Deployment Process

[sportomax]

Hey everyone,

I’m fairly new to BGA Studio development and have really been enjoying the process so far. I had a few questions around the review timelines/process and was curious what other developers have experienced.

For games submitted to Alpha:

Is the review process generally first-in, first-out?
Are reviews done weekly, or more just as staff has time available?
What kind of timelines have you typically seen lately?

For moving from Alpha → Beta:

Are things like 10 approvals and publisher approval hard requirements or more guidelines?
What tends to help games move through that stage faster?

And for Beta → Production:

Is that entirely dependent on BGA staff approval?
Are there unofficial milestones people aim for (play counts, stability, approvals, etc.)?

Also curious how publisher licensing usually works in practice. If a publisher gives approval directly by email, is that generally enough initially, or does everything need to be fully submitted through the Studio licensing system before Alpha/Beta?

Mostly just trying to better understand the overall process and expectations as I continue working on more projects. Would love to hear other developers’ experiences or advice.

Thanks!
Kevin

[Kayvon]

Reviews are supposed to be done weekly, but that doesn't always happen. We once had about 2 months of regular requesting that went unanswered. I believe the person dedicated to approving was on vacation.

10 approvals is the rule of thumb. Without that, you need a good argument for why you're ready. For me, getting these approvals is often the bottleneck, especially on games with few bugs where I don't have other work to do while waiting.

Publisher approval is a hard requirement for going to beta. If it weren't, the site could be sued into oblivion for publishing games that they don't own the rights to. BGA needs written permission from the publisher.

Scheduling a move from beta to a full release is entirely between the publisher and BGA. The developer doesn't participate in that discussion.

Hope that helps!

[sportomax]

Thank you for your feedback