Game is a kind of software with goal to provide entertainment. However, during the real game development practice, simply adopting the software development life cycle (SDLC) is not enough, as the developers face several challenges during its life cycle. To address the problem, game development uses a kind of specific approach called game development life cycle (GDLC) to direct the game development. However, none of the existing GDLCs explicitly address how to successfully deliver a good quality game. This paper presents a new game development life cycle model and guidelines to successfully deliver a good quality game. Several quality criterias are explicitly considered at each phase.

Typical software development life cycle.
The Proposed GDLC model. It consists of 6 development phases. Production cycle consists of Pre-production, Production, and Testing.

Figures - uploaded by Yani Widyani

Author content

All figure content in this area was uploaded by Yani Widyani

Content may be subject to copyright.

ResearchGate Logo

Discover the world's research

  • 20+ million members
  • 135+ million publications
  • 700k+ research projects

Join for free

Abstract— Game is a kind of software with goal

to provide entertainment. However, during the real

game development practice, simply adopting the

software development life cycle (SDLC) is not

enough, as the developers face several challenges

during its life cycle. To address the problem, game

development uses a kind of specific approach

called game development life cycle (GDLC) to

direct the game development. However, none of the

existing GDLCs explicitly address how to

successfully deliver a good quality game. This

paper presents a new game development life cycle

model and guidelines to successfully deliver a good

quality game. Several quality criterias are

explicitly considered at each phase.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE birth of video games has slowly shifted the

meaning of traditional games into a digitalized

multimedia games. The term of games refer to the

meaning of video games. Nowadays, games can be

played in almost any device, and that is why

developing games can be a profitable industry. To

support the growth of gaming industry, several

original equipment manufacturer (OEM) publicly

distribute their software development kit (SDK) and

application programming interface (API) to attract

people to become "indie developer" [1].

According to Pressman, game is a kind of software

which provides entertainment [2]. However, game

development using only software development life

cycle (SDLC) faces several challenges [3][4]. While

SDLC is a systematical process of engineering to

develop software [2], game is not purely a product of

pure engineering. Game also is not just pure art, a

creation of creativity and imaginative thinking, but

game is more like a craft, created from the

combination of interleaving, multidiscipline aspect,

from art, music, programming, acting, and the

management and integration of those aspects [3][5].

Therefore, a game development requires specific

guidelines which govern its development process, the

game development lifecycle (GDLC).

The GDLC in question appears in many forms.

There are many practices on how a GDLC applied in

project, published by both independent (indie) game

studio and well-known companies. However, there is

no silver bullet, no single GDLC is perfect. There are

three questions arise:

1. What are the steps and the phases of a game

development process?

2. What are quality criterias that must be considered

during each phase?

3. What kind of GDLC which can be the best

practice in a proper game development and

deliver a good quality product?

The goal of this research is to propose a new GDLC

and the guidelines. The guidelines itself is used to

properly conduct the proposed GDLC and

successfully deliver a good quality game.

II. TERM AND D EFINIT ION

A. Video Games

Video games, or simply called games in this paper,

is a type of play activity, conducted in the context of a

pretended reality, in which the participant(s) try to

achieve a pre-determined goal and mediated in a form

of digital media [4].

To play a game, one must played it on a proper

platform. Gaming platform can be categorized into

three types: console, mobile, and cross-platform. Each

platform has different characteristics and SDK

distribution method. Console SDK has closed

distribution method, while most of the mobile SDK

can be downloaded freely, although with several

constraints. That's why mobile games development

has become increasingly more popular [1].

B. Software Development Life Cycle

Software development life cycle (SDLC), also

known as software process models, is a development

strategy that encompasses the process, methods, and

tools which is used to do the software development

[2][6]. The typical SDLC phases are shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Typical software development life cycle.

Analysis is related in gathering and measuring the

user requirements to create the software requirement

Game Development Life Cycle Guidelines

Rido Ramadan and Yani Widyani

Data and Software Engineering Research Group

School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Institut Teknologi Bandung

Email: rido.ramadan@gmail.com, yani@informatika.org

T

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

95

13/$13.00 ©2013 IEEE

specifications. In design phase those requirements are

translated into more detailed models and software

modules representation. During code generation or

implementation , the models are translated into source

code and executable application. Finally testing is

conducted to ensure that all elements work properly

and meet the specification.

C. Game Prototype Usability Quality Criteria

In this research, the criteria used to assess the game

quality is based on Fullerton's game prototype

usability quality criteria[7]. Prototype is categorized

into four prototype stages in which each stage is

related to quality criteria shown in Table I.

