4 Project Management Tips for the 4 Key Stages of Game Development
Starting a new video game project is always exciting. But developing a game is not all “fun and games” so to speak.?
In fact, development rarely goes as imagined, and even the most amazing ideas can end up in the dust without proper project management.
Luckily, there are ways to make the boring parts of game development simpler and easier. Here are our 4 tips on how to do it.
*This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published on the Plaky blog: https://plaky.com/blog/stages-of-game-development/?
1. Pre-production — Centralize information
The pre-production stage sets the foundation for what your game is going to be like — the type, genre, mood, color scheme, game mechanics, characters, story, budget, target audience, etc.?
At this stage, it’s crucial that everyone is well informed about each decision made in the pre-production meetings. So, to make it easier to keep everyone on the same page and create a “paper trail” for future reference, share the meeting notes and main points somewhere where everyone can easily find them.
For this purpose, it’s useful to have a centralized platform where your teams can collaborate and keep track of all their projects and files in an organized manner.
Centralized platforms gather all your teams in one place and keep their workspaces separate, all the while allowing uninhibited communication across different boards and teams.
This kind of work organization allows for minimal distractions while maximizing transparency and cross-team collaboration.??
2. Production — Consider and track the project thoroughly
The production stage is the moment to create the sounds, visuals, and characters and bring your idea to life. But this requires careful planning and organization. Otherwise, you risk wasting time on re-doing large chunks of the game and wasting valuable resources.
To keep the reins of your game development project firmly in your grasp, it helps to have a bird’s-eye view of the project.?
A clear, top-down view can help you get a better idea of how to organize the work and allocate resources. Even better, it helps with decision-making and predicting upcoming issues!?
And what better way to visualize your project than with a Gantt chart??
Gantt charts are an easy way to visualize the project as a whole and manage the project timeline from a broader perspective.
The Gantt view lets you see the yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, and even hourly breakdown of your tasks. This helps you maintain control over your project and make quick adjustments on the go.
On the other hand, the Kanban view is the ideal solution for teams that perform work in Sprints and want to effortlessly manage individual tasks within the project.
领英推荐
3. Testing — Streamline bug reporting
At this point, your game is completed, and it’s time to thoroughly test it for bugs.?
The testing stage can be pretty fun, but it’s still important to take it seriously and keep careful track of each bug you find.
Luckily, this doesn’t have to be tedious or time-consuming if you’re using a bug tracking template like Plaky’s.
Using a template saves you from creating a spreadsheet or board from scratch for every new project.?
Instead, the template functions as a standardized form that testers can simply fill in and move on — one major difference being that templates are much easier to:
The example in the image above shows a simple bug tracking template that can be used as is or customized to fit your particular project. Peep the colorful statuses — they make it easy to determine the type and priority of the bugs, as well as filter through the list to find exactly what you’re looking for.
4. Launch — Set clear priorities
Now that the game is finished, it’s time to give it the final layer of polish before launch. This includes prettying up the game and fixing the bugs caught in the testing phase.
With the launch date looming just around the corner, you likely won’t be able to fix everything. So, it’s time to prioritize.
Focus on the major, game-breaking bugs first. Most players will forgive minor bugs — some of them will even have fun exploiting them — but a game needs to be playable. So, make it your highest priority to resolve these bugs before launch.
Medium priority can be reserved for the nice-to-have, quality-of-life improvements, while most purely cosmetic enhancements to the characters and environment can be considered low priority in most situations.
Clearly mark your bug priority with distinctive color-coding or separate them in groups by priority and start checking them off one by one. Having the bugs neatly labeled and organized will make the work easier to approach and manage, eventually leading to faster results.
Make game development easy with Plaky
Video game development requires reliable tools that everyone in your team can use without delay and that won’t make your process more complicated than it already is.
Small and indie game developers looking for a simple and affordable way to manage game production will find that Plaky fits this description to a T.?
Plus, Plaky offers more advanced organization and customization options on its paid plans that you can upgrade to as you grow.?
This saves you valuable time, effort, and money from having to transfer all your data and train your employees to use a brand-new tool every time the company expands.
You’ll find that Plaky offers all the necessary project management features for absolutely free. Create a free Plaky account now, and start improving your management game!?