Game production has a vocabulary of its own, and much of it means slightly different things at different studios. This glossary defines 103 terms producers use every day, grouped by where they come up: the phases and milestones of a project, planning, agile process, risk and quality, launch and certification, live operations, business and contracts, roles, and pipelines.

Definitions are short on purpose: enough to unblock you in a meeting, with a link to the full guide or tool where there is one. Where studios genuinely disagree, such as exactly what “alpha” means, the definition says so. Search the list, or jump to a section.

103 terms

Phases and milestones

Concept
The earliest phase of a project, where the team defines what the game is, who it is for and why it will stand out. It usually ends with a pitch or a greenlight decision.
Greenlight
A formal decision by studio leadership or a publisher to move a project into its next phase, most often from concept or pre-production into full production.
Pre-production
The phase where a team proves the game is fun and feasible before committing to full production: prototyping core mechanics, settling art direction and technology, and planning the work. It often ends with a vertical slice. Why Scrum breaks in pre-production →
Prototype
A quick, rough build made to answer one question, such as whether a mechanic is fun, with no expectation that its code or art will survive into the final game.
Greybox
A level built from simple, untextured shapes to test layout, scale and flow before final art is made. Also called a whitebox or blockout.
First playable
The first build in which a player can experience the core loop from start to finish, however rough it looks. First playable checklist →
Vertical slice
A short section of the game built to near-final quality in every discipline, from gameplay to art, audio and UI. It proves the quality bar and is often used to secure funding. Where the vertical slice fits in a roadmap →
Production
The longest phase of development, in which the team builds the game's features and content against milestones. How production is organized →
Alpha
The milestone at which the game is usually feature complete: every planned feature exists and works in some form, though content may be missing and bugs remain. Studios define alpha differently, so write the criteria down. Alpha, beta and gold explained →
Feature complete
The point at which every planned feature is implemented. After it, no new features go in, only content, fixes and polish. Often the same milestone as alpha.
Content complete
The point at which all planned content, such as levels, assets, dialogue and audio, is in the game, even if it still needs polish. Often tied to beta. What content complete means →
Beta
The milestone at which the game is usually content complete and the team's focus shifts to fixing bugs, performance and polish. Alpha, beta and gold explained →
Code lock
The point after which only approved fixes may be checked in, so the build can stabilize for release or certification. Also called code freeze.
Release candidate
A build the team believes is ready to ship, submitted for final testing or platform certification. Often shortened to RC.
Gold master
The final approved build that ships. "Going gold" historically meant sending the build for disc manufacturing. Alpha, beta and gold explained →
Day-one patch
An update released at or near launch to fix issues found after the gold build was locked.
Milestone
A defined point in a project with agreed deliverables and acceptance criteria, often tied to a publisher payment. How to write a milestone document →
Acceptance criteria
The specific, testable conditions a deliverable or milestone must meet to be accepted. Also called exit criteria when they apply to a whole milestone. Milestone deliverable documents →

Planning and scheduling

Roadmap
A high-level plan of what will be built and when, at the level of milestones and major features. It changes deliberately, unlike the schedule. How to build a roadmap →
Content roadmap
The plan for what new content a game releases after launch, and when: seasons, events, updates and new modes. It is the central planning document for live-service games. Planning a live game roadmap →
Schedule
The detailed plan of who does what and when, at task level. Unlike the roadmap, it changes constantly. Schedule and milestone planner →
Critical path
The longest chain of dependent tasks in a project. Any delay on the critical path delays the whole project.
Dependency
A task or deliverable that cannot start or finish until another one does, such as animation waiting on a finished character rig.
Buffer
Time deliberately held in the schedule for problems no individual task predicts, such as integration issues or a failed certification pass. How much buffer you need →
Gantt chart
A bar chart that shows tasks against time, with their dependencies. Often used for milestone-level schedules.
Scope
The total set of features and content a project commits to deliver. How to scope a game realistically →
Scope creep
Gradual growth in a project's scope without matching changes to its schedule or budget. Feature creep is the same problem applied to features. Preventing scope creep →
Cut list
A ranked list of features or content that will be removed first if the project runs short of time or money.
Capacity
The amount of work a team can realistically take on in a period, after holidays, meetings, support work and other commitments. Capacity planning →
Burn rate
How much money a studio or project spends per month. Indie game budget calculator →
Runway
How long a studio can keep operating before it runs out of money at its current burn rate.
Crunch
Extended periods of mandatory or expected overtime. It is most often a symptom of planning and scope problems, and is widely documented as harmful to people and to quality. Preventing burnout →