Four prototype stages are: (1) Foundations , that is

the most basic prototype which represents the

gameplay basic concepts in the form of either low

fidelity prototype or incomplete game; (2) Structure,

that is a refined version of foundations which already

has the core gameplay logic, mechanics, and game

rules; (3) Formal details , the refinement of structure

that includes necessary rules and procedures to make

the game fully functional; and (4) Refinement , the

refined and almost finished game.

Each stages related to quality criterias. Functional

means the game's feature is playable and operating

well. Functional is tested via the accomplishment of

each playtest scenario. Internally complete indicates

all rules, branches, and conditions has been properly

addressed. It is tested via observation of inexistencies

of three types of errors during playtest. Balanced

indicates the game's difficulty is just fit, not too hard

and not too easy. Balanced is tested via discussion or

questionnaire about the game difficulty and game

progression. Fun means the game is engaging,

entertaining, challenging, and makes player keeps

coming and coming. Fun is very subjective, therefore

it is tested via questionnaire or direct feedback from

players. Accessible means the game is easy to

understand, easy to learn and intuitive enough.

Accessible can be tested by observing the player

capability to navigate and grasp the control of the

game and the time needed to learn the user interface.

III. RELATED W ORKS

Game development life cycle (GDLC) is a

guideline which encompasses the game development

process [8]. Several GDLC have been proposed by

different organization, but none of them properly

address how to ensure the qualities and successfully

deliver good quality games. There are four GDLCs

which become the consideration in developing a new

GDLC guidelines.

TABLE I

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROTOTYPE STAGE AND QUALITY

CRITERIA

Prototype

Stage

Functional

Internally

Complete

Balanced

Fun

Accessible

Foundations 9

Structure 9 9

Formal

Details 9 9 9

Refinement 9 9

A. Blitz Games Studios GDLC

Blitz Games Studios [9] defines six steps of their

GDLC. Those steps are shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Blitz Games Studios GDLC consists of 7 phases.

A game development is started from pitch (1) to

create the initial design and game concept. After the

concept is made, it is refined through the pre-

production (2), in which the game design, concept

art, and the game design document is made. The

realization of the concept is done through the main

production (3) process. Through a lengthy process of

main production, the game build then is tested by

internal team members, called alpha (4) testing. When

the build has satisfied the needs of alpha testing, a

next phase testing called beta (5) testing is conducted

to the third party tester. The game is launched in

master (6) phase.

B. Arnold Hendrick's GDLC

Arnold Hendrick [8] defines five steps of

developing a game, shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3. Arnold Hendrick's GDLC consists of 5 phases.

Starting point of creating a game is to create the

initial design, concept arts, and several prototype in

prototype (1) phase. The next step, pre-production

(2), is to make the documentation in a form of game

design document. Production (3) is related to the

construction of assets, source code, and the integration

of those aspects. When the build is ready, beta(4)

testing is conducted to draw users' feedback. Live(5)

is when the game has already been pass the testing and

ready to play.

C. Doppler Interactive GDLC

Joshua McGrath [10] from Doppler Interactive

defines seven steps in game development process.

Those steps are shown in Fig. 4.

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

96

Fig. 4. Doppler Interactive GDLC consists of 6 iterative phases.

This GDLC applies an iterative approach to develop

a game. Design (1) is related to the creation of game

initial design and the game design document. After the

design is ready, start develop a game engine for

current game in develop (2) phase, then test it out in

evaluate (3) phase. If the build is not satisfying,

redevelop (2) it. If it passes the evaluation, advance to

test (4) phase to test the game (not just the engine) to

the internal team and doing the bug fixing. After that,

the game is released to the third party in review

release (5). Repeat the whole process from (1) to (5)

until the game is ready to launch in release (6) phase.

D. Heather Chandler's GDLC

Heather Chandler [11] defines the four steps in game

development process. The corresponding steps is

called the production cycle and can be seen in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Heather Chandler GDLC consists of 4 phases in a cycle.

A game development consists of several production

cycle started from pre-production (1) which defines

game design and project planning. After the design

and plan has been fixed and approved, it is time move

into action to production (2) which is related to

creation of both technical and artistic aspects. Then,

test (3) the game and fix the bugs. When a build is

considered finished for a single cycle, post-

production (4) is conducted to deliver the current

documentation and post-mortem activities.

