Iterative Development

The whole concept of "Iterative Development" has been around for quite awhile. To summarize the process in step format:

1. Create initial prototype (alpha)
2. Let members of your demographic (or everyone) use it
3. Carefully record their feedback
4. Take feedback and put it into your product
5. Re-release product (beta)
6. Rinse and repeat until the money runs out

In the gaming industry, this process has become the standard since every game you ever play has internet functionality.

What I wanted to examine in this post was League of Legends by Riot Games. I am looking at LoL because it is an extremely weird adaptation of the Iterative process, despite how the game has "technically" been around for quite awhile. And by weird, I mean utterly brilliant and a herald to development processes of the FUTURE.

Defense of the Ancients: All Stars

**Disclaimer**
Now I know that DotA: All Stars did not "start it all". Aeon of Strife did. Or Tides of Blood (which I have actually played). Or...whatever did. But this is like Grand Theft Auto: every GTA before number 3 does not matter, despite how they were really good games. Moving on!

DotA created the "MOBA" genre, (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), which I think is a horrible moniker ("Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" describes everything from Quake to Facebook games, it needs to be more specific; maybe mention RTS in there?) way back in 2003. It was built using Warcraft 3's map editor, which came with a copy of the game. Like all good games, it was built for FUN, not for profit. It garnered a HUGE following, tournaments were held all over, everyone had a great time, except noobs playing for the first time.

So the creator of DotA started a new project with Riot games called League of Legends released late 2009, which for all intents and purposes is a slower-paced, more user-friendly DotA all in a clean, neat little free client that uses the standard free-to-play business model of micro-transactions (which I might add, is phenomenally balanced; the shop gives access to things non-payers have access to as well, and it also allows people to buy non-impact things like skins for characters).
It utilizes a leveling system so noobs play with noobs, pros with pros, and once attaining level 30 (the max), you can take your game further with ranked matches. Its all very nice, and even has a narrative that I don't pay any attention to. On the other hands, there is Heroes of Newerth (HoN), which is a subscription-based client that is much less forgiving than LoL. Most (all?) of the major DotA players migrated to HoN over LoL for this very reason; its faster, harder, higher bar of entry.

My point: 
League of legends beta tested it's game inside ANOTHER GAME made by ANOTHER DEVELOPER.

DoTA was essentially the beta test for LoL. Brilliant stuff. Games like this are a balancing NIGHTMARE, requiring little tweaks and months of game play to feedback. Having the beta version so publicly available and supported, they had so much data that it could be perfected. Hell, it would have been slick enough to beta test a game in a game you've already released, but in someone else's? Ballermuch? This is the pinnacle of iterative development.

Now, obviously it wasn't intentional. The lead developer (probably) didn't even dream of his little WC mod becoming so huge and profitable. But it did, and I think the rest of the industry could learn from this. Utilize mod-heavy games with pre-established communities for your concept beta testing. Games like LittleBigPlanet, Starcraft II, Fallout 3 (gotta visit its mod nexus), etc.

Although I think it's cheating, many games say they're in beta (I'm looking at you Dead Frontier and Minecraft) although you can still give them heaps of money. It's like, "Oh, I'm in beta because I'm missing parts, I'm buggy, and generally incomplete...but I have this shop over here where you can spend money, I will be complete someday! Purchase early, save now!" And while it is cheating, its also a great idea as long as it is FUN (which both of my examples are, check them out).