How to Avoid Mistakes in Game Development

Game development can take years of hard work and, like any production, it’s not without its challenges. Some of them are due to technical nuances, others – psychological.

But, regardless of their origin, developers need to be able to detect and fix bugs early in order to ensure the high quality of the final product.

In this article, we will look at the 6 most common mistakes, and tell you how to overcome them correctly.

When developing a new project, you always want to create something perfect. Sometimes developers spend months looking for the “best concept”, but in the end it can also turn out to be wrong, just like any other. Therefore, it is important to always remain realistic here. Nothing is perfect, and even AAA-level projects also have their drawbacks.

On the other hand, gamers don’t expect the perfect character or perfect gear either. Everything should have its strengths and weaknesses. This creates contrast and makes the gameplay even more fun.

Creating a new virtual universe, many developers are trying to fill it with many innovative features and mechanics. At the planning stage, while everything is only on paper, this sounds attractive, but in the end the project can be overloaded and too difficult to understand.

Try to look at the game through the eyes of a gamer who is launching for the first time, appreciate how easy it is for him to understand the details, how pronounced the main storyline is.

Perhaps some mechanics should be abandoned, and start spending valuable resources on creating the main core of the project.

If a large-scale project is being created, the implementation of some mechanics can be done in stages. For example, each new version of the game may contain 2-3 additional features. Thus, using feedback from gamers, you can choose an objective direction for product development.

Each game project is created for the purpose of making a profit, but improper integration of monetization elements can lead to a negative gaming experience and reduce the popularity of the product. For example, many have had to deal with intrusive ads in mobile games that negate addictive gameplay and alienate loyal users.

The method of monetization and points of integration of advertisements must be thought out in advance in such a way that it matches your financial plans and satisfies the interests of the players.

Over time, some players may begin to abandon the project, and developers need to work on keeping them. At the same time, before investing in marketing and engaging in attracting new users, it is important to understand why the old ones leave. There may be several reasons: the presence of bugs, a complex interface, poor level design, low level of gamification.

In addition, players may get bored with the monotony of the gameplay, so the project must constantly evolve. New mechanics, levels, characters and regular seasonal events, a rating system – this is what will help maintain the constant interest of users and make the project “alive”. Therefore, after the release, work on the game should not stop.

Even the best game will not start to generate income without quality promotion. To make it popular, you do not need to spare money for marketing. If you have a big budget, you can order reviews on major blogs, advertise on social networks, publish articles on gaming portals, etc. This will help create a buzz around the project and will be a good breeding ground for high sales.

Another common mistake is when marketing efforts start after the release. Use the experience of AAA projects that start advertising at the planning stage, and by the time of beta testing they already have an impressive audience ready to immediately purchase the long-awaited game.

Some developers want to be revolutionary by coding their own engine from scratch instead of using hundreds of available and often free tools: modules for physics, AI, graphics rendering, debugging, exporting, and more.

You need to understand that game engines are the most complex piece of software involved in game development. Their creation will entail unreasonably high costs and is unlikely to bring something radically new to the game.

Popular engines that you can use in your project:

• Unity is an integrated development environment that powers more than 50% of all existing mobile games.

• Unreal Engine – powered by C++ and Blueprints visual scripting. Used by major studios to develop AAA-class games: Mortal Kombat 11, Fortnite, A way out and others.
• AppGameKit is a powerful set of tools that will help you create a project for almost any platform.
• Marmalade SDK is a C++ cross-platform game development kit.

It is worth adding that some major studios are even abandoning their own, ready-made engines in favor of these technologies. For example, to create The Witcher 4, CD Projekt RED decided to use Unreal Engine instead of the native REDengine used in the previous part of the project, in order to optimize errors to quickly create a virtual world.

Another mistake that we decided to save for last is choosing the wrong development team.

There are three possible solutions: create everything yourself, hire freelancers and independently supervise their work, or order a game from a company that can objectively assess the scale of the project, select the optimal technology stack, form a team of experienced specialists and guarantee the quality of the final result.

If you need a serious approach, please contact AVADA MEDIA. We know all the subtleties of game development and will create a profitable product.