IV. ANALYSIS ON GDLC S

Each GDLC has different characteristics and

several pros and cons. Blitz Games Studios GDLC [9]

and Arnold Hendrick's GDLC [6] apply linear

approach in games development. However, the former

is more complete since it includes internal (alpha) and

external (beta) testing. The trade-off is Blitz Games

Studios GDLC [9] takes a longer phase than Arnold

Hendrick's GDLC [8].

Doppler Interactive GDLC [10] and Heather

Chandler's GDLC [11] are iterative process. However,

Doppler Interactive GDLC [10] emphasizes on

engineering aspect rather than Heather Chandler's

GDLC [11]. Both of them includes internal and

external testing, though in the latter, internal testing is

included as testing activity rather than explicitly

appear as a development phase.

From the four mentioned GDLCs, it can be inferred

that the game development process consists of three

key activities: (1) Design and prototype : the process

of creating initial game design, game concept, and put

it into a form of playable prototype, (2) Production :

the process of making the source code, creating the

assets, and integrating them as one, (3) Testing : the

process of playtesting, whether it is conducted by

internal team members or third party testers.

The relationship between each GDLC's phase and

the three key actvities above are shown in Table II.

From the comparison between GDLCs' activities and

SDLC's activities, the most prominent difference

between SDLC and GDLC is the assets management

during game design and production phase. Haddad &

Kanode [3] explain that game is created from the

synergy of multidiscipline aspects, one of them is the

creative aspect. What makes assets significant is the

fact that software emphasizes functionality, game

emphasizes both functionality and user engagement.

TABLE II

GAME DEVELOPMENT KEY ACT IVITIE S

Linear GDLC Iterative GDLC

Blitz Games

Studios

Arnold

Hendrick

Doopler

Interactive

Heather

Chandler

Generic

Phase

Pitching

Pre-

production

Prototype Design Pre-

production

Design &

Prototype

Pre-

production

Main

production

Production Develop/

Redevelop

Production Production

Evaluate

Alpha Beta Test Testing Testing

Beta Review

release

Master Live Release Post-

production

In order to properly handle the game quality, each

prototype stage should be addressed in the appropriate

development phases. Prototype stages span from the

beginning up to near the completion of game

development. The relationship between development

timeline and prototype stages are shown in Fig. 6.

Timeline

: Foundations :

Formal Details

: Structure :

Refinement

Fig. 6. Game development timeline and prototype stages

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

97

Production Cycle

Fig. 7. The Proposed GDLC model. It consists of 6 development phases. Production cycle consists of Pre-production, Production, and

Testing.

V. THE P ROPOSED GDLC

The new GDLC is proposed to answer the three

research questions: what steps needed to develop a

game, what are the quality criteria that must me

considered during each step, and how to create a good

quality game. The main principles of the newly

proposed GDLC are as follows:

1. The proposed GDLC is developed from the

analysis above and derived from the key

activities in the relevant GDLC phases.

2. The proposed GDLC applies an iterative

approach to enable higher degree of flexibility

towards changes during game development.

3. The proposed GDLC is created to address the

quality criteria of each prototype stage in order

to maintain the quality of the final product.

The proposed GDLC consists of six development

phases is shown in the Fig. 7.

A. Initiation

The first step to do in creating a game is to create a

rough concept what kind of game that will be created.

The output of initation is the game concept and a

simple game description.

B. Pre-production

Pre-production is one of the first and foremost phase

in the production cycle. Pre-production involves the

creation and the revision of game design and the

creation of game prototype . Game design focuses on

defining game genre, gameplay, mechanics, storyline,

characters, challenges, fun factors, technical aspects,

and its elements documentation in game design

document (GDD).

After the GDD has been made, a form of prototype

is made to assess the game design and the whole idea.

In the first iteration of production cycle, the created

prototypes are foundations and structure, while in the

next iterations, the related prototypes to be refined are

formal details and refinement.

Foundation, the first prototype, is related to fun

quality criteria. Foundation is used to show the mock-

up of core gameplay and game capabilities. The fun

quality criteria in foundation is tested via

questionnaire or discussion.

Structure, the refinement over Foundation, and

related to fun and functional quality criteria. The

main characteristic of structure is showing both the

core gameplay of the game and its related core

mechanics such as arithmetic, logic, and game rules.

Questionnaire and discussion is used to test the fun

quality criteria. The functional quality criteria is

tested via playtesting, where the tester are given some

task and goals to achieve according to the testing

scenario.

