make,
on average, around $125,000 annually.
[83]

A development team includes these roles or
disciplines:
[30]

Designer
Further information: Video game design
A game designer is a person who designs
gameplay, conceiving and designing the rules
and structure of a game.
[84][85][86]

Development teams usually have a lead
designer who coordinates the work of other
designers. They are the main visionary of the
game.
[87]
One of the roles of a designer is
being a writer, often employed part-time to
conceive game's narrative, dialogue,
commentary, cutscene narrative, journals,
video game packaging content, hint system,
etc.
[88][89][90]
In larger projects, there are often
separate designers for various parts of the
game, such as, game mechanics, user
interface, characters, dialogue, etc.
Artist (Computer)

Further information: Game art design
A game artist is a visual artist who creates
video game art.
[91][92]
The art production is
usually overseen by an art director or art
lead, making sure their vision is followed. The
art director manages the art team, scheduling
and coordinating within the development
team.
[91]

The artist's job may be 2D oriented or 3D
oriented. 2D artists may produce concept
art,
[93][94]
sprites,
[95]
textures,
[96][97]

environmental backdrops or terrain
images,
[93][97]
and user interface.
[95]
3D artists
may produce models or meshes,
[98][99]

animation,
[98]
3D environment,
[100]
and
cinematics.
[100]
Artists sometimes occupy both
roles.
Programmer
Main article: Game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer
who primarily develops video games or
related software (such as game development
tools). The game's codebase development is
handled by programmers.
[101][102]
There are
usually one to several lead programmers,
[103]

who implement the game's starting codebase
and overview future development and
programmer allocation on individual modules.
Individual programming disciplines roles
include:
[101]

Physics the programming of the
game engine, including simulating
physics, collision, object movement,
etc.;
AI producing computer agents
using game AI techniques, such as
scripting, planning, rule-based
decisions, etc.
Graphics the managing of
graphical content utilization and
memory considerations; the
production of graphics engine,
integration of models, textures to
work along the physics engine.
Sound integration of music,
speech, effect sounds into the
proper locations and times.
Gameplay implementation of
various games rules and features
(sometimes called a generalist);
Scripting development and
maintenance of high-level command
system for various in-game tasks,
such as AI, level editor triggers, etc.
UI production of user interface
elements, like option menus, HUDs,
help and feedback systems, etc.
Input processing processing and
compatibility correlation of various
input devices, such as keyboard,
mouse, gamepad, etc.
Network communications the
managing of data inputs and
outputs for local and internet
gameplay.
Game tools the production of
tools to accompany the
development of the game, especially
for designers and scripters.
Level designer
Further information: Level design
A level designer is a person who creates
levels, challenges or missions for computer
and/or video games using a specific set of
programs.
[104][105]
These programs may be
commonly available commercial 3D or 2D
design programs, or specially designed and
tailored level editors made for a specific
game.
Level designers work with both incomplete
and complete versions of the game. Game
programmers usually produce level editors
and design tools for the designers to use.
This eliminates the need for designers to
access or modify game code. Level editors
may involve custom high-level scripting
languages for interactive environments or AIs.
As opposed to the level editing tools
sometimes available to the community, level
designers often work with placeholders and
prototypes aiming for consistency and clear
layout before required artwork is completed.
Sound engineer

Sound engineers are technical professionals
responsible for sound effects and sound
positioning. They sometimes oversee voice
acting and other sound asset creation.
[106][107]

Composers who create a game's musical
score also comprise a game's sound team,
though often this work is outsourced.
Tester
Further information: Game testing
The quality assurance is carried out by game
testers. A game tester analyzes video games
to document software defects as part of a
quality control. Testing is a highly technical
field requiring computing expertise, and
analytic competence.
[97][108]

The testers ensure that the game falls within
the proposed design: it both works and is
entertaining.
[109]
This involves testing of all
features, compatibility, localization, etc.
Although, necessary throughout the whole
development process, testing is expensive and
is often actively utilized only towards the
completion of the project.
Development process
Game development is a software development
process, as a video game is software with art,
audio, and gameplay. Formal software
development methods are often overlooked.
[2]

Games with poor development methodology
are likely to run over budget and time
estimates, as well as contain a large number
of bugs. Planning is important for
individual
[9]
and group projects alike.
[69]

Overall game development is not suited for
typical software life cycle methods, such as
the waterfall model.
[110]

One method employed for game development
is It is based on, a subset of
[112]
Agile
development depends on feedback and
refinement of game's iterations with gradually
increasing feature set.
[113]
This method is
effective because most projects do not start
with a clear requirement outline.
[111]
A popular
method of agile software development is
Scrum.
[114]

