Hello, I'm looking into a few different game ideas, ranging in size and complexity. Mostly right now figuring out what I'd like to try and work on right now, so I'm curious, can you make a bigger game.(RPGs, RTS, etc.) by starting small, in this case, make a small game, like just one level, make sure that works, and can even be considered playable, and then you build on that, and basically layer the game with steps. What kind of steps would likely depend on the game(Like a RPG with some MP in there would likely have the MP elements built in as a last step or so, where as a FPS with a focus on MP would have MP worked on somewhat early.) I'm just wondering if this is a good method. Thank you for your help.

So basically, you want to build a small core game and release DLCs every 6 months or so. Correct? As you build DLCs, you can add more mechanics and more options to the character or even the game itself. Granted you'd have to make sure the engine is flexible enough to do that. But other than that, I think this is the way most game devs are going.

Not quite, I mean like the team would build part of a game, made sure it worked, and the parts worked, and then, we'd move on to the next step. And then when it's at a reasonable step(Like having multible levels/world built in and functioning mechanics.) We'd release it with the DLC idea, or as a beta. The other thing is that I'm worried about doing things TOO big, so part of this idea is if things don't work out, what has been built only needs a bit of work to make what's there into a game possibly.

well, this is the way minecraft is going, so i think it's possible.

i would recommend that your team set the core mechanics first, then build up based on that mechanics.

Well, as I said, I wouldn't be releasing it right after the core game is done, just making sure it can work as a game, before going on to a next step.

Well, as I said, I wouldn't be releasing it right after the core game is done, just making sure it can work as a game, before going on to a next step.

I'd say that would be describing a vertical slice, which is an inherent part of several game development psychologies...

The biggest problem would be the engine, you cannot think of all that you need from it until you have the final game.
Not a programmer myself but it would be pretty difficult to upgrade the engine with DLCs.
You can release it in development stages, where the players would need to redownload the game at certain points as some features cannot be just patched in.
But yeah it would be possible but you need someone who always has the grand scope of the game in mind so none of your DLCs make old content obsolete.

The next step, being say, adding more levels sto the single level game, or making the world bigger then a small area, as a example, actually releasing it wouldn't happen tell WAAAAAY after that, I don't plan on really doing the DLC thing, at best, I'll do a beta test.

I suggest you read up on the Software Development Life Cycle (SDBOK) and Agile development techniques like SCRUM. This is the way you should be making games and is essentially what you are describing.

Game websites sometimes follow a growth pattern like that: first a forum, then an avatar paperdoll system tied into the forum, then a money system, npc shop, and inventory system to allow buying of items for the avatars, then trading and a marketplace to allow sales and gifts between members, then minigames where players can earn money to spend in the npc shop, then sales of physical items like keychains and plushes and t-shirts, etc. until you have a massive international thing like NeoPets that sells cash cards in every Walmart.