Pre-production ends when the revision or changes of

game design has been approved and documented in

the GDD.

C. Production

Production is the core process which revolves

around the assets creation, source codes creation, and

the integration of both elements. The related

prototypes in this phases are formal details and

refinement.

Formal Details is a refined structure with more

complete mechanics and assets. The production

activities which are related to the creation and the

refinement of formal details are balancing the game

(related to balanced quality criteria), adding new

features, improving overall perfomance, and fixing the

bug (related to functional and internally complete

quality criteria). Game balancing means adjustments

related to game difficulty to make the game's

difficulty fit just right.

Refinement is a complete prototype which is the

subject of game polishing. The related quality criteria

are fun and accessible. The activities during the

refinement are directed to make the game more fun,

challenging, and easier to understand. Only minor

changes allowed in this phase.

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

98

D. Testing

Testing in this context means internal testing

conducted to test the game usability and playability.

The testing method is specific to each prototype stage.

Formal Details Testing are conducted using

playtest to assess the features functionality and the

game difficulty (related to balanced). The method to

test functional quality criteria is via features

playtesting. To test the internally complete quality

criteria, it can be done via playtesting simultaneously

with functionality test. When a tester discover bugs,

loopholes, or dead-ends during playtesting, the causes

and scenarios to reproduce the error needed to be

documented and analyzed. To test the balanced

quality criteria, playtesting with several different

treatments is used to categorized whether a treatment

is too difficult, too easy, or just fine.

Refinement Testing are related to fun and

accessibility quality criteria. In refinement testing,

fun is tested via playtest and direct feedback from

fellow developers, whether it is boring, frustrating,

challenging, etc. Accessibility can be tested via

observing the tester behavior. If tester find it difficult

to play and understand the game, it means that the

game is not accessible enough.

The output of testing is bug report, change request,

and development decision. The result will decide

whether it is time to advance to the next phase (Beta )

or reiterate the production cycle.

E. Beta

Beta is phase to conduct third-party or external tester

called beta testing. Beta testing still using the same

testing methods as the previous testing method, since

the related prototypes in the beta testing are both

formal details and refinement. The tester selection

method comes in two types: closed beta and open

beta. Closed beta is only allow invited individuals to

be the participant, while open beta allow anyone who

register become the participant.

The quality criteria in beta are closely related to the

current prototype stage. In formal details testing, the

testers are demanded to discover the bugs (related to

functional and internally complete quality criteria).

In refinement testing, the testers are given more

freedom to enjoy the game, as the goals are more

directed to get the feedback (related to fun and

accessibility quality criteria).

The output of beta testing are bug reports and user

feedbacks. Beta session is closed mainly due to 2

reasons, either the beta term ended or the number of

specified beta tester has already given their test report.

From here, it may lead to production cycle again to

refine the product or continue to releasing the game if

the result is satisfactory.

F. Release

It is time when the game build has reach final stage

and ready to be released to public. Release involves

product launching, project documentation, knowledge

sharing, post-mortems, and planning for maintenance

and game expansion.

VI. GAME D EVELOPMENT G UIDELINES

The proposed GDLC mentioned before are just

steps taken to create a game. In order to successfully

create and deliver the game, the guidelines are made

to accompany the GDLC application. It consists of

introduction of game development, role management,

initiation, pre-production, production, testing, beta

testing, and release [12].

Role Management chapter provides explanation,

importance, and responsibilities of each roles.

Initiation chapter provides methods on how to

generate ideas and game concepts. To help the

ideation of game, the guidelines provides

brainstorming help section in a form of questions.

Pre-production chapter provides explanation of

each game design elements, such as game description,

characters, storyline, control, features and concept

arts, documentation in form of game design document

(GDD), making prototypes and the pre-production

phase deliverable checklist. The prototypes made are

evaluated using the methods specified in the

guidelines.

Production chapter focuses on programming and

assets creation. The guidelines provides different kind

of assets, method to achieve specified quality criteria,

and examples of changes in game archicture. All of

them are compiled in a form of deliverable checklist.

Testing chapter provides testing methods related to

each quality criteria on each prototype stage and

example of each testing method.

Beta chapter explains the importance of beta

testing, beta testing type, and provides the methods,

checklist, and questionnaire sample in playtesting.

Release chapter explains how to release game

package, post-production activities, and planning for

game package.

VII. EVALUATION

In order to verify the proposed GDLC and its

guidelines, both of them are used in a game

development project. The success parameter of this

research are the validity of proposed GDLC and the

application of this GDLC successfully deliver a good

quality game [13].

