How Long Does Game Development Take?
Realistic timelines for every game type, from hyper-casual prototypes to massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). Based on our senior engineers' 12 and 14 years in game development.
The Short Answer
Game development timelines range from 2 to 3 months for a simple hyper-casual game to 18 months to 3 years or more for a full-scale MMO. Most mid-range indie games take 6 to 18 months.
The timeline depends on genre complexity, team size, platform targets, and feature scope, and every project is different, so treat these ranges as a rough guide rather than a quote. The sections below explain what accelerates or delays each phase.
Timeline by Game Type
These ranges assume a dedicated team working full-time on a single platform with a clear scope.
They are calendar time from brief to launch, including the waiting between stages: feedback rounds, approvals and store review. Our timeline estimator counts the days of build work for the team you choose, so its figures are usually shorter than these.
Hyper-Casual
2-3 months
Minimal mechanics, simple art, short quality assurance (QA) cycle. The fastest category designed for rapid prototyping and market testing.
Typical team: 1-2 developers
Casual / Puzzle
3-6 months
Polished UI, progression systems, and monetisation integration. Requires dedicated design time for level creation and economy balancing.
Typical team: 2-4 developers
Mid-Core (Action / Platformer)
6-12 months
Custom art pipeline, animation, level design, and often physics-based mechanics. Content production is the primary time driver.
Typical team: 3-6 developers
RPG / Strategy
12-24 months
Deep systems (inventory, skill trees, AI), large content volume, narrative writing, and extensive QA for edge cases across interconnected systems.
Typical team: 4-8 developers
MMO / Large Multiplayer
18-36+ months
Server architecture, networking, anti-cheat, live ops infrastructure, and ongoing content pipeline. The longest and most technically demanding category.
Typical team: 6-15+ developers
The Four Phases of Game Development
Every game project, regardless of size, follows these phases. Understanding them helps you plan realistic milestones. See our How We Work page for how we apply this process.
1. Discovery & Scoping
5-10%Of the total timeline
Define the game concept, target audience, technical requirements, and scope. Check feasibility and map the scope to a realistic budget before any code is written.
Key outputs: Scope definition, feasibility assessment, budget and timeline
2. Pre-Production
10-15%Of the total timeline
Turn the concept into a plan. Write the Game Design Document (GDD), design the technical architecture, and build a prototype that proves the core loop. This phase prevents expensive mid-production pivots.
Key outputs: GDD, prototype or vertical slice, technical architecture, milestone plan
3. Production
55-70%Of the total timeline
The main build phase. Programming, art, level design, audio, and system implementation happen here, built against agreed milestones with a playable build at the end of each. It ends with bug fixing, performance optimisation, and device testing, the stretch most often underestimated. Plan for it explicitly or it will eat into your launch date.
Key outputs: Alpha build (feature-complete), Beta build (content-complete), release candidate
4. Launch & Post-Launch
10-15%Of the total timeline, then ongoing for live-service games
Store submissions, soft launch (if applicable), marketing coordination, day-one patches, and post-launch monitoring. For live-service games, this phase continues indefinitely with seasonal content and events.
Key outputs: App store listings, launch metrics, post-launch roadmap
What Extends Timelines
Scope Creep
The most common cause of delays. Adding features mid-production requires re-planning, re-scoping, and often rework of existing systems. A clear, locked scope saves months.
Multiplayer Networking
Real-time multiplayer adds 3 to 6 months to most timelines. Server architecture, latency handling, matchmaking, and anti-cheat are each significant engineering efforts.
Cross-Platform Support
Each additional platform adds QA time, platform-specific bugs, certification processes, and input abstraction. Plan 2 to 4 extra months per additional platform.
Custom Tools & Pipelines
Building bespoke level editors, procedural generation systems, or content pipelines is an investment. The tools accelerate later production but front-load the schedule.
Unclear Requirements
Vague briefs lead to iteration cycles. Every round of "that's not quite what I meant" costs 1 to 2 weeks. Invest in the Discovery phase to define requirements precisely.
Underestimating QA
Testing across dozens of devices, OS versions, and screen sizes takes longer than expected. Automated testing helps but cannot replace manual QA for gameplay feel.
Waiting on Art
When art lags behind programming, engineers wait for assets, and art changed late in production forces rework. Lock the art style before production and build against placeholder art so the code is never blocked.
Store Review
Apple and Google both reject builds over privacy, monetisation and performance problems, and each review round takes days. Read the platform guidelines before development starts and leave room for more than one submission.
Slow Feedback
Feedback that arrives late on a milestone holds up the work that depends on it. Agree a review window for each milestone before production starts, so the schedule allows for it.
What Shortens Timelines
Experienced Co-Development Partner
A team that has shipped similar projects before avoids first-time mistakes, and can save significant time compared to building the same team from scratch.
Reusable Frameworks
Pre-built systems for UI, analytics, monetisation, and networking eliminate weeks of boilerplate engineering per project.
Clear, Locked Scope
A detailed GDD with signed-off features prevents mid-production changes. A change made after production starts costs far more than the same decision made during planning.
Parallel Workstreams
With the right team structure, art production, programming, and design can run concurrently. This requires upfront architecture work but compresses the total timeline.
One Platform First
Ship on your primary platform, validate, then port. Sequential platform releases are faster total than simultaneous multi-platform development.
Real Project Timelines
Three projects our team has built, from a set of mini-games to an MMO.
Empires Rise
Mobile Strategy
A mobile strategy game with procedural map generation and AI opponents. It was our own game, so no time went on client review rounds; a client project of the same scope takes longer.
Timeline: Three months, concept to launch
Vocab Builder
David's freelance work for The Language Conservancy, before Ocean View Games.
Educational Mobile
Nine vocabulary mini-games for iOS and Android. The number of distinct game modes, each designed with the client's language experts, set the schedule.
Timeline: Around six months
Domi Online
MMORPG
A server-authoritative MMORPG with a player-driven economy. Started as a code review engagement and grew into lead development with a core team of four.
Timeline: Around eighteen months to the vertical slice
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Cost Guide
How much does game development cost? Full breakdown by genre and platform.
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Timeline Estimator Tool
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