Agile and process

Agile
A family of iterative approaches that plan in short cycles and adapt as the team learns, rather than fixing every detail up front. Agile for game teams →
Scrum
An agile framework built around fixed-length sprints, with three roles (product owner, Scrum Master and developers) and set events such as planning, daily scrum, review and retrospective. Sprint planning for game teams →
Sprint
A fixed period, one month or less and often two weeks, in which a team commits to a set of work.
Product owner
In Scrum, the person accountable for ordering the backlog and deciding what the team works on next.
Backlog
The ordered list of work that has not started yet. Organizing a backlog →
User story
A short description of a feature from the player's point of view, with acceptance criteria that say when it is done. Writing user stories →
Epic
A large body of work broken down into smaller stories.
Story points
A relative measure of effort used to estimate backlog items by comparing them with each other rather than in hours.
Velocity
The amount of work, usually in story points, a team completes per sprint. Useful for forecasting within one team, not for comparing teams or individuals. Estimating task time →
Burndown chart
A chart that shows the work remaining against time in a sprint or milestone.
Definition of done
The shared checklist a piece of work must satisfy before it counts as finished, such as reviewed, integrated, tested and in the build.
Daily standup
A short daily meeting where team members share progress, plans and blockers.
Retrospective
A regular meeting where a team reviews how it worked and commits to specific improvements. Running retrospectives →
Kanban
A flow-based method that visualizes work on a board and limits work in progress, without fixed-length sprints. Kanban for indie teams →
WIP limit
A cap on how many items can be in one stage of a Kanban board at once, which exposes bottlenecks.

Risk, quality and QA

Risk register
A list of things that could go wrong on a project, each with a probability, impact, owner, mitigation and contingency. Risk register template →
Mitigation
Action taken before a risk occurs to make it less likely or less damaging. Risk management in production →
Contingency plan
What the team will do if a risk happens anyway.
Bug triage
Deciding, for each incoming bug, whether it reproduces, how severe and urgent it is, and who owns it. Bug triage process →
Severity
How bad a bug's effect is, from crashes and data loss down to cosmetic issues. It is separate from priority.
Priority
How soon a bug will be fixed relative to other work. A low-severity bug can be high priority, and the reverse.
Regression
A bug in something that used to work, introduced by a later change.
Smoke test
A quick check that a new build's most basic functions work before deeper testing begins.
Soak test
Running a build for an extended period to find crashes, memory leaks and other problems that only appear over time.
Playtest
A session where players try the game while the team observes what is fun, confusing or broken. QA and playtesting for indie games →
Postmortem
A review after a project or milestone of what went right, what went wrong and what to change next time. Running a postmortem →

Launch, platforms and certification

Certification
A platform holder's testing of a console game against its technical requirements before the game may be released. Often shortened to cert. Console certification checklist →
TRC
Sony's Technical Requirements Checklist, the certification requirements for PlayStation releases. The certification process →
XR
Xbox Requirements, Microsoft's certification requirements for Xbox releases.
Lotcheck
Nintendo's certification process for games released on its platforms.
Age rating
A content rating from a ratings body such as the ESRB in North America or PEGI in Europe, required by most storefronts.
IARC
The International Age Rating Coalition, which issues age ratings for digital games through a single questionnaire used by participating storefronts.
Localization
Adapting a game for other languages and regions. Localization QA, or LQA, checks the translated text in context in the game.
Steam Direct
Valve's process for publishing a game on Steam, with a $100 fee per game that Valve returns once the game earns $1,000 in adjusted gross revenue. Steam revenue calculator →
Coming Soon page
A Steam store page published before release so players can wishlist the game. Valve requires it to be live for at least two weeks before launch. Building a Steam page that converts →
Wishlist
A Steam player's saved interest in a game. Steam notifies wishlisters when the game launches and when it gets a qualifying discount. Steam wishlist calculator →
Steam Next Fest
A Steam event, held several times a year, where players try free demos of upcoming games. Steam sale and Next Fest calendar →
Early Access
Selling an unfinished game while development continues, with player feedback shaping the full release.
Soft launch
Releasing a game in a limited set of markets before the global launch to test stability, retention and monetization. Most common in mobile.

