Best Practices for Virtual World Developers

Virtual worlds are a great tool for businesses, educational institutions and for social interaction and collaboration. Yet, without the correct approach, virtual worlds can be difficult to navigate and use, which quickly dissuades people from adopting them. Virtual world developers have the task of balancing a variety of technical and non-technical requirements in order to develop the most easily and widely used virtual world possible. How do they get the job done right? They follow some simple best practices for developing fully functional virtual worlds.

Virtual World Developers: The Method to the Madness

Since virtual worlds can range from gaming to educational and business applications, it's important for virtual world developers to understand the uses of the environment they're creating, as well as a whole host of other factors. Although the actual design and development of the virtual world is considered the most important for virtual world developers to consider, for the best outcome, virtual world developers should also pay attention to the following best practices:

1. In the pre-production phase of virtual world development, virtual world developers ought to understand the project's mission statement, goals, main features and the look and feel desired. In addition, virtual world developers need to be aware of technical considerations and basic design elements. The pre-production phase is also when virtual world developers create a production schedule to ensure they meet all deadlines.
2. The production phase is where all the research work during pre-production comes to fruition. In this phase, virtual world developers create design concepts and customize the functionality of the product according to client requirements. Any changes required of the concepts and functionality are implemented in the production phase, as well.
3. When virtual world developers enter the roll-out phase, all code, tools and functionality have been ironed out and are brought together to complete the virtual world product. Alpha and beta testing also take place in the roll-out phase. With alpha testing, virtual world developers test the product and make sure that everything works according to how the virtual world was meant to be designed. They'll test the virtual world to ensure that it meets both design and functionality specifications. When it is time to beta test, a select group of potential users are invited test the virtual world. Beta testing can reveal problems that might hinder the user experience.
4. When virtual world developers are done with all of the design and revisions, the virtual world is ready for launch. In this phase, the product is officially introduced to the public.



Although this is just a snapshot of the key steps all virtual world developers should take with each project, there can be many other facets of development within each individual virtual world development. Virtual world developers can count on these best practices to develop the most usable and successful virtual worlds for any application.