Game Production Stages

I talk about all of the stages a game's production goes through, including the names of those stages and what their purposes are.

[HeadsetHistorian]

This has quickly become my favourite YouTube channel, really shines as what youtube was originally meant to be.

[TheCoolerMaz]

I literally sent a mail last night to a publisher asking them what stages they define and are looking for in a project when looking to partner with an indie. Incredible cosmic timing, thanks Tim, much appreciation as always.

[timseig]

Honestly, as a former game dev hobbyist you have single handedly brought me back to messing around and prototyping stuff.

[HMBreno]

Great overview, Tim! I have a question regarding game production:

Early access is becoming a common practice among companies, and recent successes like BG3 highlight some of its advantages. I'm curious about how this practice affects key stages such as the horizontal slice, alpha, and beta. From your perspective, what are the notable advantages and disadvantages of it? Do you foresee early access becoming a standard industry practice, or do you think it's only viable under specific circumstances? In sum, I would like to know your opinions about it.

Thanks a bunch!

[aNerdNamedJames]

Damn, "horizontal slice" is a brilliant coinage

[colin-campbell]

As an uninformed person, a lot of the test room information seemed to be catered around first/3rd person games. What do test rooms look like for isometric games?

[GiacomoVaccari]

Test rooms
Prototype
Beautiful corner
Vertical slice
Horizontal slice
Alpha
Beta
Ship
Patches
DLC

[TorQueMoD]

Oh, I've never heard of a beautiful corner, but it totally make sense. Great video as always!

[IAmMarvel]

Idc how many views this gets. This is such important knowledge gives good insight into development. Never stop doing what you do please.

[TheConsuI]

Its so cool that I can watch and listen to a video from an incredibly awesome guy, who is responsible for my favorite video game series of all time, thank you Tim Cain.

[shiggydiggy]

Makes me want to hear all the horror stories about the non-technical people from the publisher or whatever seeing incomplete stages with placeholder assets and thinking this is what the final product will look like.

[redwaters]

Great video, Tim!
really addressed one of the curiosities i long had about game development, thanks.

[schitzoflink]

I learn so much from this channel. Thank you Tim!

[Fattouch]

You got me opening my notebook and taking notes like I'm in class😂
I'm trying to join the video game industry as a project manager so rhis is very helpful, thank you!!!

[kibels]

Alpha? We call that MVP now, ship it.

[dapperdab]

Pal, thank you. I've wanted to get into indie development for so long. But honestly, I'm nowhere. At the time of writing, I have nothing to present, because I've been playing around in the engine, making this, and that, and then saying, wait, this dosent look like a game. Then I restart to try and make a finished product immediately. I didn't know how to structure a games development, and because of it I couldn't make games. While writing this it's 11pm, and I have work tomorrow so I'm not jumping right into the engine after watching. But in the morning I'm exited to make a gray box run around a room with a gun

[IBETHISNAMEISTAKEN]

Just wanna say you're incredible for making these videos, they're a great resource. And also thank you for making Fallout etc.

[Rekettyelovag]

When I created my 1st level for a game I went through these stages w/o knowing these stages exist. It just happened naturally.
As I understood horizontal slices have more internal use, helps the colleagues to have a broader understanding of something to facilitate collaboration on design fore example, while vertical ones are more like "demos" or statements for someone outside of the core like marketing or management.
As for alpha and beta versions, I learned it way easily: Alpha is feature complete, beta is content complete.

Question for you: What do you think about TDD (as an experienced dev/boss/producer/etc.)? It is proven that it works better than no tests or tests later approaches but still very few dev practices it. Is it because it is too hard to learn and master? Or because it seems slower than fixing a rapid prototype into production code?

[Dark_Kevlarian]

I'm not like...a mathematician or anything Mr. Cain, but I'm pretty sure you listed 10 stages unless one or more of these are grouped. =)

1. Testing Rooms
2. Prototype
3. Beautiful Corner
4. Vertical Slice
5. Horizontal Slice
6. Alpha
7. Beta
8. Ship
9. Patch
10. DLC

I mean this is perfectly spirited jest and by no means am I serious! I love the content, have subscribed, and can't wait to learn so so much more from you! Thanks for giving us your insight and remote leadership in game development. There's so much "how-to" content out there that it starts to feel a little overwhelming and confusing sometimes; your content feels much more grounded and solidified. It's incredibly refreshing!

[Shadowstorm]

Hi Tim I was trying to write a design document for a solo project I’m working on and was wondering if you had any examples of how to properly write a specification that might be given to a programmer or an artist? Also are there any pitfalls to avoid when writing specifications?