Live operations

Live ops
Running a game after launch: releasing content and events, watching the game's health and economy, and responding to incidents. Games-as-a-service roadmaps →
Season
A fixed-length period of content and progression in a live game, often paired with a battle pass.
Battle pass
A tiered reward track players progress through during a season, usually with free and paid tiers.
Hotfix
An urgent fix deployed outside the normal release cadence.
DAU and MAU
Daily and monthly active users. The ratio of the two is a common measure of how often players come back.
Retention
The share of players who return after their first session, usually measured at day 1, day 7 and day 30 (D1, D7 and D30).
Concurrent users
The number of players online at the same time. Peak concurrent users, or peak CCU, is a common health metric. Steam top 15 tracker →
ARPDAU
Average revenue per daily active user.
Lifetime value
The total revenue a player is expected to generate over their time with the game. Often shortened to LTV.

Business, funding and contracts

Publisher
A company that funds, markets or distributes a game in exchange for a share of its revenue, and often some rights. Publisher deal milestones →
Advance
Money a publisher pays a developer before release, usually against milestones, and usually recouped from the developer's royalties.
Recoupment
A publisher recovering agreed costs, such as advances and marketing, from a game's revenue before royalties are paid. Contract basics →
Royalty
The developer's share of revenue under a publishing deal, typically paid after recoupment.
Revenue share
Paying people or partners a percentage of revenue instead of, or as well as, a fee. Revenue share calculator →
Platform fee
The share of each sale a store keeps. Steam's standard share is 30%, falling to 25% and then 20% at high lifetime revenue. Steam revenue calculator →
Intellectual property
The ownable parts of a game, such as its world, characters, code, art and trademarks. Often shortened to IP.
Work made for hire
A legal arrangement in which the commissioning party owns a work from the moment it is created. In the US it applies to contractors only in specific circumstances and must be agreed in writing. Contract basics →
NDA
A non-disclosure agreement, which protects confidential information shared during pitches, contracts or playtests.
Grant
Non-repayable public or private funding for game development, usually awarded competitively against criteria such as cultural value or location. Game development grants database →
Tax credit
A rebate of a share of eligible development spending, claimed through the tax system by studios that meet a program's rules. Game development grants database →

Roles

Producer
The person who owns how and when the game gets made: planning, coordination, risk and making sure decisions get made. Core producer skills →
Associate producer
An early-career production role focused on tracking work, coordinating between disciplines and supporting a producer. What an associate producer does →
Senior producer
An experienced producer who owns a large part of a project, or a whole smaller one, often managing other producers. The producer career path →
Executive producer
A senior production leader accountable for a whole project or portfolio, often owning the budget and key stakeholder relationships.
Technical producer
A producer who specializes in engineering coordination, build pipelines and technical risk. Technical producer vs. game producer →

Pipelines and tools

Build
A compiled, playable version of the game.
Build pipeline
The automated system that compiles, packages and distributes builds. Continuous integration (CI) builds and tests every change as it is committed. Setting up a build pipeline →
Version control
Software that tracks every change to code and assets, such as Perforce or Git. Perforce vs. Git →
Branch
A separate line of development in version control, used to isolate work such as a release or a risky feature.
Game design document
The shared description of what the game is and how it works. Often shortened to GDD, and best kept short and current. How to write a GDD →
Game engine
The software framework a game is built on, providing rendering, physics, audio, input and tools, such as Unity, Unreal or Godot. Game engine comparison →
Asset
Any piece of content used in the game, such as a model, texture, sound, animation or UI element.

For the bigger picture of how these pieces fit together, start with the game production guide, and for the calculators and templates mentioned throughout, see the tools page.