Hey everyone,
I am figuring out my way through game development & wanted advice from those who have been working with SDL or similar frameworks; I have been experimenting with basic 2D mechanics & slowly moving toward adding more features such as animations, sound handling & input management. While the technical side is something. I am facing issue when it comes to organizing tasks, planning milestones & keeping track of what to build next.
I want to know how you all usually structure your workflow. Do you rely on project management tools or do you just plan as you go?? I came across resources such as a JIRA Course Online that talk about applying project management to development but I am not sure how much of that applies to indie or hobby projects.
I appreciate any tips or personal experiences on how to balance coding with staying organized so the project does nOt feel overwhelming.
Some people literally just use a todo list. Some people use two: one for features, and one for bugs. Or even a third list: nice-to-haves.
And they succeed in creating a hobbyist project, and sometimes even prominent (and popular) indie projects.
I personally use a spreadsheet (I use LibreOffice Calc). I have a sheet that has my backlog of tasks, another sheet with defects I find, and then I work in one-week increments, so I have a sheet for each week with the tasks from my backlog that I am actively working on. I also use the spreadsheet to create a roadmap and include project goals and such. I wrote a blog post about my own project management, which is more or less still the same today (although I focus a lot more on trying to ship my game by a deadline, which helps me with scope rather than have a never-ending project, which is a problem I’ve had in the past):
If I was working on a team and not solo, that spreadsheet can be online, such as in Google Sheets.
But some people find it more helpful and easier to manage to use something like Trello.
A long time ago, I wondered about installing something like Bugzilla to track tasks, but honestly? That would have been overkill for me at the time, when I was working on a small hobby project.
If you are just working on your own, do the simplest thing you can to track what you do, and add process/tooling as you find you need it.
I’m with Gianfranco_Berardi, setting goals, timelines, and tracking progress is a good way forward.
One of the most important jobs as a solo dev is to put yourself to work on a project even when you don’t feel the motivation. Schedule a block or time of day that you work no matter what. Having a list of stepping stones to achieve the final goal can be so powerful in those times.
You might inspire yourself with a testing ground; create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and post it online, build improvements and interact with your players as you go. Itch.io is one possible avenue, using emscripten as your compiler you could even post a browser-playable version there.
Ideally you plan ahead enough to have a final draft, a point where you can say “No more tinkering. It’s done, now let’s post it!”, this is where a Game Design Document can be of benefit.
Finally, keep a little notebook and pen by your desk. When you get a wild idea that you would like to work on that is not directly linked to the project, write it down in that book. This way you aren’t worried about forgetting the idea. It is OK if it doesn’t make it into the current game, but you might get inspired for your next game by these ideas later.
