2018-10-11 - Ask

Development Schedule

Michael asks: “Do you create a plan/schedule for a new game in development, or rather keep on working until the game is ready?”

Hi Michael,
my process of creating a game is a mixture of a clear plan on one side and creative chaos on the other. It might not be the best way but works for me. You have to keep in mind that i mostly work alone on the idea and the prototype. This phase is pretty chaotic and i just bang my head against a new idea unitl i can clearly say “Yes, this is a concept that is worth working on.” or “No, even though this concept is interesting i can not make it work.”. Especially the second part, the failed attempts, are difficult to master since you need to know when to stop working on an idea. There is no best way to do this and it’s mostly a thing that you will get better with the more you do it.

After the prototype proved worthy i start to create a rough schedule on what features (besides the core game) the game should have and which would be nice to have. For working with my contributors i mostly use a mix of Trello, Google Docs or plain Emails with a rough guideline on what needs to be worked on next. For my games i’m also the project manager and most of the things are in my head. It’s great if you can work with people who have experience with the game making process, because they can also contribute to scheduling and time management. For the type of games i make and from the experience i had so far i’d say 6-8 Month of production are optimal, anything longer will make the development more difficult. Again, there’s no real solution to this, because some games take longer than others, but i’ve developed a pretty good sense for when a game is taking too long to release.