It all depends. in all cases at least. Kojima for example, writes (Iirc) a 400+ page tomb before work even begins on a mgs game, they even go so far as to storyboard every moment of the game.
.So it's really dependent on the type of game.
BUT the actual gameplay, the game it's self they treat organically..it grows every day..even so far that kojima gave everyone a notepad to jot down one idea a day for the game, while they were heavily making it..
When you lose that kind of hands on design, it can have negative effects...when you become so focused on turning the whole affair into a machine like mechnicism, you lose the creative spark that is the difference between simply good and AAA. And end up with tomb raider 2,3,4,5..for example. Or doom2,3..
All the classics seem to come from teams that work in relaxed creative atmospheres, with no millitary style cat and mouse bs with desperado (EIDOS EIDOS EIDOS) publishers.(not speaking from experiance,just what i've seen)
.So it's really dependent on the type of game.
BUT the actual gameplay, the game it's self they treat organically..it grows every day..even so far that kojima gave everyone a notepad to jot down one idea a day for the game, while they were heavily making it..
When you lose that kind of hands on design, it can have negative effects...when you become so focused on turning the whole affair into a machine like mechnicism, you lose the creative spark that is the difference between simply good and AAA. And end up with tomb raider 2,3,4,5..for example. Or doom2,3..
All the classics seem to come from teams that work in relaxed creative atmospheres, with no millitary style cat and mouse bs with desperado (EIDOS EIDOS EIDOS) publishers.(not speaking from experiance,just what i've seen)