How to Make a Video Game: 7 Steps From Idea to Release

Making a Video Game in 60 Seconds

• Start with one verb, not a world. Cornell's game course asks for a single core mechanic described inside one challenge, using Mario stomping a Goomba as its example. Describe the action, the challenge and the rule. If you can't, the game isn't ready to build. One Core Mechanic ›
• Pick the engine you can finish in. Scratch needs no typed code, and UC Santa Cruz and the University of Delaware both teach with Godot. NYU pairs Unity with C#, and City College of New York pairs Unreal with C++. Choosing an Engine ›
• Paper finds problems before code can. Cornell's first prototype is nondigital, and NYU's course also moves from a board game to a digital game. Use cards and dice, play the part of the computer, then watch someone play without explaining anything. Paper Tests ›
• After beta, new ideas wait for the next game. Once one complete level works, build the rest from existing pieces and rising difficulty. MIT grades students on focus testing, and watching strangers play will show you the worst problems first. Playtesting ›
• A student team can do it in one semester. Cornell's Spring 2023 schedule ran from proposal to golden master in about 13 weeks. Six of the nine milestones shown come before alpha, and a solo beginner working in spare time should expect each stage to take longer. How Long It Takes ›
• Finish a game before paying for a degree. You can make and release a game without a degree. A degree earns its cost when you want a studio job and years of team projects, and a finished small game shows whether you want that work. Game Degrees ›

Heads up Most of the expensive decisions come before production. Six of the nine milestones in Cornell's schedule are due before alpha.

The short answer

How to Make a Video Game in 7 Steps

1. Write down one core mechanic. Name the single action the player repeats.
2. Choose an engine you can finish in. Scratch or Godot for a first game.
3. Test the idea on paper. Cards, dice and a friend will find the first problems.
4. Build an ugly prototype. Get a shape moving on screen, and expect to throw it away.
5. Make one complete level. Every system working from start to end, with placeholder art.
6. Add levels and playtest. Watch strangers play, then stop adding features.
7. Release it and write down what you learned. Package it so anyone can install it.

The order matters more than the tools. Each step exists to find out cheaply whether the idea works before you spend weeks on it. People who stall usually skip straight to a large game in a powerful engine, and the career office at Worcester Polytechnic Institute calls that the biggest beginner mistake: they spend months designing a huge dream game instead of finishing small projects.

A finished game is also worth more than an impressive unfinished one, whatever you plan to do next. The same office says recruiters strongly prefer finished small projects, so your first goal is to reach the end of something.

Step 1

Step 1: Write Down One Core Game Mechanic

A game idea usually arrives as a world or a story. A game you can build starts as a verb. Cornell's game course defines a mechanic as a combination of actions, interactions and rules that produce a particular effect, and its first assignment refuses to hear more than one: "You probably have too many."

Cornell's own example is Mario and a Goomba. The challenge is that touching the enemy from the side costs a life. The mechanic is stomping on it, which combines jumping and moving with a collision rule. Describe yours the same way, in one short paragraph:

• The action: what the player presses or does, over and over.
• The challenge: the specific thing that action has to overcome.
• The rule: what happens when the player succeeds, and what happens when they fail.

If you can't describe the game this way, it isn't ready to build. Keep the scope small enough that you could finish it in a few weeks of evenings. A useful test is whether you can explain the whole game to a friend in two sentences. When the idea grows, write the extra pieces in a list for a later game. Our game design document guide has a template for when a project gets big enough to need a written plan, but a first game can live on one page. For more on how designers think about rules and systems, read what game design is.

Step 2

Step 2: Choose a Game Engine You Can Finish In

A game engine handles drawing, input, sound and physics, so you only write what is unique to your game. Beginners lose weeks comparing engines, and the choice matters less than people think, because the skills carry over. Pick by what you can finish now, not by what large studios use. Here is what college courses and teaching projects use.