Another successful method is Personal
Software Process (PSP) requiring additional
training for staff to increase awareness of
project's planning.
[115]
This method is more
expensive and requires commitment of team
members. PSP can be extended to Team
Software Process, where the whole team is
self-directing.
[116]

Game development usually involves an
overlap of these methods.
[110]
For example,
asset creation may be done via waterfall
model, because requirements and
specification are clear,
[117]
but gameplay
design might be done using iterative
prototyping.
[117]

Development of a commercial game usually
includes the following stages:
[118][119]

Pre-production
Pre-production
[120]
or design phase
[68]
is a
planning phase of the project focused on idea
and concept development and production of
initial design documents. The goal of concept
development is to produce clear and easy to
understand documentation,
[119][124]
which
describes all the tasks, schedules and
estimates for the development team.
[125]
The
suite of documents produced in this phase is
called production plan.
[126]
This phase is
usually not funded by a publisher,
[119]
however
good publishers may require developers to
produce plans during pre-production.
[125]

The concept documentation can be separated
into three stages or documentshigh
concept, pitch and concept;however, there is
no industry standard naming convention, for
example, both Bethke (2003) and Bates
(2004) refer to pitch document as "game
proposal", yet Moore, Novak (2010) refers to
concept document as "game proposal".
The late stage of pre-production may also be
referred to as proof of concept,
]
or technical
review

when more detailed game documents
are produced.
Publishers have started to expect broader
game proposals even featuring playable
prototypes.
High concept
High concept is a few sentences long
description of a game.
[118][120]

Pitch
A pitch,
[118][120]
concept document,
[118]
proposal
document,
[125]
or game proposal
[120]
is a short
summary document intended to present the
game's selling points and detail why the game
would be profitable to develop.
[118][120]

Verbal pitches may be made to management
within the developer company, and then
presented to publishers A written document
may need to be shown to publishers before
funding is approved. A game proposal may
undergo one to several green-light meetings
with publisher executives who determine if
the game is to be developed.
[
The
presentation of the project is often given by
the game designers. may be created for the
pitch; however may be unnecessary for
established developers with good track
records.
If the developer acts as its own publisher, or
both companies are subsidiaries of a single
company, then only the upper management
needs to give approval.
[citation needed]

Concept

Concept document,
[120]
game proposal,
[118]
or
game plan
[131]
is a more detailed document
than the pitch document.
[118][120][124]
This
includes all the information produced about
the game.
[131]
This includes the high concept,
game's genre, gameplay description, features,
setting, story, target audience, hardware
platforms, estimated schedule, marketing
analysis, team requirements, and risk
analysis.
[

Before an approved design is completed, a
skeleton crew of programmers and artists
usually begins work. Programmers may
develop prototypes showcasing one or more
features that stakeholders would like to see
incorporated in the final product
]
Artists may
develop concept art and asset sketches as a
springboard for developing real game assets
Producers may work part-time on the game
at this point, scaling up for full-time
commitment as development progresses.
[citation
needed]
Game producers work during pre-
production is related to planning the
schedule, budget and estimating tasks with
the team.
[citation needed]
The producer aims to
create a solid production plan so that no
delays are experienced at the start of the
production.
[citation needed]

Before a full-scale production can begin, the
development team produces the first version
of a incorporating all or most of the material
from the initial pitch. The design document
describes the game's concept and major
gameplay elements in detail. It may also
include preliminary sketches of various
aspects of the game. Design document is
sometimes accompanied by functional of
some sections of the game.
[
Design document
remains a throughout the development
often changed weekly or even daily.
Compiling a list of game's needs is called
"requirement capture

Audio production

Game audio may be separated into three
categoriessound effects, music, and voice-
over.
[142]

Sound effect production is the production of
sounds by either tweaking a sample to a
desired effect or replicating it with real
objects.
[142]
Sound effects are important and
impact the game's delivery.
[143]

Music may be synthesized or performed
live.
[144]

There are several 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.
[145]

Music may be triggered by in-game
events. For example, in such games
as Pac-man or Mario, player picking
up power-ups triggered respective
musical scores.
[145]

Action music, such as chase, battle
or hunting sequences is fast-paced,
hard-changing score.
[146]

Menu music, similar to credits
music, creates aural impact while
relatively little action is taking
place.
[146]

A game title with 20 hours of single-player
gameplay may feature around 60 minutes of
music.
[146]

Voice-overs and voice acting creates character
gameplay interactivity.
[142]
Voice acting adds
personality to the game's characters.
[147]

