Developer's Guide to Game Release Success

In the last days before your video game launch, a list of “must-haves” for game developers could include attention to detail, resilience, and strength. However, apart from this, there are also concrete things to think about. In this blog post, I share some of the most important considerations before the release so your video game launch can go as smoothly as possible.

The Game Dev Checklist

While security is essential (and it’s Anybrain’s specialty!), this game dev checklist includes everything from UI/UX to legal, marketing and more.

Data Protection

We start with one of the most critical issues: compliance with data protection and privacy laws. In modern times, we know of more and more companies that have issues with data breaches and, once that happens, struggle to ensure that client data is safe from hackers. If it happens to you, it could lead to serious concerns about your studio and, ultimately, could result in people logging out of your game forever. So, in this matter, take into consideration:

• Encrypting data and game code;
• High-level authentication;
• Regular security checks on your data protection mechanisms;
• Controlling data sharing within apps.

Apart from this, you must study the GDPR and CCPA regulations thoroughly. Failure to comply with any of these regulations will result in huge fines.

Test Plans

Make sure that you draw an executable test plan for your game. Your test plan is necessary so you never go live with a build that has issues or bugs. Your test plan should include:

• Automated testing;
• Beta build tests;
• Playtesting (recruiting players to test your game and see if they encounter bugs or errors).

Age Restrictions and Parental Controls

Your in-game content must have the correct age rating and age restriction policies. Age verification systems are vital to maintaining a good environment in your game and keeping minors safe.

There are several ways to do this. The most well-known is asking for a date of birth when a player creates an account (despite this being easy to surpass). Another option is verifiable anonymity (which you can read about in this article from our blog).

In addition, you should also place parental controls to allow parents to limit certain aspects of your game that they don’t want their kids to see/interact with.

From these points, we now add the following to our game dev checklist:

• Create an age restriction policy based on your game’s age rating;
• Decide how you will determine a player’s age;
• Explore how you will enforce the policy;
• Add appropriate parental controls.

Legal

Now, on to a much more challenging part of this list: the legal stuff. If you can, hire a lawyer to help you.

In this category, you’ll need to:

• Decide the legal entity of the game. Are you creating a solo proprietor company? Are you creating a company because you want to hire more help in the future, and if so, who should have the legal ownership of the game?

In addition, you will want to copyright all the content you created and license all the materials you did not produce entirely.

• Images;
• Models;
• Sounds;
• Music;
• Text.

These are the primary legal concerns for your video game launch. However, I am not a lawyer, so I cannot completely advise you on this topic. As previously recommended, it is best to hire a lawyer.

Advertising

You may want to allow advertising in your game (especially if it is mobile since advertising is one of the major revenue streams for mobile games). If you do, you will have to obey some regulations.

In the United States, you must abide by the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA). If you are based in the European Union, you must pay attention to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and more. You also may be under specific legislation of either your state (in the US) or your country (in the EU). Failing to comply with these regulations can have serious consequences.

The main thing when complying with these regulations is:

• Set up consent and opt-out (gamers must have the liberty to choose if they want targeted ads or general ones);
• Be transparent about having in-game ads (no one wants to be surprised with ads);
• Implement barriers to prevent in-game purchases of ads on your app;
• Set age restrictions (so you can protect underage gamers from seeing harmful content).

In-App Purchases

From day one, you should write regulations about how people can trade their real money for in-game currency to purchase items in the game. You will have to:

• Give advanced disclosure that your game will have in-app purchases, which are made using in-game currency that players can purchase with real money;
• Implement a series of steps to complete the transaction (such as setting up the account, sharing payment information, parental authorization, consent for the transaction, and two-factor authentication, which is becoming standard because it improves security);
• Send receipts/confirmation of transactions;
• Plan for the possibility of refunds for unintended transactions or if the game fails to deliver the in-game currency after a transaction;
• Separate the spaces for in-game currency exchange and real-money exchange, so there are no misunderstandings by gamers and consequences for you.

If you decide to end the in-game currency, you’ll also need a plan to advise the players of the change and give them time to spend their currency.