The proposed GDLC is applied in a project called

Feline Project, a project to create a mobile game.

Feline Project had lasted for 8 months with so many

changes occured, either change request for asset style,

main feature, or control method. The Feline Project

was done in four production cycle [13].

At first iteration, the initiation of Feline Project

produced the game concepts, then it was being refined

into game design in pre-production phase. The game

design was translated into Feline GDD and a

foundation prototype was made. The testing showed

the curiosity of each team member (related to fun), so

the prototype was refined into structure prototype. The

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

99

structure prototype had several core features and

showed the game is both functional and fun, so the

development was continued. During the development

of formal details, first iteration showed there was two

lack of quality achievement, so the second and third

iteration game design was focused to add

functionalities and fix the quality lacking. Formal

details from third iteration passed the internal quality

testing related to balanced, functional, and internally

complete.

The build was beta tested to 60 testers, with 5

testers complained about the game progression felt

empty, the rest was good. According to the result,

game balanced was not achieved so the focus of the

next iteration was to fix it.

The fourth iteration changes several features related

to balanced. The prototype had reached refinement

phase, so development also took on making the game

more accessible. The second beta testing result to 25

testers had shown satisfying result, as all the quality

criteria had already been achieved. Through four

iteration, Feline Project succeeded in producing a

good quality game.

The application of the proposed GDLC in Feline

Project showed that it could succesfully create and

deliver a good quality mobile game [13]. As for the

GDLC validation, the proposed GDLC contains the

key activities defined in section IV, with the mapping

as follows: Pre-production equals to Game Design and

Prototype, Production equals to Production, and

Testing and Beta Testing equals to Testing [13].

VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS

There are three key phases of game development.

They are design and prototype, production, and

testing. They combines both engineering process and

artistics creational process in term of developing a

game. The combination between engineering and arts

is the aspect that a simple software development life

cycle do not consider as a significant thing and

become a challenge in software development.

The proposed GDLC consist of six phases, they are

Initiation, Pre-production, Production, Testing,

Beta, and Release. The proposed GDLC takes on the

iterative approach to enable higher degree of

flexibility towards changes during the development

process. In order to deliver a good quality game, the

GDLC product is assessed through 5 usability quality

criteria, which are fun , functional , balanced,

internally complete, and accessible. Finally, the

application of the proposed GDLC by following our

GDLC guidelines has successfully delivered a good

quality game.

To further enchance the result of this research, it is

necessary to analyze the relationship between game

development life cycle and capability maturity models

(CMM) [14] so that the process can be measured in a

standard software engineering process measurements.

REFERENCES

[1] Skillz, "Not Just Hype: The Rise of Indie Game Developers,"

(2013, March 15). [Online]. Available:

http://skillz.com/corporate/2013/03/15/not-just-hype-the-rise-

of-indie-game-developers.

[2] R. S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practioner

Approach, 5th ed. (Book style), New York City: John Wiley &

Sons, 2001.

[3] H. M. Haddad and C. M. Kanode, "Software Engineering

Challenges in Game Development," in Sixth International

Conference on Information Technology: New Generations,

2009.

[4] F. Petrillo, M. Pimenta dan F. Trindade, "What Went Wrong?

A Survey of Problems in Game Development," in ACM

Computers in Entertainment, vol. 7 no. 1, pp. 13.1-13.22,

2009.

[5] E. Adams, Fundamentals of Game Design, 2nd Ed (Book

style), Berkeley: New Riders, 2009.

[6] S. R. Schach, Object-Oriented and Classical Software

Engineering, 6th Ed., New York: McGraw Hill, 2002.

[7] T. Fullerton, Game Design Workshop - A Playcentric

Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 2nd Ed. (Book

style), Burlington: Elsevier, 2008.

[8] A. Hendrick, "Project Management for Game Development,"

(2009, June 15). [Online]. Available:

http://mmotidbits.com/2009/06/15/project-management-for-

game-development/.

[9] Blitz Games Studios, "Project Lifecycle," 2011. [Online].

Available:

http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitz_academy/game_dev/

project_lifecycle.

[10] J. McGrath, "The Game Development Lifecycle - A theory for

the extension of the Agile project methodology," (2011 April

3). [Online]. Available:

http://blog.dopplerinteractive.com/2011/04/game-

development-lifecycle-theory-for.html.

[11] H. M. Chandler, Game Production Handbook (Book style),

Sudbury: Jones and Bartletts Publishers, 2010.

