Most important game aspect first...

#1 Don't do art until the concept and prototype are done. No point doing art that beome redundent ;)

#2 You should work on creating a demo scene using placeholder art. start off by making a simple scene with the character in a test environment with an enemy. the most important aspect is the interactions between the player and other entities in the game.

#3 I always perfer to work on this like a High Concept or a Design Document first so that I can flush out ideas and have a good idea if my "creative spark" is something that will actually pan out or isn't worth the paper that its written on. From there its pretty easy to break things down into milestones and tasks.

Note: Your design document doesnt need to be a tome that would rival something Tolkein has created, just a solid guideline of whats in your game.

#4 Ya I concur L Foster, Tom; Are you sure because even though it's redundant, you need to see how rendering will affect it, so you have the projects time to modify as needed. Right or Wrong?

Your Thoughts.

#5 I'm not enitrly sure what you mean, but doing the art first will give you a good insight into how long it will take, which will benifit you when it comes to planing out a time schedule for your project (it's all experiance) but if you plan the game first, i.e. with a good prototype you wont need to do 2 lots of art, which will take twice as long.

#6 Think you are just confusing terms with the art "concept art" is a very good place to start, if you're an artist. Depending on the genre concept could easily take a year if you're not putting all your time into it. Also, being an artist usually means your rarely totally satisfied with the finished piece. None the less i agree with L, even if your just going for something simple, having the concepts (some art for feel and design docs) out of the way first is a big relief.

If your talking about a game with story content, like an rpg or what not, then you could spend a good deal of time just writing before you hire or start drawing, it's pretty difficult to keep (and express) a game design without a semi-complete design doc. So if you're a writer and you can express your mind well, I'd start here.

I think all and all, programming is the last on the list, pre-development cycle. Which is really when you get down to modifying everything you can't use in the concept do to limits of the programmers, engine, hardware etc. Absolute last is sound and music, since it's really what they game plays and feels like that those really make it a complete deal.

#7 James, if you have a team with you then it won't matter. I am already doing artwork for you. So don't worry about that. Oh, by the way, what did you want me to make for you becuase I'm in your company and you never told me eactly what we are "doing".

#8 Les I'll contact you :-)