Games
How Long Does Game Development Take?
Realistic timelines for every game type, from hyper-casual prototypes to MMOs. Based on 20+ years of shipping games across mobile, PC, and console.
The Short Answer
Game development timelines range from 2–3 months for a simple hyper-casual game to 3+ years for a full-scale MMO. Most mid-range indie games take 6–18 months.
The timeline depends on genre complexity, team size, platform targets, and feature scope. The sections below give you concrete ranges and 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.
Hyper-Casual
2 – 3 months
Typical team: 1–2 developers
Minimal mechanics, simple art, short QA cycle. The fastest category designed for rapid prototyping and market testing.
Casual / Puzzle
3 – 6 months
Typical team: 2–4 developers
Polished UI, progression systems, and monetisation integration. Requires dedicated design time for level creation and economy balancing.
Mid-Core (Action / Platformer)
6 – 12 months
Typical team: 3–6 developers
Custom art pipeline, animation, level design, and often physics-based mechanics. Content production is the primary time driver.
RPG / Strategy
12 – 24 months
Typical team: 4–8 developers
Deep systems (inventory, skill trees, AI), large content volume, narrative writing, and extensive QA for edge cases across interconnected systems.
MMO / Large Multiplayer
18 – 36+ months
Typical team: 6–15+ developers
Server architecture, networking, anti-cheat, live ops infrastructure, and ongoing content pipeline. The longest and most technically demanding category.
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 & Design
10–15% of total timelineDefine the game concept, core loop, target audience, and technical requirements. Produce a Game Design Document (GDD), wireframes, and art direction. This phase prevents expensive mid-production pivots.
Key outputs: GDD, art direction, technical architecture, project plan
2. Production
50–60% of total timelineThe main build phase. Programming, art production, level design, audio integration, and system implementation happen here. Work is typically organised in 2-week sprints with playable builds at each milestone.
Key outputs: Alpha build (feature-complete), Beta build (content-complete)
3. QA & Polish
15–20% of total timelineBug fixing, performance optimisation, device compatibility testing, and user experience refinement. This phase is frequently underestimated. Plan for it explicitly or it will eat into your launch timeline.
Key outputs: Gold Master candidate, performance benchmarks, device compatibility matrix
4. Launch & Live Ops
10–15% of total timeline (+ ongoing)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 3–6 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 2–4 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 1–2 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.
What Shortens Timelines
Experienced Co-Development Partner
A team that has shipped similar projects before avoids first-time mistakes. Our co-dev engagements typically save 20–30% of the schedule 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. Change requests after production starts are 5–10× more expensive than upfront 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
How our portfolio spans the full range of game development timelines.
What's That
WeeksHyper-Casual (Rapid Prototype)
Built using our reusable rapid prototyping framework. Demonstrates how pre-built systems compress the schedule for simple game types.
Empires Rise
MonthsMobile Strategy
A mobile strategy game with procedural map generation and AI opponents. Mid-range complexity with a focused feature set.
Domi Online
Years (ongoing)MMORPG (Ongoing)
A server-authoritative MMORPG with a player-driven economy. Started as a code review engagement and grew into ongoing full-service development.
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