How Long Does it Take to Develop a Video Game?

How Long Does it Take to Develop a Video Game

As we all know games are the best medium to entertain ourselves and with the advancement of technology advancement, new features have been added to this making it more interesting. That’s why its demand is increasing day by day. Due to its engaging and entertaining features, more people are opting for online video games to kill time and for amusement purposes. 

Due to its high demand investors are looking into video game development to invest in it and they want to make it a profitable business. If you are one of them and want to know how long it takes to develop a video game then this article is dedicated to you. 

Know exactly how much time it takes, we don’t have a definitive answer to this question because it totally depends on many factors:-

Factors that Determine Video Game Development Time

  • Game design
  • Game design document
  • Game engine
  • Game engine experience
  • Game art style
  • Music and sound effect

If you have a game idea and you want to make it more advanced and rich then you have to do more brainstorming for it and that takes time. In this article, we are going to discuss the development process of a video game so you can know about the total time it takes to make a video game. 

Why Do Video Games Take So Long to Make?

Video game development is a very tedious task. Making video games is a long process and it takes a lot of time and effort. There are many factors that make it a time-consuming process.

Here are the factors-

  • Coding experience.
  • Game development software.
  • The game is 2D or 3D.
  • Game’s art style.
  • Game assets.
  • Total budget.

How Long Does it Take to Code a Video Game?

Coding is the main part of any video game software. Learning the code for any game is not an easy job, It takes time. If you are new to the coding world, then you should keep your game simply because in a simple game it takes less time to code. When you go to advanced and complex games then your coding will also be complex and it will take more time. 

 If your idea is innovative and advanced then it will require complex code to make it and if you are not a pro in programming then you should hire a video game development company that can handle all your burdens and can bring fruitful results to you. It will also reduce your video game development time.

How Long Does it Take to Make the Art for a Video Game?

Creating artwork is not an easy task. The game art’s time totally depends upon the game’s art style. You can understand it more by the example of Cuphead’s rubber hose game. In this video game, it took 5 years to bring the 1920s art style into the game. So it totally depends on the game’s theme and the total number of people who are working on it.

  • The number of assets in the game.
  • The total number of people working on assets.
  • Art style.
  • The art style is new or editing existing art.
  • The game is 2D or 3D.

How Long Does it Take to Make Sound Effects and Music for a Video Game?

In any video game, the basic sound effect is the sound of footsteps, light switches, menu open, level-up, and game over, and these sound effects are only 1% of total sound effects. The main sound factors that take time are as-

  • Music genre
  • Soundtracks
  • Adaptive music

WHY DO GAMES GET DELAYED?

There is a famous saying about video games that are “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”.

Video games can be delayed due to numerous factors and a few of them are here-

  • Poor management.
  • Budget issues.
  • Unskilled team.
  • Over-ambitious projects.
  • Complicated demand and sweeping changes.
  • Lack of pre-production.

So, all are the basic reasons that make video games delayed. You can develop your video game in a short time or can minimize the video game development time by working on the above reasons. 

Final words

Video game development time totally depends upon its development process. Some games take a few months and some can take a few years, it all depends upon the game’s complexity and features. There are numerous factors like development platform, features, scale, genre, and game engine that play a vital role in any video game development process. 

After reading this article you can learn about the video game development process and what makes it time-consuming. If you work on time-taking factors then you can easily create your video games in a short time period. 

To make a video game, you should discuss your idea with a game app development company so you can know about game development, total time, and cost.

You might also like our TUTEZONE section which contains exclusive tutorials on how you can make your life simpler using technology.

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About the Author: Ranjit Ranjan

More than 15 years of experience in web development projects in countries such as US, UK and India. Blogger by passion and SEO expert by profession.