What are the stages of game development?

Question

Game development

Good afternoon!
Tell me, what should be the phased game development plan? If you need to clarify the platform, then this is development for social networks and mobile applications.
I have a bit of a mess in my head right now. Can you tell me if this diagram is correct?
1) The general idea of ​​the game, game modes (single player, multiplayer, 1v1 with a friend, etc.)
2) Description of the economic logic of the game (how and what we will monetize, how to encourage users to pay, what bonuses, what promotions, etc.) d.). Thinking over the Game loop, UX, UI
3) Drawing mockups
4) Drawing design, graphics
5) Programming
6) Testing (and here the question is how to test the game correctly, where to find testers?)
Does the process look like this? Point 2 confuses me. I mixed too much into it. What should be done first and then what?

Answer 1

The most popular division scheme is:
The prototyping phase involves writing a bunch of small prototypes that express some part of the future game. For example, you have an idea for a cool character control that will be the main feature. You take and make on cubes of heels of implementation options, make sure that the idea is good / poop, continue / stop development. The essence of this stage is to check all your assumptions with minimal means in the shortest possible time and, if you're lucky, find new ideas.
During pre-production, a large prototype is made, the so-called vertical cut of the future game. If we take platforming as an example, then the vertical cut will be one or two levels with a maximum of final mechanics. A kind of demo version without a sequel. By this time, the overall style of the game should be chosen, graphics and sounds may not be final, but should be close to that. For some games and teams, a vertical slice is not well suited and a horizontal slice is made instead - the entire game from beginning to end with the minimum possible means. In this case, you immediately get a ready-made skeleton of the game, you can run into pitfalls in advance, which you cannot see on the scale of one level.
Production is the stage during which the main work is done. By this point, you already clearly know what, how much and how you are doing. In this phase, it is no longer possible to change plans, all experiments should have been done earlier. Of course, it can also happen that, despite all the efforts, after months and years the game does not add up, in such cases the development process is rolled back a step or two. For example, this was the case with Prey, Overwatch and Rainbow Six Siege.
During the beta test, the game is already there, only bad and with unfinished content. During the beta testing stage, all assumptions about the design of the game are once again tested, the game is polished and made "fun".
A soft launch is essentially an open beta test, but in the context of mobile and social networks, players may not even know what game they are playing. A popular practice in mobile development is to launch games in small markets under a different name. For example, in some New Zealand with other icons. This allows you to put the game in the hands of real users, but in case of failure, do not spoil the reputation of your company. During this stage, they shuffle buttons in the interface, have fun with A / B testing, and generally try to evaluate the possible results from a full-fledged release. If the forecasts are sad, then the game may be buried so as not to waste money on promotion.
Everything is clear with the release, we publish, advertise, raise money. On smaller projects, the milestones can be more blurry, but it's always good to have milestones as the game gets up and running with a new set of features. If there is a clear vision and experience, then you can immediately move into the release, but this is rare.
As for the economy of the game, it should be at least outlined by the middle of pre-production. Monetization cannot just be taken and stuck to the game, all mechanics must support it. For example, you have decided that you will make free-to-play. What frituplay? If you sell hats, then everyone who bought hats should be able to show off to other players. And if you need to show off, then most likely you need a feature or two, therefore, programmers should know about them as early as possible. Again, no one bothers to make a monetization prototype, even on paper.

Answer 2

If not a big company, then the first, then the fifth, then everything else in parallel with the fifth.

Answer 3

What a perfect plan you drew. When you IMMEDIATELY see the game WHAT EXACTLY it will be.
In reality, all these points are constantly iterated.
It could be a hundred iterations (hundreds of changes) before the game comes out.

Answer 4

Here is how times from point 2 give up. If you write a poop, then no one will pay for anything. And if the game starts, then monetizing it is no longer a problem.