If you have never made a game, start with Scratch. It is built around a block-based coding interface, and an afternoon is enough to get something moving. It is aimed at kids, and adults outgrow it fast, which is fine: one finished Scratch game teaches you how long things really take.

If you are ready to type code, Godot is what two of these college courses chose. UC Santa Cruz calls its Godot class an all-in-one game development starter course, where students build a full game in a small team, and the University of Delaware takes students from concept to playable game through prototype iteration using a Godot textbook.

If you already program, you have more choices. New York University teaches Unity, which uses C#, and City College of New York teaches Unreal with C++. Harvard's CS50 2D course skips the large engines and teaches students to rebuild games like Pong and Super Mario Bros. with Lua, which shows how a game works underneath. Anyone can take it online at no charge through eight weeks of material.

Step 3

Step 3: Test the Game Idea on Paper First

This is the step almost every beginner skips, and it is the one university courses insist on. Cornell's first prototype is nondigital, and its purpose is to test a gameplay mechanic to see whether it is fun. NYU's course also moves from a board game to a digital game. Paper costs nothing, and you can change a rule in ten seconds, where the same change on screen could take a day.

Use index cards, dice, coins and a sheet of graph paper. You play the part of the computer: you move the enemies, track the score and enforce the rules. Then ask someone to play, and keep quiet while they do. Anything you have to explain out loud is something the finished game will have to teach. Write down each point where the player gets stuck, bored or confused, change one rule and play again.

Some mechanics can't be modeled on paper, such as the feel of a jump. In that case, test the decision around it: what the player chooses to do, and why. As Cornell puts it, the earlier teams are playing and testing the game, the better the game will be. Don't move on until someone other than you wants a second round.

Step 4

Step 4: Build an Ugly Game Prototype You Can Throw Away

Now open the engine and build only the mechanic. Use squares and circles for characters, and skip menus, music and a title screen. Cornell tells students to make the quickest software prototype that you can and treats it as disposable. It doesn't even need to be a game yet: a "toy" that shows an interesting action is enough. A good first version has a character on screen that responds to your controls.

Follow an introductory tutorial for your engine until something moves, then stop following tutorials and add your mechanic yourself. That is where the real learning starts. When you get stuck, look up the one thing you need instead of starting another full course.

Then rebuild with intent. Cornell's second prototype is the opposite of the first: its code should find its way back into your final project, and it should solve whatever is technically hardest about your game. Save your work in version control from this point on, so one bad change can't destroy a week of it. A public repository also gives you something to show later.

Step 5

Step 5: Make One Complete Level

Next, connect everything into one piece that runs from start to finish: a start, a challenge, a way to win, a way to lose, and a way to play again. Game teams call the milestone after this alpha. Cornell's definition is plain: "alpha should be your game completed without any content." The course asks for a simple level editor and one small complete level at this point.

Placeholder art is fine here, and it is often better than finished art, since you won't feel bad about changing it. Add the first real sounds as soon as you can, though. A small sound on each action changes how a game feels more than most people expect, and it costs little. On a solo project, this is also the moment to be honest about scope. If the one level took far longer than you planned, cut the level count now rather than discovering the problem in two months.

Art and sound don't have to be yours. If you borrow them, keep a list of where each asset came from and what its license allows, since you will need that list when you release. UC Santa Cruz's starter course pairs Godot with Aseprite for pixel art, and pixel art is a sensible choice for a beginner because a small canvas limits how much there is to draw.

Step 6

Step 6: Add Levels, Playtest the Game, Then Stop Adding Features

With one level working, build the rest from the pieces you already have and arrange them so the game gets harder. Cornell's beta asks for a recognizable game with a clear progression, usually three levels of rising difficulty. Then comes the rule that saves most projects: after beta, you should not be doing anything but tweaking parameters and making levels. New ideas go on the list for your next game.

Playtesting is the job now. Give the game to someone who has never seen it, say nothing, and watch their hands. MIT's game course makes this a graded requirement: students must focus test their games and defend their design decisions with what they found. You don't need a formal study. A few strangers will find your worst problems, and they often find the same ones.

