Game development has become increasingly important in the software industry, but this importance has not affected the way software engineering approaches and methodologies manage the differences they have with game development. Similarly, software engineering does not fully support sustainability practices, causing this element to often not be considered or even known as a requirement for a development lifecycle.

My master thesis consisted on researching the mode in which games are developed, and the involved sustainable aspects and the relevant concerns regarding the migration processes. For this purpose we conducted a survey with game professionals from four continents, from administrative (25%) and technical oriented positions (75%). As a result we observed three trends: 1) Agile process models are used, 2) major concerns for mobile development and digital marketing, 3) minor concerns for eco-impact elements and certain development phases such as testing and crunch time development.

This thesis work concluded that traditional software engineering would require a major change on its processes and models to fit with modern agile development, game development approaches and sustainable requirements.