Testing
Main article: Game testing
At the end
[original research?]
of the project, quality
assurance plays a significant role. Testers
start work once anything is playable. This
may be one level or subset of the game
software that can be used to any reasonable
extent. Early on, testing a game occupies a
relatively small amount of time. Testers may
work on several games at once. As
development draws to a close, a single game
usually employs many testers full-time (and
often with overtime). They strive to test new
features and regression test existing ones.
Testing is vital for modern, complex games as
single changes may lead to catastrophic
consequences.
At this time features and levels are being
finished at the highest rate and there is more
new material to be tested than during any
other time in the project. Testers need to
carry out regression testing to make sure that
features that have been in place for months
still operate correctly. Regression testing is
one of the vital tasks required for effective
software development. As new features are
added, subtle changes to the codebase can
produce unexpected changes in different
portions of the game. This task is often
overlooked, for several reasons. Sometimes,
when a feature is implemented and tested, it
is considered "working" for the rest of the
project and little attention is given to
repeated testing. Also, features that are added
late in development are prioritized and
existing features often receive insufficient
testing time. Proper regression testing is also
increasingly expensive as the number of
features increases and is often not scheduled
correctly.
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
customers dissatisfaction and failure to meet
sales goals. When this does happen, most
developers and publishers quickly release
patches that fix the bugs and make the game
fully playable again.
Milestones
Commercial game development projects may
be required to meet milestones set by
publisher. Milestones mark major events
during game development and are used to
track game's progress.
[148]
Such milestones
may be, for example, first playable,
[149][150]

alpha,
[151][152]
or beta
[152]
game versions. Project
milestones depend on the developer
schedules.
There is no industry standard for defining
milestones, and such vary depending on
publisher, year, or project.
[153]
Some common
milestones for two-year development cycle
are as follows:
[148]

First playable
The first playable is the game version
containing representative gameplay and
assets,
[148]
this is the first version with
functional major gameplay elements.
[149]
It is
often based on the prototype created in pre-
production.
[150]
Alpha and first playable are
sometimes used to refer to a single milestone,
however large projects require first playable
before feature complete alpha.
[149]
First
playable occurs 12 to 18 months before code
release. It is sometimes referred to as the
"Pre-Alpha" stage.
[152]

Alpha
See also: Alpha release
Alpha is the stage when key gameplay
functionality is implemented, and assets are
partially finished.
[152]
A game in alpha is
feature complete, that is, game is playable
and contains all the major features.
[153]
These
features may be further revised based on
testing and feedback.
[152]
Additional small, new
features may be added, similarly planned, but
unimplemented features may be dropped.
[153]

Programmers focus mainly on finishing the
codebase, rather than implementing
additions.
[151]
Alpha occurs eight to ten
months before code release.
[152]

Code freeze
Code freeze is the stage when new code is no
longer added to the game and only bugs are
being corrected. Code freeze occurs three to
four months before code release.
[152]

Beta
See also: Beta release
Beta is feature and asset complete version of
the game, when only bugs are being
fixed.
[151][152]
This version contains no bugs that
prevent the game from being shippable.
[151]
No
changes are made to the game features,
assets, or code. Beta occurs two to three
months before code release.
[152]

Code release
Code release is the stage when all bugs are
fixed and game is ready to be shipped or
submitted for console manufacturer review.
This version is tested against QA test plan.
First code release candidate is usually ready
three to four weeks before code release.
[152]

Gold master
See also: Release to manufacturing
Gold master is the final game's build that is
used as a master for production of the
game.
[154]

Crunch time
Overtime is expected in the games
industry.
[155]
Particularly, crunch time or
crunch mode
[156]
is unpaid overtime requested
by many companies to meet project deadlines
and milestones
[157]
that negatively affects
game developers.
[158]
A team missing a
deadline risks the danger of having the
project cancelled
[159]
or employees being laid
off.
[158]
Although many companies are
reducing the amount of crunch time,
[155]
it is
still prominent in smaller companies.
[160]

Many companies offer time-off, called comp
time or extra paid time off after product
ships to compensate for crunch time's
negative effects. Some companies offer
bonuses and financial rewards for successful
milestone reach.
[161]
Sometimes on-site crunch
meals are offered and delivered to the team
during crunch time.
[156]

The International Game Developers
Association (IGDA) surveyed nearly 1,000
game developers in 2004 and produced a
report to highlight the many problems caused
by bad practice.
[162]

