I just don't understand how it works o.o

Everybody's like "Well, you know the voice acting is like the last part of game development" and I'm like "How do you know that?". So could anyone tell me how long it is? What are the first things to do when developping a game? What are the final stages of development? How do we know if a game is in early development or not? When is the polishing done when it comes to graphics? When is the voice acting done? etc.

A lot of the time they'll bring in the voice actors just to voice for the trailer. 

I'm not very knowledgeable on this but I'm gonna try.

 

First stage: Writing up the story, gameplay mechanics and characters

 

Second stage: Putting said things into game, coding and whatnot.

 

Third stage: Voice acting and polishing

 

Fourth stage: Get game overhyped so it sells well

Obviously your first course of action is to write a story, design characters in both the visual and personality departments and create the world that will be explored. I'm assuming the rest is just all over the place (with there being a schedule, of course), do what is possible, when it is possible. Voice acting doesn't necessarily have to be the last part of game development. Otherwise for open world games like The Elder Scrolls, you'll have a lot of trouble and seriously, if you've created a cut scene, wouldn't you want to have it voiced and have the music added to it rather than leaving it at the end? Makes more sense that way, while the developers work on the code. Plus, the workload at the end of development is lessened. Don't forget, that there is constant testing, to make sure that the software runs properly.

 

There are many ways to work with things like this, you can go with the almost redundant, linear approach, which is completing one stage, then going to the next (can't go back once in the next stage, otherwise, it's not really linear), or you can go non-linear, build a prototype to test, then work your way from there depending on the results. Software is most likely done with heaps of prototypes.

 

We know when a game is early in development by how much they show, or if they say so. Final stages are testing and polishing. Game development can take as little as a few months to more than three years, depending on how big the game is.

Edited December 20, 20159 yr by MythrilMagician