[12] R. Ramadan, The Game Development Life Cycle Handbook

(Unpublished work style), unpublished.

[13] R. Ramadan, "Pengembangan Metode Pembangunan Game

(Thesis style)," Undergraduate thesis, Informatics

Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, 2013.

[14] Schorsch, T., "The Capability Im-Maturity Model,"

CrossTalk, (1996, November), Available:

http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1996/11/xt96d11h.asp.

ICACSIS 2013 ISBN: 978-979-1421-19-5

100

... This method is used to develop games with a standard flow of game development in general, starting from the planning process to the release process to *Corresponding Author www.ijacsa.thesai.org make it easier to produce or develop a game [9][10][11][12]. The details methodology steps to develop this game presented in Section II, which has 6 stages, namely initiation for the initial idea stage, preproduction for the asset creation, production for the system development, testing for the internal tester, beta for the external tester, and release for the game publication [9][10][11][12]. ...

... make it easier to produce or develop a game [9][10][11][12]. The details methodology steps to develop this game presented in Section II, which has 6 stages, namely initiation for the initial idea stage, preproduction for the asset creation, production for the system development, testing for the internal tester, beta for the external tester, and release for the game publication [9][10][11][12]. Section III focuses on result and discussion for this research. ...

... The method used in this study is the Game Development Life Cycle method which has 6 stages, namely 1) initiation for the initial idea stage, 2) preproduction for the asset creation stage, 3) production for the manufacturing stage system, 4) testing for the trial phase, 4) beta for the external trial phase, and 5) release for the publication phase [10][11][12][13][14][15]. We can see the stages of game development as shown in Fig. 3. ...

  • Ramadiani Ramadiani Ramadiani Ramadiani
  • Erdinal Respatti
  • Gubta Mahendra Putra
  • Alyamani

Games are a unique, interesting, and fun entertainment medium. Games can contain education, introduction to certain flora and fauna, work and daily life, intelligence and dexterity. The game built in this study aims to introduce the flora and fauna found in the forests of East Borneo (Kalimantan), Indonesia as the object of a plat former game. Games are built using the Game Development Life Cycle method in order to make good and organized games. The GDLC method contain 6 stages, first is the initiation for the initial idea, second is to preproduction for the asset creation, third stage is production for the system creation, forth is the testing for the trial, fifth is the beta for the external trial, and the sixth stage is to release for publication. The results of the study resulted in the Borneo Wildlife game platform. This game introduces the unique flora and fauna in East Borneo, Indonesia, such as Black Orchids, Ironwood trees, Proboscis monkeys, Mahakam dolphins and Hornbills, as well as how to protect and preserve their nature. The game

... This model is suitable for gamification tools that require simple actions from user. There are six phases involved in GDLC starting with the initiation phase and proceeding with pre-production, production, testing, beta phase and release phase [16]. Figure 1 shows the GDLC model phases followed with the details of each phase involved in the model. ...

... Game Development Lifecycle Model[16] ...

... Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) had been used as guidelines in developing the games. Many previous researchers had been used GDLC in their research as a guideline in developing digital games (Alaoui, El Achaak, & Belahbib, 2021;Ameron & Sani, 2020;Hutapea, Simatupang, & Kasih, 2021;Ramadan & Widyani, 2013). GDLC consists of four (4) phases which are (i) preproduction, (ii) production, (iii) post-production, and (iv) testing. ...

Learning how to write in Japanese is now a new trend in Malaysia, but Kanji is hard for non-native Japanese speakers to understand and memorize if not taught from young. Beginners who learn Kanji Japanese language faced difficulties in memorizing the kanji characters with correct stroke order. Thus, KANJI Write, an educational Augmented Reality (AR) adventure game was designed and developed to overcome the problem. The main purpose of the game is to help players memorizing the correct stroke order of Kanji characters through playing the game. Players will play as Nana, an Asian girl who has started learning Kanji and facing difficulties in memorizing Kanji stroke order. The art style of the game is following the direction of cuteness 3D low poly style. The most eye-catching point about this game is that the game level is activated by scanning the cards. After scanning those cards, players can start exploring and searching for the strokes needed to complete the level. A playtesting session was carried out and the result showed that KANJI Write successfully helped the players in memorizing the correct Kanji strokes order. The results also showed positive results in the game concept and the game visual. However, the game is still lacking in functionality and will be improved to increase the user experience rate.

