Building a good mobile game involves sticking to the rules, maintaining high standards and applying best game development practices, approaches and tools. The succession of steps you take on the way of creating your game also matters. In this article, we have prepared an overview of game development stages you have to go through as you build your Android game from scratch: from idea to publishing.
Android Game Development Process
Below is a step-by-step description of Android game development process. Omitting these steps could jeopardise your project, that’s why we would recommend going through all of them, if you want to ensure your game is a success.
1. Preparing a game specification
Every great game starts with a story and a plot, and Android game is no exception. The idea in itself, though, is not enough to start the development. Before you commence the game development process, you must provide your development team with clear specifications of your game. Ultimately, it should include a list of the most essential game components. The specs will be useful as you proceed to the next step: estimating the development cost.
2. Estimating the development cost
Regardless of whether you plan to build your game yourself or hire a dedicated team of developers, cost estimation is important. You don’t want to run out of budget or omit some of the vital game features just because you have spent your money on less critical ones. If you are a developer working for a client, don’t proceed, unless you have full estimation and approval of the development budget.
3. Game analysis
With the specs and the budget fully prepared, you still have some game analysis to do. Before you get your hands on game development, you should carefully analyse the following aspects of your future Android game:
– Game features. After you have a clear picture of game features envisioned by the client, you can forward your project to a game designer to refine a game story and a plot.
– Resources. Do you have all it takes to build a game based on the specs you have outlined? This includes both toolsets and skillsets that you and your team members currently possess. If it turns out that you need to acquire certain tools or enhance your team with other skilled developers, you may have to reevaluate and renegotiate the budget. You will have a clearer vision of a project timeline as well.
– Scope. If you’re building an Android game, evaluating its scope (i.e. minimum configuration it requires to run) is a must. Because of a wide range of platforms that use Android, you will also have to limit the scope of target devices to ensure optimal performance.
– Risks. But what if some aspects of game development don’t go as planned? In Android game development, there may be technical disruptions or the need to change game requirements on the go. Analysing risks will help you prepare for the unexpected and get ready to face potential problems.
4. Game design
It’s not about the concept artwork – yet. At this stage it’s all about other essentials no game can do without. Core design architecture, game mechanics, database design, UI flow and class design are also done at this stage.
This is one of the intermediary Android game development phases when you have to stop and evaluate what has been accomplished before you proceed. Does it meet the requirements and match the initial idea? If you’re working for a client, forward all the design documentation for review. Wait for feedback and introduce changes, if necessary.
5. Concept design phase
There’s something defined as “game atmosphere” that is not enough to make a good game, but nevertheless makes a game memorable. Game designers achieve this effect by preparing unique concept design of game characters, assets and settings.
At this project stage, they are drafted in raw, unpolished form and then reviewed or forwarded to a client. If the design matches your vision or a client gives full approval, proceed to the next stage. If not, now is the time to tweak the concept design elements to perfection.
6. Art development
This stage includes working on a multitude of game design aspects, such as modeling, texturing, animation and visual effects. This is when the game finally assumes an accomplished look.
7. Game development
It’s now that the most important stage of Android game development process takes off. Using professional game development engines and tools, developers work to make a game come alive and ensure it has fully-functional mechanics and dynamics. This process is an iterative one and involves numerous testing, code fixing and reviews. If you’re building a game for a client, sharing builds to get approval before you move on is a generally accepted practice.
8. Game polishing
An intermediate stage between game development and testing, game polishing includes three aspects: code polishing, concept art polishing and design polishing.
You have to make sure your code is clean and impeccable to ensure seamless performance, and you may need to introduce some final strokes to design and artwork to give them a more refined look.
9. Game testing
Testing is a decisive stage in Android game development. Because Android OS runs on so many devices and platforms, ensuring cross-platform compatibility for Android games is often a real challenge. To ensure your game runs well on most devices that use Android, you have to understand their specifics and peculiarities. In professional game development, testing is usually done by QA teams and carried out along predefined plans that include most of the existing device configurations.
The game is then tested for user experience. To see how the game will be perceived by a target audience, a game’s beta version is first shared with a limited user group.
10. Launch
The game launch is, essentially, the publishing of your Android game in the Google Play store. Make sure you’re done with all the user acceptance testing, incorporating feedback and improving functionality, and you’re all set.
Launching your game, though, doesn’t mean you don’t need marketing and promotion. Marketing your game is a challenging and complicated process, which should unfold in parallel with core development, long before the game launch.
11. Maintenance and support
This stage is the last one, although, ideally, the preparation process should start at the development stage. Professional game developers are dedicated to supporting and updating their games. Moreover, to run successfully and to offer optimal user experience, mobile games should rely on a solid, yet flexible backend.
The days when game development spelled server-side development and involved building your own backend modules are long gone now. With mobile backend solutions like Festi Coud, game devs no longer need to stretch themselves too thin and become proficient in building server-side solutions.
mBaaS, an acronym for mobile backend as a service, is now offered by many tech giants, like Google and Amazon. Yet, if you’re looking for something sleeker and lightweight, consider using Festi Cloud Platform to power your game backend and accelerate mobile game development. Request your free trial now, to discover its full potential!