Post-production
After the game goes gold and ships, some
developers will give team members comp
time (perhaps up to a week or two) to
compensate for the overtime put in to
complete the game, though this
compensation is not standard.
Maintenance

Once a game ships, the maintenance phase
for the video game begins.
[163]

Games developed for video game consoles
have had almost no maintenance period in
the past. The shipped game would forever
house as many bugs and features as when
released. This was the norm for consoles
since all consoles had identical or nearly
identical hardware and incompatibilitythe
cause of many bugswas a non-issue. In this
case, maintenance would only occur in the
case of a port, sequel, or enhanced remake
that reuses a large portion of the engine and
assets.
In recent times popularity of online console
games has grown, and online capable video
game consoles and online services such as
Xbox Live for the Xbox have developed.
Developers can maintain their software
through downloadable patches. These
changes would not have been possible in the
past without the widespread availability of
the Internet.
PC development is different. Game developers
try to account for majority of configurations
and hardware. However, the number of
possible configurations of hardware and
software inevitably leads to discovery of
game-breaking circumstances that the
programmers and testers didn't account for.
Programmers wait for a period to get as
many bug reports as possible. Once the
developer thinks they've obtained enough
feedback, the programmers start working on
a patch. The patch may take weeks or
months to develop, but it's intended to fix
most accounted bugs and problems with the
game that were overlooked past code release,
or in rare cases, fix unintended problems
caused by previous patches. Occasionally a
patch may include extra features or content
or may even alter gameplay.
In the case of a massively multiplayer online
game (MMOG), such as a MMORPG or
MMORTS, the shipment of the game is the
starting phase of maintenance.
[163]
Such online
games are in continuous maintenance as the
gameworld is continuously changed and
iterated and new features are added. The
maintenance staff for a popular MMOG can
number in the dozens, sometimes including
members of the original programming team.
Marketing

The game production has similar distribution
methods to those of music and film
industries.
[33]

The publisher's marketing team targets the
game for a specific market and then
advertises it.
[174]
The team advises the
developer on target demographics and
market trends,
[174]
as well as suggests specific
features.
[175]
The game is then advertised and
the game's high concept is incorporated into
the promotional material, ranging from
magazine ads to TV spots.
[174]
Communication
between developer and marketing is
important.
[175]

The length and purpose of a game demo
depends on the purpose of the demo and
target audience. A game's demo may range
between a few seconds (such as clips or
screenshots) to hours of gameplay. The demo
is usually intended for journalists, buyers,
trade shows, general public, or internal
employees (who, for example, may need to
familiarize with the game to promote it).
Demos are produced with public relations,
marketing and sales in mind, maximizing the
presentation effectiveness.
[176]

Trade show demo
As a game nears completion, the publisher
will want to showcase a demo of the title at
trade shows. Many games have a "Trade
Show demo" scheduled.
[citation needed]

The major annual trade shows are, for
example, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)
or Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).
[177]
E3 is the
largest show in North America.
[178]
E3 is
hosted primarily for marketing and business
deals. New games and platforms are
announced at E3 and it received broad press
coverage.
[74][179]
Thousands of products are on
display and press demonstration schedules
are kept.
[179]
In recent years E3 has become a
more closed-door event and many advertisers
have withdrawn, reducing E3's budget.
[74]

PAX, created by authors of Penny Arcade
blog and web-comic, is a mature and playful
event with a player-centred philosophy.
[33]

Localization
A game created in one language may also be
published in other countries which speak a
different language. For that region, the game
needs to be translated for the game to be
playable. For example, some games created
for Playstation Vita were initially published in
Japanese language, like Soul Sacrifice. Non-
native speakers of the game's original
language may have to wait for translation of
the game to their language. But most modern
big-budget games take localization into
account during the development process and
the games are released for several different
languages simultaneously.
[citation needed]

Indie development
Main article: Independent video game
development
Independent games or indie games
[180]
are
produced by individuals and small teams with
no large-scale developer or publisher
affiliations.
[180][181][182]
Indie developers generally
rely on Internet distribution schemes. Many
hobbyist indie developers create mods of
existing games. Indie developers are credited
for creative game ideas (for example,
Darwinia, Weird Worlds, World of Goo).
Current economic viability of indie
development is questionable, however in
recent years internet delivery platforms, such
as, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam have
improved indie game success.
[180]
In fact, some
indie games have become very successful,
such as Braid,
[183]
World of Goo,
[184]
and
Minecraft.
[185]




Game industry

The video game industry (formally referred to
as interactive entertainment) is the economic
sector involved with the development,
marketing and sale of video games. The
industry sports several unique approaches.
Wikipedia