Fix in this order: anything that crashes, anything that stops a player from understanding what to do, and then difficulty. Polish comes last, because polishing a level you later cut is wasted time. Game jams are a good way to practice this whole loop quickly, since a theme and a short deadline force small scope. WPI's beginner roadmap puts joining a game jam and publishing a first game in month two.

Step 7

Step 7: Release It and Write Down What You Learned

A game isn't finished until someone else can install it and run it. Cornell schedules a golden master well before the final showcase, because the purpose of this release is to ensure that you can ship your game with an installer. Too many students leave it to the last minute and then struggle to get a build that works. Export a build early, try it on a computer that has never had your engine installed, and fix what breaks.

For a first game, publishing on a free indie storefront or your own web page is enough. Write a short description, add a few screenshots and ask your playtesters to try the final version. Don't expect sales, since the point of the first release is to have gone through the whole process once.

Then write a postmortem: what went right, what went wrong, what you would do differently. MIT grades this too, through an individually written postmortem on every project. It turns one finished game into lessons for the next, and a clear one reads well in a game design portfolio. Your next game should be slightly larger than this one, and no more.

The process

How Are Video Games Made? Four Stages of Game Development

The seven steps above are the small version of what studios do at scale. A set of course notes at Central Connecticut State University, drawn from the book Agile Game Development with Scrum, divides the work into four stages.

• Concept. Ideas are generated, possibly prototyped, and thrown away. Very little is kept, and that is the point.
• Pre-production. Teams explore what is fun and work out how they will build the content. This stage is where the core game gets decided.
• Production. The team creates the bulk of the content, using the core mechanics and processes discovered during pre-production. The focus moves from discovery to efficiency.
• Post-production. It starts at alpha, and teams focus on tuning, polishing and bug fixing until the game ships.

The practical lesson for a beginner is how early the expensive choices get made. Your paper test and ugly prototype are your pre-production, and rushing through them is how a project ends up rebuilding its core during production.

Timeline

How Long Does It Take to Make a Video Game?

A small game with one mechanic can take a few weekends to a few months of spare time. A student team with a course to keep it on track can take a game from a proposal to a working release in a semester. Here is Cornell's actual schedule from Spring 2023, where the proposal was due in early February and the golden master in early May, about 13 weeks later.

Notice how the schedule spends its time. Six of the nine milestones come before alpha, and the first working code isn't due until a month in. That semester also assumes a full team of students with course staff reviewing their work. Working alone in your spare time, expect each stage to take longer. WPI's roadmap for a beginner working alone is more modest, with engine basics and two tiny prototypes in the first month.

We don't quote a typical figure for commercial games. Published numbers come from studios' own announcements and vary too widely to plan around, and they say nothing about what you should expect from a first project.

Cost

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video Game?

A first game can cost nothing but your time. Scratch is free for everyone, Harvard's course is open at no charge, and paper prototypes cost next to nothing. A computer you already own will usually run a beginner engine and a small 2D project. You will start spending money when you want custom art or music you can't make yourself, or when you pay a storefront's fee to sell the game.

Engine pricing and revenue terms change, and they differ by how much a game earns, so read the current terms on each engine's own site before you plan to sell anything. The larger cost is hours. Budget your weekly time honestly, since it decides how big a game you can finish.

Coding

Do You Need to Code to Make a Game?

You don't need to code for your first game, and you will almost certainly want to for your third. Blocks and visual tools still teach the same logic: if this happens, do that, and keep track of this number. Learning that logic in a game is more motivating than learning it from a textbook, because you can see every result on screen.

Which language to learn depends on the engine. As the table above shows, C# goes with Unity and C++ goes with Unreal, so choose the engine first and the language follows. Python isn't one of the languages the courses here teach games with. It is a fine language to learn programming in, but don't choose it expecting it to be what you will use in a large engine.

If you find that you like the programming more than the design, a computer science degree for game development or a game programming program may suit you better than a design degree. Our game design vs. game development guide sets out the difference.

