What do you do if your project as a game design manager is facing multiple scope changes?

This is a little management 101, but yes you should do this. But here’s the rub: scope changes often come from outside design and there’s often pressure to roll with them. The dreaded “exec producer’s kid played the build and said the game should be like another game” is one example but there are more professional reasons for this too. Market changes, technical strategy, focus testing and product reasons can all lead to imposed scope change. Most of these people are not designers and usually don’t realize what they’re actually asking for. So the real skills here are 1) to engage with why the scope change happens and 2) to learn how to communicate design impacts back effectively to non designers. (And I don’t mean waving a GDD at them).

The first step is not to assess the impact on the project that is the second step. The first step is the asses where the scope changes are coming from, and why are they being requested or added to the project. Will they improve the game or are they unnecessary and could be backlogged for now, if time permits added later or as a DLC/Patch? If they must be added, then check the impact on the project, the timeline, deadlines, cost, and overall will delay the game or change priority. In other words, do a risk analysis of adding the new scope. If you still can't avoid the scope changes then let your development team know as early as possible sot hey can re-arrange priorities and time estimates for adding the scope.

Firstly, I conduct a thorough assessment of each submitted alter, taking into account its capabilities affect on the assignment timeframe, budget, and basically vision. Drawing on tools like Trello or Asana for mission management, I classify alterations as said by urgency and significance. Critical characteristics necessary to the game's basic mechanics get top precedence, guaranteeing they stay on track in spite of adjustments.

The most important thing about developing games is managing scope creep. Hands down. Once you start adding features it becomes a snowball effect where the project gets more expensive with time and money. The best thing to do to avoid this is to focus on getting a playable MVP, demo , or 1.0 version totally complete with a hard limit on which features are included, and stand by that. Tell your team that you can always add more features after you’re completed the core game!

Make sure to modify your timelines and milestones. If you are agile then add the new scope to the backlog and sprints based on priority, if it is a waterfall, add them in ASAP and then recalculate how long the project will take to develop. If you can extend the deadline to avoid crunch time or burnout. Make sure it is documented what the new feature or content is being added vs what was there before, so the stakeholders can understand what is causing the delay and why. The important thing is to be flexible enough with the release of the game not to punish your development team and QA because some decided to increase the scope of the game. This way you can also show that you are adjusting plans to cover the unexpected or delays in the game.

This is something that is often ignored and is so important. Was the scope increases you need to be prepared to bring on more people or more software to help reduce your team to have to work more hours or get burned out by a sudden increase in work. These could be contractors or temp hires to help with some of the heavy lifting. There are lots of tools and software that can help with QA testing, adding some libraries or features like multiplayer to help with some scope changes. But most important you should plan for the unexpected in your budget if you can't move the deadline of the game, but if you can, move the deadline and save some money from hiring more people. But time adjusting is the most important resource you need to manage.

If your project as a game design manager faces multiple scope changes, follow these steps: 1. Assess changes thoroughly. 2. Communicate openly with stakeholders. 3. Prioritize and negotiate changes. 4. Adapt project plans accordingly. 5. Manage stakeholder expectations. 6. Monitor progress closely. 7. Document all changes for clarity and accountability.