Game Development Process

Pre-production

NDA

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a signed formal agreement in which one party agrees to give second party confidential information about its business or products and the second party agrees not to share this information with anyone else for a specified period of time.
We sign NDA before we start to discuss the details of our project.

Game Idea Discussion

At this stage you help us to define a basic outline of the game idea, so that we could give one or several Game Idea Proposals for you to choose from.

Vision + Draft project Time & Cost estimate

In Vision we give you an idea of what the game does.

Vision contents:

• basic features of the game;
• idea and number of game levels;
• gameplay brief description;
• game environment brief description;
• basic idea of the scenario

Then, based on the Vision, we give you a very rough project Time & Cost Estimate (just to define the proposed budget degree). Our objective is to define if the work we suppose to do meets your budget limitations and to find an acceptable solution in case your budget lacks the necessary funds.

Game Concept Document + Draft Milestone Schedule

After we agree on the budget, we compose the Game Concept Document and game art sketches if necessary.

Game Concept Document contents the following sections:

• Mission
• Game features
• Brief Overview (Genre, Target Audience, Action Fullness, Time)
• Basic concepts (Gameplay - characters, bosses, bonuses, Controls, Plot)
• Mini games brief description
• Levels brief description

Based on the Concept Document, we define game development Draft Milestone Schedule.

Product development agreement

After you approve the Concept and Milestone Schedule and before the development starts, it is necessary to sign Product Development Agreement, in which we fix basic terms and conditions, milestone schedule and pricing for the product being developed.

Production

Analysis & Design

Design Document

Design document defines the game concept as well as functional and technical specifics of the game.

A design document consists of 3 parts:

• Game Concept Document (please see item 4)
• Game Design Document
• Technical Design Document

Game Design Document contents the following sections:

• Game Concept
• Game Foundations (Game Features, The Essence of the Gameplay, Characters, Gameplay Elements, AI)
• User Interface (Navigational Chart, Functional Requirements, Objects of the User Interface)
• Graphics and Video (Graphics and Animations, Animated Insertions)
• Sounds and Music (General Description, Sound Effects, Music)
• Plot
• Level Description (The graph of the Positional Relationship of the Levels, Queue of the New Objects Implementation, General Level Design Description)
• etc.

Technical Design Document contents the following sections:

• Technical Specification
• Platform and OS
• Code Objects
• Control Cycle
• Data, Related to Data Objects
• Data Formats
• Graphical Engine
• Technical Description of the Graphical Elements
• Sounds and Music
• Etc.

Final Project Time & Cost Estimate

Final Project Time & Cost Estimate exactly defines the budget necessary for the game development. It consists of the full project milestones description, specifies the time needed for each milestone development (in man / hours) and final project quote.

Development

Concept Arts

This milestone includes all final artwork concepts to be approved before its implementation:

• environment concept arts of minigames;
• concept arts of environment objects for the game;
• concept arts of main characters and NPC

All Game Text

At this stage all game text should be delivered by Program-Ace, so that you could get the text localized and give it back to us for implementation.

Alpha Version

Alpha version implements 1 or more typical full-functional levels with a full set of animations and effects. Non-critical bugs and errors allowed.

Beta Version

Beta version implements all full-functional levels of the title. Non-critical bugs and errors allowed.

Localized Version(s)

Localized version means Beta version of the game with all localized text implemented.

Final Release

Finished product release.