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The game was first announced on 4 June 2015 with an expected release date for October 2015, then shown during ComiCup 16.<ref>Game announcement on [https://www.hexieshe.com/650177/ Hexieshe] and [http://www.chuapp.com/article/171949.html Chuapp]</ref> The first beta for the game launched on 31 August 2015 with an initial distribution of 500 accounts, and attracted a total of about 6000 people. The second beta launched on 26 October 2015, with an initial distribution of 6000 codes. With 3000 to 4000 players logging in at once, the game's servers crashed for 8 hours due to various technical oversights from Mica Team. About 10,000 activation codes were distributed in total for the second beta. 2 hours after the launch of the third beta on 25 January 2016, the servers went unresponsive for 9 days and problems with the game's Weibo account prevented Mica Team from communicating on the issue during a day and a half. The beta players nonetheless spent around 2 million RMB in the cash shop, expecting their accounts to be transferred in full to the final game. The game was delayed after the third beta, then scheduled for release in Mainland China on 20 May 2016.
Chuapp reported that the game's development was significantly hindered by repeated miscommunication, reduced team sizes, lack of internal skills, unclear distribution of responsibilities, legal disputes and general trust issues between Sunborn and Array. Shanghai Xinfan Asset Management, one of Sunborn's main investors, reportedly pushed Sunborn to end their partnership with Array in favor of [http://www.windplay.cn/ Windplay] and later [http://www.digisky.com/ Digital Sky], who would become Sunborn's launch partners. The internal debacle was followed by the general public on Weibo and described by Chuapp as the second big public drama on the Chinese mobile games market after Warship Girls R. Due to contractual issues with Array, Sunborn was denied access to data from the third beta and asked beta players to take on a multi-steps verification system to transfer their accounts to the final game. Array ceased operating after the partnership with Sunborn ended.<ref name=Chuapp>[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SPU1NIu8z7avwSDq3hpXLEyg64rBqbjCRKkX3fFBQyE/edit Translated article from Chuapp]</ref><ref>[https://weibo.com/p/1001603976919883368606 Array's Breach of Contract public announcement]</ref> The game is often included among the foundational titles of Chinese gacha games due to its historical connections with Yostar, who later published influential games ''Azur Lane'' and ''Arknights'' and achieved notably better financial results. An estimated 30 Sunborn members worked on the initial game development.<ref>[https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1af4y197ma/ Girls' Frontline Summer Event Livestream] ([https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qwdOPiUdXHQvCBxD3v2ApmBANM18M77XKfgEGiF9EV4/edit Translation])</ref> By September 2016, the game had one million accounts with over 200,000 daily active players.<ref>[https://weibo.com/5611537367/F2LBOiAb9 First anniversary post on Weibo]</ref>
Skills for the characters Neptunia, Noire and Blanc from Compile Heart and Idea Factory's Hyperdimension Neptunia series dating from early 2018 point to a collab event being considered. [https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5941038435 Datamined chibi files] found in November 2018 revealed that Sunborn had worked on characters Aliasse and Riela, and later [https://gall.dcinside.com/mgallery/board/view/?id=micateam&no=824079 Imca], [https://gall.dcinside.com/mgallery/board/view/?id=micateam&no=823887 Selvaria], [https://gall.dcinside.com/mgallery/board/view/?id=micateam&no=823955 Alicia] and [https://gall.dcinside.com/mgallery/board/view/?id=micateam&no=824049 Edy] from Sega's Valkyria Chronicles series, including normal, swimsuit and Valkyria form chibis, as well as [https://gall.dcinside.com/mgallery/board/view/?id=micateam&no=824011 enemies] and [[Technical Fairies]] based on Isara and Juliana, hinting that a collaboration event had been planned at some point. Soon after, [https://www.zhihu.com/question/300840243/answer/527504256 an anonymous source] claimed that Sunborn and Sega had cancelled the partnership after Sega pushed contractual terms disadvantageous to Sunborn.
Gunslinger Girl's author Yu Aida confirmed in a [https://twitter.com/aidayu02/status/1315239340952309762 Twitter post] that the [[Dream Theatre]] event was not to be considered canon to Girls' Frontline story. Girls' Frontline official Korean Twitter account [https://twitter.com/girlsfrontlinek/status/1319126401140674560 acknowledged] that they used a version of the story differing from the author's intents.
Girls' Frontline's main story has gained a reputation for being dark and gritty. The ironic quote “Girls' Frontline is a game full of love and hope” (“少女前线是一款爱与希望的游戏”), and the shortened form “Love and Hope” (“爱与希望” in Simplified Chinese, “愛與希望” in Traditional Chinese, “사랑과 희망” in Korean and “愛と希望” in Japanese), has been attributed to Yuzhong since early 2020 and became widely adopted by the community after he used it in a [[Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium]] dev log a year later.<ref>[https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1oh41117WW/ Bilibili] ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzCK_a1X7mA&t=292s Translated])</ref> According to Yuzhong, this is in line with the overall tone of the story, which he described as “the road is tortuous, the ending is bright” (“道路是曲折的，结局是光明的”).<ref name=Gamecores2021 /> Kim Yong-Ha, producer of ''Blue Archive'', conceived his game in opposition to the dark tone of Girls' Frontline and Arknights' stories.<ref>[https://www.gamemeca.com/view.php?gid=1664598 Gamemeca interview]</ref>
===Prerelease media===
