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Spencer
Student
Miami Gardens, Florida
6
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How long does it take to design a video game?
As a game designer how time consuming is it to perfect a video game, for example making sure that there are no bugs or glitches in the system? #video-game-design #video-game-development #video-game-production
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Brandon Dang
217
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Seattle, Washington
Updated
Brandon’s Answer
That depends on many factors that can sway the answer to this question. It really depends on the team that is making the video game and many other details such as budget, who is working with you, do you need to hire more people with the job that has experience (are they available to you), what kind of game are you making (console, PC, mobile), assets, etc. There are a lot of factors that you need to consider. If you search the question on Google it will say 3 to 5 years, but honestly that number can change very quickly. There can be delays to a release date that is due to problems with the game that was noticed at the last minute causing the release date to be delayed for months to years unless you want to put out an incomplete game and have people make bad impressions on the title. There isn't a good way to calculate how long it will take to make a video game, but 3 to 5 years is a good estimate assuming that you already have all of the required assets to make the game.
Mariusz Szlanta
Lead Producer
2
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London, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Mariusz’s Answer
Hello Spencer,
It looks to me there are 2 different questions combined here - let me answer these separately.
1. In regards to designing a whole game - the actual design phase (prototyping & pre-production) can take anywhere between several weeks and a few years depending on the size of a game and it's never a simple, continuous process. The bigger the game, the more blurred the lines between various stages of development are going to be with Design & Production intertwined and going through iterative cycles many times over.
As in life, it's rather worth figuring big things first. For example, quest system with critical path needs to be designed and prototyped before actual quests are written.
2. In regards to your question about perfecting the code - it's a Post-Production phase that usually starts when code is declared Alpha.
There are various definitions of Alpha Milestone but its broad meaning is usually that a critical path of the game is fully playable as end to end experience - i.e. a player can finish the game and feel what it's like. Less important sub-systems (for example side quests) are probably not there yet and the code is still buggy, not balanced nor optimised.
Alpha is where testing starts for good and where development team focus moves from building to bug fixing (that includes designers - they are usually very busy fixing numerous bugs and optimising the solutions). It can take several weeks for a small game, several months for a major game focused on single-player experience and 12-18 months or even longer for online-based multiplayer games.
Another way of looking at it might be through a number of possible bugs that can be found at this stage. A small game is going to generate several hundreds, maybe 1-1,5k. Major one can go up to 3-5k, and then a multiplatform AAA game or a big online game readying for soft launch can push that number easily above 10k.
Someone needs to fix all these bugs and factors like team size, its bug fixing velocity and fix fail ratios are critical to plan for the length of that phase.
It looks to me there are 2 different questions combined here - let me answer these separately.
1. In regards to designing a whole game - the actual design phase (prototyping & pre-production) can take anywhere between several weeks and a few years depending on the size of a game and it's never a simple, continuous process. The bigger the game, the more blurred the lines between various stages of development are going to be with Design & Production intertwined and going through iterative cycles many times over.
As in life, it's rather worth figuring big things first. For example, quest system with critical path needs to be designed and prototyped before actual quests are written.
2. In regards to your question about perfecting the code - it's a Post-Production phase that usually starts when code is declared Alpha.
There are various definitions of Alpha Milestone but its broad meaning is usually that a critical path of the game is fully playable as end to end experience - i.e. a player can finish the game and feel what it's like. Less important sub-systems (for example side quests) are probably not there yet and the code is still buggy, not balanced nor optimised.
Alpha is where testing starts for good and where development team focus moves from building to bug fixing (that includes designers - they are usually very busy fixing numerous bugs and optimising the solutions). It can take several weeks for a small game, several months for a major game focused on single-player experience and 12-18 months or even longer for online-based multiplayer games.
Another way of looking at it might be through a number of possible bugs that can be found at this stage. A small game is going to generate several hundreds, maybe 1-1,5k. Major one can go up to 3-5k, and then a multiplatform AAA game or a big online game readying for soft launch can push that number easily above 10k.
Someone needs to fix all these bugs and factors like team size, its bug fixing velocity and fix fail ratios are critical to plan for the length of that phase.