CGM Online: Bloodstained is 10% complete

Hm so I was kind of correct in being worried that not much was done
But I assume when he means mass producing assests it means objects and enemies for the games placement as well as backgrounds,things that are re-used multiple times
For instance you saw objects used as footholds and stands during the behind the scenes trailer during one of the previous videos
Once you mass produce and place those assests work begins on the smaller less used objects,bosses,items and such

Sounds really good and well, good luck on next guys !

Two things:

1. This is why they're doing staggered release. This game would take forever if they had to wait on ALL the content for being done.

2. Having said that, this is where things start happening quickly. They have it all planned out, they have the structure and the systems in place. Now it's all about producing everything they planned. Half the trouble is coming up with things, but now it's in full gear mode which is good. in these types of games it'll start speeding up a lot more.

"Assets" is a fancy name for the graphics and sounds needed for the game: character models, character animations, special visual effects, sound effects and BGM.

A game typically goes trough three stages:

1. Planning/Prototype stage. A basic prototype with all of the key gameplay elements in the game. While things like enemy AI and attack patterns, equipment and parameters are still subject to change, the idea is that at least the level layout, the game flow, and the number and type of bosses and enemies is more or less finalized at this point.

2. Mass Production stage. Since the developers now know what the levels and the enemies are supposed to look like, the artists and sound composers start making them. At this point, they've "made" about 10% of the graphics, animations, visual effects, sound effects and BGM. IGA has a list (maybe an Excel spread sheet? I'm serious, btw ) where these are listed, and 10% of the items on his list have been checked off. That's what they're talking about in the article. That may not sound like much, but Mass Production goes really quickly because it's a lot of people working on different "assets" at the same time. So it's not like an artist will finish a boss and then go on to the next one: one artist works on one boss while another on another boss, etc. The lead artist, meanwhile, will supervise all of the work, and if there are not enough people in the company available (and this is very common nowadays - probably the norm), part of the asset production is outsourced.

3. Polishing/Debugging stage. Once all the assets are in, you play the game with everything in it to try and see if it's fun and/or easy for the player to understand, and you make changes accordingly. This is normally just playing with the different parameters in the game, but if the game's just not coming together, then bigger changes are made. Creating new assets, which is expensive, is kept to the bare minimum (usually just the UI); changes to the game engine are not necessarily expensive, but they are time consuming, so you also try to not go there, though it's not always possible. In theory, this should be just one stage, followed by pure debugging; in practice, debugging starts at this stage and ends shortly after the polishing is done.

Then the game is mastered (known in the west as going gold) and sent off to our grubby little hands for us to enjoy.

Thanks for the explanation! I knew what assets were, but thought the mass production stage involved already having all of them done, putting them in a media library, and using it to place every enemy/object or assigning backgrounds and tiles to certain areas in the game.

I wonder what this means for backer and forum member suggestions, though.