Teams

Who Makes a Video Game? Jobs and What They Pay

On a first game you do every job. On a team, each of these is someone's whole career. Knowing which part you enjoyed most while making your own game is the best early signal of where you might fit.

The wage survey has no game category, so each figure covers a whole occupation. Game designers are counted with web and digital interface designers at $104,000, and game programmers with software developers at $135,980. Treat these as the market for each skill, not as a studio pay scale. Studio entry pay usually sits below the median. MIT's course adds a detail that matches how studios work: 80% of each project grade is shared with the team, because most game work depends on the people beside you. Our game careers hub covers each job in depth.

What next

From Your First Game to a Game Degree

You don't need a degree to make and release a game, and this guide has shown the whole route without one. A degree earns its cost in a narrower set of cases: when you want a studio job, you want years of team projects with deadlines and feedback, and you can't easily set those up alone. Making a small game first is also the cheapest way to find out whether you want to spend four years on this, since some people love the idea and dislike the daily work. If you finish one and want to make another, that is a useful sign.

When you are ready to compare programs, our data covers 354 programs at 271 colleges. Start with the best game design schools, look at the most affordable programs if price will decide it, and read our guide to game design degrees for what each level involves. The game design classes guide shows the courses you would take. Bring your finished game to any application: many programs ask for a portfolio, and it will be the most convincing thing in yours.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Easiest Way to Make a Video Game?

Start in Scratch if you have never made a game, or in Godot if you are ready to type simple scripts, and build one small game with one mechanic. Scratch uses drag-and-drop blocks, so there is no syntax to learn before something moves on screen. Copying a simple classic such as Pong is a fine first project, because the design is already solved and you only have to learn the tools. See the engine table.

Can You Make a Video Game by Yourself?

Yes, if the game is small. A solo maker has to do the design, programming, art and sound, so keep the idea to one mechanic and a few minutes of play. The career office at Worcester Polytechnic Institute tells beginners that even a polished five-minute experience is valuable. Large games take large teams because those jobs stop fitting in one person's week. Borrowing art and sound you have the right to use is how many solo projects stay finishable. See who does what on a team.

Do You Need to Know How to Code to Make a Video Game?

No, not for a first game. Scratch needs no typed code at all, and a paper prototype needs no computer. You will need programming to go much further, even if a visual tool carries you for a while, because game logic is a set of rules and conditions however you enter it. Harvard's CS50 2D course asks for prior experience in any programming language, while UC Santa Cruz runs a starter course around the Godot engine. See how much code you need.

Can You Make a Video Game for Free?

Yes. Scratch costs nothing, Harvard's CS50 2D game course is open to anyone at no charge, and a paper prototype costs only the paper. Your real cost is time, along with any art or music you pay for. Before you sell a game, read the current license terms of the engine you used and of every asset in the game, because those terms set what you may charge and what you may owe. See what a game costs.

Do You Need a Degree to Make Video Games?

No degree is needed to make a game and release it. A degree matters when you want a studio job, and even then studios look hard at what you have finished. The value of a game program is years of team projects, feedback and deadlines, which are hard to set up alone. If you have made a small game and want more of that, compare programs on price and outcomes before you commit. See how a first game leads to a degree.

Keep exploring

Related Pages

• Guide Is Game Design a Good Career? Pay, outlook, competition and degree cost, laid out honestly. Read the guide ›
• Guide Game Design Scholarships Industry, school and state awards for game design students, with amounts and deadlines. Read the guide ›
• Career Video game designer career $104,000 median · +6% jobs to 2035 (web and digital interface designers) Read the career guide ›
• Salary Video game designer salary $104,000 median (web and digital interface designers) See the pay data ›
• Ranking Best Online Game Design Degrees 13 confirmed online · Online See the ranking ›
• Ranking Best Public Game Design Schools 27 ranked · Public See the ranking ›

All rankings ›All states ›All cities ›

Sources

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