UI/UX

The first thing a player will see when interacting with your game is your launch screen/app. First impressions go a long way, and if the welcome mat is all broken and dirty, people will tend not to enter. That’s why you’ll need to optimize your launch screen and main menu. Some items for our game dev checklist regarding this include optimizing:

• Settings (resolution, window size, subtitles);
• Language;
• Volume control;
• Controls (key bindings);
• Accessibility options (options for blind people or people with disabilities);
• Support/troubleshooting (a database for gamers to solve issues with the game and, if they can’t, to be able to report those issues);
• Credits/end game screen (to let players know that your main game has ended).

User Agreements

Privacy policies and user agreements are also important to consider before releasing a game. Players need to know what data they are required to share and what you will be doing with that data. Always be transparent about this and share the information so players can consent. Some elements for our game dev checklist include:

• Determine what data you will need or want to collect from players;
• Decide why and how you will use that data;
• Write clear and concise privacy policies and user agreements to convey this information (since this is a legal document, you should consult with a lawyer if possible);
• Include a checkbox for players to indicate they’ve read the policies and give consent;
• Formulate a plan to notify players when/if the privacy policy or user agreement changes.

Press Kit

One thing you should have almost from the beginning is a strong press kit. This tool will help you spread the word about your game because it gives gaming journalists the information they need to understand your game and talk/write about it. Your press kit should include:

• Basic information about your game (type of game, gameplay, description, date of release, price, supported platforms);
• Devlogs (where you can show some of your pre-builds and work on the game);
• Images and videos (including logo, screenshots, trailer, artwork, gameplay videos, etc.);
• Additional relevant information (reviews, testimonials, company bio, music, credits);
• Contact information (email, website, socials).

Marketing

Your marketing strategy will likely change over time, but at the beginning, here are a few things you should pay attention to:

• Market research (search for similar games to understand the competition and your market size, and choose the price of your game);
• Website (to share updates about development, changes, and other news — an updated game website shows a healthy game);
• Social media channels (for the same purpose as the website but also for daily content and for nurturing your gaming community);
• Steam page (having a good Steam page for your PC game is essential to reach a broader audience, participate in Steam sales, and get wishlists);
• Other digital distribution services (such as GOG);
• Conventions and tradeshows (to show your game, reach more gamers, connect with peers, and find possible publishers).

Security

The first thing to consider in this part is organising and deciding on your security policy for the studio/video game. This is important because you can only act upon security breaches if you first decide what is a security breach. So, you need to decide what toxic behaviour is, what devices your gamers can use to play the game (mouse, keyboard, controller, other hardware like a Cronus) or even (if you are building a mobile game) if your players can use an emulator or a controller for mobile. All of these things must be decided before you enforce any bans because they have to be justified to players.

When you think of this, it’s time to put security measures in place to protect your game from bad actors.

If your game will have an online component, consider an anti-cheat technology from day one. This is especially important for your game to have a long and healthy life with a nurtured community that is always eager to play and doesn’t give up because of cheaters infesting your game.

You also should think about how you mitigate the problem of toxicity and what your plan is for handling cheaters or toxic players. For these security-related concerns, we add the following items to our game dev checklist:

• Evaluate and select an anti-cheat technology partner (for tips on how to do that, check out the second half of this article)
• Determine how you will find and mitigate the problem of toxicity (for example, chat moderation tools may help)
• Establish a clear ban pipeline (to create internal rules and processes for handling cheaters and toxic players so that when the time comes, you can handle it smoothly)

At Anybrain, we offer an innovative solution with high accuracy in detecting cheating, such as aimbots, rapid-fire, and bots. With Anybrain, you will upgrade your protection against cheaters and have a secure video game with a level playing field. If you’re seeking an anti-cheat partner for your upcoming game, reach out to us and tell us more about your project!

Using the Game Dev Checklist for Your Video Game Launch

Understandably, your needs and goals may change over time and at different stages of development. However, we’ve done our best to provide a game dev checklist that includes the fundamental aspects you should consider before releasing your game.

No less important is to talk with other devs, hear about their struggles, and help each other along the way. It’s a difficult journey to build a game, but it also brings pure joy as you conclude the journey and release it to the world.

Good luck and happy games!