Please someone tell me why it take years to develop a game

[WarVet]

Yep, and it's to the point that it's not just DLC any more either. New expansion packs (like a new game rather than just a patch) and even entirely new games go out unfinished. It can always be finished up later, right? It can, but will it? There is no guarantee that bugs will all get fixed or tweaks will be made or content will be added in a timely manner, once they have your money.

I get that it's a lot of work. It also takes a ton of testing and tweaking. I just don't much care for this model of unfinished releases and the era of pre-orders. I think it makes game makers (some of them) lackadaisical.

Indeed it does. It all comes down to a behavioral pattern. If someone does something bad(Unfinished games) and we reward them with something good (Money and positive feedback) they tend to repeat it aye? The problem is too much fanboyism will never let the big franchises to go broke, even if they deliver half finished content. The law of the market: If there is someone selling it's because there is someone buying it.

 

[Dhanidhamy]

Story development,graphic designing,licenses,finance and other factors also unknown to me takes these games years to be released and ready, and that is the reason why they are not cheap and also the large amount of personnel's needed to make it what it is.

 

[overcast]

Story development,graphic designing,licenses,finance and other factors also unknown to me takes these games years to be released and ready, and that is the reason why they are not cheap and also the large amount of personnel's needed to make it what it is.

I agree on license point. I know many game engines which charge some fee once the game is popular. And that's where we learn that the game studios are told to share the revenue. And that's another reason many game studios take years to develop another game. So it's not going to be easy to make a game.

 

[appleandcinnamon]

It depends -- some publishers work on several games at the same time, often using the same team. Also, games are getting increasingly complex; I think Bethesda had a team of 5-9 just to work on creating dungeon maps alone. After they're done with the game, they have to get players to test it out first, which will then result in feedback and possible modifications to the game. A new game would then need staff from the marketing team to devise marketing strategies and sponsorship -- all which take time. Indie games lack that sort of institutionalization, so I suppose the developer/producer has more control over when they want to release it.

 

[overcast]

Recently I checked out that some of the Gaming engines which are compiling the complex 3D and 4D designs are taking year of compilation for the same. As the computing power required for compiling those scenes may not be for all type of the people around. So it may be possible that in future if we have more computing power, things need to change as well. Hopefully we can see some games in quick time.

 

[rockandgreen]

A game on the scale where millions of sales are to be made has to look good with heaps of content, whilst being 99% bug-free. This is near impossible to achieve in a short amount of time. There are various phases a game goes through during development which ranges from planning to design to production and testing. All these have to be repeated for every single detail and item in the game and the jobs of designers, programmers, voice actors and others all have to be cross-coordinated to effectively create all these items in an appropriate manner. Debugging code takes long enough as it is with just one process, let alone a few hundred of them running simultaneously. Just be thankful that economies of scale allow the product of the game to be sold cheaply and not at the price that it took to make a game of that scale across all those years.

 

[overcast]

These days with company such as the one that makes Angry birds. They have to come up with different version that runs on the PC, Console, Mobile etc. And that takes more amount of time too. And this seems to be the case for many. I have seen some of the people expecting that. So with more budget more time also happen.

 

[sima061]

I don't think most games take that long, but in general, if it takes a longer time it's probably because of the storyline, graphics, in-game possibilities. In order for everything to be flawless and with no bugs it really takes a lot of polishing, as with anything else you do anyway. For some brands maybe it's a teasing thing, like making people wait more would hype them up and make them more likely to actually buy it... Or they try to develop more games at the same time. Their team working on the game is too small... Lots of possibilities. But honestly I think that ''years'' is an exaggerated time period, not many games actually take that long to be developed.

 

[overcast]

Story-line usually gets quicker. But the voice over, alternative endings. Beta specific development. Quality control and system testing. You can find that it takes year for fixing those bugs. I have found that some of the jobs are not easy into the game development. You just have to work on them from bottom to top. Some companies work out in this way I have noticed it should not take years.

 

[streettallest]

I think good games like movies takes time to make. There are games that are done in less than 24 hours. But the time frame for any game apart from other factors, depends on what is going into it. Somw of the worlds wonderful and memorable games took years to develop.