... The concept of the overall project was based on research regarding students' gaming experience in an inclusive environment and was designed with two key issues in mind: (i) the final products to function as educational resources in the context of ILS training, both for students with SEND and their typically developing peers and (ii) the gaming experience to become the bridge between children regardless of their cognitive profile, and to promote collaborative learning through peermentoring. Participatory design and formative evaluation are essential methods in the testing stage (Ramadan & Widyani, 2013;Steinböck, Luckner, Kayali, Proyer, & Kremsner, 2019). Assessment methodologies in digital games are strongly related to the game development phase including userbased and expert-based evaluation: concept, preproduction phase, prototype, production, localization, alpha-phase, beta-phase, gold, and postproduction (Novak as cited in Bernhaupt, 2010). ...

Education is the cornerstone for a society without discrimination as it promotes full personality development and enhances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. As a result of the "Education for all" policy, more children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) are included in neighbourhood schools regardless of their cognitive, physical or emotional condition. Inclusive education (IE) focuses on learning motivation and styles, different students' learning pace, learning objectives, methods, personalized strategies, material, and content. The degree of independent living of both children with or without SEND is one of the main concerns of educators, parents, and therapists. Children with SEND often struggle to achieve independence because of their limitations in adaptive behaviour. Considering valid epistemological backgrounds, pedagogical frameworks and a range of intervention strategies focusing on those skills, the paper presents an innovate transmedia-based game development method for inclusive education, combining traditional games, art-based production, and game development methodologies with cutting-edge technologies involving 360˚ videos, virtual, and augmented reality.

... In the paper [1], the authors are depicting their approach toward a new game development life cycle which is different from a Software development lifecycle. It presents a new Game development Life Cycle with guidelines to successfully deliver a good quality game. ...

... We used a structured game development methodology to reduce the complexities of team member coordination and costs of PLS design. 15 We used the game development lifecycle (GDLC) framework, 16 which includes six components: (1) initiation, (2) preproduction, (3) production, (4) alpha test, (5) beta test, and (6) release version (Supplementary Data SA). We adopted the first five components of GDLC to guide our methodology in the design and evaluation of PLS. ...

Objective: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a leading cause of maternal mortality. Surgical interventions, such as uterine artery ligation and utero-ovarian arteries ligation (UAL and UOAL), are considered as effective methods to control PPH. Owing to PPH's severe outcomes, various educational tools have been developed to train surgical residents. A potential educational medium for this purpose could be serious digital games. In this pilot study, we assessed the usability and effectiveness of a serious game to promote the surgical skills of UAL/UOAL among obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) residents. Methods: We designed and developed the Play and Learn for Surgeons (PLS) game to train OB/GYN residents. We assessed and compared the usability challenges of PLS before and after revising the game. To assess the effectiveness of PLS, residents were allocated randomly in control and intervention groups. Surgical skills of the residents were assessed pre- and post-test using the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills checklist. Setting: This pilot study took place at the OB/GYN wards of Omolbanin Hospital (Mashhad University of Medical Sciences) and Imam Ali Hospital (Zahedan University of Medical Sciences) in Iran. Participants: Thirteen subject matter experts (nine OB/GYN experts and four senior clinical assistants) participated in the user interface design and usability assessment of PLS. Total of 46 OB/GYN residents participated in the educational effectiveness analysis of PLS. All participants were female with mean ages of 40.6, 29.9 and 28.0 years for OB/GYN experts, assistants, and residents, accordingly. Results: All participants completed the study. PLS significantly improved the skills of residents for UAL (P-value = 0.018) and UOAL (P-value <0.001) procedures. Conclusion: Serious games can be an effective and affordable approach in training OB/GYN residents for UAL and UOAL procedures. Approval number: (# IR.MUMS.fm.REC.1396.345) Trial registration number: (# IRCT2017092436366N1).

... Generally, there are 6 development steps in this method. Those are initiation, pre-production, production, testing, beta, and release [5]. In the design, the steps related are initiation and preproduction, which covers layout design, interface design, game-play system, game activity sequences, and story designs that will be inputted onto the game. ...

