The creation of a game depends primarily on what kind of game you actually want to program. From simple 2D games to 3D graphics blasts, everything is possible, but also differently complex.
A quiz game for mobile devices is programmed faster than a 2D multiplayer game with realistic physics. You can see from this that the game genre alone influences the effort you have to make in order to be able to implement the game at all. Then there is the platform you want to operate: From consoles, handhelds to PCs and mobile devices, everything is possible but also differently complex. You may know it from console exclusives. Games like Diablo 2 Runes | Yesgamers.com may have a different creative approach but have common programming basics.
It takes a long time until a game that was only developed for one console is published for other consoles or the PC. The best known and most complex example is GTA5. This game was released in 2013 for the Xbox360 and Playstation 3. In 2014, Xbox One and Playstation 4 followed and the game was only released for PC in April 2015.
If you are thinking that your game should be as big as a GTA5, you should know that over 1000 people were involved in the development of GTA5 and the development of the game should have cost the equivalent of € 191.2 million. It is the most complex and expensive game development to date and shows very precisely how difficult it can be to program games.
Creation of a video game
Unfortunately, the creation of a game is not at all as fast as the Gameloop conjures up images per second on the screen. Even if you already know all the necessary details of programming and have enough experience, the effort is high. You go through a typical software development process and have to do a few additional things. The publication and marketing of the game should also be thought of in the long run.
The easiest and the most fun thing is to tinker with the idea and the concept. You can hang around with it for months if you want. However, do not overdo this and plan ahead quickly. There you set the scope of the game, a budget and the schedule: By the way, these are 3 firmly connected values that influence each other.
Example: If you have designed your game very extensively, but have only a small budget, you should plan a lot of time for your game.
If you have a lot of budget, you can decide for yourself whether the game should be more extensive or whether it should be finished faster. If you are at the beginning, you should rather look for a fixed point in time and then see how extensive you can create your game in the given time.
And then it starts, you create the first prototype for your game. There you roughly test the game idea and check whether the whole thing can be implemented as you imagined it. Most of the time, that’s when you realize how much time or budget you actually need. You can present the prototype to users and use it to find out whether the game idea is well received.
It doesn’t matter if the graphics or sound effects are not yet fully developed. You will need this in the next step. Depending on what kind of game you’re making, that’s a lot of work. Graphics, 3D models, sound effects, music, animations must be created at this point. Unfortunately, the more you have planned, the more you have to do here. Only rarely can one person do this alone.
Programming can be started at the same time or afterward. This is where the final game is programmed: the content is brought together with the code and the game is tested.
It may take a while until all errors are out and the game works as intended. The steps of publication and marketing are then still tasks that come on top but simply depend on you.
If you’ve just programmed your game on the side, you might just want to show it to your friends. Then you may even be satisfied with the prototype. First of all, 95% of the time you won’t be able to earn any money with your first computer game, but maybe your 3 or 4 game is so mature that you can be successful with it.