 

[WarVet]

I don't think most games take that long, but in general, if it takes a longer time it's probably because of the storyline, graphics, in-game possibilities. In order for everything to be flawless and with no bugs it really takes a lot of polishing, as with anything else you do anyway. For some brands maybe it's a teasing thing, like making people wait more would hype them up and make them more likely to actually buy it... Or they try to develop more games at the same time. Their team working on the game is too small... Lots of possibilities. But honestly I think that ''years'' is an exaggerated time period, not many games actually take that long to be developed.

Yes, and if you want quality content it is worth waiting a bit more for it no? I know that when you're in the midst of the hype it's very hard to wait it out but I honestly prefer a masterpiece that took "years" to be developed than the other way around. Remember Duke Nukem forever? 13 years and all we got was a very repetitive game.

 

[PenguinManiac]

There's an infinity of things you have to take care of in a videogame: graphics, music, UI, level design, engine programming, physics, AI development, testing and bug fixing and so on, and for each of these you have to go through alpha, beta and gold phase. Each is incredibly complicated, to the point that major videogame companies have to hire specialized employees for each of them. However, the bulk of development certainly lies in coding. Even the smallest feature require thought and suitable implementation, and it's hard to keep track of everything with thousands of line of code (even more than a million for some games) with multiple people working on it.

 

[TsuyoyRival]

Well, i can't tell you exactly how they do it, but if you think about how can a character just jump, you would be amazed how difficult it is to do it in videogames. They need to learn mechanics in real life, how a person moves, and use a lot of body movement tech. Then they start recreating it in a sofware, in 3D. Then they start to incorporate visuals, like colors, textures, shadows, and this is extremely hard to do. Finally, they input a sound similar to when we jump. In the end, they will find an immense number of bugs and this is very time-consuming for the coding team.

 

[Zyni]

Is 99% bug free possible in any length of time? Is there any game that can meet that standard? There are AAA titles with longstanding bugs. I get that it's not easy, but when a bug has been around for years... you'd think they would eventually figure it out. They aren't held to that standard though, so they don't have to.

What I'm really curious about is what happens to all the work, all the assets, when a game that's been in development gets scrapped. I know sometimes some stuff is used to make other games, but what about the rest? It's just tossed? That seems like such a waste of all that time, money, effort, and talent.

 

[luispas]

Have you every heard about Programming? You just need to look up for that concept and you will have your answer. It takes years because you create games based on algorithm, equations, formats and a lot of different stuff before you have a decent or basic game. You also have to design SO many details, characters, places. There are so many things, you just have to open your eyes a little.

 

[overcast]

Have you every heard about Programming? You just need to look up for that concept and you will have your answer. It takes years because you create games based on algorithm, equations, formats and a lot of different stuff before you have a decent or basic game. You also have to design SO many details, characters, places. There are so many things, you just have to open your eyes a little.

Level design and moving character and the flow of the game from one level to another is hard part. I have seen some of the games getitng low rating because of this. So I am guessing not everyone can understand how complex it can get. But people should consider that it may be easy if we understand how to do it better.

 

[luispas]

Level design and moving character and the flow of the game from one level to another is hard part. I have seen some of the games getitng low rating because of this. So I am guessing not everyone can understand how complex it can get. But people should consider that it may be easy if we understand how to do it better.

Sure, that's correct, but even though you know how to do or create a game it will always be complicated because all the stuff you need to do, that's why you need to work with so many people, to make everything a little more easier. The process to make a game it's not that simple, but it seems to be very fun at the end of the day

 

[Decypher]

No game actually takes more than 3years to develop if you/your team know their onions, like the poster above me said, what really takes time in game development is building up the hype, the game needs to first stir up the hype to be able to compete in the game market, and building up the hype takes time and money. Your trailers needs to be on point and thrilling.
Although game development takes time, because there are lots of work there, it is not an easy stuff and for your game to be able to compete in the game market it needs to be top notch and means more time.

 

[Goshen26]

i don't think it takes long to develop game. The category of games that takes time are games that real film. The reason why they take time to develop is because you make all the cast look like original cast.

 

[Weygd]

Game design, sound design, soundtrack, animations, advertising, servers.. Don't expect a great game to be developed in less than a few years. Even if you have an huge team on the development of a game, it will take some time to make it.