English became the first foreign language that came to Indonesia in 1967. The human needs of English can already be seen through lots of official scientific works in English and its intense competitions globally. However, still, many people finds it difficult to learn English, for example, the difficulty in understanding tenses, differences between writing, reading and pronouncing. By relying on the latest features on smartphone, which on the mean time, smartphone is one of many gadgets that is the most practical to use in anywhere and anytime, plus, with gaming contents as the best multimedia entertainer application, learning English will be more interactive and easier to use. In this research, Construct 2 is used as The Developer App and Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) method of Rido Ramadan and Yani Widyani's version is used as The Development Method. The game system tested by using black box and by giving out Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction to 24 respondents, to test the system's usability. It resulted 80,83% for the whole of the system, meaning that the whole system is quiet interesting in the respondents's view. Then, the screen display gained 80,41%, this means that the screen display is very interesting and did not confuse the respondents. Technology and information game gained 75,41%, this means that the information contained in the game is quiet good, however, further development is needed. The introduction of the game's system gained 71,63%, means that some of the system's ability did not run effectively and needed further repairment and development. The last, usability and user interface gained 76,25%, this means that the game is quiet interactive to the respondents.

... With the advent of abridged versions of various Head Mounted Devices (HMD), multitude of personalized products are being built using VR, creating a significant impact in digital consumer market. The practices followed by VR developers originated from the Gaming Industry due to its widespread presence in Online Games [63]. Game Developers started contributing to Core VR product development with an idea of building serious enterprise VR products. ...

Despite its growth and profitability, many reports about game projects show that their production is not a simple task, but one beset by common problems and still distant from having a healthy and synergetic work process. The goal of this article is to survey the problems in the development process of electronic games, which are mainly collected from game postmortems, by exploring their similarities and differences to well-known problems in traditional information systems.

  • Jong-Hyun Wi

This paper discusses a case study of the project management of online content, namely, an online game. For the analysis, the paper presents the patterns of management approach adopted by analyzing a successful case of the development of an online game called "FreeStyle," created by JC Entertainment (JCE). The analysis results reveal that two variables, namely, the CEO's indirect management of the development team and the strong intrinsic teamwork among the development team members, influenced the developers' performance. Finally, the paper illustrates four patterns based on the two aforementioned variables. The pattern of the development project moved from "direct management-low intrinsic teamwork" to "indirect management-high intrinsic teamwork." Due to the pattern change, JCE achieved a high development performance.

  • Stephen R. Schach

From the Publisher:This text provides an introduction to the process of software engineering. The revision concentrates on updating the book to reflect the most current trends and innovations in the field. The Universal Modeling Language (UML) has become an industry standard and now permeates this new edition. In this text, it is used for object-oriented analysis and design as well as when diagrams depict objects and their interrelationships. Design patterns, frameworks and software architecture have also become a popular topic in the field of software engineering and are part of a new chapter on reuse, portability, and inoperability. The inoperabilty material includes sections on such hot topics as OLE, COM, and CORBA (you'll want to mention that this material is covered). Some material from the 3rd edition has been reorganized into a new chapter on planning and estimating, including feature points and COCOMO II. While the text has been updated, the traditonal features which have defined the previous three editions of Schach's book have been retained. These include a balanced coverage of the object-oriented model along with the classical model (as reflected in the title) and an emphasis on metrics. The special considerations of object-oriented life-cycle models, object-oriented analysis, and object-oriented design are also retained in this edition.

  • Dirk L. Raemdonck
  • Bradford A. Burns

IntroductionDrug Development Program—Strategic Considerations and Project Management AspectsThe Project Manager's Role in Drug DevelopmentThe Project Manager's Role in Managing Program RisksConclusion AcknowledgementsBibliographySuggested Reading

  • Christopher M. Kanode
  • Hisham M. Haddad

In software engineering (SE), video game development is unique yet similar to other software endeavors. It is unique in that it combines the work of teams covering multiple disciplines (art, music, acting, programming, etc.), and that engaging game play is sought after through the use of prototypes and iterations. With that, game development is faced with challenges that can be addressed using traditional SE practices. The industry needs to adopt sound SE practices for their distinct needs such as managing multimedia assets and finding the ldquofunrdquo in game play. The industry must take on the challenges by evolving SE methods to meet their needs. This work investigates these challenges and highlights engineering practices to mitigate these challenges.

Not Just Hype: The Rise of Indie Game Developers

  • Skillz

Skillz, "Not Just Hype: The Rise of Indie Game Developers," (2013, March 15). [Online].

The Game Development Lifecycle -A theory for the extension of the Agile project methodology

  • J Mcgrath

J. McGrath, "The Game Development Lifecycle -A theory for the extension of the Agile project methodology," (2011 April 3). [Online]. Available: http://blog.dopplerinteractive.com/2011/04/gamedevelopment-lifecycle-theory-for.html.