Development

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Development refers to all the tasks involved in, and which support, creating a visual novel. It includes asset creation (such as writing, drawing, and composing music), as well as planning, funding, production, and marketing tasks, and maintaining productivity.

Stages

The development process is sometimes broken into stages based on how complete the final product is at each times. These terms originate in the broader game development industry, so the distinctions between them may be less relevant for visual novels - especially if using a pre-existing visual novel engine.

Alpha

The alpha stage is the stage in development where a piece of software is not feature complete and/or fully tested internally. Not typically shared externally.

Beta

The beta stage is a stage in development where a piece of software is nearly feature complete or is feature complete while missing some amount of content, and is available to a limited number of external users.

Early Access

Early access is a stage of release & development where a partially complete product is made available for purchase or download while core features and/or content are still being implemented. Many development teams will choose not to release an Early Access version, but it can be used as a marketing tool.

Demo

Main article: Demo

Release

Post-Release

After a game is released, content such as DLC and mods may be created.